Unreal II: The Awakening

To do: Build 697 E3 Prototype eXpanded MultiPlayer add-on. How similar is the Xbox version?

Unreal II: The Awakening is basically a really generic shooter with Unreal’s Dispersion Pistol and Skaarj tacked onto it as an afterthought.

Weapons#

Mind Claw#

A strange weapon called the Mind Claw can be found in the model files. The animations are broken, making it impossible to see what it actually did. However, according to pre-release info, the Mind Claw would’ve been a “fearsome psi-weapon” that drained an enemy’s health and gave it to you.  The Mind Claw managed to get far enough in development that it has its own between-mission weapon briefing image.

Earlier Weapon Designs#

Earlier designs for the weapons are shown while the player is being introduced to new weapons by Issak between missions.

Dispersion Pistol#

Image	In-game

Magnum#

Image	In-game

Assault Rifle#

Image	In-game

Shotgun#

Image	In-game

Grenade Launcher#

Image	In-game

Shock Lance#

Image	In-game

Takkra#

Image	In-game

Strange Weapon#

A strange weapon never seen in the game can be seen on one of the load screens while the game is booting up. It looks like some sort of machine gun.

Leech Gun#

An unused pre-mission weapon briefing image for an unused weapon called the Leech Gun exists. It appears to have been an earlier version of the Spider Gun, as it uses its model. Unfortunately, there is no code for it to see what it would do.

There is also a model for a projectile that would've been fired from it.

Leech Gun	Spider Gun

Levels#

Mission 07#

Music for an area called “Mission 07”. It has three tracks; Ambient, Battle and Underwater. "Ambient" is ripped from Trevor Rabin's soundtrack to the movie Deep Blue Sea. Based on the last track, it appears that part of the level would take place underwater.

There are also a few models from the mission in the model files. The only real interesting ones are a spaceship called “shianfighter” in the code and an usual light source model.

Creatures and Enemies#

Because they're pretty much the same thing in Unreal 2.

Shian#

Two models named “Shianworker” and Shianwarrior” can be found in the model viewer. When opened up, they are just black boxes. However, concept art for this creature exists, along with pre-release information showing that it was an underwater-based species that would use PSI to take control of various underwater species and have them attack the player. Because of this, it is likely they would've appeared in Mission 07.

Interestingly enough, Shian architecture is used in the Unreal 2 intro screen.

Underwater Creatures#

Models and sounds for several underwater creatures are in the model files. These would probably be used in Mission 07.

Skink#

Who knows what this was supposed to be used for.

Striders#

A few leftover models from a species named “Strider” are in the “VertexM” model package. Based on how their models look, they would be a species that would construct machinery and the like entirely out of organic material. These creatures are mentioned in the game as a part of background lore, but are never shown to the player.

Armored Izarian#

A model for an armored Izarian exists. The only difference between it and the regular Izarian model is that the Armored model has a few misplaced crystals models on it, while the regular one doesn't have any crystals. The misplaced crystals suggest that this model was made before the final posing for the Izarian was made.

Target Drone#

Who knows what this was supposed to be for. It has only a generic “fly” animation and a sound of it flying.

Alternate female heavy Merc#

An alternate model for the heavy female merc enemy can be found in the models. She has the same shape as the final’s, but is much brighter and has a different head texture.

Old Model	Final Model

NPCs#

Female Colonist#

It seems the colonists NPC group would not have been as much of a sausage fest as it is now at one time. Her body texture is screwed up, suggesting that it was changed after this model was last worked on.

Multiplayer#

Partially working code for multiplayer, along with bots, are in the game. Unfortunately, there is no scoreboard, making it impossible to see one's progress when playing against bots.

Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch can be played via the Unreal 2 Mod Menu.

Bots#

Basic multiplayer bots are included in the game. They can be summoned by typing in “addbots x” in the console, where x is the amount of bots the player wants to summon. This can only be done while running a multiplayer game.

These bots appear to be modified versions of the human enemies in single player, as they will just stand around as soon as they spawn and will not attack until someone hostile, such as the player or another bot, gets near them.

All of the bots have names, which can be seen by hitting ~ while in a botmatch. It seems half of the names are from the Unreal Tournament bots, while the other half are various Japanese names along with the name “Dustin”.

All of the bots use the same model.

Deathmatch#

Deathmatch is the same as your standard Unreal/Unreal Tournament-style deathmatch, but the game uses single player's ridiculously low run speed, making traveling a bit of a chore and dodging a bit harder. A few custom levels have been created that let you play this mode, even without needing to use the Mod Menu.

Team Deathmatch#

Works perfectly, except that the game doesn’t load team colored skins for your player model, even though they do exist in the game's files. Also, it seems there's no way to have bots go to a specific team, so trying to play it via the Mod Menu ends up as you vs bots.

Capture the Flag#

General gameplay code, Bot AI code, code for the flags and the UT99 CTF sounds show that there was CTF planned at one time, but there doesn't seem to be any way to get it working.

Last Man Standing#

Code exists for this gametype, but like CTF, there doesn't seem to be any way to get it working.

XMP#

Code for an unfinished prototype version of Unreal 2 XMP exists in the game. Like the final XMP, it would involve collecting artifacts for your team to keep and having to struggle with the enemy team to get Energy for your team to be able to use things like vehicles, but the code indicates that there would be more than four artifacts on a map, depending on how many people are in the game. However, a major difference is that the team would have to research items before being able to use them. Even basic things, such as the Jetpack, would have to be researched before being used. There would also be an extra element; something called the Replicator that would probably be used to create items.

The classes listed inside the code are “Light”, “Medium”, “Heavy” and “Commander”. Based on their names, Light, Medium and Heavy are prototype versions of the final's Ranger, Tech and Gunner. Commander is a class not seen in the final game. It's likely the Commander would be used to research new items for the team, as it doesn't make sense for just any jerk on a team to be able to research something.

Some of the final's Deployables, Auto Turret, Energy Relay, are in the code, but there is a reference to a deployable called the “Energy Rerouter” that doesn't exist in the final game. Based on its code, it would be used to route Energy to your team and could be used to reroute energy from any source the player wished.

There doesn't seem to be any code regarding vehicles.

Quite a few variables are marked as “TBI” (to be implemented), showing that the XMP wasn't nearly close to be completed when the final game was shipped. Given how fragmented the code inside the base game is, it would be impossible to play it out of the box.

Mutators#

There are multiplayer mutators hidden in the game's code that make it so that only one weapon type can be used in a map. These can be activated by using the U2 Mod Menu, described above.

Items#

Flashlight#

Code dating back to 2000 for a flashlight exists. Giving how old it is, it should be no surprise that it doesn't work at all if you try to use it in-game.

Jump Pack/Jetpack#

Hidden within the game's Uscript files is code for a powerup called “Jump Pack”. It has bare minimum coding, but what it does have shows that it would have a set amount of energy like the Unreal 1 Jump boots, but it could be recharged. A few sounds for this item exist as well, which point to it being a Jetpack, which did appear in the final Unreal 2 XMP.

Shock Lance Ammo#

A working ammo pickup for the Shock Lance exists, but is never used.

Singularity Cannon Ammo#

An entity for Singularity Cannon ammo can be placed in levels, but unfortunately it has no model.

Models#

X#

A strange looking X with a picture of Aida on it. No idea what this could be used for.

Urinal#

Your average standing urinal for men. There are no bathrooms in the final version, so this goes unused.

Sounds#

Meyer#

Hurt sounds for that irritating asshole, Meyer, are in the game's files. While he can be shot in the final game, he won't make any sounds.

XMP Energy Rerouter#

Sounds for the Energy Rerouter exist. They can be downloaded at .

Hit Sounds#

Two hit sounds that would've been played when you hit something exist; one for friendly and one for hitting a teammate. It's likely these would've been used for multiplayer like the hit sounds in Quake 3. A mutator exists that enables these sounds, but it doesn't seem to work, at least in botmatches.

UT Ammo Pickup Sound#

The Unreal Tournament ammo pickup sound can be found in the “u2” sound package. It's probably just a leftover from UT they used as a temporary sound early in development.

Music#

Unreal 2 has a shitload of unused music in the game's files. Most of these don't fit into any known level.

Caution#

Facegrabber#

Hybrid#

M02-idle#

Mission_01#

Rhythm#

Skaarj#

Now here's where things start getting interesting. This track actually appeared in a presentation Epic made for Unreal Engine 2 back in 2000. The presentation can be watched here. It is the second song played, which starts at the 0:59 mark.

Tension#

Tension 2#

This is the first song played in the Unreal Engine 2 tech demo shown above.

Upward#

Regional Differences#

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this.

The German version edits out the blood particles when shooting enemies and many of the more graphic sights in the game have been edited out.