The bottom line is that Unreal 2 is saddled with unmemorable weapons and enemies, disappointing AI, a dull lead character, underdone level design, and a lack of technical polish, all wrapped around the same old stuff you’ve seen in so many first person shooters, most of which are better than this game. The occasional glimpses of promise, such as the crew involvement and the flexible defensive battles, have their own failings. In the end, there’s nothing to lift the game out of its disappointing mediocrity; if it didn’t have the Unreal name it wouldn’t even merit release-date reviews.

There have been some complaints that Unreal 2 is too short, but this misses the point. The problem here isn't the quantity of gameplay; it's the quality of gameplay. It's hard to believe this is from the same company whose creativity fueled their 1999 adaptation of the Unreal engine, Wheel of Time. With Unreal 2, Legend has given us a drab, by-the-numbers shooter that borrows liberally from the rest of the genre. The whole thing plays like the computer game equivalent of a greatest hits muzak CD.