Neophyte
17th November 2007, 00:38
UT3 is the fourth instalment of Epic Games Unreal Tournament Series, how does it live up to the other fantastic releases we are seeing at the moment though. Most people have never forgiven me for slating UT200x the way I did, and when you think this game is going up against Team Fortress 2, Crysis, Cod4, all games that are extremely good, then you appreciate the work this title has to do to become established. Does it succeed? The answer is yes.
Graphically this game is awesome, even the backdrops include fully rendered buildings and the attention to detail is second to none. Move up close and the textures become clearer, more crisp and reveal even more intense detail. The good news is, though a high end PC helps, this game will run quite happily on lesser systems thus appealing to the broader masses. The maps seem very well thought out too, the emphasis this time around is more on fun as opposed to Pro, though there is a good selection of both. My only concern is the lack of CTF maps, the ones included are pretty, and well laid out and in the case of CTF-Vertebrae, doing something different. As well as the standard remakes of Deck, Coret and Hydro etc, a lot of the other maps resemble maps from previous titles whilst being different enough to be classed as their own map, OmnicronDawn for example is similar in many ways to Face, Deimos to Hyperblast and so forth, in fact OmnicronDawn is quite possibly the best CTF map to come out of Epic Games in a long time.
Gameplay wise Epic have taken all the best things from UT and UT200x and merged them together in one superb playable mass, this game is fun, on similar levels to Team Fortress 2. The weapons are balanced and players conversant with previous titles will feel instantly at home with this game. Gone is the lightning gun and minigun, and back is the stinger. The armour system has also been revamped, with a more UT feel. All the floaty double dodges have been removed though you can still wall dodge and double jump, A useful feature of the double jump is it makes the jump boots easier to use, having to double jump to use them.
The biggest disappointment of this game comes in the form of the User Interface, it’s simply horrible, however Epic have said they will be fixing this in a patch so I shall not go over that too much.
The single player mode has also had a revamp, in order to unlock all the characters you must beat them in the Campaign. One nice feature of the single player is you can play it over a lan, and work through it with a friend, which isn’t a bad idea as I found the bots a pain to play with, especially in Warfare maps. The bots are actually quite intelligent; they heal their vehicles for example but seem incapable of getting out of their vehicles to activate a control node for example. Annoyingly I lost one of the Warfare maps due to a Leviathon being camped over an uncontrolled node, and the bot refusing to move off it which left the game in a stalemate...I kept praying for the other team to blow his vehicle up, but they never managed it.
Deathmatch is as awesome as ever, for 1v1 specialists there is the new dual mode, and for teams there is the Team deathmatch variation, maps are well laid out overall though I’m not sure why there is a darkwalker on DM-Heatray, seems easy to take out though if you know what you doing. Deimos has provided me with hours of endless fun online, I doubt it will be ever used competitively but it’s one of the shining points of the game. The amount of maps available is vast, ranging from the weird to the downright brilliant. A mutator to switch vehicles off though would have been a good idea, same goes for CTF.
Capture the Flag comes in two varieties, Vehicle CTF and normal CTF. I must admit I am still getting used to the concept of vehicles in CTF, being a bit of a purist, but it really works. All the maps are well laid out, nothing graphically wrong with them and seem well balanced. The hoverboard is a great idea, lets you get to the action quickly without unbalancing the gameplay. Vertebrae is interesting, I really cant begin to describe how huge this map actually is, and its vertical...you go all the way down then all the way back up to the enemy flag which is placed mere metres from your own. The only downside is the lack of pure CTF maps, I realise it will not be long before people start ripping vehicles out of vCTF maps to bump these up, but the ones you get are flawless. The translocator replaces the hoverboard in pure CTF maps.
Warfare is the new addition, it’s very like Onslaught was, the one shining beacon in ut2004 for me. The difference this time around is each team has an orb, which can be used to power up and take nodes instantly, The hoverboard is present again and quite a few of the maps have random jumps aimed at providing a tony hawkes style element to the game.
Multiplayer is excellent , and is the part of the game most people will be interested in, gone are the frustrations of ut2004, whereby the player with the best movement dominated the game. This time around it’s all about the fragging. UT3 has gone back to it’s roots. Playability in the full game is even better than in the demo, and it looks and performs better as well. The only thing I really missed comes from TF2, it would be nice to have a nemesis but I’m quite sure someone will mod this anyway. Multiplayer will probably appeal more to those from a UT background as opposes to a UT2004 one.
So what makes this game different from other new games, the biggest difference is creativity, Epic have dared to be different in terms of design and pulled it off. Out of the four releases mentioned I have found this to be even more fun than TF2, a game I have been addicted too of late. If you are looking for a single player romp, then sadly COD2 and Crysis pull this off so much better. I get the feeling from UT3 it will eventually be a massive hit, it has a lot going for it...but I feel initially it will be a slow start, I’ve found a lot of gamers just don’t seem to be getting excited about it, I can only put this down to lack of marketing. People know COD4 is out, they know about orangebox, however ask the average gamer when UT3 is out and you just get “2 weeks?”
Summing up, this is a very worthy title, more than capable of fighting it out amongst the other titles coming out, after a year of nothing special being released we are now spoilt for choice, I find myself at the moment playing UT3, then some TF2, a blast of COD4 then back to UT3. If I was to chose between any of them it would probably be UT3, not because it’s better than the others, I just find it more fun to play.
Onto the scores:
Graphics 10 out of 10:
Very detailed but clear, this game looks gorgeous and certainly on my system I can see players against the arena, something I never could in ut2004, they just seemed to blend in. A lot of time has gone into the maps. For lower systems I found it essential to switch off bloom, whilst it looks all pretty it just gets in the way at times.
Game play 9.5 out of 10:
Pick up a weapon, and frag. Even the novice can score points. The team games work well and Warfare makes the game slightly tactical.
Single player 8 out of 10:
It’s enjoyable and serves well as a tutorial, the bonus of unlocking characters makes it worthwhile, the bots overall are very clever and smart. Occasionally they do silly things but I’ve seen dumber human opponents than them.
Interface unscored:
I am going to reserve judgement on this until it is patched. There are serious problems with it but thankfully Epic are listening and have stated they are fixing it, if only other developers could take a leaf out of their book and listen.
Overall 9.5 out of 10:
A very fun and solid game.
Graphically this game is awesome, even the backdrops include fully rendered buildings and the attention to detail is second to none. Move up close and the textures become clearer, more crisp and reveal even more intense detail. The good news is, though a high end PC helps, this game will run quite happily on lesser systems thus appealing to the broader masses. The maps seem very well thought out too, the emphasis this time around is more on fun as opposed to Pro, though there is a good selection of both. My only concern is the lack of CTF maps, the ones included are pretty, and well laid out and in the case of CTF-Vertebrae, doing something different. As well as the standard remakes of Deck, Coret and Hydro etc, a lot of the other maps resemble maps from previous titles whilst being different enough to be classed as their own map, OmnicronDawn for example is similar in many ways to Face, Deimos to Hyperblast and so forth, in fact OmnicronDawn is quite possibly the best CTF map to come out of Epic Games in a long time.
Gameplay wise Epic have taken all the best things from UT and UT200x and merged them together in one superb playable mass, this game is fun, on similar levels to Team Fortress 2. The weapons are balanced and players conversant with previous titles will feel instantly at home with this game. Gone is the lightning gun and minigun, and back is the stinger. The armour system has also been revamped, with a more UT feel. All the floaty double dodges have been removed though you can still wall dodge and double jump, A useful feature of the double jump is it makes the jump boots easier to use, having to double jump to use them.
The biggest disappointment of this game comes in the form of the User Interface, it’s simply horrible, however Epic have said they will be fixing this in a patch so I shall not go over that too much.
The single player mode has also had a revamp, in order to unlock all the characters you must beat them in the Campaign. One nice feature of the single player is you can play it over a lan, and work through it with a friend, which isn’t a bad idea as I found the bots a pain to play with, especially in Warfare maps. The bots are actually quite intelligent; they heal their vehicles for example but seem incapable of getting out of their vehicles to activate a control node for example. Annoyingly I lost one of the Warfare maps due to a Leviathon being camped over an uncontrolled node, and the bot refusing to move off it which left the game in a stalemate...I kept praying for the other team to blow his vehicle up, but they never managed it.
Deathmatch is as awesome as ever, for 1v1 specialists there is the new dual mode, and for teams there is the Team deathmatch variation, maps are well laid out overall though I’m not sure why there is a darkwalker on DM-Heatray, seems easy to take out though if you know what you doing. Deimos has provided me with hours of endless fun online, I doubt it will be ever used competitively but it’s one of the shining points of the game. The amount of maps available is vast, ranging from the weird to the downright brilliant. A mutator to switch vehicles off though would have been a good idea, same goes for CTF.
Capture the Flag comes in two varieties, Vehicle CTF and normal CTF. I must admit I am still getting used to the concept of vehicles in CTF, being a bit of a purist, but it really works. All the maps are well laid out, nothing graphically wrong with them and seem well balanced. The hoverboard is a great idea, lets you get to the action quickly without unbalancing the gameplay. Vertebrae is interesting, I really cant begin to describe how huge this map actually is, and its vertical...you go all the way down then all the way back up to the enemy flag which is placed mere metres from your own. The only downside is the lack of pure CTF maps, I realise it will not be long before people start ripping vehicles out of vCTF maps to bump these up, but the ones you get are flawless. The translocator replaces the hoverboard in pure CTF maps.
Warfare is the new addition, it’s very like Onslaught was, the one shining beacon in ut2004 for me. The difference this time around is each team has an orb, which can be used to power up and take nodes instantly, The hoverboard is present again and quite a few of the maps have random jumps aimed at providing a tony hawkes style element to the game.
Multiplayer is excellent , and is the part of the game most people will be interested in, gone are the frustrations of ut2004, whereby the player with the best movement dominated the game. This time around it’s all about the fragging. UT3 has gone back to it’s roots. Playability in the full game is even better than in the demo, and it looks and performs better as well. The only thing I really missed comes from TF2, it would be nice to have a nemesis but I’m quite sure someone will mod this anyway. Multiplayer will probably appeal more to those from a UT background as opposes to a UT2004 one.
So what makes this game different from other new games, the biggest difference is creativity, Epic have dared to be different in terms of design and pulled it off. Out of the four releases mentioned I have found this to be even more fun than TF2, a game I have been addicted too of late. If you are looking for a single player romp, then sadly COD2 and Crysis pull this off so much better. I get the feeling from UT3 it will eventually be a massive hit, it has a lot going for it...but I feel initially it will be a slow start, I’ve found a lot of gamers just don’t seem to be getting excited about it, I can only put this down to lack of marketing. People know COD4 is out, they know about orangebox, however ask the average gamer when UT3 is out and you just get “2 weeks?”
Summing up, this is a very worthy title, more than capable of fighting it out amongst the other titles coming out, after a year of nothing special being released we are now spoilt for choice, I find myself at the moment playing UT3, then some TF2, a blast of COD4 then back to UT3. If I was to chose between any of them it would probably be UT3, not because it’s better than the others, I just find it more fun to play.
Onto the scores:
Graphics 10 out of 10:
Very detailed but clear, this game looks gorgeous and certainly on my system I can see players against the arena, something I never could in ut2004, they just seemed to blend in. A lot of time has gone into the maps. For lower systems I found it essential to switch off bloom, whilst it looks all pretty it just gets in the way at times.
Game play 9.5 out of 10:
Pick up a weapon, and frag. Even the novice can score points. The team games work well and Warfare makes the game slightly tactical.
Single player 8 out of 10:
It’s enjoyable and serves well as a tutorial, the bonus of unlocking characters makes it worthwhile, the bots overall are very clever and smart. Occasionally they do silly things but I’ve seen dumber human opponents than them.
Interface unscored:
I am going to reserve judgement on this until it is patched. There are serious problems with it but thankfully Epic are listening and have stated they are fixing it, if only other developers could take a leaf out of their book and listen.
Overall 9.5 out of 10:
A very fun and solid game.