Inside Unreal Tournament

Epic MegaGame's visually stunning first-person shooter, Unreal, had killer graphics, expert level design, new enemies, a high-tech look, and one major tragic flaw that gamers began discovering shortly after the title's release - the multiplayer portion of the game was so laggy that it was almost impossible to play.

When we spoke to Epic's Cliff Bleszinski on Wednesday, at GT Interactive's offices in San Francisco, he said that in-house testing on that title was on track until one day when he went to try multiplayer... he saw just what many other gamers felt as a stab in the heart - laggy gameplay.

Epic's new title, Unreal Tournament, will change all that. The initial lag problem may have wounded the brand, but Epic's master programmer and founder, Tim Sweeney, "has beaten the issue down." He hopes Unreal Tournament will bring gamers into its moody environments to don weapons and frag like hell. When the title releases sometime between March and April this year, Epic plans to invigorate multiplayer gameplay with new modes, different types of matches, AI bots, new weapons, new devices, a new UI, and more attitude.

Built upon the Unreal engine, the title hopes to attract more casual gamers to its arenas with tutorials and simplified user interface. Epic found that while hard-core players can play almost any FPS title, causal users were finding that getting into Unreal was more difficult. (All gamers make fun of the first time they tried to get a family member to play an FPS... laughing while all they do is look at the floor.)

Tutorials in the game help new players learn the mechanics of capture the flag and other modes of play. Cliff showed us a demo of the CTF tutorial, and while more of us won't need tutorials for the finer points of gameplay, it could be good to help Deer Hunter casual gaming types to move up to something more challenging and engaging. It will also help your overall score as more victims come online.

In final form, UT will boast between 30-40 deathmatch arenas, smaller maps for different amounts of players (from 2-4, 6-8, and 10-16 players), for more focused action, five to six new weapons (including a new melee weapon), and better-looking skins.

Of all the big features that Unreal Tournament Epic touts, assault mode will grab gamers' attention the most. Assault basically places two teams head-to-head to protect certain objects in their area from harms way. The team that destroys all the other team's objects wins.

One level positions two teams on a moving train where they both try to beat the other by stopping the train. With motion blurred textures racing by on the train, it feels about as close as gamers will ever get to becoming James Bond.

Another level depicted a modern looking base where players target several computers to bring the base offline. As computers were destroyed, screens above flashed with warning signs of system malfunctions and the like. Next, Bleszinski showed off a great-looking WWII level (his personal favorite), two towers on an asteroid over a planet and a ocean level where teams have to travel under water to the other team's submarine base. Other levels are still on the way and we can only expect the ideas to be as fresh as these are to more engaging deathmatch experience.

Domination Match divides players into two teams who must secure strategy areas throughout a level. The idea is much like King of the Hill where players must defend themselves for those who want your position.

In Domination, King of the Hill the concept is taken to new level with multiple hills. After taking a specific point and holding it for ten seconds or so, your team is given a point. The team that controls the most points in a level wins the match. The level we viewed look similar to a CTF level where the area (without flag or other object) turns blue or red depending on who's in control of that area.

Tournament match allows gamers to set a frag or time limit in a particular match. One of the features in the timed events is that a voice will announce when there are five minutes left in a match and will announce each minute leading up to the game's end. And to round up the offerings there is the CTF mode.

Unreal Tournament adds several new weapons to the mix and some slight changes. First, the disperser from Unreal is gone and the automag takes its place at the bottom of the weapon list. Players will also have the chance to pick up two automags for ambidextrous John Woo firing bonanzas.

The introduction of a new melee weapon at first was a little controversial because the team didn't just want to add a club, ax, or bat to the mix. So a weapon called the impact hammer sucks in air to deliver a quick burst of compressed air through a pulverizing piston at the gun's tip.

The longer a player holds the button down, the hammer continues to suck in air. When you make contact with an opponent after hold for a considerable about of time, touching any opponent will frag them instantly.

Multiplayer matches are bound to get very bloody with a weapon like this. Another weapon called the pulse gun sends out concentrated green electrical bursts at oncoming targets with an alternative lightning bolt. A missile launcher called the redeemer fills over a fourth of the screen and sends out a large, slow moving missile with a big concussion. The alternative redeemer allows players to launch a visually guided missile where you control the missile path with your mouse. Great views could be pretty amazing when flying the missile around the in-orbit level or around another level where you battle it out in a tournament on an ancient Nali galleon ship.

All of these enhancements go along with the single-player portion of the game, instead of live opponents you'll fight against a series of AI bots with differing personalities. The single-player experience can be just as hard as the multiplayer, and if you beat the tournament robotic boss - you can choose to become him in the multiplayer portion of the game. If you see any robotic opponents running around in one of the multiplayer levels, you'll know that player has achieved "master" level status and will be a force to be reckoned with.

One new item in the game, called the translocator, answers gamers' pleas for a grappling hook-type weapon. Basically it works as a quick teleporter. You throw the destination module to a place where you want to get to and then while holding the source module, you teleport to that spot on command. This is good in case players fall off ledges, and it's good for telefragging or for running circles around an enemy.

Graphically, the title looks the same but adds more curved-like structures, new textures, highly detailed character skins and a bulkier look with more armor and mass (players complained that characters in the first title were too thin), and snow effects.

Gamers who choose to shy away from the Windows platform will be happy too. Unreal Tournament is also being developed for Linux.

As March comes closer, we're sure that we'll be hearing more about this title. Until then, Epic will still continue support on Unreal and the latest patch for the title includes better weapon sounds, better 3D card support, new hardcore and turbo play modes, better Internet play, and new deathmatch maps. All of these features will be married to UT when it releases. Stay tuned.