Unreal Gold

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Unreal Gold (1998)
Epic Games
Play
Unreal is a first-person shooter video game developed by Epic MegaGames. The player takes on the role of Prisoner 849, aboard the prison spacecraft Vortex Rikers. During transport to a moon-based prison, the ship is pulled to an uncharted planet, before reaching its destination. The ship crash-lands on the lip of a canyon on the planet Na Pali, home of the Nali, a primitive tribal race of four-armed humanoids. The Nali and their planet have been subjugated by the Skaarj, a race of savage yet technologically advanced reptilian humanoids, who also have an army of genetically engineered Brutes and an enslaved race of warriors, known as the Krall. Skaarj troops board the downed Vortex Rikers and kill the remaining survivors, except for Prisoner 849, who manages to find a weapon and escape from the ship. The planet Na Pali is rich in "Tarydium", a mineral that is found as light blue crystals, possessing a high energy yield and are the reason the Skaarj have invaded. The Vortex Rikers had crashed near one of the many mines and processing facilities that the Skaarj have built. Prisoner 849 travels through the mines, meeting Nali slaves along the way and eventually reaching the ruins of Nali temples, villages and cities, where the extent of the Nali's suffering and exploitation become clear. The player passes through a water temple and a massive arena, where the player must kill a giant beast called a Titan. Throughout the game, the player stumbles upon the remains of other humans, often with electronic journals that detail their last days and hint toward the cause of their demise. Usually, these tales are of desperate struggles to hide from the Skaarj, or other bloodthirsty inhabitants of the planet. The player never meets another live human, aside from a wounded crew member on the bridge of the prison ship, who gasps and dies immediately. Prisoner 849 is likely the only human alive on the planet Na Pali throughout the duration of the game. Prisoner 849 continues to make their way through a series of alien installations, a second crashed human spaceship and ancient Nali temples infested with Skaarj troops and their minions, before eventually arriving at the Nali Castle. Inside the castle, the prisoner locates a teleporter that leads to the Skaarj Mothership. The mothership proves to be a vast labyrinth, but Prisoner 849 manages to find and destroy the ship's reactor, whilst fighting their way through hordes of Skaarj. The reactor's destruction plunges the vessel into darkness and after navigating the ship's corridors in the dark, the player finally arrives at the Skaarj Queen's chamber, where they fight and ultimately, kill the Queen. Prisoner 849 jumps into the Queen's personal escape pod, as the mothership disintegrates. Although the prisoner survives the horrors of Na Pali, their escape pod is left to drift in space, with only a slim hope of being found.