Big Stuff

Been a while

Has it been this long? It was December 1999 when the clash of the titans occurred. Epic released Unreal Tournament and id unleashed Quake III Arena on the unwashed masses. Both were hyped, both were excellent games (scoring a very close 4 and 4.5 respectively), yet ironically both were left behind in the dust by a mod, Counter-Strike. Depending on the biases and preferences of gamers involved, either could dominate a LAN party. Most hardcore players clung to Quake III for their fun, preferring good old deathmatch, CTF or team deathmatch. People looking for more varied game styles and a more visceral experience liked UT. To this very day, the games are fighting it out tooth and nail for second place (while being vastly overshadowed by that behemoth Half-Life and its mods.)


Almost three years later, Epic, or rather Digital Extremes their close partner, have release the Unreal Tournament 2003 demo. The name suggests a sequel or update, and after some time with the demo we’d lean towards the former rather than the latter. The changes have been subtle all around, but add up to a rather large overhaul. Even discarding the substantial improvements to the game engine itself, the changes in gameplay give UT2003 a very fresh feeling.

DM-Antalus

I'm doing one who's gonna be rampaging

Doh, or not

What remains the same

Very little is outright removed, added to or replaced in the game from what we can see in the demo. Obviously the maps are different but the core of the game remains the same basic template. Movement, physics, weapons and feel have been tweaked by this is still recognizably UT.

Muahaha eat hot lead

He likes it from behind

See?

Take as an example the weapons. The Flak Cannon, Bio Gun, Rocket Launcher, Shock Rifle, Sniper Rifle and Redeemer are still there. The Plasma Gun is as well, though under a different name now – Link Gun. All of these have the same or similar fire and alternate modes, though modified for balance. The Link Gun has a much greater range with its ‘shaft’ of plasma, the Rocket Launcher has two modes taken out of it. Where previously one could fire single rockets or single pipe bombs (for lack of a better term) or up to six of each by holding down the button, now the Rocket Launcher fires a single rocket with the left button and loads up multiple ones with the right button.