The Unreal engine is one of the more popular action video game engines. First illustrated in the 1998 first-person shooter computer game Unreal, it has been the basis of many such games since, including Unreal Tournament and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield.

The Unreal engine was seen as a major rival to id Software's Quake engine. The Unreal engine includes support for a scripting language called UnrealScript, which can be used to quickly modify many aspects of the game without having to delve into the C++ internals.

Games using the Unreal engine

Many other software companies have licensed the Unreal engine in order to speed up development of their own titles. These include Star Trek and Ion Storm's Deus Ex. Newer versions of the engine (known as the Warfare engine or Unreal engine 2) are being used for PC games such as Running With Scissors' Postal², 3D Realms' Duke Nukem Forever, the U.S. Army's America's Army and Ion Storm's Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Versions of the Unreal engine are available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo GameCube.

Below is a comprehensive list of published video games utilising the Unreal engine [1]:

Unreal engine 1

• — (2001) Digital Extremes
• Clive Barker's Undying — (2001) Dreamworks Interactive
• Deus Ex — (2000) Ion Storm
• Dr. Brain's Thinking Games: Action/Reaction
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets — (2002) KnowWonder Digital Mediaworks
• Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone — (2001) KnowWonder Digital Mediaworks
• Mobile Forces — (2002) Rage Software
• Nerf Arena Blast — (1999) VMI
• New Legends
• Rune — (2000) Human Head Studios
  • Rune: Halls of Valhalla — (2001) Human Head
• — (2000) The Collective
• — (1998) MicroProse
• Tactical Ops: Assault on Terror — (2002) Kamehan Studios
• TNN Outdoors Pro Hunter
• Twin Calibre
• Unreal — (1998) Epic Games
  • Unreal Mission Pack 1: Return to Na Pali — (1999) Epic Games
• Unreal Tournament — (1999) Epic Games
• Virtual Reality Notre Dame
• Wheel of Time, The — (1999) Legend Entertainment
• — (2001) Microprose

Unreal engine 2

Screenshot from the Onslaught game mode in Unreal Tournament 2004

The second generation of the Unreal engine, sometimes referred to as the "Warfare engine". This list includes games using Unreal engine 2.5.

• America's Army — (2002) U.S. Army (The MOVES Institute)
• Dead Man's Hand — (2004) Human Head Studios
• Desert Thunder
• Deus Ex: Invisible War — (2003) Ion Storm
• Devastation
• Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle — (2004) NCsoft
• — (2003) Atari
• Men of Valor — (2004) 2015, Inc.
• Pariah — (2005) Digital Extremes
• Postal² — (2003) Running With Scissors
  • Postal²: Share the Pain — (2003) Running With Scissors
• Sephiroth
• Shadow Ops: Red Mercury — (2004) Zombie
• Star Wars: Republic Commando — (2005) LucasArts
• Thief: Deadly Shadows — (2004) Ion Storm
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield — (2003) Ubisoft
  • Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Athena Sword — (2004) Ubisoft
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell — (2003) Ubisoft
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow — (2004) Ubisoft
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory — (2005) Ubisoft
• Tribes: Vengeance — (2004) Irrational Games
• Unreal II: The Awakening — (2003) Legend Entertainment
  • Unreal II eXpanded MultiPlayer (XMP) — (2003) Legend Entertainment
• Unreal Tournament 2003 — (2002) Digital Extremes
• Unreal Tournament 2004 — (2004) Epic Games / Digital Extremes
• Unreal Championship — (2002) Digital Extremes
• Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict — (2005) Epic Games
• XIII — (2003) Ubisoft

Unreal engine 3

Berserker from Unreal 3 technology demo - a detailed model, bump-mapping, and real-time soft self-shadowing

According to Epic Games, games based on the Unreal 3 engine can be expected around 2006. So far two games using this engine were confirmed: Epic Games itself is developing a new franchise of which the first game will use the Unreal 3 engine, and BioWare has licensed the engine for a new game. Also Midway Games and Microsoft Game Studios will use Unreal Engine 3.

Related topics

• Unreal
• UnrealScript
• game engine

External links

• The official Unreal Developer Network documenting the Unreal engine
• Online community Unreal engine documentation
• Unreal Technology
• Unreal Engine 3 Details