10 years later, I STILL play this game. If you like your Deathmatch, you need not look anywhere else.
After playing the dozens of quality FPSs that have been released in the last eight years since UT, it has become clear to me just how balanced and noteworthy the weapon and level designs were back in UT.
While UT has a myriad of ways to play the game, by personal preference, its best mode is its classic "Deathmatch" which puts players in a free-for-all to rack up the most kills against their opponents. To this day, UT's Deathmatch is responsible for making most any other Deathmatch released in the plethora of other lesser-inspired games obsolete. UT was built for this, and it still shows vibrantly after all these years.
In fact, you might even be surprised that if you were to install the game now, you could probably run it at a significently higher resolution and color depth than you could 8 years ago. The graphics any dynamic lighting the game engine was known for have aged remarkably well.
The sound effects are top notch, too. Every item, weapon, footstep, and other subtle sound effects in the game are absolutely perfect (minus the grainy voiceover that commentates the brief intro when you first start up the game). Played in surround sound, the game's sound will help the player determine exactly what is going on all around.
The game's music was clearly inspired and designed to integrate into specific levels, of which some scores are repeated. The tunes are generally intense and carry a fast beat, but also have a stylistic flavor that mixes well into the art of thinking on one's feet. Quite simply, UT's music is the best to be found in any online FPS. Most similar games nowdays do not use music at all and expect the player to run through his or her MP3 collection if desired. As someone who loves his MP3s, I assure you that you will want the UT music playing for the first 100 hours. It's just that good. When playing this game with a small group of friends via a Local Area Necwork (LAN) connection (which I highly recommend), it is wise to include a single bot to keep players on their toes. The bot AI is remarkable and eerily human-like in its movement, aiming, weapon use, and situation handling. There are almost a dozen skill levels available with further options to customize the bots individually, such as if they have a preference for using a specific weapon or camping highly coveted locations on the map.
Speaking of maps, these are some of the best FPS levels ever designed. They're easy to pick up and play, and the level size generally feels just right. While some levels feel better suited to 16 players, they are still highly playable with just 3 or 4. Much like the maps, the weapons in the game are varied and easy to understand. Each weapon has two completely unique methods of fire. For example, the flak cannon can act as a sort of rapid-fire shotgun or as a small proximity grenade launcher. Furthermore, in addition to two primary fires per weapon, many weapons allow you to charge up their attacks for different results. For example, let's look at the rocket launcher:
First off, keeping your targeting reticle over an opponent for a good second without pressing or holding any fire button will cause the crossier to turn red. At this point, one should quickly fire a single rocket which will act as a homing missile to your opponent. Or, instead of waiting for any sort of lock, one could charge up to six rockets into the launcher by holding in the primary fire button, or up to six grenades by holding in the alternate fire button. The combinations are quite fast.
Each weapon has multiple unique uses, and there are absolutely no useless weapons in the game. The only weapons that could be argued disadvantageous are the two starting weapons: the pistol and the gibber. However, both of these can absolutely dominate given the right circumstances. On the flipside, the rocket launcher might feel extremely powerful to a newer player, but over time one will understand how rockets are easily dodged and predictable. That being siad, however, their payload is still remarkable.
There are a handful of other weapons including the shock rifle, railgun, sniper rifle, plasma gun, dual wielding pistols, and more. Then, there's the Redeemer. This is the epitome of an overpowered weapon. For those who played Doom, it is the BFG 9000 on steroids. However, it's overpowered in a fun gameplay sort of way; everyone will have their day with the redeemer. You can literally fly a single, giant missile manually through a level until it collides with an object or player. The blast radius is massive, and the sound of a redeemer missile in transit is unmistakable. However, unless the missile travels far from the player who shot it, the redeemer will claim that life as well. While I cite this weapon as overpowered, it is so overpowered that it can easily backfire against the person shooting it if used improperly. Generally speaking, it can double as a suicide button.
As if this wasn't enough for an amazingly fun game, there are several "mutators" and mods available immediately upon installation, and many more available for download. Every time you connect to a server that runs a specific mod you don't have, your computer automatically downloads it before you begin playing. These mutators and mods include all sorts of fun and unique settings including low gravity, sword weapons, absence or addition of specific weapons, new maps, giant levels, bigger players, and many, many more.
Ultimately, the weapons all feel excellent, and set a nearly impossibly high standard for the chaoticly fun FPS. That's UT, and that, is a perfect game. Even its sequals don't quite have the uniquely inspired balance of weapons, gameplay, and level design.
Even by today's standards, UT feels cutting edge. You may also very well find yourself saying, "they just don't make 'em like they used to."