Unreal Tournament 2003

"A glimpse into the minds of the makers: “The original rocked -- let’s change it until it doesn’t!”"

Before we begin, a few things need saying. I am utterly in love with the Unreal series. I played the first game when it was released, and I still play it sometimes now for the single player experience. I play UT perhaps more than any other game right now, devoting countless hours to it, especially with my clan, which specializes in CTF. I plan on buying U2 when it comes out, cause if it’s anywhere near as good as the original Unreal, it will be worth the money.
When I bought UT2003, I figured it would be a graphical update of perhaps my favorite game ever. Was it? Hah, I wish.

Gameplay: 6/10 This is where the game loses most of its points, and my respect. The original Unreal Tournament had perhaps the smoothest gameplay of any FPS I’ve ever played. It was fast, it was clean, and it did everything you told it to do. Controls weren’t clunky, nor were they slow, and they sure as hell weren’t frustrating (unless you were pinging so high online that you thought you were shooting blanks). What has changed from the original game to this one? Everything I loved...
I play online a lot, and it’s slow. I play deathmatch, and it takes me forever to get anywhere. I absolutely love CTF, but I cannot play it, cause running is painful for me. You can do some pretty neat double jump combos, but that doesn’t fix the other problems. Also, whereas the first game relied upon your need to actually FIND your enemies, this game dumbs it down by placing colored beacons above their heads. The hell do you need that for? There goes half the challenge of stealth!
Another amazing aspect to the complete and utter destruction of my favorite game is the way the controls handle. As is now standard with most computer FPS games, you can fully customize the key layout, and this I suggest, because the presets are a bit weird. Only once you are comfortable do I suggest you do anything, because otherwise, just hopping into the game will show you exactly how terrible you are. The crosshair for your aim is centered about 1 inch to the left on your monitor from where it was in the original, and since I play that constantly, and with only the ‘dot’ as my hair, I barely look at it. My aim is eternally off... but the lag makes up for it, so it’s ok, right? Not really. You see, this game features two kinds of lag: connection lag (where your internet line, etc, sucks enough to lag you), and hardware lag. The latter is the case for damn near everyone who hasn’t bought a computer in the past 6 months. Yes, that’s right, you will probably be unable to play this game well, and if you can, it’ll be ugly as sin.
It taxes your system so quickly, and so hard, that slowdown is basically a part of the game. To fully enjoy this game, prepare for an upgrade.
Luckily, once you get that upgrade, you’re in for a treat. Facing you will be some of the sweetest graphics, craziest maps, and most unbelievable game modes you’ve never seen before. The man who thought up Bombing Run, for example, should be given a huge raise, since it’s the greatest decision since the implementation of Instagib.

Graphics: 9/10 Wow. Now I loved the original UT, and it’s simple, stylized graphics were great for a FPS, especially considering how quickly and how well they were delivered even during the middle of a 32 man deathmatch, but that doesn’t even come close to what you’ll find in 2003. This game is leagues beyond the original, and I mean that in every graphical aspect. Water, textures, lightings, skies, darkness and shadows are all incorporated into the masterful rendition of how the world could look. Yes, it is breathtaking at first, and even when you begin playing maps developed by online users as well, you’ll notice some things that are just sweet. There is no other way to it. Just the other day I played on a map where they actually had arcade games in the level, and the game machines showed displays of the actual games, and they MOVED... I was amazed, enthralled, and genuinely awe-struck. This is how games should look.
However, with this insane level of detail and beauty comes a price – about two or three grand. That is about how much you’ll need to spend on your rig if you want to play this puppy to its fullest, and that is its one down side (the 9 instead of 10). Still, if you’re a hardcore gaming freak like I am, it’s worth it... I haven’t drooled this much since I was a toddler.

Sound: 7/10 yet again, the developers showed that they haven’t completely lost their touch. The sounds and music were always one of the strengths of the previous Unreal-system games. They create atmosphere, tell you when someone is coming, warn you about what kind of spree you’re on (Godlike, for example), and generally give you all the sounds you’d ever want. Ok, so what are the problems? Why the lower score? The announcer...
Dear lord, if I ever hear that guy say, well, anything again I will shoot myself. Well, not really, since it happens so frequently it’s impossible to ignore. The announcer from the first game must have been out sick with typhoid when they found this guy. Someone said it was the same as from the original UT, and to that I reply: ‘then they removed his soul, then sent him to the recording studio.” There will be other announcer packs available though, and the sooner the better. What else went wrong with the sound? The music isn’t as catchy, as sweet as the original. However, this will also remedy itself when more people begin making their own maps. That’s how it was, and that is how it shall be. My last gripe with the sound is really more a gripe about some of the speech binds that they included, or didn’t include. They got rid of quite a few of my favorite binds, like the “Ha ha ha” taunt, or the “On my way” team communication. What did they replace them with? Ugh... Go into any deathmatch server and you’ll hear it. It’s terrible. Apparently, cussing at someone you just killed is funny. I, on the other hand, am disgusted.

Overall: 7/10 Does anyone remember the old phrase, “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it?” Apparently, the developers at Digital Extremes never heard it, or thought they knew better. They took what was an insanely good game, tweaked the engine to death, and redid the graphics until it was again no longer recognizable. I play 2003 and think of it as a crappy Quake III remake. The only problem is, I would have rather played an honest, updated version of the old UT. All they had to do was update the graphics, leave everything else the same, and they had a multi-million seller. No, that would have required too little work, or something else stupid like that, ‘cause they just ruined what was my favorite game ever. They decided that all the weapons needed an upgrade, except for the sniper rifle, which got dropped in place of the (terrible, slow, and useless) lightning gun. Luckily someone out there has already made mod recreating the real sniper rifle... It’s like the programmers decided what they wanted to do, regardless of what it would mean for the gameplay we all loved, and did it. They did it in a beautiful manner, but it lost the old appeal. This game is only an Unreal Tournament by name. It lost the addictive flavor the original had, and with that, it lost my desire to play it. I still play UT daily, but I’m lucky (or unlucky perhaps) if I touch this game more than once a month.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/12/03, Updated 03/12/03