Introduction
Unreal Tournament 2004 (UT2004) is the much anticipated successor
to Epic Games 2002’s First-Person-Shooter, Unreal Tournament
2003 (or UT2003). This new “tournament” has been surrounded
by hype for many month the demo itself was downloaded by millions
all over the world. The most important question, will this game
bring back the classic Unreal Tournament feel, which many people
said UT2003 lacked?
The Unreal
Tournament
The Unreal franchise first debuted in 1998, its first release
was simply called "Unreal" which was a story-driven
(similar to Quake 2) sci-fi shooter. Epic, in 1999 released a
more multiplayer oriented version with numerous enhancements and
called it the Unreal Tournament. It delivered solid gameplay,
heavy blood and gore, unique maps and weapons and this was the
game which rivaled id Software’s Quake III: Arena. The story
basically began with an annual fight-to-the death tournament hosted
by a group called the Liandri Corporation which they call The
Unreal Tournament. Xan Kriegor was the reigning champion
until the human Malcolm defeated him, the following year in UT2003,
a Juggernaut named Gorge became the champion and this year must
prove that he is a true winner by defending his Unreal championship.
Many newcomers have entered this year’s tournament and many
familiar faces have returned to this tournament to win the championship
in this blood sport.
What’s back, what’s
new and improved?
As mentioned earlier Epic has answered many complaints that people
had about UT2003 such as the lack of voice chat, and responding
to peoples needs by giving them voice chat and even a headset
if you were fortunate enough to get the special edition. In addition
it has taken advantage of the text-to-speech ability which Microsoft
includes in Windows XP and Microsoft Office. This allows the game
to read out what you and other players are saying in-game, although
pronunciation isn’t perfect it still is simpler than reading
text on screen. An interesting gimmick though.
Epic has worked very hard to get the “classic” Unreal
Tournament feel back into the game with many remakes of maps,
old weapons and music. The main menu has been redesigned with
a new option to get community news and download new maps. All
the UT2003 maps are back as well as the weapons; however a few
favorites have been re-skinned such as the Assault Rifle, Link
Gun (which has become very useful in other game types), Shock
Rifle, and Translocator. But for people that love the old look,
you can always revert to the classic skin for your own comfort.
There are new weapons such as the Grenade Launcher, Ion Targeter,
Mine Layer (which lays spider mines!), the AVRiL (Anti-Vehicle
Rocket Launcher) and the return of the deadly Sniper Rifle. All
weapons are unique and serve players well if used wisely.
There are new maps
for all game types, many from the bonus packs which bring it up
to a whopping 95 maps! The new Deathmatch/Team Deathmatch maps
are very solid such as DM-Rankin, DM-Desolation and DM-Metallurgy.
Classic maps from the original UT have been remade such as DM-Morpheus3,
DM-Curse4 and DM-Deck17, which has a sign saying “Deck 16
closed for repair and renovation” which is quite humorous.
These remakes are just as good as or better than the originals
and all recapture that Unreal Tournament feel. There are a few
new maps for Capture the Flag and Domination 2.0 with my personal
favorites being BR-Canyon, BR/CTF-ElecFields and DOM-Aswan. They
all had very creative layouts and are wondefully action packed.
For the new game types, Assault and Onslaught, and the ones from
the UT2003 bonus-packs, Invasion, Mutant and Last Man Standing
which are worthy additions to the tournament. In addition, Assault
and Onslaught include vehicles and turrets which are brand new
to the tournament. These new game types will be discussed later
in the review.
Many familiar characters have returned to this tournament; they
can be used with all the old ones which were in UT2003. Players
can also customize their character’s voices now to best
suit your tastes (i.e. robotic or a Juggernaut). Bot A.I. has
been improved and have had a few bugs worked out. The game has
also received a slew of new options, so many in fact it would
take several pages alone to detail! These are mainly for the UI
and gameplay such as a new game menu when you press esc which
gives u a lot more info than before. The HUD (heads-up-display)
has been changed; it looks more straight-forward and less-decorative
which is similar to the original UT.
Graphics and Game Engine
UT2004’s graphics havent changed they are still of the highly
quality but many of the new maps use more advanced textures than
before. Only addition to the graphics which there is more bullet
decals which were absent in UT2003. Frame rates are consistent
and the game displays a very high level of detail and lighting.
I ran it at 1152x768, 32BPP, and 2XFSAA/16XAF and was running
it at a consistent 60-65 FPS most times. There were occasions
where it dipped into the 30’s (especially on Onslaught and
Assault maps) but I even reached peaks of 105 FPS in a firefight!
For the gamers who have hardware such as an ATI Radeon 9600 Pro
or above, it is highly recommended to crank up the FSAA and Anisotropic
Filtering to really see how amazing the game looks. The game runs
on the Unreal Warfare engine, which was designed
to work on both PC and game consoles. We’ve also seen what
this engine is able to do; rag-doll physics, large scale maps,
stunning details and complex lighting - Splinter Cell: Pandora
Tomorrow and simulation-type gameplay in Rainbow Six 3: Raven
Shield.
This time UT2004 includes a number of ground and air vehicles
such as tanks and space-fighters, and it really shows us how flexible
this engine is. The controls and physics for the vehicles are
excellent, some of the most spectacular explosions I ever seen
in any game. Although the engine is efficient, any overclocking
may cause it to crash due to it being very CPU sensitive and dependent;
I found myself crashing when going up to 2.8 GHz on my Pentium
4 B Northwood or even enabling PAT. Otherwise, running it at high
detail settings and with sufficient cooling (while overclocked)
it has few or no glitches.
Sound and Music
What I really liked about the game was the sound; huge explosions,
bone cracking details and Dolby surround. Creative Audigy cards
will most benefit from the sound in this game due to its full
EAX support and couple that with a 5.1, 6.1 or even 7.1 sound
system, you really won’t know if the players are screaming
“loser!” or “you play like a girl!” at
you or if it’s just in the game. Huge explosions and rapid
fire sounds went all at once, which made the game feel just that
bit more violent. Music was another thing which really pulls you
into this game; many songs were mixed with electronic dance, metal,
trumpet fanfares and even some record-scratching which produced
some excellent and unique musical results. Even the classic songs
such as the main theme of the original UT and the Deck16 music
sounds a lot better and a lot more action packed. In addition,
this is the first game where music actually made me more of an
aggressive player (which never happens). It has some of the best
sound and music in any game, period.
Gameplay and the new Game
Types
All weapons in UT2004 are very unique and this is what has always
been great about the Unreal Tournament series. They all have a
secondary fire mode, which is useful and sometimes even more deadly
than the primary mode when used or in conjunction with the primary
mode. Gameplay is very intense and fast-paced; you cannot stand
in one place and expect to survive. There are a number of power-ups
scattered around the map (i.e. heath packs and adrenaline pills)
which always are of help. A variety of game types (as mentioned
before) are available in UT2004, all the original types from UT2003
(Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Bombing Run, Domination
2.0) are back and few new ones have joined them. These are all
of the new ones as follows:
Assault –
if you have played Assault in the original UT before, you will
definitely know what it is about. If you haven’t played
it, the basic low-down of this game type is that one team takes
the role of the defender and the other the attacker. Many of the
maps re-create famous or infamous scenarios in the Unreal universe.
The defenders must prevent the attackers from getting inside (or
by) their base, the attackers have a number of objectives to complete
to gain access to the goal (such as destroying a core or stealing
cargo) and roles of the defender and attacker are switched at
the end of the round. The Assault type has really been kicked
up a number of notches in UT2004; for starters a map briefing
is given before each map (single-player only), objectives are
announced by a narrator and there are more objectives which have
for more variety than before. The team to achieve victory fastest
is the winner.
Onslaught –
both teams must take over a number of “nodes” in a
connect-the-dots fashion on the map. They must conquer the correct
nodes so that the enemy’s generator is isolated and has
no power, once that is done they must destroy the generator to
achieve victory. There are a number of vehicles which can be used
in this mode which makes this one of the most played modes in
the game.
Last Man Standing – survival of the fittest
best suits this game type, no power-ups, just to see who can last
the longest in this match.
Mutant –
the person to draw first-blood becomes the mutant in the match,
they are given additional abilities and powers as an advantage
but their health decreases slowly. Everyone hunts the mutant and
the one who kills him becomes the mutant. The one who has the
lowest score becomes to bottom-feeder allowing them to frag others
to gain points and eventually leave the status of bottom-feeder.
Invasion –
you and your team work together to survive increasing rushes of
monsters, all monsters must be defeated to advance. If you are
killed, you must wait until the end of the round to respawn. Defeat
all the rushes to become to the winner.
There are a lot of game types and
a lot to do, which adds to the re-playability of this game. All
these gametypes are all available in both single player and multiplayer,
so it’s fun online or offline.
UT2004 also introduces the use of vehicles in their Assault and
Onslaught gametypes. Many of the vehicles have characteristics
which make them similar to vehicles in other games (i.e. Rogue
Squadron and Halo) and some have some hidden surprises like the
Scorpion. The Scorpion looks like a 1 person Halo Warthog, it
shoots a string of plasma cores which sticks enemies to the ground
and has 2 hidden blades which look like wings so you can slice
up your victim. The Skaarj Spacefighter acts very much like an
X-Wing and is very useful in taking down enemies. There are a
number of vehicles which prove useful in different ways.
Multiplayer has changed very little; there is now a new game filter
option for when you are searching for games and a few more advanced
options, but otherwise gameplay has remained intact. Single player
is similar to how it was, but instead you must earn credits to
draft or hire players or to advance to better matches. You can
win credits by more killing-sprees, multi-kills, tricks and other
various things and use these credits for the ultimate roster.
It offers matches in all maps and game types and is great for
any player, experienced or new to practice here.
Game value
This year is turning up to be a great one in gaming, many great
games have been or yet to be released. Epic was very smart to
charge only $39.99 USD for this game or its special edition (which
is near impossible to find) which makes it a very convincing purchase.
It includes everything from UT2003 and a heck of a lot of new
content. The special edition includes a special headset, 1 game
DVD and a bonus DVD (which I was unable to get my hands on). As
a friend said, “this game is going like hotcakes!”
Summary & Conclusion
Epic Games has been hard at work on the game with lots of care
and has listened to the community, watched what work community
has done and used it in their product. In addition, they are selling
the product at a bargain price at which many games of this quantity
are rarely sold at and make it a competitive purchase with such
other games as Battlefield: Vietnam. More games should be like
UT2004 in terms of quality, quantity and value. Its delay was
well worth the wait. Everyone should go purchase this game; scrape
up money wherever you can from (a friend, behind the couch or
even your mother!) because it is worth every Dollar, Euro, Pound,
Yen (or whatever your currency is) and will not disappoint you.
Pros
- Lots of variety and re-playability
- Stunning graphics and sound
- Takes full advantage of all hardware
- Improved almost everything it lacked
- Unbeatable value (especially for special edition)
- Original UT feel is definitely back
Cons
- net code isn’t all that great (latency problems at times)
- long and hefty install (5.5 GB)
- inconvenient 6 CD version
Score
Gameplay – 9.5/10
Graphics – 9.4/10
Sound – 9.0/10
Originality – 9.1/10
Fun Factor – 9.7/10
Value – 10/10
Final Score: 9.5/10
Test System
Pentium 4 “B” 2.66GHz (533 MHz Front-Side Bus)
MSI 865PE Neo2-LS Motherboard
512MB Samsung DDR 400
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro (Running Omega 4.3 drivers)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2
Creative Inspire 5.1 5300 Speakers
80 GB Western Digital Caviar Hard Drive
40 GB Maxtor DiamondMax Hard Drive
