History VideoGame / UnrealIITheAwakening

''Unreal II: The Awakening'' is a FirstPersonShooter game developed by Creator/LegendEntertainment and released on February 3, 2003 for PC and February 10, 2004 for UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}}. It's the fourth full entry in Creator/EpicGames's ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'' series and the sequel to 1998's [[VideoGame/UnrealI namesake game]].

* OneWingedAngel: [[spoiler: See EldritchAbomination above.]]

On December 14th, 2022, Epic Games pulled off from both Steam and Website/GoodOldGames the digital distribution of the ''Special Edition'' bundle, which had the base game as well as the XMP addon, thus the game, outside of auction sites, [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes can't be bought legally any longer]].

%% (ZCE) * ArmorMeter: Shields are represented by a meter gauge.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The Spider Gun/Leech Gun/Spore Cannon. Its primary fire launches a blob towards an enemy target that explodes into a bunch of small Araknids distracting them. The alternate fire launches a spore into a surface from which many spiders spawn once an enemy target comes close. There's also a tertiary fire mode where shooting a spore with blobs will cause the spore to grow in size and a Medium Araknid to spawn from it, following its shooter and protecting them. Sounds awesome, isn't it? There are many problems, though: the small spiders do pitiful damage, and the Medium Araknid is quite weak and goes down as quick as it spawns. As a result, the weapon becomes quite situational and its utility is quite limited, to the point it doesn't appear as a proper weapon in the XMP gamemode nor has a dedicated ammo box in botmatches. The Xbox version even cuts the tertiary fire, limiting its use even further.

** The "hybrid" that the Drakk have created on NC962VIII has the head of a human, the body of a Skaarj, and the arm of a Kai. It seems pretty clear they're trying to create a foot-soldier with human intelligence and Skaarj physical ability, but what's so special about a Kai's arm? Turns out, quite a lot.

* PlayingWithSyringes: On NC962VIII you can see what the Drakk are doing with the members of other species they've abducted, which is to detach their body parts and paste them back together in various combinations, seemingly in an attempt to build some kind of superior foot-soldier to fight for them.

* SpinToDeflectStuff: The [=MechaSkaarj=] have the ability to deflect bullets with their claws, reducing the vulnerability to rapid-fire weapons they displayed in the original ''Unreal''.

* BlatantItemPlacement: The game mostly keeps stuff in their logical places such as armories, but some items are placed in unlikely places. Two of the biggest offenders are Acheron and [=NC962VII=]:

* NewbieImmunity: In the 1-on-1 section of the ''VideoGame/UnrealIITheAwakening'' tutorial, Raff plays against you by using a hologram version of himself. It doesn't matter if you win or lose a match, as you can exit the arena through the door, and nothing happens.

!!See also
* the [[Characters/UnrealIITheAwakening game's character sheet]].
* the [[ShoutOut/{{Unreal}} Shout Out page for the series]].
----
!!Recurring tropes for the series include:

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The levels involving Izanagi and Liandri troops often have different colors for the different classes. Izanagi light ghosts are green, while their mediums are colored yellow, for example. The game's assets suggest that [[VideoGame/UnrealTournament UT99-like]] four-team multiplayer modes were going to ship with the game, and some of these skins were instead reused for SP purposes.

* DifficultButAwesome: The Rocket Launcher after Isaak upgrades it. Hitting four enemies with it is hard.
* EmergencyWeapon[=/=]ChargedAttack: The Popgun energy pistol behaves more or less the same as it did in the first ''Unreal''. You always have it as an emergency weapon, it recharges energy infinitely but has a lower-than-average rate of fire and relatively slow projectiles, and you can perform a charged shot with it (which, unfortunately, still isn't powerful enough to kill most enemies). The one key difference is that the Popgun doesn't have upgrades like the Dispersion Pistol, so it remains permanently in the RangedEmergencyWeapon function.

* MegaCorp: The main companies from the Tournament/Championship games (except Phayder) are involved in the game's conflict.

!Tropes exclusive to U2 include:
* AbsurdlyShortLevel: Several.
** The initial level, "Avalon (preface)", is about Dalton receiving a briefing of the situation and then departing to either the first planet or the VideoGameTutorial.
** The "Atlantis" intermission levels usually consist of Dalton going through the ship, receiving the briefing from Aida, and then departing to the next mission. However, the ship itself holds countless of {{easter egg}}s and key conversations for both the main plot and CharacterDevelopment, as well as some cutscenes depending which levels have been finished.
** "Polaris (Entrance)" is only a mid-sized passage leading to a cargo room with several EliteMooks.
** The first level of [=NC962VII=] (Suspicion) is just Dalton entering into the base in order to recover the last Artifact. Likewise, the final level of the planet (Solitude) is just a big dome, but in this case it holds one enemy: [[MidBoss the Drakk Caretaker]].
* ArmCannon: [[spoiler: The singularity cannon was part of the arm of the Tosc, until you sever the first one and surprisingly be able to use it.]]
* AwesomeButImpractical: The Spider Gun/Leech Gun/Spore Cannon. Its primary fire launches a blob towards an enemy target that explodes into a bunch of small Araknids distracting them. The alternate fire launches a spore into a surface from which many spiders spawn once an enemy target comes close. There's also a tertiary fire mode where shooting a spore with blobs will cause the spore to grow in size and a Medium Araknid to spawn from it, following its shooter and protecting them. Sounds awesome, isn't it? There are many problems, though: the small spiders do pitiful damage, and the Medium Araknid is quite weak and goes down as quick as it spawns. As a result, the weapon becomes quite situational and its utility is quite limited, to the point it doesn't appear as a proper weapon in the XMP gamemode nor has a dedicated ammo box in botmatches. The Xbox version even cuts the tertiary fire, limiting its use even further.
* BeeBeeGun: The biomass ejaculator, a gun that ''shoots spiders''. And yes, it's officially called an [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything ejaculator tube]].
* BigDamPlot: Inverted with the Severnaya mission, where the PlayerCharacter must destroy the dam, rather than prevent someone from destroying it.
* {{BFG}}: The Tosc Singularity Cannon. Anything in it's path is warped into the micro-black hole. In fact, if you use it while the console is up, it claims the target has been sent "to a dimension beyond".
* BoomStick: The Izarians use the Shock Lance, a spear capable of projecting energy bolts. Dalton can pick one up and use it, but it's heavily neutered at first since the Skaarj are savvy enough to not give their slaves ''too'' much firepower; after he brings it back to the ship, Isaak removes its power limitations and it becomes a pretty awesome weapon.
* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Various individuals have different colored clothes or aesthetics, depending on the environment. The Marines wear red in lush areas, and blue in cold environments. The Izanagi Ghost Warriors wear red primarily and yellow or green in lush environments.
* ContinuitySnarl: In this game we are told the Skaarj are socially highly fragmented and disorganized and often at odds with each other. The Skaarj uniting behind a single cause or leader is virtually unheard of. This directly contradicts the Skaarj in the first game, where they were all united in opposition towards you in standard FPS fashion (they even had a Skaarj Queen controlling everything), ''and'' the Skaarj in the backstory for ''[=UT2004=]'', where they united without issue to fight a massive interstellar war against humanity (able to work together well enough to bring the fight to Earth's doorstep before humanity caught a break).
* CreatorCameo: Many of the {{non player character}}s names are references to Legend Entertainment's programmers and artists.
* CrosshairAware: The Drakk robots will track the player with a laser, and then zap whatever is painted by it.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Compared to ''Unreal Tournament 2003'' and ''2004'', although still LighterAndSofter than the first ''Unreal'' given you interact with various personalities throughout the game.
* DeadGuyPuppet: In the Sanctuary mission, this is how the Izarians are introduced: Dalton has just entered the facility, witnessed a Liandri operator getting mauled, and went through a corridor after witnessing a creature. In the next room, an Izarian is using his Shock Lance to play puppet with another dead Liandri operator.
* DegradedBoss: The Heavy Skaarj at the end of Sanctuary, the first planet, becomes more common in Avalon (near the end of the game).
* DialogueTree: Whenever Dalton rans into someone who isn't about to die or trying to kill him, he can talk to them, and dialogue is divided like this.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: [[spoiler: Granted, after the first, you take down Tosc regularly with a single shot from the Singularity Cannon, which was Tosc's arm, so it's a case of HoistByItsOwnPetard.]]
* DismantledMacGuffin: Dalton spends most of the game traveling from planet to planet picking up pieces of an AncientArtifact. When the artifact is finally assembled and used, [[spoiler:see EldritchAbomination below]].
* DownerEnding: Although Dalton managed to [[spoiler:avenge the death of his crewmates, destroy the artifacts, and kill the Tosc]], the last we see of him is [[spoiler:him drifting into space in an escape pod, all alone, watching the final words of his late crew recorded in the burst transmission]]. It's also left unclear if [[spoiler:all the Kai in the universe are turned into the Tosc, not just the ones in the Dorian Gray spaceship that was just destroyed. However as the game somewhat still counts as canon, it seems like both the Tosc and the Kai didn't appear anymore and the rest of the world goes back to the business of MegaCorp-sponsored [[Videogame/UnrealTournament war tournaments]].]]. And if that isn't enough, [[spoiler:the death of Ne'Ban has all of the potential to spawn into a conflict of its own]].
* EldritchAbomination: [[spoiler: The artifacts you collected, after assembled, turns a silent, voiceless, servant race called Kai into a hulking four-legged mass with an arm that shoots black holes called the Tosc. After you managed to sever the arm of the first Tosc and eliminate the Tosc with the Singularity cannon, it turns out that all the Kais are turning into Tosc.]]
* EleventhHourSuperPower: [[spoiler:The [[SuperweaponSurprise Singularity]] [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Cannon]] dropped from the Tosc, (and capable of killing one instantly) although every Tosc has one too.]]
* EscortMission:
** In Janus, you escort a {{Jerkass}} Axon scientist, who won't give you the artifacts until he's safe.
--> ''"Here you go. Just kidding. The second I give you it you're going to leave me here to die. So you get me safe and I'll give them to you."''
** In the "Swamp" mission you escort a pair of crashed Marines from their crashsite to the evacuation point.
** In the second mission of planet Hell, you need to escort a scientist in order to clear a fire. He is killed in a scripted event
** In the last levels of planet Janus, you need to escort another scientist to the rooftop of a building.
** Finally, back in [[spoiler:a Skaarj-overrun]] Avalon, at one point you're tasked with defending a tech from the rooftop of the building you've started the game in while he tries to restore power to the area.
* EvilVersusEvil: Multiple opposing factions are after the artifacts, including Izanagi, Liandri, the Skaarj, and the Drakk.
* EvolvingWeapon: Many weapons, after Isaak tweaks them.
** The Grenade Launcher gains new grenade types over the course of the game.
** The Shock Lance is useless at first. Once Isaak takes the limiter off, it's a lot more powerful.
** The Drakk Laser Rifle initially lacks an alt-fire (explained because Isaak was still looking for inspiration), but gains one in the penultimate mission.
* {{Expy}}:
** The Kai happen to be just like the Nali, a peaceful race.
** The Izarians, who are the new slaves of the Skaarj, are very similar to the Krall.
* FacelessGoons: The NEG space marines and the Izanagi mercs(when they're wearing a helmet at least).
* FissionMailed: Two instances:
** The first one happens in the Sulferon mission. It's impossible to prevent the destruction of the computer with the secret Izanagi data, no matter what steps the player takes to prevent it. This is because its destruction is necessary to trigger [[HoldTheLine the second part of the mission]].
** Also on the last Avalon mission, you may have done everything good on your end, but even then, that doesn't prevent [[spoiler:the TCA Atlantis destruction and the death of Dalton's crew]].
* {{Foreshadowing}}: There are various scenes throughout the game that hint at the artifacts' true purpose.
** The Araknid outbreak on Hell was caused by running one of the artifacts through a beam, which caused them to mutate.
** The Kai on Janus hangs onto the artifacts and doesn't let them out of his sight. Turns out, there's a reason for that.
** Various characters mention that the artifacts are invinicble.
* GeniusLoci: One of the planets, Acheron, is practically a sentient entity.
* GiantMook[=/=]HeavilyArmoredMook: Heavy Soldiers. Used by all human factions as well as the Skaarj, they wear a 7-foot tall suit of PoweredArmor, have strong shields and armor, and are armed with rocket launchers and flamethrowers. The Skaarj version also fires explosive, heat-seeking energy balls. The flip side is they're quite slow.
* GreatOffscreenWar: The Strider Wars, which Aida served in.
* HiveQueen: The Araknid Queen, and [[spoiler:the Drakk Caretaker]]. (The last real boss you fight, although there are a couple levels after it)
* HoldTheLine:
** The mission "Swamp" in Sanctuary requires you to fend off a bunch of Izarians and Medium Skaarj coming in waves until a dropship appears to pull both you and the crashed Marines out of the planet.
** The "Kalydon" mission requires you to enforce the trenches and fend off the attacking waves of Liandri angels using deployable turrets and field generators.
** The second half of the "Sulferon" mission requires you to organize a squad of four Marines in order to defend a tech who's repairing damaged equipment inside.
** The end of the missions on Janus has you fending off Liandri forces with a bunch of Marines while you protect a scientist who's repairing the communications antenna. This one is a combination of the Kalydon and Sulferon defense sequences, as you both make use of deployable equipment and give orders to Marines.
** The end of the Avalon mission [[spoiler:after all the pieces are collected]] has you fending off waves of Skaarj with a group of Marines.
* InNameOnly: The setting is very similar to that of the first game, and the Skaarj reappear as one of the enemies in this game, unfortunately, the similarities end there. Very few of the enemies and weapons from the first game actually appear in this sequel, and the gameplay here is so vaguely like that of the first game, that if this game went by a different title and had nothing to do with Unreal, it wouldn't make that big of a difference.
* {{Intermission}}: At least in the PC version, the TCA Atlantis segments serve as breaks between planets/chapters, often serving as the players' getting up to speed regarding their next mission and the weaponry they collected, as well as getting to know more about Dalton's crew of RagtagBunchOfMisfits.
* ItHasBeenAnHonor: [[spoiler:The final words of Aida to John, on behalf of the entire crew]].
* {{Jerkass}}: The scientist on Janus who you've been tasked with rescuing; he spends pretty much the entire mission berating you with incredibly petty slights while you're busy protecting him from bloodthirsty mercs.
* JustifiedTutorial: There's an optional tutorial which is given to you by Sector Commander Hawkins in the very first level. Should Dalton take the offer, he'll proclaim "I could use a refresher", and the next level has him going through the TCA Tutorial Course under the guidance of Raff, where he learns the basics of movement, some weapons, and ends up with a repeatable 1-on-1, 5-frags Deathmatch fight against Raff's hologram form.
* KillTheLights: In a CallBack to [[VideoGame/UnrealI the first game]], in the first mission, "Elara V: Sanctuary", [[PlayerCharacter John Dalton]] is going down in an elevator when it suddenly stops in the middle of the trajectory, then the lights go out, and a Light Skaarj falls from above, damaging the counterweights and sending Dalton plummeting to the lower floor.
* MacGuffinDeliveryService: Aida lampshades that, if the DismantledMacGuffin forms [[spoiler:a dangerous galaxy-threatening superweapon]], why the heck is he collecting all of it's pieces instead of just taking the 3 or 4 pieces he has already and dropping them down a black hole? Sadly, Dalton is a military man through and through, and replies that orders are orders.
* MakeMyMonsterGrow: In ''Hell: Disclosure'', when reaching the biological laboratory, you find out the large spiders you encountered so far used to be the smaller spiders, but some yellow energybeam allows them to grow supersized. Some other animals caged up in the lab will also walk through the beam and become gigantic if you set them free.
* MechaMooks: The Drakk.
* MeleeATrois: The different enemy factions are coded to be hostile to each other (as can be seen if you use the console to spawn in a bunch of them), but this almost never comes up during normal gameplay since they almost never appear in the same level. The only notable exception is a couple brief fights between Izanagi mercs and the Drakk units they've inadvertently awakened in one of the later levels.
* MidBoss:
** The planet Sanctuary features a Heavy Skaarj as the last opponent.
** The planet Hell features [[spoiler:the Araknid Queen (Heavy Araknid)]].
** The planet [=NC962VII=] features [[spoiler:the Drakk Caretaker (Heavy Drakk)]].
* MisbegottenMultiplayerMode: Inverted. While the game is SP-oriented, it had so many weak points, you'll be pardoned if you thought it was an afterthought at best. The official multiplayer addon, XMP, on the other hand, although online-restricted, not only featured a solid gameplay, but also laid the foundations for what would became the [[VideoGame/UnrealTournament2004 Onslaught]] and [[VideoGame/UnrealTournamentIII Warfare]] modes, as well as properly introducing vehicles and [[VideoGame/UnrealChampionship2TheLiandriConflict player classes]] into the Unreal universe. It says a lot that, while ''Unreal Tournament 2003'' and ''VideoGame/UnrealChampionship'' had a very short lifespan (with both being eventually replaced by ''[=UT2004=]'' and ''[=UC2=]'' respectively), the [=U2XMP=] community was still around when ''VideoGame/UnrealTournamentIII'' was released.
* MookThemedLevel: Planet [=NC962VII=] is the homeworld of [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens the Drakk]], and as such it contains AlienGeometries and advanced tech buildings, and the most common enemies are the different Drakk drones and combat units.
* NumberOfTheBeast: The Black Hole Gun starts with 666 ammo.
* OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo: ''Unreal II: '''The Awakening'''''.
* OneWingedAngel: [[spoiler: See EldritchAbomination above.]]
* PeopleJars: The Drakk's specialty, with a healthy side of NauseaFuel due to bizarre, nonsensical experimentation.
* PlotCoupon: The pieces of the ArtifactOfDoom.
* RangedEmergencyWeapon: the Dispersion Pistol even described as such.

!! Tropes regarding the ''XMP'' ExpansionPack include

* ASpaceMarineIsYou: The entire game, with the sole exception of the characterization of the main characters (technically you and your crew are more like the Space Coast Guard, but pretty much play like a Space Marine). It's somewhat of a running gag of Dalton complaning about how he should have been one.
--> Marine: Hell Dalton. You should have been a Marine.
--> Dalton: Don't get me started.

* SpinToDeflectStuff: The [=MechaSkaarj=] have the ability to deflect bullets with their claws, reducing the vulnerability to rapid-fire weapons they displayed in the original ''Unreal''.

%% (ZCE) * ArtificialLimbs: Isaak.

%% (ZCE) * AmazonBrigade: The Liandri Angels.

** The Kalydon planet mission requires you to enforce the trenches and fend off the attacking waves of Liandri angels using deployable turrets and field generators.
** The second half of the Sulferon planet mission requires you to organize a squad of four Marines in order to defend a tech who's repairing damaged equipment inside.
** The end of the Janus missions has you fending off Liandri forces with a bunch of Marines while you protect a scientist who's repairing the communications antenna. This one is a combination of the Kalydon and Sulferon defense sequences, as you both make use of deployable equipment and give orders to Marines.
** The end of the second Avalon mission has you fending off waves of Skaarj with a group of Marines.

* DismantledMacGuffin: Dalton spends most of the game traveling from planet to planet picking up pieces of an ancient artifact. When the artifact is finally assembled and used, [[spoiler:see EldritchAbomination below]].