Lost Hours wrote:Review: "Unreal Tournament 2003"
October 12, 2002
By Jon “Noj” Perrotto

Before this review gets too in-depth, I’ll sum things up in one short paragraph. If you’re the kind of gamer who appreciates pulse-pounding action, adrenaline- charged combat, and other such hyphenated descriptions, this game is for you. If you’re the kind of gamer who likes an in-depth plot, character development, and loads of dialogue, you’re better off looking elsewhere.

That being said, Unreal Tournament 2003, or Unreal 2k3 as it will be referred to as in this review, accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. It is a solid, beautiful, polished game that provides players with virtually nonstop action. The mayhem comes in five different flavors: Death match and team Death match, Double domination, Capture the Flag and Bombing Run, which could be described as a cross between Football, Hockey, and World War Two.

In Unreal 2k3, teamwork has been brought more to the forefront, as four out of the five game modes have you heading up a team of your choice. The AI is up to the task, providing you with allies who generally know what to do when. It helps too. When you’re making a beeline for your base with the flag in tow, it’s nice to have your team covering your back, which they do automatically. The only problem is giving orders. Trying to stay alive long enough to tell your team-mates to cover your back can be kind of tricky. One big improvement in terms of team combat, is it’s a Hell of a lot easier to tell your team mates from your enemies, thanks to little floating blue or red lights that stay near them.

This game is visually stunning in every sense of the word. The characters look great and flow smoothly through the action. Blood sprays from gunfire, and bodies fall like rag dolls. The design of the levels is barely short of amazing; the mayhem unfolds in beautifully rendered arenas, ranging from moon bases to treetops. The latter comes complete with Will O’ The Wisps floating around the forest floor. One stage even has test tube experiments that come to life when you approach them; another provides cover with the fog from the base of a waterfall. Of course, don’t stop too long to enjoy the scenery, for obvious reasons.

In general, the sounds are pretty mediocre, some even taken from the previous game. The taunts get rather annoying after a while (and are a bit more racy than Unreal Tournament’s, though that can be toggled on or off), and the announcement of every character’s name in the selection screen grates on the nerves. The music is nothing outstanding when I noticed it, but it fits the pace and feel of the game. I barely noticed it until I turned up the sound volume, and even then, it didn’t stand out over the carnage of battle. The sounds of the gunfire/explosions are the high point. They stand out over everything else.

When held against its predecessor, the original Unreal Tournament, Unreal 2k3 is really more of the same. Not to say that’s a bad thing, but it isn’t the most significant game to every come along. The game play is more or less exactly the same, and incredibly simple at that, so no leaps and bounds there. The only major addition is Adrenaline. Collect the floating pills till your meter reads 100 and you can perform special maneuvers like invisibility, speed, and berserk. You’ll probably find yourself using these a lot, as they help in Capture the Flag and bombing Run.

The weaponry is an improvement; they disposed of the annoying Ripper Gun, but for some reason kept the BioRifle, which wins my award for the ‘Worst Weapon in Video Game History’. New additions include the Link Gun, which allows you to combine with allies when they are using it, the Lightning Gun replaces the sniper rifle as the long range death-dealer, and the Assault Rifle replaces the puny Enforcer (you can’t double up Assault Rifles though), but isn’t all that effective, like the Enforcer. Old favorites remain, and are given a face-lift. Like the up close and personal Flak Gun, which has a shadow of its former self, the catastrophe in a gun called the Enforcer and the Rocket Launcher, which can only shoot up to three missiles at a time, a downgrade from the 6 in the predecessor. Perhaps my favorite addition is the Ion Painter. It doesn’t look like much, but it is capable of bringing down a hail of satellite-fired Ion death. Again, no significant changes there, but improvements all around.

The multiplayer is easy to access, and provides almost endless variations on the game. Easily customizable, you can increase the game speed, choose which weapons you want to use, and customize them, and turn on and off options like quad jump, big heads, and slow deaths. That, combined with the editor lends itself to endless possibilities for this game.

If you’re looking for an intense action game that looks great, sounds good, plays solidly, and is easily customizable this is your bag. You get great graphics, amazing levels, a good assortment of weapons, and solid, easy to learn gameplay. Despite the fact that it doesn’t break any new ground, it’s a great game that can provide you with endless lost hours spent fragging everything that moves.

- Jon "Noj" Perrotto