Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Great multiplayer"

Unreal Tournament III is (ironically) the fourth installment in the series, released several months after the PS3 release on Xbox 360. I'm ashamed that I did not buy this game sooner. It's an awesome multiplayer game, if you can get over the underwhelming single player and pop in graphic problems.

UT3's single player campaign has you playing as Reaper, a member of the 'Ronin' squad. A the start of the game, you are seen defending a colony from an army of Krall and Necris invaders. You and your squad are defeated, but you survive alongside several other members. It sounds interesting at first, but the backstory loses its charm fairly quickly. You are eventually sent in to another colony to counter Iron Guard and Liandri attacks. The missions are simply multiplayer matches slapped on with infrequent cutsenes and a backstory. After a while, the missions get less exciting. There is co-op and splitscreen, but it does little to lighten it up. Only achievement whores and UT fans will appreciate it.

The FPS HUD is pretty well laid out and be customised in the options menu, which is handy enough. The variety of weapons is nice, ranging from Shock Rifles to Flak Cannons to Rocket Launchers. Weapons have a primary and secondary attack, which can be used to chain attacks. Using the weapons are a lot of fun and smashing an enemy to bits is pretty satisfying stuff.

Visually, the game rocks. Unreal Engine has yet again proven how it makes games on Xbox 360 look so detailed. Guns, textures, set pieces and character models are extremely well detailed. The only letdown is the odd frame rate problems and annoying pop in graphics. Though not constant, they can be pretty annoying when they turn up. Everything in the game is lovely and at times, I was caught staring at the awesome looking textures in the middle of a match.

The sounds are pretty good. Explosions sound meaty and the techno-ish soundtracks are catchy. Voice acting is okay, but some of the dialogue is pretty cheesy and some voice actors don't really put much effort into what they are reading from the script. Reaper's voice actor is guilty of this. But it's generally tolerable.

The multiplayer is where the game shines. There are several game modes to choose from. Team and normal deathmatch, capture the flag, 1v1 duels and Warfare mode. There are also LOADS of multiplayer maps for each game mode, so it'll be pretty long before the variety tones down. You can choose to play offline with pretty intelligent bots or online with your friends. Either way, it's loads of fun and it's very chaotic stuff. Deathmatch is pretty standard, but more complex modes such as CTF and Warfare requires some strategy. Bots can also be customised to suit your gaming standards. From the simple 'Novice' option to the extremely challenging 'Godlike' option. Certain perks called 'Mutators' can modify the multiplayer experience. It's a load of fun an you'll spend a long time playing.

Overall, UT3 doesn't try a lot new, but it still has an awesome multiplayer. The single player is rather disappointing, with a dull plot and boring missions. And there are graphical problems here and there.

If you like multiplayer games, buy this if you already haven't checked it out. Single player fans should resort to other games for their beloved single player campaigns.

:)
Awesome visuals
Great multiplayer
Loads of variety
Meaty guns

:(
Boring plot
Frame rate problems and pop in graphics

8/10