An Unreal Experience

I haven’t been an Unreal fan for that long. My first Unreal game was Unreal Tournament 2003 for the PC back in 2002. This was only a year after I jumped into PC gaming, and boy was I amazed at what I saw when I purchased this now-buried game. The lush environments, the pixel-perfect character models, and the amazing array of weapons put all console shooters to shame. I jumped into the Unreal world for a few reasons, but the biggest one was because of what my colleagues said.

Now, with the release of UT 2004, the predecessor has been swept under the carpet by Epic and Atari because it just never hit it big with the fans. Assault mode was removed and nothing spectacular was added in order to fill this void. The weapons didn’t show any revolutionary step, and they were even considered a step back. The biggest thing the game had going for it was its ohh-so sweet graphics engine.

Enough with my ridiculous pondering about the previous Tournament. UT 2004 is where Epic has hit the sweet spot with the Tournament side of the Unreal franchise (the other half, known as simply “Unreal 1+2” are simple story based first person shooters). The basic premise of the game hasn’t changed; you still duke it out with an opposing team in various objective based modes such as Deathmatch, Double Domination, and the biggest thing since sliced bread, Onslaught. The learning curve here is zero to none. Choose your mode, your character, and pick up some weapons, and you are ready to go.

If you haven’t played through a UT game before, here’s a simple rundown of the modes:

Deathmatch: A free for all mode where everyone is the bait…. And everyone is the fisherman. The player with the most frags (READ= kills) wins after a certain amount of time/kill limit.

Team Deathmatch: The same basic premise of Deathmatch, except you are now on a team and have to face an opposing team. Kill kill kill is the soup of the day.

Capture the Flag: 2 teams face off against one another in a common goal of stealing the other’s base flag and returning it to their respective home base.

Double Domination: An interesting mode where two teams face off and have to gain control of two capture points on the map. If one team can hold control of both points for 10 seconds they score a point for the team.

Bombing Run: Two teams have to fight for control of an energy-filled “ball” or “bomb” that has to be hand carried to the enemy’s scoring ring. The bomb can be passed from player to player.

Mutant: Another free for all type mode where there is a “mutant” which lurks at the top of the scoring grid and a “bottom feeder” that sits on the bottom of the scoring grid. The mutant has many abilities such as invisibility and ultra speed, but cannot gain control of any super weapons. He can be dethroned by the first person who kills him, and then this new mutant takes on the role of the master hunter. The bottom feeder is given handicap abilities in order to even out the score.

Last Man Standing: This is similar to the Last Man Standing mode in the original Unreal Tournament. Players regenerate health when they frag an opponent. If a player stands in one place for too long, they will be revealed to other players as a camper and their location will appear on all opponent's displays.

Invasion: In this game type, players band together to defend against waves of incoming monsters -- including many of the monsters from the original Unreal. Players cannot respawn if they die during a wave, but as long as one player makes it to the end of a wave alive, everyone respawns for the next wave.

*Assault: A mode in which two teams face off in an objective-based map that assigns one team to a defensive position and one to an offensive position. Both teams have specific goals and new rounds allow the teams to switch sides from offense to defense.

*Onslaught: The most popular new mode of all and brand new to UT 2004, this mode forces two teams to face off on large scale maps, but the ability to use a wide range of vehicles opens up a whole new area of tactics. Powernodes throughout the maps have to be linked in succession by captures in order to gain the right to attack your enemy’s main base. Once your team destroys the enemy’s main powernode, you win the round.

* = New in UT 2004.

Assault and Onslaught have proven, in just the game’s two week existence already, to be highly popular and intriguing. Assault isn’t brand new, but has made its return in a newly revamped fashion. The year’s version is much faster and has more focus and lead than the original UT’s Assault mode. Now, clear tutorials before every map of Assault shows you what you need to do for your team.

Onslaught, the mode that has launched UT 2004 into the winner’s circle once again, is one fine piece of craftwork. Working off the ground rules from the BF series main attraction, Onslaught allows you to use a horde of vehicles in order to work your way through the spider’s web of powernodes. The vehicles you can use range from the hovercraft like Manta, to the awesome flying vehicle known as the Raptor. Each vehicle has its weaknesses and high points, but not one is overpowering against the others. This is what truly makes Onslaught such a fun mode to play.

As the head of the Xtreme LAN party here in Chicago, IL, it’s my job to choose games and modes for our parties, and UT 2004 is one that I will definitely be adding. I already have heard that users are screaming for us to add the game and its wonderful onslaught mode to our games list. If you are ever in the Chicago area and are looking for a cool party to check out, visit www.xlangaming.com for all our latest news.

The sound in UT 2004 is probably 2 times better than UT 2003’s. Since the introduction of EAX 3 by Creative, sound effects could never have been better. The sounds for all the weapons are very accurate and just sound more realistic for a game like UT, unlike UT 2003’s squeaky and horrid effects. If you own a Creative card, preferably a Sound Blaster Audigy 2, you will be highly rewarded by this game. Epic has always rewarded the Audigy owners and this is no exception.

The newest radical advancement in the sound department for UT 2004 is the implementation of VoIP (Voice over IP) technology. This, for the basic gamer, is known as built-in voice chat. If you own a headset or microphone, chatting with teammates is made really easy with just the click of a keyboard-designated button. There are 3 specific channels that can be found in any multiplayer game for voice chat. There is the public channel, which allows all players in the server to speak with each other. The Team channel is as you guessed and allows only team chat. And the most intriguing of all is the Local channel, which uses a system of location and distance based voice chat that increases or decreases your ability to hear the chatter on your team depending on where they are located in regards to you on the map. This makes combat very realistic and forces teammates to stay close to each other so they can communicate. Not everyone enjoys it, but it is just another option Epic has included for gamers.

Do we need to go over the graphics in the game? For newcomers, the graphic quality in this game is on the same level as of that in games such as Far Cry and HL2, minus the advanced shader effects. With my Radeon 9700 Pro using Catalyst 4.3 drivers, I can hit a stable frame rate of around 50-80 at all times on 1024x768. This is, mind you, with unoptimized drivers for this game (Catalyst 4.4 drivers will have much better support for the game) and the final retail copy of the game, no patches yet. This is impressive since UT has a history of having shaky starts with new releases. For the amount of detail that this game possesses, I cannot complain with the frame rate. Remember, once new drivers and some patches are released, this game will play like a beauty.

An interesting feature that was dropped from the game in the last few weeks of development was the ability for UT 2003 players to play with UT 2004 players on the same server. It turned out that this feature was too complicated to implement, and the truth is most UT 2003 players had bailed on the game a year after its release. The final copy of UT 2004 ships with over 105+ maps, which is unheard of for any game of its type. These maps aren’t all brand new (1/4 are from UT 2003), but if isn’t broken, why fix it?

You can purchase the game in two versions, on 6 CDs or 2 DVDs. The DVD version is considered the Special Edition and is only found on eBay if you didn’t preorder (unlike me) and it contains the full game on 1 DVD with an extra DVD full of videos and extras that UT fans will enjoy. The CD version contains 6 large CDs that you need to install the game, and no extras are included. You can find the game for cheap which is a plus; it retails for $40 but with a $20 mail in rebate from EB and then an extra $10 rebate from Epic, $10 is your true final price. Not bad for one of the best games of the year in my mind.

I cannot end my review without speaking of how my multiplayer experiences have been in just the first few weeks. If you head online after buying the game, be prepared to see Onslaught with the most servers dedicated to this single mode since people seemingly can’t get enough of it. Epic claims that the network code for UT 2004 has been improved, and even though it’s not that obvious, your “ping” times for the game are a bit better than for its brethren. Expect nice ping times on local servers at around 20-50, which is spectacular for a game of this type. LAN games should play flawlessly from what I have experienced.

I must have forgotten to mention the single player aspect of the game. I never think much of single player campaigns in FPSs since most of them fail miserably in all aspects. The BF series, including BF 1942 and now BF Vietnam, have proved that they just can’t match their online experiences in the single player mode. UT 2004, however, has broken this spell. You choose a character, enter a name for yourself and your team, and select a log, and you’re off into this tournament (pun intended) where you have to fight for a chance to select a team and move off into qualifying rounds, soon heading into the final rounds of the ultimate championship. It doesn’t match what you can find online or in LAN games, but for those times when the internet goes down, the single player campaign in UT 2004 is at least something that keeps you going.

I do have a few drawbacks on the game, however, no matter how much praise I have given it. The game definitely could use a patch soon for graphics, sound, and in game menu issues. One such example is that the Filters menu on the in-game server browser seems to be broken since no custom options seem to filter out my settings. This is all minor since Epic is known for excellent patches for their games, and UT games are nothing left behind. Another area that could use a boost is the array of Assault and Onslaught maps that have shipped with the game. Onslaught, everyone’s favorite mode, only ships with around 8-10 maps which is measly for such a hot mode. As with UT 2003, several community bonus packs are expected which always contain a bevy of new maps. Lastly, the much praised UnrealTV option that was announced before the game came out is hard to find in the final game. This option is supposed to allow servers to broadcast special TV-like broadcasts where gamers can watch matches even if they aren’t involved in the match. This option in the game Counter Strike, known as Half Life TV, made the game that much more popular. Hopefully the first patch will clear this issue.

If you are looking for a fun game to play if you enjoy FPSs, I fully recommend UT 2004. If you own the previous game, UT 2003, I only recommend this that much more since you are entitled to an extra $10 back. UT fans probably already own this game, but for the skepticists, don’t hold back. UT 2003 was a mistake that shouldn’t have been released so if you were turned away from the series after playing this game, you are now entitled to a whole new adventure.

**Something fun for new UT players or even veterans. There is a video series that takes the concept of machinima (game based scripted movies or short stories that have complete voice overs) and applies it to UT 2004. The name of the series is called Victory Guide 㤌, and can be found in episode form over here: http://www.victoryguide.net. Fun smack talk and excellent video editing take center stage in this series that shows players how to play the game even if they’ve never touched UT before. I recommend you check this out even if you have never seen machinima.

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-- Review Test Computer –

2.5GHz Pentium 4
1GB RD-RAM PC800
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro on Catalyst 4.3 drivers
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS with EAX 4 based drivers
WD 80GB HDD with 8MB cache
Intel i850E motherboard
Windows XP Pro with SP2 RC1
DirectX 9.0B