Game Review: Unreal Tournament 3
Things Just Aren't As Good As They Used To Be
Andrew Scagnelli
Issue date: 3/28/08 Section: Opinion
The latest entry in the Unreal Tournament series, Unreal Tournament 3, initially gave me a bit of a pause when I first saw it. The game was one of the best looking available, and it stands to reason as it is the poster child of the Unreal Engine 3. Unfortunately, this is all it really has going for it.
The only recent game that can be compared with UT3 is the previous entry in the series, Unreal Tournament 2004. Both are multiplayer-focused PC shooters with a variety of maps and modes. The major difference between them is in their graphics and price. UT2004 currently can be had from Steam for a mere $15.00, while UT3 comes in at $50. Also, UT2004 can run on most computers available, and has very low system requirements, while UT3 requires a very powerful computer to run. The test bed, a desktop with an 8800GT and AMD Athlon 64 3400+, had some noticeable frame rate lag with the settings at their defaults (native monitor resolution, 50 screen percentage, three texture detail, one world detail and default post-processing, for those who would like to compare). This loss on a higher-end system is very disconcerting because of the speed of the game.
Against UT2004, UT3 fares even worse in terms of its game play. UT2004 originally shipped on 6 CDs and contained 47 maps added after the lackluster release of its predecessor, Unreal Tournament 2003; meanwhile, UT3 has only 39 total levels, some of which are reused in different configurations for at least a little variety. The speed of the game has been set to an extreme, best noticed after a few quick rounds, where a break became necessary because the speed and the over-saturated graphics resulted in painful eyestrain.
The big new feature of UT3 is a single-player or co-op campaign mode. The campaign is a loosely tied together series of battles, with consistent characters and some voice-over providing the story. While being able to play co-op is fun, an expansion on the UT2004 "sports" style would have been nicer, with team management and improvement options enhanced and the ability to play team vs. team still missing from the UT series. Additionally, the pre-rendered cutscenes wouldn't play for more than five or six seconds before causing the game to crash, although pressing "Esc" immediately would skip the cutscene and prevent the crash.
Finally, one of the biggest issues with UT3 is that it abandoned its PC roots in favor of the PlayStation 3. While in-game this isn't very noticeable, it is while working in the menus. It takes twice as long to get to the server browser compared to UT2004, and the server browser lacks any filters to hide empty, full, and servers with passwords. Buttons are placed in weird areas, with most shoved to the top and bottom of the screen. While this may work fine with a controller, the layout is very clunky with a mouse.
It's kind of fitting, then, that the most obvious place the console concession has been made is on the main menu, with a pointless "Press Start" screen and buttons that change size. It makes the game feel rushed, and one-off, and cheapens the entire experience.
Final score: 7/10
The only recent game that can be compared with UT3 is the previous entry in the series, Unreal Tournament 2004. Both are multiplayer-focused PC shooters with a variety of maps and modes. The major difference between them is in their graphics and price. UT2004 currently can be had from Steam for a mere $15.00, while UT3 comes in at $50. Also, UT2004 can run on most computers available, and has very low system requirements, while UT3 requires a very powerful computer to run. The test bed, a desktop with an 8800GT and AMD Athlon 64 3400+, had some noticeable frame rate lag with the settings at their defaults (native monitor resolution, 50 screen percentage, three texture detail, one world detail and default post-processing, for those who would like to compare). This loss on a higher-end system is very disconcerting because of the speed of the game.
Against UT2004, UT3 fares even worse in terms of its game play. UT2004 originally shipped on 6 CDs and contained 47 maps added after the lackluster release of its predecessor, Unreal Tournament 2003; meanwhile, UT3 has only 39 total levels, some of which are reused in different configurations for at least a little variety. The speed of the game has been set to an extreme, best noticed after a few quick rounds, where a break became necessary because the speed and the over-saturated graphics resulted in painful eyestrain.
The big new feature of UT3 is a single-player or co-op campaign mode. The campaign is a loosely tied together series of battles, with consistent characters and some voice-over providing the story. While being able to play co-op is fun, an expansion on the UT2004 "sports" style would have been nicer, with team management and improvement options enhanced and the ability to play team vs. team still missing from the UT series. Additionally, the pre-rendered cutscenes wouldn't play for more than five or six seconds before causing the game to crash, although pressing "Esc" immediately would skip the cutscene and prevent the crash.
Finally, one of the biggest issues with UT3 is that it abandoned its PC roots in favor of the PlayStation 3. While in-game this isn't very noticeable, it is while working in the menus. It takes twice as long to get to the server browser compared to UT2004, and the server browser lacks any filters to hide empty, full, and servers with passwords. Buttons are placed in weird areas, with most shoved to the top and bottom of the screen. While this may work fine with a controller, the layout is very clunky with a mouse.
It's kind of fitting, then, that the most obvious place the console concession has been made is on the main menu, with a pointless "Press Start" screen and buttons that change size. It makes the game feel rushed, and one-off, and cheapens the entire experience.
Final score: 7/10