1UP UT3 PC Review

[Ji@nBing]

After a long and fulfilling four years with Unreal Tournament 2004, it's a bit surprising that Epic's pulled a Madden, giving us a good game that's been tweaked instead of advanced. Perhaps if they'd continued the yearly naming convention instead of switching to ordinal numbers, we would've been better prepared for the increment that is Unreal Tournament 3.

It doesn't feel very different. You're liable to stumble across doodads like gelatinous cubes and shield pods, but don't look for any new weapons. That the old guns hold up as well as they do underscores Epic's canny sense for balance and variety. But when you're in that shooter groove, fragging and being fragged, the basic sensation is no different than it's been for lo these four years. The visuals don't differ much, even with a thick layer of Gears of War-style postprocessing smeared between you and the game. The new looks include a fair bit of Oriental decor and even a giant Redwood forest -- but the levels are still an orgy of elaborate geometry, choked with details and trim.

My tripod can beat up your tripod

The new Necris race gives Epic a great opportunity to break out of the Gothic-angst-meets-Rob-Liefeld schtick. Necris vehicles are tentacled and funky -- part Borg, part War of the Worlds -- with the towering Darkwalker standing out as one of the coolest things you'll see in a shooter this year. Yeah, sure, they're ripping off Steven Spielberg&but who isn't? Tripods are all the rage these days. The new Warfare mode is a great bit of remodeling, taking the old Onslaught game type and fusing with it scripting tricks from Assault and the ball from Bombing Run. We get plenty of familiar maps (including an ominous new Deck 17) and plenty of new maps, almost all sharp exercises in multiplayer level design. Say what you will about Epic: You can't deny they've cornered the market when it comes to mapmaking talent.

The campaign is a peripheral part of the UT experience, but Epic put some energy into it this time, marching you across a map and giving you bonus cards (which bequeath temporary perks ranging from extra bots to higher vehicle HP) to make tough missions easier. Playing missions cooperatively is a great way to power through to the end. It's a bit silly how the story tries to explain spawning and flag captures, only to gradually peter out when it comes to the Warfare mode.

Speaking of silly: hoverboards? They're a great addition to the gameplay, letting players on foot get where they need to go quickly and with a bit of risk. But the only thing more ridiculous would've been unicycles. Everything looks wicked awesome as a towering Darkwalker rises up over the rooftops and uses its death ray to fry a Goliath, while a Scavenger scurries out of a dark alley and disintegrates some dudes. But then along come a couple of hoverboarding jokers, Marty McFly--style, skiing behind a dune buggy. No one can accuse Epic of a foolish consistency.

Big Man on Campus '04

The biggest problem with UT3 is that it's still so&2004. Back then, before Quake Wars or Team Fortress 2, this was the go-to series for fast action, wild weapons, clever vehicles, online teamwork, and videocard-straining visuals. Unreal Tournament stood alone and triumphant, with Quake under its boot, Counter-Strike practically in a whole other genre, Joint Operations a dirty little secret, and Battlefield socked in by fog. But slick and stylish speed shooters aren't so scarce anymore. These days, UT feels relatively superficial, even when it tries new gimmicks like the mobile artillery from the bonus pack or the Necris Nightshade's deployable items. These are too little, too late, and too me-too.

The online support disappoints, with very little in the way of achievements or persistent stats. The friends list isn't very friendly, and the server browser might as well scream for you to get off its lawn. Setting up LAN games or bot skirmishes is frustrating, limited, and counterintuitive. Decking out your avatar with unlockable bits of clothing is so very EA. It's still a good game -- lovely, and a little tired. But these days, even a favorite old dog like UT needs to learn more than a few new tricks.

Source

I haven't played it myself, but most of what I've heard from people that have isn't too good...

[Swordnyx]

Wow sure it doesn't compare to the other awesome titles this year, but a 6.0 is pretty low.. They must've really hated it.

I'd give it an 8.5.

[Ayepecks]

I didn't like the demo, but 6.0? I don't trust any reviews 1Up gives anymore. They just purposefully rate games low to draw attention to themselves. Perfect example? Hellgate: London. It wasn't a very good game, but it was decent... it just wasn't 4/10 bad.

[Blackhearted]

I'd agree with a 6.0. Even as a UT fan i felt ut3 to be kinda disappointing and that it didn't quite live up to my expectations for it.

[PricklyPoo]

Well I am not saying it is fabulous but with few of their points they were clearly misinformed.

Basically UT3 is a remake of UT99, not really similar at all to UT2004.

If they changed the weapons I can garauntee most of the hardcore UT players wouldn't play it. I thought getting rid of the Lightning Gun was bad enough. They took a step backwards and replaced it with a sniper rifle just like every other game.

And I completely disagree about there being a lot of fast paced games. I really liked UT2004 beacsuse it took a lot of skill and accuracy. There isn't a game out there quite like Ut2004 to this day. They mentioned Quake Wars being a faced paced shooter but all that is, is a giant vehicale "noob" fest. UT is supposed to be the series for the hardcore gamer and I feel they kind of took the skill away that was required to play the previous UTs. My problem is that there really isn't a good tournament game out there right now, UT3 is also the game that a lot of people play pro and is great for 1 vs 1 matches. TF2 is no way a tournament style game, it requieres a lot of players on each team and is more of a strategy based game.

So in my opionion I would give UT3 and 8-8.5.

[1Frothy]

Yet another crap review by 1UP. Wow, they really are losing so much credibility in my eyes.

Shows how the Editor is out of touch though, the Average user rating is 8.9, which is what I'd give UT3.

[Denis W. Veteran]

I call BS when the PS3 version gets an 8.0.

It's official. The "consolized" UI is worth a full 2 points. :rolleyes:

[Ji@nBing]

I call BS when the PS3 version gets an 8.0.

It's official. The "consolized" UI is worth a full 2 points. :rolleyes:

There are different standards for console FPS than for PC FPS though. On PC, the expectations are much higher.

[McSmiggins]

Tbh, it's still UT (which is always great), but more polished, better balance, but what's the point of UT if you can't easily get where you need to be? a server!

The menu system is COMPLETELY backwards, I've played a 4 man lan game and it was more like tricking it into getting it to work, why not put all the options on one screen like you used to have? I've got a mouse, I can point and click things!!!!

Add to that the friends system being completely dodgy as hell (I've been on one machine sent a friend request to the user sitting next to me, which he accepted and it didn't show up!)

Awesome game, it's just a shame you can't crack the shell to get into it.

[Shadrack]

I just bought the game and have played it today so weigh my comments with a grain of salt but....

I think its awesome. Same old game play with new improved graphics and new maps. Exactly what I was looking for. Two thumbs up! :p

[Darrian]

I love it, but I have no idea how it plays online. I'm still working through the single player campaign. When I do play online, it'll likely just be between some friends and I with one of us hosting a 4-6 man server. I'm not big on online games, except I once was horrendously addicted to Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy, and I currently play Guild Wars. I'm just not big on competitive online play, unless you give me a lightsaber. Still, from what I've read, it doesn't sound any worse than previous incarnations of UT, so is it really that bad? Oh, yeah, I'm quite disappointed that my wireless 360 pad won't work with it, too, especially since it works great with Bioshock. Still, keyboard and mouse are better for this kind of game, anyway.

[BoDEAN]

This game seems like any other Unreal game. yawn.

Good review though

[Dotdot]

Agree with the UT3 Remade UT99 comments. Tbh whilst it is fun and fast paced Ive not found myself drawn in as much as Id like to have been and feel a little let down with the lack of maps / models / options within the game. Even the game settings such as gfx detail etc all seem far too simplistic and in some cases rushed.

Personally speaking after the huge content of UT2004 it feels like weve taken a step back to a more pure version of the game which isnt a bad thing but the lack of customization then becomes a little too apparent once the "Ooh that pretty" gfx ware off.

Like I say its still UT at its finest and many pureists will love it, but it just feels that for all the promises, pr and bs we were fed theres very little cept a rather basic game under what is essentialy a massive gfx update.

Id agree and say 6-7/10 Fun game, but nothing new and nothing really gained

[ienhz]

i still remember when they gave neverwinter nights 2 a 4 or something and they had to re-review it cause apparently the original reviewer didn't know what the hell he was talking about. after that i never went to 1up again.

[Konstanov]

I get higher frames in Crysis than I do in this game for some reason, as I can't break 30 fps for some reason.

[shakey]

i was never a big fan of the UT games, as for some reason i always found the Quake Deathmatches to be more fun and entertaining. In every UT game though, it doesnt seem to really put any innovation. They just slap on better graphics, a new gameplay mod that we have already seen on some other game, and thats it. The weapons still have just a primary and a secondary, which can be used in just certain situations as a sort of combo; but with the game being so fast paced, those combos rarely are useful. Hard to really put my finger on it for why i just cant get into it like i can all the other FPS, but it just always seemed so... generic i guess.

[PricklyPoo]

i was never a big fan of the UT games, as for some reason i always found the Quake Deathmatches to be more fun and entertaining. In every UT game though, it doesnt seem to really put any innovation. They just slap on better graphics, a new gameplay mod that we have already seen on some other game, and thats it. The weapons still have just a primary and a secondary, which can be used in just certain situations as a sort of combo; but with the game being so fast paced, those combos rarely are useful. Hard to really put my finger on it for why i just cant get into it like i can all the other FPS, but it just always seemed so... generic i guess.

Well yes but isn't every fps game that does well generic nowdays.... They have all been done so many times that they all seem old. The original quake and ut did well because nothing like them had ever been seen, that was only because they were the first big online fps games. Then all preceding games sort of copied them. The reason ut and quake slap on better graphics and resell is because they sold a lot of games that way. Quake tried to do that with quake 4 and that pretty much killed the quake series and now ut tried to do that with ut3 and that just about killed the ut series.

If you think UT is overdone, you don't even want to hear my thought on WW2 games. :p