Reader Reviews

Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC)

by Kami

I missed out a generation of this game. I never played UT2003. Reason 1 was - my PC could never have dreamed handling the game. It could only by the end barely handle Doom! [Editor's note: He means the original Doom, too! This review is actually from March, and only resurfaced in the wrong email folder recently...] Reason 2, even if I could have got a new PC, I didn't have the cash.

So, downloading the UT2004 demo on the spangly new PC, I was struck by how much FUN the game seemed. Multiplayer was fun, Onslaught was hilarious and so on. So, straight on to pre-order UT2004. And I've spent most of the weekend playing this game.

So, what's it like in single-player? Well, not good. I go straight for a challenge, so I go straight for Skilled (Somewhere in the middle). And it put up one heck of a fight! One bombing run, in the Ice Fields, we were at a stalemate for nearly two hours. Two hours of frantically trying to score a goal. We'd get it to the enemy base, we'd get it pushed back to ours, and so on and so on. Two hours would usually frustrate any human being - especially me, and it successfully managed to do so.

UT2004 starts off simple and gets complex very fast. There's probably more to this game than meets the eye. Adrenaline Bonuses, Double and Quad Jumps, leaping around to avoid instagib fire. It doesn't overwhelm too fast. But the difficulty curve is definitely noticeable (perhaps a bit TOO steep) and you'll fast realise that some of the missions - especially the last Assault, attacking the Skarrj mothership, while they LOOK good in theory, are actually painful to play.

What lets UT2004 down very badly is the AI. Head-to-Head matches are almost unloseable. And in Bombing Run and in Capture the Flag, your teammates have the most stupid tendency to run around the enemy base, or take the ball back to YOUR base! What follows is a string of obscenities being yelled into your microphone that UT2004's virgin ears have never had to suffer before.

The maps are varied. Some are wonderful, detailed and great fun to play. Others, like the Junkyard, are a confusing mess and some are so small and so symmetrical that they are downright dull. Some maps are clearly more inspired by others. Some are just so sloppy that you really wonder why you re being forced to play it. Some more effort on some of the maps was all that was required to make them half-decent.

Also, the weapons... now, don't get me wrong. Rocket launchers, flak cannons and miniguns are always fun. But, the Link Gun's alt fire homes in and drains your foes energy (much to the delight of the noob fraternity. Explain that soon!) and is very, VERY hard to avoid, the Lightning Gun is a cheap and weaker version of the Sniper Rifle (Despite the fact it seems to lock in although it's not a weapon I like so I don't really use it.), and the Ion Painter is just far too convenient for it's own good, again, much to the delight of noobs.

The final killer of the single-player - are the awful loading times. Nothing will prepare you for the agony that is the loading. It's dreadful, as you wait... and wait... and wait... it's frustrating. And really, not what I expected.

OK, so I move along to the online play. Thankfully, the feature that redeems the game somewhat from it's tedious single-player modes. It's far more fun to play certain maps online than to play them alone - then, this is a multiplayer-orientated game, and that much is even evident in single player.

However. I remember UT being a rather skilled game to play well. I remember it being fun and frantic, and the community generally anti-tard. UT2004 suffers very badly right now. Already, there are hacked servers which provide a very poor gaming experience. There are noobs who relentlessly use weapons that lock in, to save them mastering the skill of aiming correctly. There are fools who tirelessly grab super weapons and just kill everyone, despite the fact that you are actually playing CTF! And many tards who just shoot everyone, even their own team-mates, because they just don't get the team element.

And so far, no-one seems to care. I have resorted, nay, retreated, to the Gamespy Arena servers for a decent online match-up. Which is a huge, crying shame (especially since I like playing AS-Convoy and I can't do that on an Arena server) and ruins it for those of us really wanting to have a good time. All you'll get over your speakers right now is abuse, language and hatred - it'll get better. But it's a real shame that the voice recognition wasn't set up to delete or bleep certain words. Some of the verbal abuse is so colourful that you eventually get sick of hearing it, and the Kick Voting while a nice idea in theory, does not work particularly well in practice.

A proper, decent online match is rather enjoyable, as you all work together to have a good time. You back each other up, one person hops in a tank another will jump in the support turret - when being played in the right place and with people who don't generally leet-speak or get peeved at dying too much, you can all have a good laugh. The mic becomes your friend, as you all laugh at vehicles being blown up, chuckle at a spot of road kill, and request back-up for the group to dutifully arrive and help. But finding matches like these is very hard at the best of times and those who don't have access to Gamespy Arena servers will end up trawling through numerous poor games in search of a match that will provide some FUN.

So. UT2004. I'm sure it was a good thing for me to miss a generation of UT because I can appreciate how far this game has come. Onslaught is a great addition to the series, as is the voice recognition built in. What lets it down, is bad loading times, sometimes ridiculously stupid AI, and the rampant flux of 'tards who have managed to get a copy of the game too.

If you love UT, then this is a great game. If you like shooting people with rocket launchers, hey, this is your game. If you're looking for an online experience with a single player mode that is polished enough to hone your skills... this isn't the game you want, and I'd probably point you towards something like AvP2 or Wolfenstein for your violent kicks.