Unreal Tournament 3 Preview

Man, it's been well over two years since I last played Unreal Tournament. I think many of you wholeheartedly agree that Unreal Tournament is still one of the top multiplayer shooters, right along side franchises like Battlefield and Counter-Strike. While Epic's main man, Clifford Bleszinski, is trying to catch his breath after the recent launch frenzy of the remarkably successful Xbox 360 shooter, Gears of War, overwrought masses of PC gamers are still biting their nails. Why? To put it simply, Epic isn't really showing much determination to bring GoW to the PC... yet. Epic supporters might, therefore, want to shift their gaze to the developer's long awaited multiplayer action game, Unreal Tournament 3 (AKA Unreal Tournament 2007), which is slated to arrive this year on both PC and PS3 platforms.

Amongst a whole range of fresh gameplay enhancements, the developers appear to be rather keen on the new vehicles that were fitted in since the last installment in the series. The Necris (the formidable alien race from the Unreal universe), for example, have been given a selection of nine Necris vehicles. For now, we know that players will have the opportunity to ride cool-looking one-man speeders (or rather hoverbikes), called Vipers. Each Viper was designed to be a highly maneuverable to help you make your way through crowded battlefields. The really cool aspect of the Viper is that players can execute an effective kamikaze move, by bailing out of the vehicle and thus inflicting a great deal of damage to surrounding players. That's not all that was promised. We're are also expecting to lay our hands on a hover tank that's colorfully named, Nemesis. This is a very powerful ground vehicle, with the ability to adapt to the terrain configuration as it moves. It also sports a mountable gun (very similar to standard energy turrets). Apart from that, more vehicles are on offer such as the Darkwalker and the Fury. Darkwalkers has a variety of useful features players are able to experiment with. This colossal three-legged menace fires a rather deadly laser beam in concentrated short bursts and is capable of dishing out some serious damage. Actually, these towering vehicles were frequently described as a crossover between the huge alien tripods we've seen in Spielberg's War of the Worlds and the persistent massive Striders from Half-Life 2. Each Darkwalker can be manned and operated by two players, which will surely make things even more exciting and intense during battle.

These are the main vehicles used by the Necris. Axon vehicles (used by the so-called Axon Corporation) also play a major role. In Unreal Tournament 3, you'll get to try out the following: Manta, Raptor, Scorpion, The Goliath, Hellbender, Cicada, SPMA, Paladin, Goliath and the gigantic Leviathan. To make things a bit more interesting, the developers have augmented each of these vehicles with a new feature or two. For instance, the UT 2007 version of the Cicada comes complete with missiles that home in on specific land targets.

We were quite pleased when we saw that the lads at Epic incorporated an interesting new element, which promises to enrich the spirit of the game even further. Each player will have access to Hoverboards - another useful one-man anti-gravity transport, which undeniably stirs up feelings of nostalgia, bringing movie classics like Back to the Future II to mind. Anyhow, Hoverboards come as a perfect transport solution for players who are unfortunate enough to remain on foot in mid-battle. It's, basically, a whole lot better than regular running since it lets you go three times faster. Pulling off stunts and tricks Tony Hawk-style was also slotted in for good measure. Unlucky players who manage to fall off their boards, will surely be sitting ducks for opposing players. But, the good thing is that you get to latch on to passing vehicles, enabling you to go through the area even faster. When all's said and done, we see this as another welcomed addition to the gameplay.

Of course, apart from the vehicles, UT veterans will surely want to know more about how the developers are handling some of the new modes in Unreal Tournament 3. If I remember correctly, Onslaught and Assault modes were among the favorite here in the AT office, as well as in the widespread UT community. For the next incarnation of UT, Epic is looking to provide us with an exciting new mix of XMP (from Unreal 2), Assault and Onslaught modes. This brand new mode has been named Conquest and was described as offering some innovating moments to the gameplay. The concept behind new-founded modes, such as Conquest, will allow players to take as much advantage of the large levels as possible. At the same time, the instant transport system was thrown in to help you jump into action almost immediately. Due to this, players won't have any trouble locating hot spots on the map and won't lose valuable time by wandering across the map pointlessly. The objectives in Conquest sort of mimic the design of the traditional Assault mode. Players advance by taking control of bunkers and, while they do so, missions will pop up for both teams (which change dynamically according to the given situation). They also mean to enliven the atmosphere with deployable items such as automated turrets and spy robots. Of course, if you just prefer digging into the usual multiplayer madness you've enjoyed in the previous game, you'd be happy to know that modes like Onslaught will be making an appearance once again. Unlike the good old Onslaught, which required you to capture specific control points and link up a specific number of nodes, Conquest denotes fighting for actual territories, the conquering of which results in additional tyridium resources (these are, by the way, the same energy source, included in the old shooter Unreal Championship 2). In all honesty, it's only fair to assume that Conquest will bring as much innovation to the gameplay as Onslaught did in UT 2004. As far as other modes are concerned, UT fans will be treated to Warfare, the aforementioned Onslaught mode, Deathmatch and Capture the Flag.

Yeah, yeah, but what about the weapons?

Well, through the most part, the arsenal is the same as before, expect now the all-time favorite minigun has switched places with a new weapon called the Stinger - it features an alternate firing mode, allowing you to let loose small shards to pin players onto walls. Next to that, there's the standard stuff really: starting from the devastating and ever-popular Rocket Launcher, to a heap of additional firepower like the Flak Cannon, Redeemer, Link Gun, Shock Rifle, AVRiL, Sniper Rifle, Dual Enforcers, Impact Hammer, Stinger and Canister Gun.

All potential gameplay novelties aside, Epic is hailing its newly enhanced multiplayer game as one of best-looking first-person shooters to date (next to Gears of War, naturally). According to most of the screens and footage we've seen on Unreal Tournament 3, the Unreal Engine 3 offered a huge step forward in terms of visuals (to say the least). The details shown on some of the maps and on the character models are sufficient evidence that the Unreal technology has advanced in many ways. Textures, shadows, reflections, level geometry were all brought to a higher level. At any rate, it's pretty much clear that the new visuals are one of the game's main selling points, which kind of puts things a wee bit out of focus. Isn't a game like UT supposed to center almost entirely on making breakthroughs in the gameplay department? All we can do is wait and see.

On a rather commendable note, Epic recently mentioned that, next to the multiplayer mode, the development team is also focusing greatly on the single-player portion of the game. Every single map offers a different outcome as you play, which, of course, significantly influences starting points and objectives of the next branching map. Another unavoidable step is the inclusion of the Unreal Tournament Tool Kit, which, according to the developers, stands as the best extension of the product that will provide more than enough possibilities for ambitious mod-makers.

To sum things up, the next chapter in the extensive Unreal Tournament series may very well be worth the wait. We only hope that Epic is capable of ironing out all the technical aspects, as well as online support, on time.