Unreal Tournament 2003 Review
Overview: I should probably assume you know of the Unreal franchise, if you don't know it you must have been living under a rock for the past few years because the number of advances in technology achieved by this series is astounding. Well, for those who don't know Unreal is a First Person Shooter (FPS) set on an Alien World. The original Unreal paved the way for the intelligent enemies you see in games today, the first game to have truly intelligent creatures (those damn Skarj). Unreal Tournament was a breakthrough in online gaming, not only was it incrediblely fun to play against the other human opponents (of which there are thousands and thousands), the bots posed more than enough trouble for even the most die-hard FPS fans. And now, Unreal Tournament 2003 has finally been released, and what do I have to say? Well, it's much like its predecessor, and in this case that's not a bad thing, like the old saying goes, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
Gameplay: The amount of fun you will have playing this game is incredible, from the varying game modes (of which there are four; Team/Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, Domination 2.0, and Bombing Run). Deathmatch and Capture The Flag are recognisable to all, so I won't talk about them, Domination 2.0 is an upgrade to the original Domination of UT, where you now have only two waypoints and the longer you hold both areas the more points you accumulate. Bombing Run, however, is a completely new idea. It consists of large maps with two bases (much like CTF maps) and in the centre is a ball (the bomb) and basically the idea is to get the bomb in your opponents base to blow it up, thus scoring you points. The catch is, you cannot fire while holding the bomb, so some teamwork is necessary to make the most of it.
The weapons of UT2003 have been given a facelift to those found in the first game, for instance, you no longer have pistols, now it's a sub-machinegun with grenade launcher, and the new Pulse Rifle (now called the Link Gun) has received a few changes and is a favourite among many players. Then there are the new weapons, the lightning gun for instance which replaces the sniper rifle, I cannot express how much I love this gun, it truly is incredible to zoom in on some poor schmuck and fry his arse with a lightning bolt. The Redeemer makes a return along with a new super weapon, the Ion Painter. This gun sets a target for the Ion Cannon out in space to fire upon, quite enjoyable.
Unfortunately, UT2003 isn't all good, for instance it's a real shame that Assault didn't make a return, as with the improved level design some Assault maps could be quite astounding, I guess Bombing Run is a welcome replacement though. There is also the problem of playing online with a 56k modem, but that's not Epic's fault so I can't really penalize them for that. Some more abnormal models (like the Chrek or Jarhead models from UT) would aso have been appreciated, though again, it's a rather minor quibble, and 3rd party modellers can satisfy our appetites for such things later. All in all the fun factor is what counts, and in UT2003 it's through the roof.
Visuals: Um, this game looks good. No, scratch that, this game looks incredible! If you need a reason to upgrade your computer, UT2003 is it, it's only when you have the game running in 1024x768 in 32-bit with all details on max that you truly appreciate the amount of detail that has been put in this game, and you'll understand why the textures take up a good 1.5GB on your Hard Drive. Everything about this game looks incredible, from the weapon fire to the textures on the trees, to the number of polygons in each character it simply defies belief. It's not only the eye candy either it's other things that really jump out at you, like the fluid animation of the characters, it's amazing how lifelike the movements are, especially in death animations, all hail Hitman for giving us rag doll elements such as this in games now. The Unreal Warfare engine certainly allows for much flexibility in the visuals department and it won't be long before we see more games using this technology (including the upcoming Unreal II from Epic), and so we should. The only downside to incredible graphics is slow performance, and on slower machines this game will jump around at 15 frames, as I said this game is the perfect excuse to upgrade your PIII 700 to a powerhouse P4 2Ghz with a GeForce 4 ti4600. Believe me, if you want to truly appreciate the game, you'll need it.
Sound: As with everything else in this game the sound is brilliant, every gun shot, lightning strike, and explosion sounds true to life. The range of quips from the characters are also varied and sound individual (Humans sound apart from Aliens who sound different to the Robotic characters). The music is also well thought up with each track suiting the frenetic gameplay perfectly, you won't hear any classical symphonies here, it's all heavy.
Lastability: What can I say, the game is going to be played for years, there are already people out there frantically writing mods and mutators to extend the UT2003 experience. If it's anything like the first game there will be literally hundreds of thousands of people battling in thousands of maps with hundreds of different game types. Basically this game will last, even just the single player will preoccupy you for quite a while with about 8 bot difficulties to choose from and hone your skills on.
Conclusion: So it doesn't break any real new ground other than the visuals, so what? Unreal Tournament was a blast to play and by making this game similar to it Epic have made sure that people will still love UT for years to come. Plus, the changes that have been made to the game are all for the better and there will be no instance where you will want to pack it in because you're getting bored, there's simply too much to do.
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It's fun, that's all that matters, every time you blow the crap out of the other players you get that warm and fuzzy feeling inside that just makes you want to frag some more. With the new weapons and modes UT has never been better. There's no Assault mode and the models are fairly standard (when compared to other games), but this isn't a reason to dismiss UT2003. |
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You WILL spend the first half hour of playing gawking at the level design, and you will get killed because of this, yes, the game looks that good. |
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The sound is quite impressive in UT2003, with 3D support and a lot of variety in weapon sounds, and voices you definitely won't be playing this game with the sound down. |
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This game will still be going strong five years down the track, and there will still be more than enough people to get a game out of. The modding community are already working hard to add to this excellent game and it'll be interesting to see what sorts of concepts they devise. |
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Is it revolutionary? Not really. Does it boldly go where no game has gone before? Hmmm, not quite. Is it the most fun you will ever have in front of a computer screen? Yes, oh Hell yes. |
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