"*Impressive*!"

The granddaddy of all online shooters returns once again, and it’s now better than ever. I will be focusing this review on the multiplayer aspect of the game given its primary game platform, but everything I say about online play will pretty much translate to skirmishes against the bots as well.

Story: There’s really not much of a story to review, as the series has finally abandoned the inclusion of a solid single-player mode. The series eschews a single player “quest” for a tournament that you have been summoned to by an entity known only as Xaero. You battle against other warriors, controlled by the AI, in an attempt to reach and dethrone him. In reality, the single player is an offline version of multiplayer, so I really can’t give the plot any sort of valid rating. N/A

Graphics: Really, really nice. Most of the deathmatch levels much more resemble the gothic architecture of the first game, rather than the sci-fi military themed setting of the second. The lighting creates a fantastic atmosphere, and the shadows if you have them enabled make the character models spring to life. You have a number of character models to choose from; old favorites such as the Doom and Quake marines, to a host of new combatants, one of which is even a reference to a PlanetQuake writer. The requirements also aren’t too terribly high for its time, and ID, as always, was very careful to include numerous toggleable settings for those on lower end machines. 10/10

Gameplay: The game comes with a few basic modes: Free for all deathmatch, Team deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Tournament, and included about twenty DM and a handful of CTF maps, enough to keep the game interesting for awhile. Your available weapons mostly come from iD history; you have the old standby, the Rocket Laucnher, you have the railgun from QuakeII, you even have the plasma gun from Doom., among others. The games are fast-paced, especially since the decision to leave “bunny hopping” in was made, which allows players to jump and move faster than they could by just running normally. The replay value is quite good if you haven’t played online shooters much before.

Of course, iD in an ingenious move pretty much let the community write the game for them. On top of the already available games, there are a host of fan-created modifications such as Rocket Arena, where two teams are formed and everyone gets whichever weapons they want to use, and the last team standing is the winner. Another popular mod is Urban Terror, a counter-terrorism mod that rivals Counterstrike. There are many more mods out there that are lots of fun, and the best part is that they’re pretty much all free. All you need to do is grab the mod and maybe a map pack or two, get the All Seeing Eye server browser and you’re good to go. 10/10

Sound: More important in a FPS than you might think, the sound is also quite well done. You’ll hear rockets soaring all around you, and with practice you can judge their relative position just by the sound they make. The voices are your standard announcer, which sounds a lot like the guy from Mortal Kombat, and your characters’ jumps, grunts, and groans. Not much to report, except that it’s well executed, even if some of the rocket blasts are a little fuzzy. 9/10

Overall: Even with newer games like UT2k3, this still has a niche market as one of the most newbie-friendly engines out there. There isn’t anything fancy about the regular play modes, and if you’ve never played an online shooter before, you couldn’t pick a better game to cut your teeth on. 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/23/03, Updated 03/23/03