Unreal Tournament

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Unreal Tournament
Developer(s)	Epic Games, Digital Extremes
Publisher(s)	GT Interactive
Engine	Unreal Engine
Version	436
Platform(s)	Dreamcast, Linux, Mac OS, Mac OS X, PlayStation 2, Windows
Release date(s)	PC November 30, 1999[1] PlayStation 2 October 23, 2000[1] Dreamcast March 14, 2001[1]
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ELSPA: 15+ ESRB: M
Media	CD-ROM (2)
System requirements	see System requirements
Input methods	Keyboard, Mouse

Unreal Tournament is a first-person shooter video game co-developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. It was published in 1999 by GT Interactive. Retrospectively, the game has also been referred to as UT99 or UT Classic to differentiate it from its numbered sequels. The game is based on the same technology that powered Unreal, but the design of UT shifted the series' focus to competitive multiplayer action, a trend at the time: id Software's Quake III Arena was released only ten days later.

Gameplay

Screenshot of Unreal Tournament.

Main article: Unreal (series)

UT was designed as an arena FPS, with head-to-head multiplayer deathmatches being the primary focus of the game. The game's single-player campaign is essentially a series of arena matches played with bots. For team matches, bots are again used to fill the roles of the player's teammates. Even on dedicated multiplayer servers, bots are sometimes used to pad out teams that are short on players.

UT is known and widely praised for its bot A.I., the product of programmer Steve Polge who had earlier risen to fame by designing the Reaper Bot for Quake, one of the earliest examples of an effective deathmatch bot. The player can choose a bot skill level (anywhere from "Novice" to "Godlike") or set it to automatically adjust to the player's performance. Bots can be further customized by changing names, appearance, accuracy, weapon preferences, awareness, and so forth.

Game types

• Deathmatch: A classic every-man-for-himself player vs. player combat. The objective is to finish the map with the most kills, or frags.
• Team Deathmatch: Teams compete together to out-frag the opponent team.
• Capture the Flag: Classic Capture the Flag. Players compete to capture the other team's flag and return it to their base. Competitive teams must use a great deal of teamplay. Both teams must defend the base from incoming attackers and get into the other team's base, take their flag and return to base. This requires that the team protect their flag carrier very well from enemies in order to complete their objective.
• Domination: Teams compete to control various control points to earn points and win the map. Standard maps contain three control points. Control of these points can be accomplished either through occupation (physically occupying the space) or from a distance.
• Last Man Standing: Similar to Deathmatch, the objective here is to remain alive longer than your opponents, putting an emphasis on number of deaths rather than kills. Players have a set number of lives and once they run out of lives they lose and have to wait as spectators till match end.
• Assault: This game type is played with two opposing teams, one assaulting a "base" and the other defending it. The map is set up with a number of objectives which the attacking team must complete (usually in sequence) such as destroying something, entering an area, triggering a button, et cetera. The team who first attacks then defends, and attempts to defend for the entire time they attacked. If they can accomplish this, they win the map. If the team defending first assaults the base faster than the other team, they win the map. If both teams defend for the maximum amount of time the map is a tie.

Pre-Release Version

A few months before the release date (March 1999), a pre-release beta version appeared on the internet. It was an unofficial leak. The build, based on Unreal Engine version 222, contained a large part of the maps that later shipped with the game, sometimes with different item placement and various other differences. There was no mutator menu, of all mutators only JumpMatch was available. Voice messages included callsigns, that were later scrapped. Last Man Standing and Assault were not fully implemented, Domination had slightly different rules of point acquisition. There was an additional game type in the practice session menu, Tournament DarkMatch, with only a single classic Unreal map available, namely Night Op. This gametype remained hidden in the retail version but is unlockable by a simple tweak. Still, to use it, one requires Unreal DarkMatch levels with the prefix changed from "Dk" to "TDK".

An unusual situation about this beta version occurred shortly after the leak, in April 1999. The game has been bootlegged and was in regular sales on various bazaars in Russia, Poland and other East-European countries. The trade was obviously illegal, but still the beta was selling itself pretty well. It started to disappear soon after the retail version release.

Reception

Unreal Tournament received wide critical acclaim from the press.^[10][7][11] Mainstream press reviews praised the graphics, gameplay, maps and multiplayer capabilities of the game. Computer Shopper concluded "Quake may have spawned the online deathmatch, but Unreal Tournament has taken it to the next level with its amazing graphics and fast-paced action. Online or off, this game rules!"^[16] In March 2000, Unreal Tournament was second on a list of best-selling games in Computer Dealer News trade magazine, behind Quake III Arena.^[17]

At Game Rankings, the Windows version of Unreal Tournament holds an average review score of 94%, making it the eighth highest rated Windows game released to date.^[11] Gamespot praised Unreal Tournament's graphics, noting "As good as the original Unreal looked, Unreal Tournament looks even better. The character models and skins look excellent, and there are quite a few choices to make when designing your character."^[4] Gamespot also praised the multiplayer gameplay, weapons and level design: "The first-person shooter genre is fiercely competitive. But Unreal Tournament rises above the rest with its solid multiplayer performance, from its good weapon balance to its great level design."^[4] The game was similarly reviewed by GameSpy, who concluded: "Unreal Tournament raises the bar for first person teamplay games. This game is stuffed with content and polished until it gleams."^[5]

The Macintosh version of Unreal Tournament was equally praised. Macworld dubbed it the "Best network shooter for the Mac", and gave it the Game Hall of Fame award in 1999.^[15] In its review, Macworld editor Christopher Breen stated: "If the violence and hardware requirements don't unsettle you, you'll find Unreal Tournament nothing but unwholesome, bloody fun."^[15]

The Playstation 2 and Dreamcast releases did not fare as well as the PC versions. The PS2 version has an average review score of 77% at Game Ratings.^[13] GameSpy criticized the graphics of the PS2 version, saying "Graphically, the PS2 version of Unreal Tournament seems uninspired."^[18] Its conclusion stated "Sluggish gameplay, somewhat washed out colors and textures".^[18] The Dreamcast version has an average review score of 88%.^[12] GameSpy's review said: "Well, believe it or not, there are lots of annoying features that drag the game down".^[19] GameSpy cited both slow framerate speeds and low sound quality as problems with the Dreamcast version.^[19]

Competition

Unreal Tournament was played at the World Cyber Games in the years of 2001^[20] and 2002^[21] where the title was contended for in a deathmatch 1 vs 1 environment. This is where UT was played on an international scale, where players from all around the world went head to head to see who would be crowned world champion.^[22]

Place	WCG 2001	WCG 2002
1st	GitzZz	GitzZz
2nd	XS|Pain	Shaggy
3rd	Xan	eVeNfLoW

Modifications

This section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (July 2008)

As Unreal Tournament is a popular game, many fans have taken the liberty of creating mods for the game. These range from slight changes on some aspects of gameplay (such as map voting) or to total conversions. One modification ChaosUT became popular enough that it was included with the 'Game of the Year' edition of the game, while Tactical Ops was released as a standalone retail product.

As with the original Unreal, the ease with which players can create and release mods to the core game is a key factor contributing to UT's longevity. UT improved upon the mod-friendly nature of its predecessor with support for mutators such as Sniper Arena, Instagib, JumpMatch, Low Gravity and more. Further, UT clans, or gaming teams, and a score of UT dedicated clan and fan community sites continue to sustain Unreal Tournament's popularity years after its initial release.

Music

Music sample:

Unreal Tournament theme

The Unreal Tournament theme music written by Alexander Brandon

Problems listening to the file? See media help.

The soundtrack for the game was primarily written by Alexander "Siren" Brandon, Michiel "M.C.A." van den Bos, Andrew "necros" Sega, and Dan "Basehead" Gardopée, the same music artists who wrote the Unreal soundtrack, although only Brandon and Van Den Bos remained credited for it. The game (in contrast to Quake, which used CD audio) employed tracker music, which resulted in a considerably good sound quality with very little size trade-off.

Two additional tracks were contributed: one ("firebr.umx") by Tero "Teque" Kostermaa and Kai-Eerik "Nitro" Komppa, and one ("razor-ub.umx") by Peter "Skaven" Hajba. These, however, remained uncredited for reasons unknown—Hajba's credits are in fact still intact in the instrument data in the file itself, and the original version of Kostermaa's song is available from his website,[1] although there are various differences.

System requirements

References

External links

• Unreal Tournament at the Open Directory Project