I want to formally suggest an Unreal remake in the vein of Halo Studios’ efforts at Halo: Campaign Evolved, but in a different direction.
Instead of a standalone prequel arc, I’d like an Unreal remake to have an expanded story and prologue.
Before you ask, yes, I have the two Unreal books, but they are decades old and most likely need to be republished and/or retold as animated shorts, but suffice to say, I have a personal theory that I’d put into effect that John Dalton, the protagonist of Unreal 2 (which I thought was OK, but not a world-beater) personally saw to Prisoner 849’s arrest and commute via the Vortex Rikers, but all of the background from the novels would be nicely tied together to help support it, especially since 849 is, in a manner of speaking, painting a target on her back with all manner of crimes such as breaking and entering and extortion.
This would then have you able to walk on board the ship BEFORE it crashes, but as a method of establishing the context that the Skarrj locked onto the prison ship’s signal and brought it down.
The original version, for reference, only told things from the here-and-now, but obscured the bigger picture, opting to start at your titular character waking up just moments after the crash.
In lieu of Halo’s rich gameplay modifiers via skulls, Unreal would be refined not only with Doom: The Dark Ages-esque adjustable difficulty for all players (including hard-mode-only masochists putting every slider to max levels), as well as collectibles in addition to the data logs you occasionally read as you’re out in the field.
And then there’s multiplayer. While it may be impossible for Unreal Tournament 4 or something similar to gain a foothold in the F2P market, the multiplayer in an Unreal remake should be “Take the modes from Unreal 1, but take everything else, including the bots, from UT and make something just as good, if not better, than the original multiplayer.”, and for the record, I have listened to Control Freak via Audible, and Cliff was right to point out the inexperienced team rushing multiplayer at the last minute, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved upon with the technology and design teams of today.
Oh. And a special thanks to Cliff in the credits after you complete the campaign, solo or co-op.