Games like "Unreal 1"

Now it may seem easy on the surface, "any FPS game ever" you could even say... but I'm yet to find a similar enough game.

First and foremost, for me Unreal 1 and Unreal 1: Return to Na-Pali are games with unfathomable undefinable ATMOSHPERE (that etherial word again...). The sense of wonder, the sense of a giant serene living world. Even though the visuals are primitive by today's standards, I still can marvel at Unreal vistas for hours. I also feel like the music is, at the very least, 50% of why I love the game so much.

If I tried to summarize what I'm looking for:

• -Huge environments to roam around
• -A world you're an alien to
• -Meditative music (can anybody copy Alexander Brandon's style?)
• -Preferably, competent gunplay
• -First-person perspective (?)

I don't feel like that's all, but it's so hard for me to define what makes Unreal so unique. If you LOVE Unreal 1 and its expansion and know a similar game, I'd love to hear from you!!!

Bioshock Infinite or the original Deus Ex might work.

I definitely love Deus Ex 1, but I thought it was a different game. Although scored by Brandon as well!

I think parts of Crysis 1 kinda hit those notes, though it's best parts certainly are the ones where it's kinda grounded in a jungle island setting, and not so much to alien environments (though I seem to have liked them more than most).

Maybe The Solus Project? I've only seen the quicklook and some other coverage of it so far, and it certainly doesn't seem to be combat oriented, having more of a light weight survival game aspect, but it has a pretty striking setting, and some of that music is incredible. Look up the storm/alien landing/whatever was happening in that section of the unfinished video. Incredibly eerie and cool music in there.

Sadly, the idea of using demoscene music in FPS games seems to mostly be gone these days. Most games seem to be going for the kinda generic movie soundtrack mold, where it's all about accentuating specific moments instead of the mood/atmosphere of a place. But yeah, when it comes to finding other games with music in that style, I recommend looking up games with music by Michiel Van Den Bos, Andrew Sega, Peter Hajba (all contributed to the Unreal 1 and UT99 soundtracks), Jesper Kyd and Gustaf Grefberg. Most won't be found in FPS games, but they all come from the Amiga and early PC tracker/demoscene where music in that vein was fairly common.

The first Borderlands had moments of that too, where Jesper Kyd's music popped up as you were exploring that game's world for the first time. Most of it's world design did end up pretty drab and samey though, but it had its moments.

This is a real obvious choice, but the thought crossed my mind today how the original Halo trilogy shares a lot with Unreal. If somehow you live under a rock and haven't played them, Combat Evolved, 2, and 3 are probably actually the closest thing.

• -Huge environments to roam around (check)
• -A world you're an alien to (Halo... der)
• -Meditative music (can anybody copy Alexander Brandon's style?) (Mr. Martin O'Donnell can. Literally has monks in the soundtrack.)
• -Preferably, competent gunplay (Some of the best ever.)
• -First-person perspective (?) (Unless you are traversing it's wide-open alien environments in a warthog.)

I loooooove Unreal Tournament, does that count?

I liked Unreal back in the day, but didn't love it. The graphics were pretty, but I thought the weapons and enemies were pretty lackluster. I guess it didn't help that Half-Life came out relatively soon after and made a huge impact on me. I'd play a remake made with a modern Unreal Engine, were that to ever happen.

Unreal 2, though...I don't think I've heard anyone say that they like it. I think(?) I enjoyed my time with it, but it was definitely a more typical shooter in comparison to the first Unreal. That one level was a living planet, which was pretty neat (also maybe the only neat thing in the game)!

I'll just use this thread as an excuse to say that I continue to crave for more sci-fi shooters. Kinda why I want Destiny 2's story to be a good one...and Prey 2 to come back.

Metroid Prime has all those things except arguably competent gunplay. (it's competent by GC and Wii standards) Although I assume you want a PC game since you mentioned Unreal. (you could always just emulate it)

Probably not the type of gunplay he's looking for, but I think those games are plenty competent as far as shooting goes. They definitely work around some of the control limitations, but I don't find them frustrating to play. As far as an alien atmosphere... kinda mad I didn't think of that one. I think this is a good call. OP should take note if he hasn't played these.

I wouldn't necessarily go back to it nowadays, but Skyrim is a perfect example of that. I could just exist in that world for hours at a time and be happy. It's one of the only games to ever make me feel that way.

THANK YOU all, guys!!!