Game: "Unreal Tournament 3"
System: PC
Genre: Action
Published by: Other
Reviewer: Dr. Boogie
Posted: 4/14/2008
Review: Man, is this really only the third game in the series? It sure feels like there's been a lot more, like 8 or so. Seriously, though, the game is, Tournament-wise, only the third, assuming that you collapse UT 2K3 and 2K4 into one game, since that is what Epic decided to do.
The idea that people would willingly endure one gruesome death after another, knowing that they would "respawn" after being killed was a weird enough plot element, but UT 3 decides to take this a step further. Apparently, military organizations can get their hands on the "respawner" devices used in the eponymous tournament and set them up during a battle, at which point small teams of fighters kill each other until they can no longer return from the dead. I'll give the writers credit, it's about as much sense as you could get from setting, but it's still more than a little weird, especially given that the first single player mission is a brother and sister gleefully blasting each other to bits.
Story aside, the game boasts numerous new vehicles, in addition to carrying over all the vehicles from UT2K4. However, if you're hoping that UT 3 will do what UT2K4 did, adding new content in addition to all the old content thus rendering the previous installments irrelevant, well think again. UT 3 is missing several game modes seen in its predecessor, including Last Man Standing and Assault. The new Warfare mode is vaguely similar, but there's really no way to recreate the kind of levels used in Assault, and that's a damn shame.
Graphics-wise, the game looks pretty slick. The Unreal Engine 3 turns out some great character and background models. At times, though, it shows the same sort of grey fetish seen in games like Gears of War, but for the most part, the textures are fairly colorful and well-made.
If you're an old fan of the series, you're probably going to miss Assault, but there's still plenty of other modes to enjoy. Just not as many as there should be.
Overall rating:
(Scored on a 0.5 - 5 pickles rating: 0.5 being the worst and 5 being the best)