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RealGamer :: PlayStation 3 :: Reviews :: Unreal Tournament 3 Review

Unreal Tournament 3 Review

Written by: Darren Cartledge Posted: 4th March 2008

Unreal Tournament 3 Score:

9 Excellent

Unreal Tournament 3 was probably one of the most anticipated games of 2007 for the PC, and now it makes the transition to the console format with its debut on the PlayStation 3 and thankfully, unlike some games in the past it does it well.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the Unreal Tournament game, the series has its roots firmly planted as an epic multiplayer first person shooter, and this is obvious from the games single player campaign mode!

The story of the single player campaign follows Reaper and his crew who are hired as mercenaries by Malcolm after their mining colony is wiped out by the Necris, who you are just waiting to get your revenge on. During the campaign you have to compete against bot controlled characters for control of territory before moving on to the next battle. Largely the campaign mode is uneventful and as the game is geared towards multiplayer action, the single player mode simply serves as a training exercise for this! Although the games campaign can be played online aswell with players joining you playing against bots!

As mentioned several times already, Unreal Tournament games are all about multiplayer action and the PlayStation 3 version is no different. The game has plenty of options so any first person shooter fan should find something that appeals to them.

The game features all the usual modes you would expect to find in any multiplayer first person shooter. Deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag and vehicle capture the flag. There’s also the opportunity for some one on one action with the games duel mode, so you and a friend can have your own private battles. The final battle type is Warefare which was formerly conquest. In this mode you have to capture points known as nodes before making an assault on the opposite teams core! The first team to have their core destroyed loses! Warfare also includes several nodes that can be captured at any time, giving the controlling team access to vehicles, weapons and additional spawn points.

The game features a good selection of maps that are pretty varied, some are huge and will have you hunting other players down while some are cramped and you will be spawning in the middle of fire fights, making for some very intense and extremely fun battles. The games controls have been kept very simple and its easy to pick up and start playing. R1 is used for your weapons fire with L1 being used for alternative fire. Movement is controlled by the left analogue stick while your aim is controlled by the right analogue stick. The game uses the same movement controls for vehicles except to steer you simply aim in the direction you wish to head in and the push-up on the left analogue stick. It can be a little tricky to get use to so it’s probably worth playing with vehicles offline first.

Unreal Tournament 3 features a good arsenal of weapons and vehicles all of which will be familiar to fans of the Unreal games. Most vehicle maps also allow you to get around the environments by the use of a hoverboard that is deployed by pressing the square button, you can also hitch a lift when using the hoverboard by anchoring onto the back of another vehicle, although this can be a little annoying if the other player hasn’t mastered vehicle control. On maps without weapons the square button deploys the transponder gun which you can use to reach high ledges by firing a reciever onto a ledge, then when you press the alternative fire button you will be teleported to that location.

On the whole the game provides an excellent player experience although there are some issues with lag, which can be fairly bad expecially on the smaller maps, also at times it can be difficult to even connect to a server to play onwhich is rather disapointing.

Graphically Unreal Tournament looks excellent with great looking character models and vehicles. Character movement is very authentic and the game features an excellent pyhisics engine that sees your character flop to the floor in a highly realistic way when yo are killed. Environments are also highly detailed and feature some nice effects such as snow, smoke and so on. Sound in the game is pretty good, voices are exactly what you would expect from an Unreal game, while the game features an excellent action soundtrack. Gun fire and explosions also add to the action packed feeling of the game.

Unreal Tournament 3 is probably one of the most action packed first person shooters available for the PlayStation 3. Yes it may have a few problems and the single player campaign maybe a little shallow, but all that doesn’t really matter when multiplayer action is this good!