Source: www.pcgamer.com

Author: Chuck Osborn 

Unreal Tournament 2003

If you’re going to buy only one Unreal Tournament in 2003, then get this one

It’s time to upgrade. Unless you’ve got an overclocked P4 3.6GHz packed inside a mini-igloo flooded with liquid nitrogen and a currently nonexistent GeForce5, running Unreal Tournament 2003 at its higher settings will bring your system to its knees.

To be sure, UT 2003 looks effin’ amazing. Using the up-to-now newest version of the vaunted Unreal engine (still pre–Unreal II in beauty, mind you), this is the best-looking shooter you’ll play until Doom III rears its rotting zombie head. And still, even with the much higher polygon counts, enhanced lighting effects, realistic bump-mapped texturing, and advanced particle system, UT 2003 doesn’t look that much better than Unreal Tournament. Not “sell your soul for a new Alienware” better, anyway.

As the name implies, this 2003 edition of Unreal Tournament is less a sequel than a refinement. Though it’s added an obligatory nod to squad-based gameplay, deathmatch is what it’s all about — thundering weapon blasts, outrageous verbal taunts, and torsos ripped in half by flak-cannon shards, all accompanied by a booming play-by-play as performed by an overbearing Mr. Moviefone.

And like Madden 2003 or NHL 2003, the UT 2003 moniker means something else: Unreal Tournament is now being treated like a full-fledged sport. After setting up a character and playing a few qualification deathmatch rounds designed to test your readiness, the single-player game lets you draft bot-mates from a roster of free agents before entering the main tournament. (It comes with 30 maps in all.)

Picks are based on the stats of accuracy, aggression, agility, and team tactics, as well as a bot’s preferred weapon. As you ascend the ladders of Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Double Domination, and a new combat mode similar to soccer called Bombing Run, you’ll have the opportunity to swap team members for newly available free agents.

Unfortunately, that’s as far as the sports analogy goes. Original plans called for a salary-cap system and even squad formations, but they were scaled back in favor of more conventional game mechanics. Hopefully the sports angle will be advanced further in the next iteration of UT; right now, it’s a slight innovation that borders on novelty.

Don’t get me wrong — UT 2003 is fun. In fact, it’s the most fun I’ve had with an FPS since Quake III came out. There’s a good reason for that — and one that may not please devotees of the original: UT 2003 is more like Quake III than the original UT. It’s faster and more bombastic, and though you’ll still find low-gravity levels, more time is spent running and gunning firmly on the ground. (The exception being the newly added “double jump” that lets you perform a second jump at the apex of the first, and a few John Woo–style dodge tricks. Yes, they’re unrealistic…but they work.)

AI and level design have been similarly enhanced. Bots are smarter than ever before, running away or camping depending on their “personality.” And the levels are far more diverse than in any Quake game: Sometimes you’ll blast through dark, claustrophobic corridors; other times, you’ll stalk expansive Egyptian-themed outdoor areas; and still other maps are dominated by rolling hills of lush greenery.

Further new enhancements are “combos” that can be activated after gaining 100 points of adrenaline — either from collecting red-and-white capsules or from killing opponents — and then tapping the appropriate button combination (see “Adrenaline Rush” below). Emphasizing skill over the being-in-the-right-place-at-the-right-time nature of powerups, adrenaline is a welcome addition to the game. Of course, you’ll still run across familiar powerups like health, armor, and double-damage.

For some reason — my guess is to keep the sports analogy going — the popular Assault mode from the first game has been dropped, as has Last Man Standing. The new addition, Bombing Run, is a blast to play, and I wholeheartedly approve of its inclusion, but it just seems like the only reason to leave out Assault this round is so Infogrames can put it in the UT 2003 Platinum GOTY Collector’s Box when it inevitably shows up next year.

On the whole, weapon selection is an improvement. Gone are UT’s little-used Ripper and Impact Hammer; newbies include the Shield Gun (self-explanatory), the Link Gun (a takeoff on the pulse gun that lets you “link” energy with teammates for a more powerful burst), the Lightning Gun (which acts as a sniper rifle in secondary fire), and the awesome Ion Painter, a weapon that nearly matches the Redeemer in destructive firepower by calling down a strike from an orbiting ion cannon.

The multiplayer interface is virtually the same, easily letting you find LAN or Internet matches in whichever game mode you desire. UT 2003 comes with 12 “mutators,” or gameplay mods. Some, like Vampire (leeching health from slain opponents), impact your strategy; others, like BigHead (the better your score, the bigger your head grows), are just for fun.

And finally, for the few of you who own them, UT 2003 supports force-feedback mice. Now, don’t laugh — I found that using one enhanced the fun without detracting from the play experience. You’ll feel a slight shudder from weapon recoil and a more obvious buzz when running over pick-ups, but nothing so obtrusive as to throw off your aim.

I’d say Epic’s aim was pretty damn accurate, too. In short, UT 2003 aims at doing one thing, and succeeds remarkably well at it: It’s the best damned Unreal Tournament on the market…at least until UT 200X rolls around.