Unreal II: The Awakening (2003)
Unreal II: The Awakening is a 2003 shooter video game made by Legend Entertainment and Atari, Inc..
John Dalton patrols the quiet fringes of human space as a Marshal for the Terran Colonial Authority, expecting nothing but routine. Then a distress signal from deep in contested territory pulls him into a war between alien races, each scrambling for control of seven strange artifacts whose combined power dwarfs anything humanity has encountered. Dalton commands a small crew aboard the Atlantis, deploying to hostile planets, fortifying positions against overwhelming odds, and piecing together what the artifacts actually are before someone else does.
Quick answers
What is Unreal II: The Awakening about?
John Dalton patrols the quiet fringes of human space as a Marshal for the Terran Colonial Authority, expecting nothing but routine. Then a distress signal from deep in contested territory pulls him into a war between alien races, each scrambling for control of seven strange artifacts whose combined power dwarfs anything humanity has encountered. Dalton commands a small crew aboard the Atlantis, deploying to hostile planets, fortifying positions against overwhelming odds, and piecing together what the artifacts actually are before someone else does.
When was Unreal II: The Awakening released?
Unreal II: The Awakening was released on 3 February 2003.
Who made Unreal II: The Awakening?
Unreal II: The Awakening was made by Legend Entertainment and Atari, Inc..
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A few thoughts on Unreal II: The Awakening
The lone soldier caught in an interstellar conflict bigger than any one faction recalls Battlestar Galactica, where another small crew navigates an alien war with desperate improvisation. For the military-sci-fi novel side, Halo captures the same boots-on-the-ground urgency inside a larger alien-artifact mystery.
Colonial forces making a stand against overwhelming alien odds
Unreal II sends Marshal Dalton and a tiny crew aboard the Atlantis into a war between alien races that dwarfs anything humanity has fought. The Halo novels follow the same undermanned defense of human colonies, Battlestar Galactica strands its last colonial fleet fighting for survival, Old Man's War drafts soldiers into interstellar combat, and Half-Life 2's resistance holds out against an occupying alien empire.
Quests for an artifact whose full power nobody understands yet
Unreal II centers on seven scattered artifacts that alien races are willing to go to war over, their true purpose a mystery for most of the game. Fullmetal Alchemist builds its plot around a stone with the same world-altering pull, Tezuka's Phoenix chases an immortality-granting bird across centuries, Galaxy Express 999 rides toward a promised mechanical body, and Skyrim sends its hero after ancient relics everyone wants and nobody controls.
Music that could score a last stand on a hostile planet
Dalton's crew spends Unreal II fortifying positions on planet after hostile planet, always outgunned and far from home. Vangelis's Blade Runner score carries that same isolated, mechanical dread, Muse's Black Holes and Revelations turns interstellar conflict into arena rock, Ayreon's Universal Migrator and Tangerine Dream's Irrlicht both score an actual journey across the stars, and Deltron 3030 raps through a future just as embattled.