When your in your house, lights off, and on the screen your bot is crouching in a sewer behind a corner with a sniper rifle aimed on the next thing that moves on your line of sight, you’ll know what I’m talking about when I say the game is INTENSE!
Wow! What a game! It’s exactly what its title suggests. Unreal Tournament is another game, taking a large step in improving the quality of FPS games. More action, more weapons, more enemies, more though process, modem play, the game has it all!

The Bots

Hundreds of bots to choose from…from humans to these really ugly things they call cows. You can play unreal as virtually anything. Pick a team you wish to be a part of, such as the Blood Reavers, or another group, and from their, pick your favorite bot. Don’t see any that you like? No problem! Customize your own bot! Another advantage of having so many characters is that you never see the same bot twice. It was kind of a bummer, when in Quake III you kill a bot, and in the next level, there he is again! You killed him, gosh darnit! Although something small it does feel good to know you won’t be seeing that bot you killed in the last level again. After all, is coming back to life that realistic?

The Weapons

In my opinion, this has to be one of the best parts of Unreal Tournament. Out of all the shoot-em-up games ever made, Unreal Tournament only has 2 guns that have ever been seen before, the Rocket Launcher and the pistol. Every other gun is brand new! Its really cool. Not only that, But each gun has 2 options. Guns include a pistol/dual pistol, a transporter, a shock rifle, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, ripper, flak cannon, biorifle, pulse cannon, redeemer, and the minigun. Each gun has a second option, that shoots something different:

Enforcer Pistol- nice little beginner hand gun…not too effective unless you happen to pick up another. Second option simply shoots a little faster, and also you hold your gun to the side.

Transporter- this has only one option, but very helpful if you are surrounded or need to get somewhere quick. The transporter shoots a little disc where you point the gun, and wherever the disc lands, that’s where you will be transported to.

Shock Rifle- This gun shoots a long, blue stream of energy. It does a good amount of damage, but it takes a while to reload. The second option shoots a blue ball of energy. These balls move a lot slower than the beam of light, but the ball causes more damage, and reloading is very quick.

Sniper Rifle- we all know what this is. Second option allows you to zoom in very close to a target. Sniper rifle is deadly when contact is made with the head. Otherwise, it usually takes two sniper bullets to kill someone.

Rocket launcher- Shooting this sends off a deadly exploding rocket that causes a lot of damage. Hold down the fire button for long enough and the rocket launcher will let of 2,3,4,5 or 6 rockets all at once. The second options fires pipe-shaped grenades that explode fairly quickly. Once again, holding the fire button allows for 2,3,4,5 or 6 of these grenades o be let off at once. Definitely a deadly weapon.

Ripper- This is a very cool weapon…it shoots razor blades! Not recommended if your are not an expert though. The blades tend to bound around a bit, and I’ve been hit with my own razor blades many times! This gin can be extremely deadly if you get good. Master the ricochet of the blades and soon you will be hitting enemies around corners! Second option allows razor blade to explode on contact with anything.

Flak Cannon- spits out hot metal shrapnel, causing a LOT of damage. I highly recommend this gun. Second option send out a sphere of hot metal, that dips quickly and makes a large explosion on contact with the ground, or hopefully an enemy bot. I love this gun!

Biorifle- this gun is pretty cool. The biorifle rapidly shoots out hot balls of green, radioactive goo. It causes a good amount of damage, but it doesn’t have good range, therefore usually doesn’t work well. Second option releases a huge ball of goo, when after making contact with a wall or the ground will explode into dozens of smaller blobs, providing a gauntlet of steaming radioactive material for your enemies to try to get by.

Pulse cannon- An interesting little weapon. First option shoots balls of green electricity. These are shot fairly rapidly and cause a lot of damage. Second option shoots a continuous line of green electricity, kind of like your very one lightning bolt!. Very useful weapon.

Redeemer- this gun causes the most damage of all. Fire it, and wherever it explodes, everyone will die within a 30-yard diameter. Second option is even cooler, it is a “missilecam” and basically, your line of sight becomes where the missile is going. Steer the missile anywhere to find a victim to kill. This gun is very useful. If bloodbath with 5 or 6 bots is going on inside a room, just stand outside, and with a little maneuvering on the “missilcam” get the rocket to land in the middle of the room, killing many bots all at once!

Minigun- this last gun is very cool. This gun is a very powerful, very fast machine gun. It fires round very very quickly, and works long and short range,. Second option shoots a little faster. All around,. This gun causes a lot of damage.

The Levels

A definite plus for this game. Play on levels ranging from spaceships, castles, sewers, outside (with very little gravity), and any kind of building imaginable. Got underwater, in the air, and on the ground. And theres always something to pick up, some kind of health or weapon round. The maps are endless, and loaded with spots for ambush and secrets. Unreal makes going to a new level each time a totally different adventure.

Battle

Unreal Tournament comes with 4 different combat modes. You have the original and most-fun deathmatch, capture the flag, domination, and assault. Each combat has different purposes, however they all include ruthlessly killing your enemies! I find each one entertaining.

Deathmatch- this is your normal combat. You are stuck in an arena with other bots, and the first bot to get a certain number of “frags” wins that deathmatch level. I find this combat most fun because your only restriction is that you have to kill people! Not really a restriction if you ask me…

Capture the Flag- That’s right! You used to play that in gym class in third grade. Unreal Tournament Capture the Flag is the exact same thing…only bots are trying to kill you!. A little more intense than 3rd grade Capture the flag, if you ask me. This is my second most favorite combat type.

Domination- The is new concept for FPS games. Three medallions are set up around an arena. The object is to have “possession” of all three of three of these medallion by touching them. Control of a medallion is signified when it changes to the color of your team. Every 3 seconds a medallion is in your possession, you get a point, thus if you have possession of all three medallions for three seconds, you get 3 points. The object is to get a certain amount of points. It’s a fun game at first, but I got sick of it fairly quickly. I like the idea though.

Assault: This type of combat puts a little more purpose into killing other bots, only a little more though. Each level has certain missions that have to be completed. When you are trying to complete the mission, other bots are trying to stop you from killing the missions by killing you. However, once you complete the mission, it isn’t over. The bots that were trying to kill you then have to complete the mission in the same amount of time that you did, while you try to kill them. Definitely an intense combat mode.

Graphics

Nothing really to explain here, they are just awesome. Crisp and colorful graphics allows you to feel even more like you are in the game. God graphics is key to having a successful game. The makers on Unreal Tournament obviously knew this.

Single/Multiplayer option

Single player is a lot of fun, however the true fun is playing against bots that you know people are actually behind. You don’t get the feeling that you are killing a computer. Watch different bots and find how the human behind them thinks. Do they like to hide way up top and kill using a sniper rifle, or do they go all out once finding a rocket launcher. I find that single player is great practice, but don’t feel too proud being the tournament champion. After all, you only beat a computer. Multiplayer also allows you to view your standings in the world, and how you compare to everyone else. It’s much easier to set goals when you know you have to beat real people.

Unreal Tournament has anything and everything to keep you satisfied for hours upon end. If you like shoot-em-up games, this is your only option. All other games just don’t match up. Of course, that is only my opinion…


Recommended: Yes