| Unreal Tournament It's a battle for survival between the ultimate fraggers, is Unreal the champion of challengers? We have had Timesplitters and Quake 3 already which both have gone under the review magnifier here at emotion both were rewarded very respectable scores with Quake 3 (10/10) gaining the edge over Timesplitters (9/10) in terms of feel, Timesplitters had a very cool multiplayer mode as Quake 3 happened to have both, the third FPS has just arrived, after months of false hope and disappointment, yes it's here! There is a lot to do on the Unreal disc that will please a lot of fans of this genre, multiplayer modes pump up a lot of excitement, sadly the four player mode is marred by slow-down, but there is plenty of fun to be had in the 2 player modes, and lets face it we don't all have mutitaps do we? There are sadly only two multiplayer modes, which is a shame, as some of the solo games would have made perfect multiplayer experiences. The usual deathmatch mode and capture the flag are on offer, with deathmatch being the main choice for me personally, mindless killing is fun when you are in an artificial world. Capture The Flag still is fun but does not offer anywhere near the amount of fun as deathmatch! The solo modes offer hours and hours of blood thirsty entertainment, the practice mode enables you to train yourself for each event, they play the same of the normal game, but lets face it that�s a fine idea and with the tutorials also on offer which actually guide you through with a voice to aid you, it's a good way to help and get you in to the swing of the game. You start off as a low ranking cold blooded killer and must win matches to climb up the ladders, unlocking new ladders and characters along the way. Deathmatch is the first ladder and every match that is cleared is getting you closer to the ladder trophy and also unlocking the next ladder, I'll try and explain each of the ladders briefly. Assault is probably the most complicated of the lot as you and your AI team mates have to storm the opposing base and also protect your own, you can order your team to do certain things such as protect you or the base or go out on a full attack. Domination is all about being in control of the match by turning control points in to your own colour by walking in to them, and the more you have in your control and the longer you have them the more points you receive for your troubles, a target score is to be reached. You can only call yourself the ultimate Unreal soldier after completing the challenge mode, which are just simply one on one battles against the best Unreal killers, be warned these soldiers have the same aim as you. The stages all look cool and range from mountains to frozen outposts, there is many on offer and some will be unlocked as you progress, sadly there is only a little amount of stages for the multi player modes, why? Is Emotions question. I have written all the above without even mentioning one gun, the weapons on offer are "bloody brilliant" there is in fact 12 on offer, and my personal favourites are the rocket launcher and the cool ripper which launches sharp discs and can even rebound them off walls, for example round a corner or something. All the weaponry is cool apart from the odd one, the Redeemer launches a small nuclear missile which can be steered head on in to opponents, the mini gun has a big automatic cannon on it meaning more then one hole in your opponents bodies. All these weapons have a secondary fire mode, which is normally more damaging then the normal attacks but takes more ammo. Like most games of this type, UT has pickups which improves your soldiers strength or defence, the anti grav boots allow you to jump much higher then normal and the damage amplifier allows you to deal out something like 3 times the amount of damage and also creates a cool looking glowing effect. Sadly the game suffers from slowdown in the 4 player modes, and even sometimes does in solo player, this isn't very noticeable in one player but you don't expect it from such powerful hardware. Unreal Tournament is a game with a lot going for it, it could have been a 10/10 if it didn't suffer from the few problems it has, so instead I'll give it a very respectable................ Chris Wigham 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 |