bossman52's Full Review: Unreal Tournament for Dreamcast
Matt is not a 3rd generation gamer, but he has strong opinions about his video games.
Excellent game, but it's too easy. If you don't have a lot of friends to play against this game doesn't have a lot of replay value.
I think the title of this game is very appropriate. It is meant to be a tournament type multi-player and that is about it.
Single Player Value
The most disspointing part of this game is that the single player mode is so WEAK. I was able to be the Skilled Level tournament the second time I played it. I beat the whole tournament in about 2 hours. I was never killed more than 7 times. Even against 5 other enemies. But the God-Like level is VERY hard. I suppose the wide range of skills levels are alright, but when I think of skilled I think of something a little harder.
Besides the tournament being easy, I was only able to unlock the Domination round. This wouldn't have been so bad, but I clearly dominated this also. I am not the type of guy that sits around and plays games all day, and I would say that I'm descent, but not great. I have a lot of Bond experience though, and this must have given me a clear advantage. In Domination Mode, Round 2 I had 86 Kills, and I died 0 times.
Anyway, I obviously need to put the game on a harder mode, but I expected it to get hard fast and it didn't. Either way the single player action is not very good, even if the harder levels are REAL hard.
Artificial Intelligence
As I said before, the game is too easy. The Bots in this game do not pose any challenge whatsoever. They are not elusive, and they are slow to turn around to shoot. Basically you run around targetting brainless zombies that sometimes fire back. If they are equipped with a strong weapon they might even make a kill, but this game is not at all like Quake III in which the Bots are Hunters and it's your job to be the Hunted. In the harder skill levels they do kill you, but again it's all about who finds who the fastest and nothing really else.
The Goods of the Game
Multi-Player
This game's obvious reason for even being created is to kill all of your friends in the bloodiest fashion possible. The graphics are intense, and the game pace is very fast. Two friends and I were able to rack up about 15 kills each in 10 minutes. Unlike Bond in which 15 kills takes quite a while.
The reason I compare First Person shooter games to N64 Bond is because I think it is a good standard. It has all the makings of what might be a real-life shoot-em-up.
First Person Shooter Standards
Some sort of skill required. In Bond, you'd could really "sniper" people. It actually took some sort of skill to aim and kill. It wasn't a button mashing fest.
It also had massive levels in which you could really hide and strategize.
Bond had a wide variety of weapons. Everything from 30 shots per second to one shot per second. And the weapons all had varying levels of power.
Bond also offered a wide variety of characters that actually varied in size and speed.
These are all important facets of making a First Person Shooter more interesting.
What Unreal Does and Doesn't Have
Unreal has good sized levels. There isn't a lot of hiding/strategizing ability, but it isn't a roller rink of whoever catches who wins.
Unreal has a variety of characters. There is a wide variety of characters and colors, but I have NOT noticed ANY difference between them. In fact they are called skins and I think this is appropriate.
Unreal has a wide variety of weapons. There is a wide variety of weapons, but again they are not that varying. For instance, Turok has by far the most wide ranging weapons. And they were all unique. They didn't just vary in shot speed, they were like Bows versus the Cerebral Drill.
Unreal offers a little skill to shoot.The controls are descent, but somewhat unrefined. You go to aim at someone far away, and you barely hit the joy stick, it moves WAY too far. I really don't think that this is the point of this game at all though. It's all about the mass death. Which I suppose is cool in it's own way.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Unreal is good. The motion is smooth and the graphics are excellent. Not only are the graphics creative, but they are also crisp. You can easily tell the difference in the characters even far away. My major problem with the gameplay is the accuracy of the controls. Other players are not hard to hit, but they true aiming from a distance is HARD to do.
The AI is pretty descent, but the Bots do react somewhat slowly. And when you see them jump, it's kinda.. well retarded. They jump straight up, and they really stay standing completely straight.
The other thing is that this game makes me sick! Litterally! I'm very sensitive to motion sickness. After an hour or two of play I was just about to heave. I'm not sure if it's the refresh rate of the game, or the quickness of the movement, but it really gave me a lasting headache.
Audio/Sound Effects
The Audio on this game is good, but there is virtually no music. I really enjoy listening to Heavy Metal while I'm destroying evil scum. But this is not available to me in Unreal, or at least not that I see. On the other hand the sound affects are real cool. The guys up in the corner say things like, "Medic!" and "Boom!" And I love the Observer who says things like, "Unstoppable!" and "God-Like!" Ha! I got God-Like after 86 kills and no deaths.
Control
As I said before the controls are not very accurate as far as the analog goes. Movement is not smooth when aiming, although they are as far as general movement is concerned. It's just hard to get a good "sniper" shot on someone. The controls are customizable, which is always nice, but in all honesty Unreal's default control style is VERY easy to learn.
In fact something I thought was very intuitive is the ability to shoot your "secondary" weapon by pressing the up arrow on the "D-Pad." This is much easier than clicking the L1 or Shoulder buttons to switch weapons. It is just not effective whenever you are in the heat of battle.
It does offer the somewhat standard "walk left" and "walk right" buttons, which are easy to get used to. I really think this is a must in first person games as far as strategy goes.
There is a jump button also, which I don't particularly like because it's easy to dodge bullets this way since you can jump SO high. Possibly the jump should be a little shorter.
Load Times
Load times are very good for a game with such good 3D Graphics. They are not BLAZING, but I didn't wait more than 30 seconds for the game to load. (I didn't time it, but you get the picture).
Interface
Man, I just put this here because others do, so I will rant again that I don't care about the interface. If I can get to the game in a few buttons that's all that matters to me. Oh yeah, and I really get annoyed with long drawn out story lines that aren't RPGs. Unreal doesn't have these, but it does offer a Slow Loading Motion Sickening 3D ride to the Trophy Case once you have beaten a "ladder."
Note: The Unreal Tournament is litterally tournament style in every aspect of the game. They use ladders in which you "climb" gradually getting to harder and harder Player/Teams. These ladders are gradually "unlocked" as you achieve higher levels of greatness.
Extras
I always like the challenge of unlocking levels and characters, and I suppose Unreal offers this, but to me it's just not as cool as Spiderman in Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3. You just can't beat that.
Unreal offers new level unlocks, trophies, and that's about it. Kinda boring, but I suppose that's why they are called "Extras." They are getting to be somewhat expected though.
Overall
Graphics: 9.5
Audio: 7 - No music?
Control: 8 - Just needs help with Aiming
Gameplay: 9 - I did get sick.
Unreal Tournament for Sega Dreamcast - Factory Sealed! Factory Sealed! If you're concerned about the condition of this factory sealed copy then please...More at eBay
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