This last year has seen more Unreal Engine 3 games than you can shake a slimy, bump-mapped stick at. Everything from 1950's subaquatic dystopias to Luke Skywalker meets Debby Does Dallas has been assembled using Epic's controversial engine, and almost all have been lauded for their slick presentation. Riding the crest of this recent wave of UE3 titles is the one bearing its namesake. While it may be a little late to the party, Unreal Tournament 3 still manages to show off the bells and whistles of UE3 like no game before it – Gears of War included.
Looks have never really been an issue with Epic's flagship franchise, though. The real trouble with the Unreal Tournament series from the get-go has always been that they're highly-competitive, multiplayer only affairs that – to inexperienced players – can be next to impossible to get into. Couple the near-robotic skills of guys like Fatal1ty with the built-in voice chat of the modern gaming, and you've got a jumbo batch of casual gamer repellant. Sure, UT's bots are a cut above the rest, but playing against the computer still feels like a bit of a masturbatory cop-out. Besides, you'll be too busy rolling your eyes to pay attention to the game as the bots actually manage to recite worse lines than real internet trash-talkers.
What's sad is that Epic really went the extra mile this time to remedy that age old problem, but to little effect. The implementation of a single-player story mode is admirable – at least on paper – but it turns out to be little more than bot matches with uninteresting cutscenes. These cutscenes are an exercise in futility, explaining a world where people respawn regularly and war over FLaGs – yes, that's an abbreviation, and no, you don't want to know what it stands for. The narrative in Unreal Tournament 3 is such a testosterone-saturated mess of generic sci-fi that it makes the mostly brain-dead storyline of Gears seem like Hemmingway.
Luckily, the actual gameplay remains unscathed. In fact, aside from the substantially updated graphics, little has changed since the last UT. Yeah, there are a handful of tweaked weapons and new vehicles, but the lightning-fast gunplay of Unreal makes the debate over which piece of ordinance to use a brief one – whatever's handy usually does the trick. And then there are the hover boards, which honestly play, look, and feel dumb – let's go with a sprint button next time, thanks. At least the new Necris vehicles look cool, even if they are ripping off War of the Worlds. There have also been some changes to the game modes, but they're mostly just remixes of the classic Deathmatch, CTF, Assault, and Onslaught modes. Anyone who played UT2004 will feel more than at home here.
It may not be rocking the boat too much with the time-tested gameplay, but Unreal Tournament 3 has its place in history as one of the first console games to fully support user-generated content on a near equal level as its PC counterpart. At launch its implementation was a little on the haphazard side, but now it's more up to speed – though it still lacks any kind of in-game mod browser.
It's easy to forget exactly why UT has always been a top name in shooters after all these years – if you ever need a reminder, check out UT3 for some of the best designed maps you'll ever see. The imagination of the level designers at Epic really comes through on their newest title. One map, for example, contains three disparate areas that are connected by a system of portals; there's a lush jungle that gives way to an arctic wasteland, and just a wormhole away is a very Blade Runner-esque cityscape. All three of these sections are put together so thoughtfully and beautifully that they could easily have been fleshed out into individual stages. Another map is a space station set against a gorgeous planetscape, complete with sections of low and zero gravity that, upon entry, trigger distinct audio and visual filters. Again, none of these are necessarily new ideas for the series, but that doesn't stop them from being a little breathtaking once in a while.
Whether or not you're into its particular brand of spastic, twitch-based shooting, Unreal Tournament 3 maintains a presence that cannot be denied. Even in a year that saw Halo 3, Team Fortress 2, and Call of Duty 4, it's still worth looking into. Unreal Tournament, for better or worse, is back.
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7.5