I wanted to get this review out ASAP without leaving anything behind. I got my copy of Unreal Tournament III nearly 48 hours ago and I have been playing it pretty much non-stop. And before I dive right in I want to point out one small thing. I am a huge Unreal fanboy, I have been since the first Unreal hit the PC way back when. And I have seen the many ups and downs of this franchise. For me this is the franchise that got me into online first-person shooters. So way back when the Playstation 3 was announced I had a chance to see a glimpse of Unreal Tournament III behind closed doors at E3 2005. While Epic did not show very much, what I saw had me drooling for a Playstation 3. Enough about me babbling on about stuff that means totally nothing to you guys. On to the Playstation 3 review of Unreal Tournament III.
I know like myself, a ton of you have been waiting for this game a very long time. I also know that many Playstation 3 owners have been waiting for that special game, the one game that will just stand out there nice and tall so they can look to their rival Xbox 360 users and say "Hey 360 dude... Check this out sucka! Does the 360 have this?" PS3 fans have been hearing the Halo 3/Gears of War taunt for almost a year now. But I think December 11th 2007 was the day that Playstation 3 owners can be proud and say that. Because this game kicks major ass. So what exactly is packed into that nice little Blu-ray disc.
Unreal Tournament III Game Modes:
Campaign - single player mode.
Deathmatch - Every man for themselves.
Team Deathmatch - Play as a team and get the most kills.
Capture the Flag - take the other teams flag for points.
Vehicle Capture the Flag - CTF with new vehicles.
Warfare - Vehicle madness.
Deathmatch is basically a kill-fest. If you are expecting a game like Call of Duty 4 then you better be ready. Your ass will be lit up because the gameplay is super-fast. Team Deathmatch is fun as hell. You all know the drill though. Get enough team kills to win the match. Capture the Flag is another really fun game to play online. My personal favorite is Vehicle CTF. Some of the capture the flag maps are pretty huge. You can climb into the many vehicles that Unreal Tournament III has to offer. You have vehicles that can fly, some that are large like tanks, and some that are small like speeder bikes. You also have a hover board at your disposal at any time. Some of the alien vehicles are very cool as well. I really like the DarkWalker. There is also a large ball called the Scavenger that you can climb into and you roll around the level (think of a super monkey ball, but instead of collecting bananas you kill with it). And yes, you read that right folks... Unreal Tournament III has a campaign mode that you can play by your self or online with other. A nice little story plays out and you basically play the game like you would if you were playing online. You take on various maps and frag your way to the end, opening up new levels.
The weapons all return as well. From the Shock Rifle to the Bio Rifle they are all here. The sniper rifle makes its return and can be a very valuable weapon when playing those large maps. Just find a place to camp and snipe away. My personal favorite to use is the Flak Cannon. This thing rocks and you can lite some serious ass up with it. The mother of all weapons, Remeemer, makes a return as well. This thing is a mega-bad ass weapon that is basically a missile that you guide. You can be on the other side of the map and guide this thing all the way to the other side and take out something big. The Unreal Tournament franchise has always been a game that featured awesome, bad-ass weapons and Unreal Tournament III takes it up a whole new level.
Playing Online:
Online play in Unreal Tournament III for the PS3 is a FPS fan’s wet dream. You can host a match as well as set up a ton of different features (Mutators) and have low gravity or big heads. You can choose the map cycles as well as the time and score. If someone is being a pain in the ass you can boot them from the game. The future Mods will also add a ton of new life into the PS3 version as well. This is pretty much a first for a console system and Epis is leading the way. The community keeps track of pretty much every single stat about your character online. It will keep track of every little detail, right down to how many times you can over somebody with a vehicle.
And yes the game DOES support online chat, but I will cover that in a second. The online community of UT3 also has news and it will have updates for the game. You also have a friends list where you can invite someone into a game. If you log online and see that one of your friends is playing a game you also have the option to join in their game. The bottom line is Unreal Tournament III is full of features and is A+ in the stats and options department. I do know that some people have been complaining about split-screen. I personally do not care for split-screen. I never have and I never will so this does not effect me or my review one bit. But I can see how some people are upset.
At the time of this review (December 13th 2007) there has been a problem with the online chat system. It works about 1% of the time. I tried to work out the kinks with my brother in Maryland (I live in Florida) but we got pretty much nowhere. Unreal Tournament III also has you pushing the right D-pad to talk. But you can change this button to any button on the PS3 controller. I have it set to L3, much like how you chat in Warhawk. Will this take away from the score of the game? Personally for my vantage point, no... This can easily be fixed with a patch and Mark Rein and his crew were already at work to fix it. I also expected a few coughs in the system right out th gate. Every FPS has had them so far. From Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (stats resetting, massive server problems) to Halo 3 (server problems, stats not saving).
The controls in Unreal Tournament III are as smooth as silk. I thought that the controls for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare were amazing, but this game has in my opinion the best feel, in terms of FPS. You can pretty much change every detail of how you play. You can even change from left-handed to right-handed on the HUD. Speaking of the HUD, you can changed that as well. If you are a PC gamer at heart you can plug in a USB mouse and a USB keyboard and use them for the PS3 version as well.
Another thing that you can do with Unreal Tournament III on the Playstation 3 is you can install the whole game on your PS3 hard drive. This will cut down tremendously on the games load times and it will make for a better gaming experience. You will still need the game disc (sort of acting as a CD-key) to play though. Unreal Tournament III has some of the best graphics I have seen on a Playstation 3 system. You really have to be playing this game on a High Definition Television to truly experience this though. The back of the box states 720p and like most of my games I play it on a regular television and then I move my PS3 to a 42inch 1080i HDTV. The results were jaw-dropping. The water effects are amazing, the colors and the textures are well defined. The character designs are beautifully done. Maps have their own unique designs. From cold snowy levels to city levels that dark and filled with bright neon lights and subway cars passing from above you. This game looks downright amazing.
The Graphics & Sound of UT3:
The new Unreal engine kicks ass. Just think of Gears of War but as a first-person shooter. And if you want fast-as-hell gameplay the Unreal Tournament III is your game. This game moves as smooth as silk and from the 2+ days I have played I have not seen a single drop in the frame-rate (take that you crappy-ass Orange Box port). You will get a few hiccups while playing online but that all depends on the server you choose. I try to find a game that has a ping of 0-500 to play. Anything that has a 1000+ will definitely have some lag. You can always host your own game though.
The thing that will also keep pumping new life into Unreal Tournament III will be the Modding. Once the Unreal gaming community starts kicking out some killer maps you will be able to take the PC maps, cook them with a program on your PC and then put them on a memory or flash card then upload them to your Playstation 3 so you can play the maps on your system. If you are playing someone online that has a map that you do not have, you will simply just download the map from them and it will be saved onto your Playstation 3 system for future play. If you do not like the map you can simply go into your community/content section and delete the ones you do not want. At the time of this review the Mod program was still being worked on getting ready for release. But judging from the past (Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 2004, etc) with the great community there are going to be some amazing maps to be had.
The music of Unreal has also been a huge plus for me. I love the mix of the orchestral/trance music. The original Unreal Tournament theme makes its way back to Unreal Tournament III as well as some awesome new tracks. My personal favorite is the theme to the Gateway level. The music is top-notch in Unreal Tournament III. Not only that, the sounds of the game are also top notch. I also like the sounds of the various vehicles in the game. A personal favorite is the Necris Darkwalker. This thing is huge and it looks like something out of War of the World. And when you climb into it the vehicles makes this very weird, ambient sound (it sounds like a whale crying).
Gamers can taunt each other with pre-set voices (left D-pad). There are all pretty funny and it features a ton of different voices, depending on which class and race your character is. And also returning is the UT announcer. The guy who does the main announcer voices rocks! With one-liners like "Double Kill, Triple Kill, and Head Shot" it just add’s a little more to an already kick-ass game. To tell you how much of an icon this guy is, since playing the original Unreal Tournament for the PC, every time I get a head shot in a FPS, no matter what game it is, I think of that damn announcer saying "Head Shot"... This dude left a mental impact in my brain from all of those nights playing UT.
The Bottom Line:
I did not think that this game would make it out the door in 2007. When I heard that it had gone gold and was going to be released on December 11th 2007 I was pretty stoked. I love FPS, and while I love games like Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, this was the game I was personally waiting for. This is to me, the name that started it all (especially for me). I spent many nights on my PC playing Unreal Tournament and modding the hell out of my character and the maps.
I am sure I will get some feedback for scoring this game a 9.5, but oh well. This is my review and this is what I feel this game deserves. I honesty love this game. Everything about it. From the modding to the graphics, from the gameplay to the music I love it. And yes, I paid for this game out of my own pocket so this is not a hallow review. I am sitting here trying to figure out what could be wrong to tell you guys but I can’t think of anything. Everything is just done so good that there really is nothing that would NOT merit a purchase. I can nitpick about the chat problem but that is something that can easily be fixed with a patch. The gameplay, the music, the graphics are all top-notch. If you are expecting a deep Halo-3 type storyline then look elsewhere though. That’s the thing, Unreal Tournament has NEVER been about storyline. It is all about getting online and lighting up some ass in Team Deathmatch or Capture the Flag. Mark Rein and his group at Epic have done a phenomenal job on Unreal Tournament III.
If you own a Playstation 3 system you need to own this game. If you want to play a first-person shooter done right, play Unreal Tournament III. This is how it should be done.
