After the release of Doom & Quake by the popular Id Company, many games followed in its wake.  Perhaps one of the greatest and most intense (and old school) first person shooters (FPS) I ever played was Unreal Tournament (UT).  This review (writing at this time) is about the first Unreal Tournament, not the other ones that follow.  I’m just stating this now so that there is no confusion to follow.

UT, just like many other FPS’s, follows the same premise: kill or be killed.  This doesn’t mean that are objectives to be followed!  Similar to Doom & Quake, there is a single player mode but unlike normal FPS’s I’ve played this one utilizes its single player mode by making you play the other various modes.  The storyline is simple: survive and win the tournament. 

UT offers many different styles of game modes.  This is also the first (I think) game to offer various different kinds of modes for a FPS game unlike other games.  Because of these modes that are in UT, the games replay value is pretty high, even to this day.  Like other FPS games, you of course, have your basic single/team death matches.  In which, the objective is to make a certain amount of kills (frags – yeah they stole that from Quake series) to win the match.  You can either win a total of kills or have the most kills when the time is expired.

 
UT offers also Capture the flag (CTF) which is pretty self explanatory in FPS games.  Defend your flag while capturing the enemy’s flag.  UT is very fast pace on this mode as well.  It’s exciting to see ‘The enemy has your flag get it back!’ or ‘You have the flag! Return to base!’.  When I played other FPS games (at this time), they didn’t do this in previous FPS games (course if I’m wrong please correct me! :P).

One of the main aspects that makes UT innovated is of its two additional modes: Domination and Assault.  In domination, the objective is holding down certain checkpoints (by touching them).  When you hold down these checkpoints for a certain amount of time, you earn points.  The team with the most points at the end (time limit games) or reach a certain amount of points wins. Assault is a bit different.  In assault, you’re given mission objectives (similar to an actual single player mission game).  The objectives for each assault are different but the concept is simple.  The first round, the defending team must defend the base for a certain amount of time.  If they are able to defend the base the entire time, they will win the match.   However, if the opposing team is able to breach the base and win within the time limit, the defending base will have a chance to assault the same mission but in faster time the other team accomplished.  So suppose there is a time limit of 10 minutes and the attacking team wins within 7 minutes.  The teams are switched around and the previous defenders must win within 7 minutes or less.

This is one of the few FPS games I actually enjoy playing with bots.  Bots are ‘colorful’ in this game version always talking you down and making you feel like crap (of course you can also do the same taunts back).  Additionally, you can issue orders to the bots and they follow your orders pretty well.  They will even (you can do the same thing in an actual multiplayer game) confirm your order.
Lastly, but not least UT comes with a variety of cool weapons you can use.  You have your machine guns and rocket launchers but there are also neat weapons such as a laser rifle and a slime gun.  Also, weapons can fire two types of shots.  So using your weapons and the way you fire them can be important at crucial moments. 

UT is still played to this day and many people still host LAN parties and there are many internet games out there (although some of them tend to get a little bit modded out making the game play strange but fun nonetheless).  If you like FPS shooter games and if you’ve played other UT games but never the original…check it out it’s a pretty good game still for its time.
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Graphics: 0.900/1.000: (For its time the graphics for this game were great.  Some graphics weren’t fully detailed on some maps (or the characters themselves) but that overall did not hurt the game.  Blocky graphics were something common back then.)

Sound: 1.000/1.000: (Fast paced soundtrack and an easy going soundtrack (depending on the map you played) blend in very well with this FPS game.  Characters voice acting isn’t weak and it’s pretty serious.  Although, after while the voice acting may tend to get old.  Characters screaming, bodies blowing up, and guns going off all go in well with this game.)

Control: 0.950/1.000: (The games main menu may appear unfriendly to some gamers.  Accessing taunts/commands to the bots may prove cumbersome as there are no quick hot keys to do that.  Controls themselves are very responsive and unless lag kicks in, the game controls are very well done.)

Storyline: 0.300/1.000: (Perhaps the weakest point of the game.  This game didn’t have a storyline other than the introduction.  Crush your enemies….to win the tournament.  That was the main objective.)

Gameplay: 1.000/1.000: (One of the most fun and fast pace FPS games I have ever played!  UT is extremely strong in this category.  As I said before, if you haven’t checked out the original, check it out!  See where it all began!)

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