Take a look at these screenshots of Unreal's killing fields. And read our first impressions of this visually stunning action game.

　　First-person shooter fans have been waiting almost two years for this day. GT Interactive has finally shipped its highly anticipated first-person shooter Unreal, and a few copies came directly from GT Interactive for us to play with.

　　Our first impression has to do with how massive the game is. The initial setup of the game revealed that a full install would be in the 300MB range. You can run the game and load data from a CD-ROM drive, but to use the Unreal Editor, you'll need to suck it up and do some spring cleaning on your hard drive. With all the games that many gamers have loaded on their systems, this might be a big sacrifice considering that GT suggests that you have another 150MB open to run the game.

　　As you begin the game, a small gray window shows up on the screen to show you what features are being loaded. If you have a slower machine, loading the game appears to take a fair amount of time.

　　Once you get past the loading screen, the images you'll see will blow you away. Lines appear crisp, lighting is more emphasized than in Quake II, and the textures make surfaces look like the artists customized every brick. In short, the game speaks to those who are looking for eye candy. The world in Unreal produces a cyborg-like mix of alien hi-tech with a world still dominated by nature. Everything seems to have been designed down to the smallest detail - mirrored floors, lens flares, and even a flashlight that bobbed around as we walked down hallways.

　　The first level begins with your character in a jail cell with no weapon, this is where you begin to explore. Unreal gives the gamer a more adventure-like experience with a translation that allows you to read computer monitors in the game along with diaries and anything with text. It took a few minutes to figure out that the F2 key allowed us to read things, and the things you'll read give an interesting history of all the dead bodies strewn throughout the game.

　　Parts of the game feel something like a cross between Turok and Quake II. One of the levels that we went into looked like it was designed for Turok, complete with water, caves, palm trees, huts, and little fuzzy animals. But the deeper graphics make it feel more like an Eden complete with massive waterfalls and man-eating piranha.

　　Playing in multiplayer mode, the levels feel much smaller than Quake II deathmatch levels. The levels do have some amazing use of effects with portions of the floor covered with see-through glass and different types of devices like earthquake activators to shake up the game a little.

　　The one thing we noticed during multiplayer was that the system slowed down considerably. Our test system was only a Pentium 166 MMX with 64MB of RAM and two Diamond Monster 3D II's with an SLI mode. A P166 is the minimum for gamers to run the title, but if you're hoping to play deathmatches, we'd suggest that you have a Pentium II at least.

　　If you've been putting off upgrading your PC and haven't found a reason to do so, Unreal may just be the final nail in the coffin that makes you go out over the weekend and purchase a brand-new powerhouse.