UNREAL TOURNAMENT Review I - Part 1

As a learned philosopher once said, “I frag, therefore I am.” This pearl of wisdom is as true today as it was in ancient Greece. Unreal Tournament has several game modes. Deathmatch is a straightforward race to reach a set number of frags, Team Deathmatch is the same idea but the players are split into two to four teams, Capture the Flag is a competition to capture the enemy team’s flag whilst defending your own base and flag, and in Domination your team protects a number of bases in the level and the more bases that are your team colour, the faster you reach the target score.

In the one-player game, you work your way through a series of Deathmatch, Capture the Flag and Domination levels. The levels get progressively harder, due to the increasing skill of the bots (computer players). Multi-player mode offers split screen slaughter for 2-4 players with the option of adding bots to the game as well. So that’s the game, but what about the weapons? This is what sets Unreal Tournament ahead of the rest. There are no less than 12 different weapons; chainsaw, impact hammer, handgun, bio-sludge cannon, shock rifle, plasma rifle, the ripper, machine guns, flak cannon, rocket launcher, sniper rifle and the Redeemer, an enormous cannon that fires a short-range nuclear missile that you can guide around the level yourself!

When you fire it, the view changes to the missile’s perspective and you can steer it towards your target. Ah yes, there is nothing more satisfying than homing in on your opponent and seeing their face as the missile hits it and then explodes! Well, of course zooming in on someone and getting a Head Shot is also very satisfying, because their head goes flying off as you watch their body slump to the floor. And now that you mention it, firing a volley of rockets and watching someone explode in a shower of fleshy chunks and blood that splatters the floor and walls nearby also puts a big grin on your face!!

UNREAL TOURNAMENT Review I - Part 2

And don’t forget your personal translocator – this fires a disc that you can leave somewhere in the level and then teleport to at any time. However, if you fire it at an enemy and beam to it when they are stood right over it, you will teleport onto them, fragging them instantly - hard to pull off, but highly satisfying when it works.

Yes, the killing never lets up! Where the weapons really come into their own is that each weapon has a primary and secondary function. For example, the rocket launcher can fire rockets or timed grenades and the flak cannon can fire either a shower of molten metal shards or a medium range grenade that explodes on impact. This effectively doubles the number of weapons available and gives you an incredible arsenal of destruction. All of the 50+ levels look stunning and the layouts are varied and imaginative, with clever placement of weapons, ammo and power-ups, such as health and armour boosters, invisibility and the damage amplifier.

There are a couple of things that stop this being the classic it was on the PC – the Assault mode is missing, an excellent set of team missions, such as capturing or defending a fortress. There is slowdown on the multi-player mode and it can be tricky to see what is happening when the screen is split into four parts. In the PC version you can have up to 32 bots in any level, in this version you are limited to 1-5 dependent on the level you select.

Worst of all, the controls are not user-definable and none of the preset configurations gives you easy access to both fire buttons and the jump button together, making it hard to play as well as you did on the PC version (unless you have that handy keyboard and mouse). This game is brilliantly conceived, well designed, looks awesome and plays wonderfully – whether you are an FPS veteran or yet to discover the joy of killing, Unreal Tournament deserves a place in your collection.