Well this was a game...
Unlike the groundbreaking predecessor, this might be one of the most generic, soulless, boring, empty, forgettable and just nothing FPS games I've played. Sure it looks okay for its time and has an all-star music composer staff, but I really don't get what does it have to do with the Unreal universe in ANY way (beside having Skaarj and the fictive corporations).
The combat is weak and choppy, has none of the trademark Unreal weapons, the cutscenes and dialogues are badly written and pace-braking and oh my god, why do I move soooo slowwwly??? And what the heck is with the atrocious loading times in 2023 on an NVMe SSD? (update: it's because v-sync, WTF?)
It's not offensively bad, and has some moderately cool moments, but it really is no wonder no one remembers this game. You'll lose literally nothing if you skip this game from the Unreal series.

The OG immersive FPS and the very start of the Unreal engine, often unfairly forgotten and usually overshadowed by Half-Life!
But yeah, Unreal came out earlier in 1998 and is a mind-blowing milestone of the FPS genre with incredible graphics and gameplay for its time. What might seem like a glorified tech-demo for the engine, Unreal is a surprisingly well-designed immersive FPS, keeping you fully in first-person mode without any cutscenes in a 10-12 hour long story in a futuristic setting on an alien planet.
The game popularized many elements which became pretty much staples of later FPS games including secondary fire modes for weapons, switch-puzzles, dark areas, underwater sections, grand landscapes with alternate routes, surprisingly intelligent enemies (dodging out of your non-hitscan projectiles), ally NPCs and mood-dependent dynamic music!
It holds up surprisingly well even today, many of its maps just scream ATMOSPHERE with the beautiful visual style and the fantastic ambient soundtrack by Alex Brandon and co.
It does suffer from some dated concepts and some minor inconveniences such as the forced dark areas with limited flashlight durations, overly long maze-like areas with annoyingly hidden switches, very health-spongy enemies at the later parts and a bit unbalanced weapon arsenal (Flak Cannon FTW!) The main story also becomes a bit dull by the midpoint, though the beginning is extremely strong with legendary scenes like the ambush in Rrajigar mine! Return to Na Pali is much better paced but overall there's not much to remember from the story, it's just simple "Get to the end and survive".
It might not have aged that well and not became that memorable as Half-Life but it's a very important title in PC gaming for both Epic Games and the FPS-genre in general, not to mention that it spawned Unreal Tournament a year later, which is an all-time classic of arena shooters and one of the best PC games of all time!

Wow... just WOW!
It's so baffling I've only known about this game after the announcement of its remake. A 2010 DS game written by Shu Takumi, the Ace Attorney writer?
Oh yeah, this game is 1000% uninhibited Shu Takumi at its finest! A very twisted and over-the-top ghost story wrapped into timing-sensitive environmental puzzle-solving. Everything from the style and presentation, through the characters and their designs to the music and story progression is simply fantastic! And it has one of the best twist endings I've ever experienced in video games with some truly emotional moments. And almost every aspect of the story quirks is explained well and smartly with only very few and minor plotholes I could discover.
This remake is also very nicely done with cleaned-up textures and animations and a great arranged soundtrack!
My only minor gripes which prevent it from a 10/10 are the somewhat inconsistent pacing between puzzle solving and lore-dumps (it's heavily back-loaded), and also the very trial-n-error heavy puzzles in general. I feel the puzzle concept is pulled back a bit by the second half and is not fully realized into its full potential (there are so many more complex things it could've done).
I had a blast with this game all the way, would 100% recommend to everyone, especially if you loved the twisty writing and the hilarious over-the-top animation of Ace Attorney!
Can't wait to see a "spiritual" successor or a movie/serial adaptation of this!