Unreal Tournament 3
Posted By: Richard on Oct 26 2008

Epic Studios is back with Unreal Tournament 3 and the lightning fast sci-fi shooter franchise finally makes its way back to Xbox360 owners. Quick reflexes will be a necessity if you plan to survive and the fast paced style we have come to expect from the franchise is delivered in force. UT3 has a large campaign backed up by AI that is actually useful when on your team and smart and is also challenging to play against. The mining colony you call home is overrun and you find yourself seeking revenge and the fastest means to that end is working as a mercenary. Through a long series of missions played out through the various game play modes, you will fight for the revenge of those you lost. Cards gained during play can be used to tip the scales of battle in your favor by calling in reinforcements, increasing your team's health and armor, or limiting your opponents forces.

The game play was solid, with controls that worked well with hardly any real bugs save selecting the weapon you want during combat. The RB cycles through them one at a time, while holding down LB brings up a circle from which you can use the right stick to chose which weapon you want. This was apparently done to mimic the function keys of the keyboard, but is takes too much time in a game that moves so fast you need every second you can get. A mini-map on all levels would have been nice instead of only having one on certain game modes, since even the medium sized levels require a good deal of playing to memorize and the large ones are difficult to navigate until you begin to locate landmarks. With six modes of play and various multiplayer experiences to be had, you will find yourself putting months of play into this game. As if that wasn't enough, Xbox 360 sports some time-consuming achievements, including one for getting 200 kills on each of 50 separate days. With the addition of the new Warfare mode that has two teams fighting to destroy each others' power core while defending their own, multiplayer keeps things going with capture the flag, vehicle CTF, death match, team death match, and the one-on-one death match, duel. Unreal Tournament 3 has huge maps that require a lot of exploration and Xbox 360 owners are treated to five new ones exclusive to the system along with two new characters. Online suffers from little lag, though I did notice a small amount when traveling on lift platforms in longer games. Not enough to upset game play really, but it was there. Otherwise, online multiplayer ran smoothly, allowing you to fill in empty slots with bots if necessary and offering every option available offline.

All the vehicles were fun to drive, though a bit rough when maneuverability got tight. Each of the fifteen was unique, including one that had cloaking technology and a couple that could fly. The one that really stood out was the DarkWalker, a multi-story tall tripod walker seemingly straight out of War of the Worlds. On one Warfare map I piloted this thing down city streets operating side mounted particle accelerators. All that stood in my way was crushed by my might. There are eleven weapons, each with two modes of fire mapped to the Right and Left Triggers along with an additional piece of equipment determined by the type of game you are playing. In smaller games, where no vehicles are used, you are given a Translocator gun which can fire a pad that you can teleport to by pressing the alternate fire on the gun. On maps where travel over long distances is required, a hoverboard replaces the translocator. Once on the hoverboard, you travel at a fast pace over the terrain but are a sitting duck for anyone who spots you. Luckily, you can fire a grappling beam to link up with any vehicle passing by for a bit of a speed boost. The standard power-ups are there: invulnerability, invisibility, as well as damage amplifiers, armor, and health power-ups. In addition, there are several deployable items that can help turn the tide of battle including an EMP mine that renders vehicles useless for short amounts of time and Stasis fields slowing to a crawl anyone caught within them.

Epic really showed what they could do with the graphics in Unreal Tournament 3. The levels were amazing to behold with tons of detail and variety. Several times I completely forgot what I was doing and simply wandered around staring at the landscape. The characters are also very well done, their outfits showing the differences of their cultures. The weapons seemed to be the only thing that Epic slipped up on in the art department, although in classic Unreal Tournament style they seemed a little out of place considering their surroundings. But this is only a minor thing when compared with the gorgeous vistas and dank urban streets that are simply jaw dropping.

Sound quality in this game was one area that I felt a bit let down upon experiencing. Outside of the menu screens there is no soundtrack to keep pace with the on-screen action. The voice work for the taunts got old after awhile, hearing the characters complain about he same things over and over started my hand moving towards the mute button. And what would I have lost? Weapons fire had very little punch behind it, when the rocket launcher is just as loud as the pistol, or the shock rifle creates as much thrill as the mounted guns on the Darkwalker, a little more work is definitely needed. The announcer gives out tips on your objectives and what you need to be accomplishing, but her voice is bland and states the obvious.

With nonstop action, lots of maps, amazing graphics, and replay value abound, this is one you will be playing for a long time. Keep your head down and your machine gun loaded. Unreal Tournament 3 has arrived on the Xbox 360 and, despite a few flaws, was worth the wait.