Unreal (Video Game): Difference between revisions

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** The Stinger uses shards of Tarydium crystals meant for mining rock.

** The Razorjack uses rotating spiked blades.

** The Biorifle uses the most abnormal ammo of all: toxic, unstable ~~tarydium~~ sludge that gets shot in big blobs.

** The Biorifle uses the most abnormal ammo of all: toxic, unstable Tarydium sludge that gets shot in big blobs.

* [[Artificial Gill]]: The SCUBA Gear, available whenever the player must proceed underwater. They have a limited air supply that runs out pretty quickly. The expansion pack features a new one that not only lasts longer, but also recharges whenever surfaced.

* [[Blatant Item Placement]]: In general the game tries to keep this believable, with equipment found on dead bodies, in ~~armouries~~, [[Cargo Cult|put in boxes by confused Nali]], etc. It gets ~~noticable~~ in the rushed final levels however, where you get the (almost) [[Infinite Flashlight]] right before {{spoiler|you cut the ship's power, knocking out all the lights}}, and a pair of infinite [[In a Single Bound|jump boots]] just as {{spoiler|you encounter the Skaarj Queen, who can teleport and is the last word in [[Lightning Bruiser]]}}. In ''Return To Na Pali'', the UMS weapons are inside of crates. Some of those crates were thrown with so little aim that they hit hard some of Nali villagers.

* [[Blatant Item Placement]]: In general the game tries to keep this believable, with equipment found on dead bodies, in armories, [[Cargo Cult|put in boxes by confused Nali]], etc. It gets noticeable in the rushed final levels however, where you get the (almost) [[Infinite Flashlight]] right before {{spoiler|you cut the ship's power, knocking out all the lights}}, and a pair of infinite [[In a Single Bound|jump boots]] just as {{spoiler|you encounter the Skaarj Queen, who can teleport and is the last word in [[Lightning Bruiser]]}}. In ''Return To Na Pali'', the UMS weapons are inside of crates. Some of those crates were thrown with so little aim that they hit hard some of Nali villagers.

* [[Body Armor as Hit Points]]: Played almost completely straight. Most ~~armour~~ absorbs a constant, high percentage of damage, which is subtracted from the ~~armour~~'s strength instead. Dying with ~~armour~~ is possible only if you were already near death when picking it up; in all other cases it effectively acts as extra health. The shield belt is this trope completely played straight as always takes damage instead of your health.

* [[Body Armor as Hit Points]]: Played almost completely straight. Most armor absorbs a constant, high percentage of damage, which is subtracted from the armor's strength instead. Dying with armor is possible only if you were already near death when picking it up; in all other cases it effectively acts as extra health. The shield belt is this trope completely played straight as always takes damage instead of your health.

* [[Deflector Shields]]: The player can use "shield belts" which absorb damage until depleted.

* [[Difficult but Awesome]]: The Razorjack; it is frequently dismissed as it seems slow (not to mention that the player can [[Hoist by His Own Petard|accidentally]] [[Too Dumb to Live|behead]] [[What an Idiot!|himself]] with it, due to the blades' bouncing), and yet once landing headshots with it is mastered it can kill most non-boss enemies with little ammo expenditure, and each pack of ammo is worth a lot (and quite frequent), making it a borderline [[Game Breaker]].

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* [[Call a Rabbit a Smeerp]]: Nali names for many things - for example starships are "thunderbirds" or "metal chariots", Skaarj are "the demons from the stars" (or just "sky demons"), while [[Humans by Any Other Name|humans]] are "two-armed soft skins". [[Call a Smeerp a Rabbit|Inverted]] with the Nali Cow and, appropriately enough, the Nali Rabbit (which looks more like a kiwi). In the level "Temple of Chizra", they put an eightball gun on an altar and call it the [[Cargo Cult|"stick of six fires"]].

* [[Cargo Cult]]: the Nali are a simple, agricultural race that can't quite figure out how the Skaarj could be doing what they do without magical assistance, and therefore immediately [[God Guise|label them as demons from the skies]]. The Nali do have some advanced technology, but it's implied they are [[Lost Technology|relics from a long-past era]], whose scientific workings are impenetrable to the race's naive minds. They see such objects as holy relics, and put them on sacred pedestals, accessing which involves holy rituals.

* [[The Chosen One]]: One of the Nali diaries specifically mentions a ~~saviour~~ ''princess'', which does raise questions if you're playing as a male character, although it should be noted that the original plan for the game contained only a female PC, with male options being added later. And not only does the Nali depiction of the lightning goddess Vandora look human (apart from the 4 arms), she has the exact same hair and face as Sonya, minus the respirator mask.

* [[The Chosen One]]: One of the Nali diaries specifically mentions a savior ''princess'', which does raise questions if you're playing as a male character, although it should be noted that the original plan for the game contained only a female PC, with male options being added later. And not only does the Nali depiction of the lightning goddess Vandora look human (apart from the 4 arms), she has the exact same hair and face as Sonya, minus the respirator mask.

* [[Collapsing Lair]]: As {{spoiler|Prisoner 849's escape pod flies out of the Skaarj mothership}}. Possibly justified by the damage that the escaped prisoners will be wreaking after 849 turned off all the force-fields.

* [[Convection, Schmonvection]]

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** The Sunspire you visit about halfway through the game is also clearly visible in many other levels' skyboxes.

* [[Frictionless Ice]]:

** The ~~multiplayer~~ map DM-Tundra has an area, where you find the Shock Rifle in a frozen lake.

** The multi-player map DM-Tundra has an area, where you find the Shock Rifle in a frozen lake.

** The level "Gala's Peak", from ''RTNP'', features this in a bridge, though you can keep from accidentally falling off a ledge by crouching.

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]:

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* [[Offscreen Teleportation]]: Some of the enemy spawners indeed only spawn enemies when you're not looking into the particular spawner. Bodies of slain enemies only disappear when your back is turned.

* [[Oh Crap]]: Your first encounter with a Skaarj. {{spoiler|You're happily walking along to get back to your objective, in a passage you've already crossed with no enemy activity whatsoever, and suddenly the lights start going out, one by one. You can't run, because the corridor is now blocked. You start to hear grunting noises. This is where you say the trope, right before a whirring mass of blades and hurt dives straight for your face.}}

* [[One Bullet Clips]]: Notably averted by the Automag (oddly, the only gun in the game that needs to periodically stop firing to reload). You don't have a reload key, so the ~~automag~~ simply gets reloaded when it's out of bullets. If you hear the telltale "click" that signals the clip is down to five rounds, and you know there's a big fight coming, this forces you to change weapons to force a reload.

* [[One Bullet Clips]]: Notably averted by the Automag (oddly, the only gun in the game that needs to periodically stop firing to reload). You don't have a reload key, so the Automag simply gets reloaded when it's out of bullets. If you hear the telltale "click" that signals the clip is down to five rounds, and you know there's a big fight coming, this forces you to change weapons to force a reload.

{{quote| ''"Try to keep track of how many bullets are left in a clip. Attempting to change clips with a pissed off Skaarj in your face is not advised."''}}

* [[Painfully-Slow Projectile]]: Gasbag fireballs and Titan rocks (just as well, because the latter is a [[One-Hit Kill]]). Other weapons vary, but most can be dodged if your reflexes are fast enough. Averted by Mercenaries (with their machine gun alt fire) and by certain Skaarj troopers, who use the same hitscan weapons the player can use. Too bad for you...

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* [[Powered Armour]]: The Mercenaries and Skaarj Troopers in ''Unreal'', and the UMS space marines in RTNP.

* [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]]: Arguably, the Skaarj:

* [[Scenery Porn]]: The game that started it all. The first level fools you into thinking it's just another shooter in enclosed spaces with prettier graphics (for the time). The second level... doesn't. If you played the game without first reading reviews of it, the surprise was mindblowing. Lush vegetation, ~~colourful~~ moving skies, animals hopping and flying about, and the sheer ''size'' of all the scenery was something completely unseen for the day, along with some perfectly fitting music to set the mood. It remained exclusive to ''Unreal'' for a while, too.

* [[Scenery Porn]]: The game that started it all. The first level fools you into thinking it's just another shooter in enclosed spaces with prettier graphics (for the time). The second level... doesn't. If you played the game without first reading reviews of it, the surprise was mindblowing. Lush vegetation, colorful moving skies, animals hopping and flying about, and the sheer ''size'' of all the scenery was something completely unseen for the day, along with some perfectly fitting music to set the mood. It remained exclusive to ''Unreal'' for a while, too.

* [[Shaggy Dog Story]]: Despite the Prisoner 849 [[One-Man Army|rampaging across the planet]] {{spoiler|twice}}, and {{spoiler|killing a Skaarj Queen and [[Not Quite Dead|two]] Warlord leaders}}, along with various references to being [[The Chosen One|the Nali's Savior]], the ''Tournament'' games, which, according to [[Word of God]], are set several years after, still reference the Skaarj hunting Nali. Not to mention that {{spoiler|the resultant declaration of war against humanity devastated their colonies, and Earth itself}}.

* [[Space Elevator]]: well... not really ''space'', more like high stratosphere. Then again, it's not perfectly clear how orbits work in Na Pali. An anti-gravitational one (no cables) carries people to the floating islands.