The best Unreal Tournament and one of my favourite shooters.
The story was never a strong point in the UT series, and it isn't a strong point here either. All it is is an excuse to let you practice and try all the new modes before you go to multiplayer. The strange thing is that it was quite fun making your own team, letting each other cover each others weaknesses, etc. The bots were actually quite challanging and the campaign proved to be quite fun. The Unreal Tournament series never really needed a big story behind it because it's supposed to be, you got it, a tournament.
The multiplayer is where this game really shines. No shooter has got me into a multiplayer game like UT2004 did. The fast paced, twitch mechanics make for some great shoot outs. Constantly looking behind so you don't get fragged while trying to expload someones face really makes it fun. UT2004 has enough game modes so you can always have a diffrent experence.
The gameplay is very fast paced and requires very quick reflexes. It is much faster than shooters like Halo or CoD so you always have to be focused or you'll end up fragged. UT2004 brought some cool changes such as vehicles, and a new game mode in Onslaught.
Overall, this is a game that no fan of shooters should miss, if you enjoyed UT99, you owe it to yourself to play this game.