Action_Snark's Full Review: Unreal Tournament 2003 for Windows, Mac
Wait, this is made by Atari?! Yup, that's right. The company that brought you pixelated gorillas hurling barrels has grown up into an angsty Gen-X teen with an attitude.
A cooperative offering between Digital Extremes, Epic Games, and Atari, Unreal Tournament 2003 (or simply UT2k3) is the latest evolution of the UT series. Changes and tweaks have been made to gameplay from the origional UT, some for the better, some for the worse. Anyway, read on for the Patented Action Snark Rundown of Unreal Tournament 2003.
Plot: Wait, hold the phone, there's a plot? It must have been added in a patch I haven't downloaded or something. The only thing resembling a 'plot' that I've stumbled across in this game was a little blurb in the manual about futuristic bloodsport and an alien empire conquering humanity and sending dissidents to the gib strewn battlefields of The Arena. Oh, wait, silly me, that is the plot. Um, no plot here folks, keep moving. Er, yeah, basically, the concept of 'plot' is foreign to this game. UT2k3 is a twitch FPS at it's finest, so plot isn't even a consideration here. Ergo, I will refrain from rating UT2k3 on it's plot merits (or lack thereof) simply because plot doesn't even enter into the equation. Anyway, moving right along....
Graphics and sound: Ok, here's where UT2k3 delivers in spades. Massive polygon counts in characters, lush maps, weapon and environmental effects that will leave you needing new boxers are the order of the day here. Pretty much every aspect of this game is insanely beautiful and lushly deatailed. BSP based terrain and brush-geomety based structures are the meat and potatoes here.
The engine is very impressive, rendering both indoor and outdoor environments fluidly. Characters are a sight to behold, with huge poly counts, and very smooth and fluid animation. Weapon effects are also top notch, with things getting very chaotic when those pretty rockets start sizzling toward your face, leaving beautiful volumetric smoke trails, and blasting you into a lovely pile of particles and gibs.
Sound is adequate to the task. Sound ingame is limited to the sizzling and whooshing of projectiles, gunfire, and explosions, punctuated by characters roaring taunts and insults in bull-like voices. Sound effects are well done, though nothing to make you fill your trousers. The only gripe about sound I have is the annoying announcer that pops in every few seconds to give updates on the game status. In keeping with the 'sports' flavor Epic is trying to get across with UT2k3, the announcer sounds more like someone who should be doing color at JV football games, rather than someone updating a bloodlust filled crowd about which human juggernaut just vaporized his/her target.
Music is also adequate to it's task, but little more. Soaring martial scores are the order of the day in UT2k3. While there is nothing wrong with the score in the game, I found myself muting it in favor of some KMFDM or Saliva on winamp.
Overall, I'll give graphics and sound a 9 out of 10. Graphics are really top notch, and sound is acceptable, adding to the atmosphere that the graphics lend to the game. My only gripe is the massive resources the game eats when running. Even the almighty GeForce4 that I'm packing was strained to the breaking point and beyond to run this game in the higher detail modes. However, I won't complain, as there is always a price to be paid for gratuitious eye-candy.
Gameplay: Taking a cue from Quake III: Arena and Tribes 2, gameplay in UT2k3 is limited to purely multi-player enviornments. There are no single-player 'campaign' style missions. Single-player is limited to ladder-type matches in various modes. Again, Epic takes a stab at converting UT to a 'sports' franchise. After completing a standard deathmatch ladder, the player then moves on to other, team-based modes against bots. As the 'season' progresses, the player is allowed to recruit bots for their team, and even offered trades for other players.
Single player is really a passing notion, the real meat-and-taters of this game lies on the vast battlefields of the internet. To truly enjoy UT2k3, one must fire up their broadband connection, load up their flak cannon, and dish out some multiplayer love.
Multiplayer is very well done, with games being utterly insane. Adrenaline and a quick trigger finger are your only friends in UT2k3. Following the old adage of 'diffrent strokes for diffrent folks', Epic offers various modes of multiplayer mayhem for intrepid fraggers to try their hands at. Standard Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag modes are included in the offerings, with some modes that offer a few twists on those themes.
Double Domination and Bombing Run are the two modes of play that differ somewhat from the formula defined by Q3 and Tribes 2 for multiplay. Double Domination pits two teams against each other in an arena with two 'domination points'. If a team captures and holds both points for an alloted amount of time, they score. Double Dom is a rather interesting take on attack-and-defend scenarios, and is a nice break from DM/CTF games.
Bombing Run plays very much like a cross between rugby and the firefight sequences in Blackhawk Down. Basically, each team vies for a ball located in the center of the arena. Grab the ball, and schlep it to your opponant's goal as quickly as you can. Of course, your opponants will do their level best to turn your teams ballcarrier into a fine red mist, so that they can obtain the ball and score. Bombing run is pretty similar to a center-flag ctf game, but it strips the ballcarrier of weapons, and allows the ball to be passed to teammates.
Overall, I was quite impressed by the various gameplay modes. There's a little something for everybody in this game, you just have to try your hand at different styles and modes of play until you find something that suits your tastes. There are a few aspects of Bombing Run, CTF, and Double Dom that reward teamplay, and I really like that. I feel that a heavier emphasis could have been placed on cooperation, but really, at it's heart, UT2k3 is about individual skill.
A word on weapons:
Weaponry in UT2k3 is a mixture of old and new. I'm not hugely experienced with the origional UT, but I do like the balance and weapon sets in UT2k3.
The old FPS standbys are here for all those who want em. Machineguns, rocket launchers, and chainguns and a lightning -spewing sniper rifle are included, so most Q3 people will feel right at home with most of the weapons in UT2k3. The flak cannon is basically a shotgun on steroids, and the bio-rifle is pretty much another machinegun.
While the old stand-by weapons are there, some really innovative weapons can be found in UT2k3. There is a 'shock rifle', which fires orbs of plasma that can be detonated with a second shot, and immolate enemies in a maelstrom of energy.
The Translocator, a perennial UT favorite makes it's return as well. The aforementioned sniper rifle is also fairly standard for FPS games these days, though this one does do a nice job of balancing out gameplay, as it fires a huge arc of electrcity that tells opponants precisely where the sniper is hiding. This cuts down a lot on people camping and merrily picking off opponants without a chance for retaliation.
My highest praise for weapons innovation in UT2k3 goes to the 'link gun', a plasma rifle with a very useful secondary fire mode. When two players with link guns 'link up' via one painting the other with the weapon's secondary fire, the player on the recieving end of the link gains a huge damage advantage. Up to three people can be linked, and the 'shooter' in the link chain will gain a 5x damage bonus when linked with two other players. (A shooter with one other player linked gets a 3x damage bonus.) Needless to say, this gun provides a great reward for teamwork, and forms the foundation for some truly excellent and fun tactics.
Everyone's favorite (or loathed, depending on who you ask) mini-nuke is back as well. The Redeemer is a single-shot weapon that fires a large missile, tipped with, yup, you guessed it, a tiny nuclear warhead. The redeemer can be guided, and is a source of huge kills and lots of cursing. Trust me, nothing ruins your day like seeing a six-foot long missile impact in the midst of 4 of your comrades, and annihilating them in an orgasmic pulse of energy.
Not content to just allow you to drop nukes on your opposition, Epic has also added the 'ion painter' weapon to the game as well. The Ion Painter is only avalible on certain maps, and using it will allow you to call down a massive energy bombardment from an orbital weapons platform hovering high above the map.
Overall, I'm going to give gameplay an 8 out of 10. It's pretty much all twitch skills here folks. The sheer speed of this game takes some getting used to however. When making the transition from Counter-Strike to UT2k3, I was shocked at the raw speed of combat. Players will be hopping and dodging like a supercharged mongoose on methamphetamines, all while hurling flechettes, rockets, and plasma bolts at everything that crosses their path. The twitch nature of gameplay is a big turnoff to a lot of people, but the sheer joy of play once you get the hang of it more than outweighs the pain of the steep learning curve. Also, some rather oddball features have been implemented, I suppose to further Epic's goals of trying to make UT2k3 into a 'sports game' franchise. There is an 'adrenaline' counter for your character, which increases as you get kills or pick up oversized capsules strewn about the map. Max out the adrenaline meter, and combine it with a specifice keystroke combanation, and your character gains a massive powerup for a limited period of time. I found it rather odd to be doing button combos in a FPS game.
Overall: UT2k3 gets a big, fat Snark Seal of Approval. Gameplay is one-dimensional, and cooperation with teammates is totally optional, but dangit, this game is fun. I wholeheartedly recommend this game to anybody looking for a gaming experience to get their blood pumping and their twitch skills in action. However, there is a big caveat to that: You need a leviathan of a system to get the full benefits out of this game. Unless your system is packing a GeForce4 or a new generation Radeon, along with at least 384 mb of ram, (Trust me. UT2k3 will eat 256 mb on it's own with no problem, and windows XP/2000 tend to chew up 100 mb +), and a 1ghz plus Athlon or Pentium 4, this game will turn into a very pretty slideshow when things get truly hairy. Combine that with the gargantuan 3gb install size, and it's fairly plain that a PC with plenty of power and storage is needed to get UT2k3 off the ground. Nonetheless, if you have a lust for blood, $40 burning a hole in your pocket, and a beast of a PC, UT2k3 is a very good place to spend your gaming dollar.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.