Unreal is a good game and worth a buy and play but between the two get Fear. Its a better game and a newer one. It pioneered the destruction of walls like out of The Matrix...even having a lobby shootout. Fear and the sequels...which were not as good as the original...were very good games. I m guessing there isn't any multiplayer to speak of now but that was great fun back in the day wit ha shotgun :)

Even if you removed the horror elements and jump scares from F.E.A.R., what you'd have is still an extremely reflexive, high action and adrenaline pumping FPS with extremely satisfying gunplay. Not to mention, the time slow mechanic is just fucking COOL, man. There's nothing like beasting through a darkened room full of Replicas with a tactical shotgun, while the lights go haywire and bodies go flying in slo-mo, or playing peekabo with a massive mech firing rockets at you in slow motion, while you wonder if your healthpacks will even hold out for this fight, or kick yourself for not grabbing that grenade launcher or rocket launcher. Even if you took out the genuinely creepy elements, the base of the game is wrapped up in high action moments that go from zero to 60 at the drop of a hat, with enemies leaping from platforms to flank you, while some take cover to lay down suppressing fire on you, once they realize that you're there. Don't get me wrong, Unreal is a classic, but it's also mechanically limited by its age. F.E.A.R.? Not so much.
I'll be honest with you, the suspense and psychological shit, compared with sudden environment shifting was way more effective horror than the actual OMG FOUL BEASTIE IS ATTEMPTING TO DRAG ME THROUGH THE FLOOR. Fear of the unknown is always so much more scary than what any dev can actually show you, in my opinion.

By the way, you wouldn't happen to remember which level that is? (name, number, how far in the game roughly, anything...) Just so that it would be easier to locate it in all those Unreal walkthrough videos.

I don't like to use any visual overlays, for better or worse I tend to play games the way they were made. I could try some occasionally if they had some exceptional gimmick in them, but graphics in Quake 2 don't bother me, I'd say Id used their polygon budget for characters really well, overall the models appear to be pretty well rounded.

Yeah, I remember really liking those sudo hub levels, I never saw anything like it in a video game before (then again Q2 was one of the first games I've played on my own PC), it was probably new idea for FPSs in general. Unreal on the other hand was originally planed to be one huge seamless level.

The Trench is the one I was talking about. There's also one level where you sail through a canyon in a boat (Serpent Canyon), can't recall ever getting to that place in my playthrough.

Been a long time since I played it, but I have mostly positive memories of it. Of course its technology is very dated now, but I thought the game had a lot more going for it. It has a rather original and well fleshed out game world, you travel through a wide range of different settings, all with their own unique graphics and atmosphere. I remember it had a variety of interesting weapons, all with at least one alternate mode of attack. Enemies were quite varied and nicely designed as well, and I seem to remember it also had a nice soundtrack. Also, the levels were well built, with lots of secrets and things to discover.

Overall, I'd say if it wasn't for the outdated technology, this would still be on par with many much more recent FPS games.