A truly awesome game

I don't have very much time anymore for video games. However, this is the one game that I still find time for. I play it at least a few times a week. It is simply the best game I have played.

Unreal is a first person shooter with weapons that are as stated "unreal". There is no attempt to make things life like. Players can double jump in the air, they die and often come back to life instantly, they can hold warehouses worth of weapons and ammo, and take considerable damage without dying.

There are 17 total weapons, each with their own benefits (Primary fire activated with left mouse button, Secondary fire with right mouse button):

Shield Gun
A default weapon with unlimited ammo. Primary fire is a energy push that both knocks enemies back and instantly kills them with a large enough charge. Secondary fire emits a shield in front of the player that stops and sometimes deflects enemy shots.

Assault Rifle
The second default weapon. Primary fire is simply automatic bullets, which is very weak for the game, and secondary fire shoots a grenade. Two assault rifles can be used at once if another is found and picked up.

Minigun
The miniguns primary fire is extremely rapid firing bullets. Secondary fire shoots slower but more powerful shots. Secondary conserves ammo better as well.

Shock Rifle
The primary fire is a purple shock that travels perfectly straight and as far as can be seen. Secondary fire shoots a slow moving shock ball straight ahead. If a shock ball is hit with the primary fire a large explosion occurs (Very helpful)

Link Gun
Primary fire shoots out green plasma balls, secondary fire shoots out a constant plasma-like beam. Shooting the beam is helpful in that it heals vehicles and certain structures, and also can be shot at an ally with a link gun and boost that players gun.

Flak Cannon
Primary fire shoots multiple flak shots, giving a shotgun effect. Each flak can bounce off walls. Running directly into someone so that each flak hits him usually makes an instant kill. Alternate fire shoots out a mortar type shot that shoots small flak where it lands.

Bio Rifle
The bio Rifle shoots out a green blob of biological goo. Primary fire rapidly shoots it out, secondary fire charges up for one very strong shot.

Rocket Launcher
The primary fire is a single rocket. Secondary fire loads up to three rockets that shoot at once. When using the secondary fire, If the left mouse button is clicked right before the rockets shoot on their own, all three rockets will shoot in a tight spiral. A very useful and powerful shot.

Lightning Gun
The primary fire is a perfectly aimed bolt of lightning coming from the gun. Secondary fire is a scope with varying magnification. It's a Great weapon for sniping.

Sniper Rifle
The primary fire is a high powered bullet that can take out an enemy with 100 life in one shot if hit in the right spot. Secondary fire is a scope with varying magnification. Basically a lightning gun but more powerful.

Mine layer
Primary fire shoots out spider mines. Secondary fire sends the spider mines walking towards a laser beam emitted from the gun. The spider mines will walk towards nearby enemies and blow up.

AVRiL
Primary fire is an anti vehicle rocket that homes in towards vehicles if they are aimed onto by the player shooting the rocket. No secondary fire (At least I haven't discovered one)

Grenade Launcher
The primary fire shoots grenades one at a time. Secondary fire blows them up. Grenades stick to enemies if shot directly to them.

Ion Painter
The Ion painter must be held perfectly still to use. This means players must not move while shooting. Primary fire emits a small laser down at the target, and within a few seconds a huge Ion blast occurs at the target, blowing up everything in site. Secondary fire is a variable magnification scope.

Target Painter
Same gun as an ion painter only instead of a large ion blast there is a short delay and then an air strike comes down on the target. Very very powerful but the delay makes it possible for enemies to escape the attack.

Translocater
The most useful "weapon" of the game. Quickly switch to it by pressing q. The primary fire shoots out a small disk. Alternate fire than teleports
the player to the location of the disk. Teleporting through a person can "telefrag" them, making an instant kill. A disk can be left in a safe location so a player can leave and accomplish some goal and quickly teleport back. Also there is an internal camera in the disk that makes it good for seeing an area without risking being shot at.

Redeemer
Basically a handheld nuclear missile. Primary fire shoots it straight forward; secondary fire switches the player to a camera view from the missile. The player can then guide it to wherever they choose. The missile can be shot out of the sky however making it not blow up.

Ball Launcher
Not really a weapon, but in bombing run when a player captures the ball he or she is forced to have only this weapon. Primary fire shoots the ball out, secondary fire locks it on an ally for a pass. There are 84 different skins when choosing which player to be. Females do a flip when double jumping, but besides that not much difference is made with the choice of skin. Games can be played with bots or with human players over lan or over the Internet. There is no charge to play the online games. There is a maximum of 32 players per game. Players can talk live while playing a game with a headset. For players without a headset there is also chatting through text available.

During gameplay, health can be found in units of 25 when injured. Also 5 health vials can be found that increase a players life past 100 (Up to the game limit of 199). There is additionaly a "big keg of health" that gives a player 100 life. Armor is available in units of either 50 or 100. Killing people and accomplishing goals raises adrenaline. Adrenaline can also be found in small pills. Once it reaches 100 a player can use special key combos to receive powerups till their adrenaline runs out. Such powerups include health that slowely builds up, extra speed, rapid firing, etc. The games weapons (Besides the 2 default weapons) must be found scattered throughout each level. Ammo is found the same way.

Unreal tournament offers several different modes of play. They are different enough to provide hours of gameplay from one, even after a different one has gotten old. The different gametypes are as follows:

Single Player
This is merely the multiplayer levels with bots. You can play each level again if you set it up in multiplayer. There is an added tournament theme and a credit system: You qualify for and go further in the tournament by playing higher levels that you purchase with credits. Winning the levels gives you more credits. This part of the game isn't really that great. I doubt many people will spend time playing single player; playing multiplayer with bots does the same thing yet you don't have irritating credits and having to beat one level to get to the next.

Assault
This is the most varied mode from map to map. Each level has certain objectives that one team tries to complete, while the other team tries to defend against happening. On one map players fight on a high speed train, another a plasma tank blasts everything in sight, still in another players fly through space in small space fighters. Each level has multiple objectives that once finished lead to a new one, with a final objective ending the game. There is a time limit to finish all objectives; if it runs out then the defenders win. Once the game is over it is played again with each team on the opposite side that they used to be. There are a total of 6 maps for assault.

Onslaught
This is the biggest new addition to the Unreal series. Onslaught is very due to the addition of vehicles in this mode. The vehicles include:

Manta-A lightweight hovercraft, fast, weak firepower, and great for running over people.
Scorpian-A lightweight all terrain vehicle with a strange green power charge turret and blades that come from the side for cutting pedestrians.
Hellbender-A larger vehicle with decent firepower but needs a seperate driver and gunner; also fairly slow.
Goliath-A large tank with a turret that takes out pedestrians and smaller vehicles with a single shot. Also has a machine gun turret.
Raptor-A light flying device with a plasma-type shot and following missles, great transportation over large maps.
Leviathon-A huge tank that has an 4 corner turrets, and one main gun that can transform from shooting out following laser-type shots to a large ion cannon.
Pheonix-This doesn't really count as much of a vehicle because it is unmanned. There is a weapon called a target painter that you target an area with and this aircraft flies overhead and drops multiple bombs.

The object of Onslaught is to destroy the other team's (There are only two teams, red and blue) power core. This is done by advancing power nodes one by one. Getting control of one power node opens up the ability to take control of the following power node. Then the previous powernode cannot be destroyed until one ofthe nodes following it is taken over first. Once the node connecting to the ememies power core is controlled, the enemies powercore can be damaged until it is destroyed. Destoying the power core wins the match. This may seem a bit complicated but once you play one game it's constant action and reckless killing over and over again. The vehicles help move fast through the large maps, and their firepower helps to destroy power nodes. There are 9 onslaught maps, and each one has several different note setups available.

Deathmatch
This is a very simple mode of gameplay. Everyone tries to kill each other; the person who kills the most people wins. Nothing more to it, however still a fun gameplay for someone who simply wants to kill people and not worry about anything else. There are 44 deathmatch maps.

Capture the Flag
This is a great gametype to play. Each team has a flag, and to score a member must take the enemy flag and return it to their base. However, their own flag must be safe and still in their base for a point. Otherwise the flag carrier just has to wait for the Flag to come home. For a team to return their own flag they must kill the flag carrier and then walk over the flag. The flag carrier can still shoot while holding the flag however, making it slightly risky to try and take him down. Capture the flag is good because it makes teams have to devise strategies with a good balance for offense and defense. There are 23 maps for Capture the Flag.

Team Deathmatch
This is exactly like regular deathmatch, only everyone is divided between the red team and the blue team. This gives the same feel of deathmatch, only teamwork is now slightly required. Whichever team has the most kills total wins the round. Team deathmatch is played on the same 44 maps as standard deathmatch.

Double Domination
I find double domination slightly boring. All the players are divided into two teams. There are two spots that begin neutral. By stepping on this spot it becomes the team color of the person who stepped on it. As soon as one team has both spots with their color a timer starts counting. If it reaches 10 that team gets one score. I find this whole setup rather boring and pointless, and I never bother to play it. There are 12 maps for double domination.

Bombing Run
This is a very interesting and well thought of gametype; It's a mix between basketball and war. The people are divided into two teams and each start on opposite sides of a map. In the middle of the map is a ball. The first person to get to it picks it up and then has the weapon
"ball launcher". No other weapon can be used while holding the ball, making you very vulnerable. Players can pass the ball to other players or run for their lives as all opponents shoot at them. The player with the ball has the benefit quickly gaining back health however. The goal is to make it into the heart of the enemy "base" (Where they all spawn) with the ball and get it through a hoop. Shooting it with the ball launcher through the hoop gives 3 points, while "slam dunking" or jumping through the hoop gives 7 points. Jumping through the wrong hoop automatically kills a player.

Mutant
This is another interesting mode of gameplay. Everyone starts out against each other. Whoever gets the first kill "mutates" and becomes invisable, shoots twice as fast, gets double damage, moves twice as fast, and is given all weapons (except super weapons) with unlimited ammo. Once this happens it is the mutant against all other players. Whoever kills the mutant then becomes the new mutant. There is also a "bottom feeder" who is the person with the lowest score. That person may shoot anyone on his or her team, helping to get a higher score and then no longer be the bottom feeder. All other players can't do anything but shoot the mutant. Therefore being the mutant gives many kills, but also mutants die fairly quickly because every player is trying to kill them. Mutant is played with the 44 deathmatch maps.

Invasion
In invasion there are multiple waves of monsters that come in increasing difficulty. All human players are against all computer controlled monsters. Humans that die must wait for the next wave before reentering. If every human dies on a wave the monsters win, if the humans make it to wave 16 and beat it, they win. This gametype is very good for people liking co-op. No competition against people so usually everyone supports each other. Even though it sounds simple it is one of my favorite gametypes. Invasion also uses the 44 deathmatch maps.

Last Man Standing
This gametype is very similar to deathmatch. The difference is the amount of deaths matters instead of the amount of kills. Each player is given a set amount of lives. After dying that many times that player is out. The "Last Man Standing" wins the match. This also used the 44 deathmatch maps.


All those are definately enough to keep someone playing for a very long time. By the time I get bored of the game I imagine Unreal Tournament 2005 will be out. But until then, I highly recommend this game; I find it
to be the best, most action packed game out.