Unreally good!
Written: May 29 '02 (Updated Jun 27 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great AI, fun levels, awsome graphics, unbeaten for net play.
Cons: Friends/loved ones miss you for several months.
The Bottom Line: Awsome first person shooter, more than compares to team fortress on the internet. Keep you playing it for months to become the best.
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| mr_happy's Full Review: Unreal Tournament for Windows |
Another unreal game, eh? I remember playing a game called 'unreal' three years ago, and to be honest, it was crap. But, its not like me to judge, so I’ll take this game totally on its own merits.
Well, one new feature to note before you even start the game is the video card hardware/driver detection phase to optimise game quality for your machine. Even if you’re a 3D pauper, there’s still software mode.
Thankfully, Epic Games has really pulled out the stops before the release and tested this game into the ground, trying to redress the first person shooter bug syndrome - where the released game needs several patches before it'll work properly.
The first time I ever got to see this game in action, it was at a friends LAN party, where loads of people got together in his attic to play various pc games. I can sum up their first impressions in phases. The 'mmm, this isn't unreal phase 'through to the 'hey this isn't bad' phase. Then starts the blimey, this is bloody good isn't it!' phase blending to the final unadulterated joy phase punctuated with elated shouts and competitive trash talk.
The new and different aspects of Unreal Tournament is obviously the tournaments-style single player game progression where you face an ever escalating scale of AI players across the superb levels in each of the game types. When you finally win the last level of that game type, you get a trophy. When you get four trophies, a new option opens up: challenge. These are 'lightning death matches' where you are squared against the hardest opponents you're ever likely to face, finally coming face-to-face with the grand boss, Xan. Beat him and you can truly call yourself the master of this game.
Before you can get to this, though, you must first complete the other 4 game types,
Deathmatch: The stereotypical game, kill you opponents a set number of times before they kill you. Every time you score a kill, you get a 'frag' in gaming lingo. Every time you are killed 3 times, you lose a frag. The first to the pre-set number wins. A 20 frag limit usually makes for a good game.
Domination: This game style involves players being split into two to four teams. On the map are three 'control stations', the last team to touch that control station gains one point onto their score every five seconds for each control station the 'own'. A control station is taken when another team member touches it. You will keep adding points until one of the teams reaches a pre-set total (usually about 150).
Assault: This style has its own levels and is totally different to any game style I've seen before. It involves a set series of objectives to complete in a faster time than the opponent's team. For example, in one level, you must escape from a castle. This involves you pressing a switch to open the library door, destroying two chains in the library which opens a box which conatins the wheel to open the door. You can then run out to complete your teams side of things. All the time while you're doing this, your enemy will be trying to 'frag' you, and generally hold you up. After you complete the last objective, you change places and your enemy become the attacker while you defend the same objective. Whoever completes the objectives in the fastest time is declared the winner.
Capture the flag: A very common type of game in many first person shooters, you try to take the enemy flag from their 'base' while they try to take your flag from your 'base', when you have the enemy flag, you have to get back to your base to score a point, the first to a set number of points wins.
There is also one other type of game available in multiplayer;
Last man standing: everyone starts off with the same preset number of lives, usually about 10 or 15. Every time you are killed you lose on of these lives and as soon as your last life is lost, you are out of the game. As you may have guessed from the title, the last man standing wins.
Does it work though? is playing against the bots like playing against real people? Well undoubtedly it is, since the bots fooled nearly everyone at the LAN party (including me) into thinking the were humans. It's only afterwards when someone asks 'by the way, who was Archon', cos you killed me loads'. It takes about 5 minutes for anyone to work out that 'hey, Archon was a computer controlled bot!' In fact, some people even thought that some of the humans were actually bots, so the bots were more human than the humans! Scary! This would be an interesting new version of the Turing test were it not for the fact that the bots give themselves away with their effective but repetitive auto-taunts (which anyone can send, but usually in the heat of the game, intulting your enemy isn't the first thing on your mind). It's a lot of fun to play the bots, though, either in a straight deathmatch or teamplay modes.
The AI in the teamplay modes often defies belief. It's hard to tell what's been done by design or by pure chance, but certain elements- like when a bot leader is killed and the bots nominate a new leader- it's quality stuff. The usual tips and tricks to fool bots, such as those free add-ons for Quake 2 just don't work. Try running away from an Unreal tournament bot when he wants to get you...
Similarly, they aren't superhuman. Surprise is your best weapon - just the same as with a real player, if they don't hear you and you're out of their feild of vision, they won't know you're there. Playing capture the flag with a team of bots versus an all-bot team is probably the classiest element of Unreal tournament, I could play it for hours, putting it on auto skill-adjust, so the computer sorts it out for the bots to be almost idential ability of you, ensuring you get a solid, close game with nail-biting action.
Ultimatly, though, Unreal Tournament excels on the internet. This side of the game has been spit-shined beyond all recognition. Unreal tournament produces some supurb statistics including graphs via ngStats. You can even opt to have your stats lobbed on the ngStats global ladder! Hell, if you want to run a server, the administration is looked after via a web interface. In fact, anyone who runs a server on a LAN or the internet is going to love this. The internet/LAN GUI even has a built-in IRC client for chatting to players before the match begins (and after it ends), and sports server browsing off a master list and adds servers on to a favourites tab. Basically, it does everything gamespy does- right out of the box. It's not going to be hard to find a place to play.
One of the most improved features since the first game are the weapons, and none really outway the other vastly. Everyone will have their favourite, and often head straight for it on every level. Probably the best thing I can do is give you a brief description of every weapon.
Enforcer: your basic sidearm. You get 30 shots of this right from the start. It's not to god power-wise, but it's the lightest weapon (so light you can have two)! Secondry fire (right mouse button) utilises 'gangster' style side-carrage firing technique, which is faster but less acurate.
Impact hammer: Another basic weapon and one of two melee weapons in the game. Although this has no range, it is imensly powerful and one hit can usually kill any foe. Secondry fire smashes the weapon down, causing damage to humans scenery and can even deflect shots.
Chainsaw: your average woodcutting device turned nasty. This deadly weapon is the other non-ranged attack, the primary fire thrusts into your hapless foe, while the secondary attack decapitates you enemy instantly. Fantastic if you can get near without being blown apart.
GES biorifle: a most odd weapon, fires green goo at your foe. This weapons main flaw is its oh so low range. The secondry fire jetisons a deadly green glob grenade.
Ripper: a weapon with infinate uses, this unconventional gun fires razor-sharp projectiles, which can easilly decapitate someone if you aim for the neck. The primary fire launches discs which bounce off scenery and around corners, while the secondry fire launches an eplosive projectile with similar power to the rocket launcher (see below)
Flak cannon: My third-favourite weapon, and great at any range: it fires chunks of jagged shrapnel which can bounce around corners with the primary fire, or use the secondry fire to launch a flak 'grenade', which appears to have a smilly face drawn on it. This tends to be the last thing you see before it blows you to bits (unless you're quick).
Rocket launcher: Arguably the best weapon in the game, this is imensly powerful, and can easily kill enemies over medium-long ranges. The primary fire launches a powered rocket which explodes on impact, while the secondry fire launches an un-propelled rocket which bounces around for three seconds, exploding only after the fuse has expired or it comes into contact with organic matter (including you). You can launch up to six rockets at a time, either in a, or a tight circle (to kill one enemy).
Sniper rifle: this is a truly invaluable tool on a map where you have space (like facing worlds), butin enclosed areas, i'd rather run in with the impact hammer. The scope can zoom to varying distances, homing in on distant enemies and the gun fires a high powered bullet, perfect for headshots. The reload time is 5 seconds, and unless you always hit the head first time (which I doubt), you shouldn't use this other than for what the name entails - sniping.
ASDM shock rifle: In my opinion the most underrated weapon in the game, this thing fires blue energy beams with the primary fire that has unlimited range (although the further the oponent is away, the longer the beam will take to reach them and the longer they have to dodge it) while the secondary fire shoots a ball of pure energy. The ball is slower moving, but more damaging. Should you hit primary and secondry fire together, a special, high-powered ball will be launched from the gun. A mutator (thing which alters the game rules) allows for everyone to be equiped with a one-hit one-kill shock rifle.
Redeemer: This thing really can redeem even what seems the most tragic and hopeless of situations. A single shot of this thing can put you ahead of the game where you were at the bottom. In simple terms, this thing launches a nuke. Yes, a nuke. You can fire it and let it go, watching it sail into the distance, blowing up on some far-distant wall along with many hated foe. Alternativly, you can 'steer', changing your view inside the missle, allowing you to control its direction, speed and of course when it blows up. The downsides are that you can 'only' have one at a time, if your enemy is extremely accurate (or lucky), it can be shot down. Also, while controling the missile, you are vunerable where you stood. I like to find a safe high place before letting this thing go.
Sometimes I can find that it's the little touches that define a good game from a great game from an awsome game. The 'little' touches in unreal tournament really does make it an awsome game. For example, you can set your enemy to get progresivly better as you do, so there is never an issue of 'Ha! this game is going to be easy', your enemy will be exactly the same skill as you. There are also 'mutators', or things that will adjust a game slightly (for example low gravity). Some of them are really quite basic, but others are new bits of thinking al together. For example 'fatboy'. When you switch this thing on, should you kill a lot, you get very fat, die a lot and get very thin. It acts as a sort of skill adjust, making good players easier to hit and poor ones harder.
Finally, Unreal Tournament will allow you to check out what I've been raving about without fear of embaressment. The first time you play on the internet, against friends, workmates, or complete strangers, you'll be one lean mean fighting machine having been to bot bootcamp and back. This means that only the most action-loating gamers could justify not picking up this game. Can I have six stars please?
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
mr_happy
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Member: Tim Bashford
Location: Swansea, Wales United Kindom
Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
I have the key to paradise, but i've got too many legs!
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