UNREAL....that Epic failed with this one too

Ok, before I get to the review and start another rant, I need to explain. My review for Halo: Reach will be next wednesday. Like I said, I'm doing something different with it, and I want to make sure I have everything I need to do it. So please bear with me just a little longer.

With that out of the way I'm gonna rip into...

Yes friends, I'm going to rip into a series that I myself has praised, well kind of....

Unreal Tournament for those who have never played one, is a fast paced, frantic, ultra-violent frag fest. The basic premise of the Tournament, is to kill everything (Deathmatch), kill everyone on the opposite team (Team Deathmatch), and to capture a flag while killing the other team so they can't get your's (Capture the Flag). The standard gametypes that are in EVERY shooter now. It pretty much started with Unreal Tournament.

The with any Unreal Tournament has been light, you're the captain of a team, and you're fighting in the tournament to gain recognition and fame. While light, the single player isn't really why UT has been a staple for most "hardcore" gamer's collections for years. It's the multiplayer that keeps em coming back. I consider myself a UT fan, I picked up the first one for the PC and been playing it ever since.

When I heard that there was a UT coming to the Xbox 360, I nearly wet myself. It came to the PS3 first, and so I had to wait even longer to get my hands on it, and the foam started to show itself on the corners of my mouth. The day finally came when I got my hands on the game and...........I wish I could wipe away the achievements that I managed to get for this steaming pile of crap.

Let me start off by saying this was made by Epic Games, makers of my highly praised Unreal, Unreal Tournament, and the abomination that is Gears of War. I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I thought to myself, it can't suck worse than GoW.....I took one look at the main character, and character models, and about burst into tears.

Marcus Fenix....might as well be

The main character looked, and sounded like Marcus Fenix, from GoW that I almost threw my controler down and walked away. If only I had. The character models look like they were lifted from the same game. Gone are the unique and stylized look for the characters that made the other UT games fun to play. It felt like the Locust were going to burst out of the ground at any second and I would have to press my back to a wall to keep from dying. The voice acting hurt me too, it was the same gruff voice coming from each of the GoW esque characters. The only solice I got was from the female voices, but even that sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

The singleplayer story is bland as well. I know that's not saying much for a UT game, but when it's the typical "my brother was killed by this person and I want revenge" story, it's feels like Epic just didn't care. The single player does a good job of letting you get your feet wet without going in to the Multiplayer aspect. You get to learn the maps, find the weapon spawns, and get a general feel for the gametypes. That's about all it's good for.

She killed your brother, what are you gonna do about it?

The graphics, I will admit are stunning. I found myself staring at a particularly great looking shot of the planed from an orbital platform. Then I was brought back to reality when I was shot from behind. For the most part it's a beautiful game.....though the grey of GoW does show itself more often than it should. As much as I hate to say it, seeing those kind of graphics covered in grey just makes me sad when I think about the other games in the series.

I feel so insignificant

There are some additions to the gametypes as well. You get the standard ones, but there's a variation on the CTF, and you can play in vehicles. I didn't get to play UT 2004 so this was my first experience with the vehicles, and let me say it was pretty good. There's also Warfare (think of assult on steroids) and Duel (1v1). This adds some hefty options to play in. I will admit that I played Warefare with bots till I was blue in the face, I couldn't get enough of it.

HOOK ON!

There is multiplayer as well, and it's...well multiplayer. I didn't really go to indepth with it as I'm getting to a point where I'm tired of playing multiplayer, and there's better games to play than this for it.

All and all, this is a game that in my oppinion just sucks. It feels like Epic has completely forgotten their roots, and went with GoW as the only thing they want people to play. We all know how I feel about GoW, so if you really want to play this, rent it. Everyone else, you should probably just avoid.

Thanks for reading,

Vangle