Unreal Tournament

aka: Tournament, UT, UT99
Moby ID: 587
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

Unreal Tournament is completely different from Unreal: it is now mainly based on multiplayer, like Quake 3.

At the beginning, you have to play classic deathmatch rounds. After you have successfully won some of them, a new game mode becomes available, domination. In domination there are about three or four different areas scattered around the map to be controlled by your team. For a certain amount of seconds you control one area, a point is added to your score. The more areas you control, the faster your team's score rises. When you or the other team reaches a certain score, the game is over. The third mode is called capture the flag, every team has a flag to defend and tries to capture the other team's flag to score a point.

The fourth game mode is called assault. This mode requires completion of real missions, such as attacking an enemy base and destroying a specific object in it. Again, there are two teams, the defenders and the attackers. You have to complete the mission in a certain time, for example five or ten minutes. If you were successful, your team has to defend this time and the other team attacks. But the attacking team now only has as much time as you needed to attack.

All these modes are either playable in single or multiplayer mode. If playing alone, you have a large menu with orders you can give your bots. Also, all weapons were redesigned, and some new ones are added.

Spellings

  • アンリアル トーナメント - Japanese spelling
  • 浴血戰場 - Traditional Chinese spelling
  • 虚幻竞技场 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

89 People (88 developers, 1 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 89% (based on 76 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 325 ratings with 11 reviews)

Unreal Addiction

The Good
The original Unreal Tournament was one of the most out-right addictive games I've ever played. Every time I play, I find myself itching to go just one more map. Even back when I first started playing it, when I only played on a cruddy dial-up connection, I loved the game. Now I play UT2004 when I need an Unreal fix, but the original started it all.

UT came out with some of the sweetest graphics yet seen. From the detailed models and textures to fantastic lighting and translucency, it was a treat for the eyes. Even today, when I look at the game the graphics aren't bad. All that in a game that was tightly coded enough to run well on my Pentium 200.

One of my favorite parts of UT is the weapons. Epic managed to come up with an arsenal that was both balanced and interesting. There are more standard weapons, such as the rocket launcher and the mini-gun, or innovative pieces like the flack cannon and the pulse rifle (some of these weapons actually had their debut in the first Unreal). Every weapon has a secondary fire mode that adds a great deal of depth to gameplay. The shock-rifle, for instance, fires a low-damage beam as primary and a medium-damage ball of energy as secondary. To make things more interesting still, if you fire off an energy ball and then hit it with a faster moving beam shot, it will cause a powerful energy explosion that tears many enemies to bitsies. Even the rocket launcher is innovative in that rather than just firing off shots, you can hold up to six rockets before firing. In secondary mode rockets can be launched as grenades, again allowing you to fire of six of these little bouncing messengers of death. You can kill with pretty much any weapon in the game. Even the starting pistol can be effective in the hands of an experienced player.

Speaking of blowing stuff up, this game is also very visceral. The weapon effects, sounds, and character death animations all create a very gritty and satisfactory experience. There's nothing quite like filling an opponent with mini-gun rounds or blowing them away with a flack cannon shot at point blank range.

The game plays fast and hard, with plenty of over-the-top action going on at any given time if you get a decent number of players. It's exactly the kind of thing you want in a game like this.

Gameplay modes in UT reach beyond the usual deathmatch and CTF, adding in Domination (teams fight over crucial control points) and Assault (one team assaults a series of objectives while the other defends). While Domination is fun, the latter is the truly innovative addition. A good game of Assault with a group of people playing reasonably like a team can be a great experience. Of course, it can be hard to find people who play anything like a team online. But that's not the game's fault.

Then we have mutators. Playing with the various available mutators can give the game a whole new life. From low-grav mode to fat-boy (where-in a player gets more and more obese the more he kills), there's a lot of variety to be had. For a crazy time, try fat-boy instagib.

AI bots are challenging opponents to practice against before you play online. They sometimes play almost like human (sometimes better on higher levels). As with any AI, they have their moments of stupidity. But it's better than most.

No wonder it's so addictive.

The Bad
Well, my only gripe is this: There is really no great first-person experience here. There is no quest, no character progression (in the true sense), no cool scripted events, and there is only a base excuse for plot-line.

The Bottom Line
Online gameplay at its best. Buy this one and soak in all the fragaliciousness.

Windows · by Steelysama (82) · 2000

Just comparing...

The Good
Good gameplay and variety.

The Bad
I was never able to play it online with a 56k modem.

The Bottom Line
UT, if you think about Q3 comparing is graphically inferior. It do has awesome graphics, but can't compete with Q3. It's slower, like many Q3 lovers complain, exclusively because Q3 runs on Open GL. UT in Direct 3d. If you look around the web, you'll find good Open GL drivers for UT and it'll be as fast as Q3.

The stages are way better designed and varied. Q3's are good, but lack theme variety. UT also has a lot more of game types and if you say: What about mods? Comm'on! We're reviewing a game, not it's community!

Weapons? UT's got a lot more, and even if you say only a few are useful, Q3 runs around only 3! Rocket launcher, Railgun, BFG! Sometimes the Shotgun. And UT's are, at least, more creative...

So... you'll probably have lot's of fun with both games, but with UT It'll probably last longer.

Windows · by Geraldo Falci (12) · 2004

I sincerely believe this game is better than Quake 3, I'm not lying, and to the best of my knowledge, I'm not stupid.

The Good
Where to start?

-The AI is terrific. I felt like I was playing a human player. Also, the AI is extremely adjustable - there is an enemy for a player of any skill. I mean, if you pump up the AI enough, you can REALLY get your ass kicked. The AI is great, surprisingly considering I expected this to be mostly multiplayer. Great for practice!

-Modes galore! No matter your preference, there is a mode for it.

-Brilliant graphics if you have a good enough PC and 3D card. I mean, the graphics can blow your mind if you can pump them up. I mean, just check out the screenshots and drool. OK, so Quake III's engine is better. These graphics, however will suffice.

-Excellent multiplayer, which of course is the reason for the existence of this game :) I, personally, cannot comment on ping because I have a cable modem. However, the game's multiplayer is so sweet it's Unreal(horrible pun, I know). Constant fun, this plays wonderful. I mean, it really is awesome online.

-Cool taunts.

-Awesome weapons. Especially the redeemer. Of course, I'm biased towards big booms.

-Cool music. I mean, the stuff that really pumps you up to fight. Some of the best I've heard ever.

-Pretty damned good level design. I mean, it really kicks Q3's ass here. Q3 really pales in comparison.

The Bad
Well, it runs perfectly on my personal computer(but then again, I do have a 1Ghz Athlon), but I can't deathmatch my brother on his 200 mhz with 64 megs of ram - it runs too slowly on his machine, so I kick his ass and he gets pissed.

The Bottom Line
Better than Q3. Much better. I mean, really whups Quake 3's ass. Almost a flawless game.

Windows · by emerging_lurker (160) · 2000

[ View all 11 player reviews ]

Trivia

German index

Unreal Tournament is on the Index of the BPjS in Germany. This occurred on 28.02.2002, over 2 years past release. More information about the topic can be found in the game group.

References

If you manage to collect a chainsaw (can only be found in custom made maps or via cheat code), you get instead of the expected "You got the Chainsaw". message actually the following message: "Its been five years since I've seen one of these." The sentence clearly refers to DOOM II, which was indeed released just a bit over 5 years earlier then Unreal Tournament was.

Version differences

The Dreamcast version does not have assault mode as all the maps save one were too large to fit in Dreamcast's memory. It is replaced in single-player by a new challenge mode, which is a series of one-on-one battles.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • March 2000 (Issue #188) – Action Game of the Year
    • March 2000 (Issue #188) – Best Level Design of the Year
    • October 2004 (Issue #243) – Introduced into the Hall of Fame
  • GameSpy
    • 1999 – Game of the Year
    • 1999 - Special Achievement in Artificial Intelligence
  • GameStar (Germany)
    • Issue 03/2000 - Best Multiplayer Game in 1999
  • PC Player (Germany)
    • Issue 01/2000 - Best First Person Shooter in 1999

Information also contributed by Ace of Sevens, Monkeyhead and Xoleras

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by robotriot.

Macintosh added by Kabushi. Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 added by Adam Baratz.

Additional contributors: Brian Hirt, Trixter, Eric Barbara, Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Wizo, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger, Plok, Rik Hideto.

Game added December 17, 1999. Last modified March 24, 2024.