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Unreal Tournament III has finally arrived on PlayStation 3. Can Epic go two for two on next-gen consoles?
Published: January 20, 2008
One cannot mention Unreal Tournament without mentioning the tech, and the Unreal Engine is, frankly, stunning. Yes, you've seen what Epic can do on the 360 with Gears, but UT is in many ways Epic's break and butter, and it's gorgeous. For starters, I can count on one hand the number of instances were the game actually slowed down. It really is rock solid, and considering the development team pushed well beyond the understandably claustrophobic quasi-corridors of Gears of War into something a bit more open, it's all the more impressive.
The art team must have been giddy when they saw what they could do. Not only does the engine itself sport an insane amount of room to basically "fake" a CG-level amount of detail in everything from building facades to characters' faces, but it sports a solid lighting model and Epic's designers seem to have a huge hard-on for making things look... well, chunky. The result is a game that rarely -- if ever -- offers a straight edge in sight. Curves give way to thick, ornate outcroppings on buildings, armor is chipped, skin is wrinkled and pockmarked or scaled and scarred.
The game looks, frankly, like some of the best stuff seen on the PlayStation 3, but the sad shame of it all is that for the most part, players won't see it because they're running around killing guys. If you get the chance to actually fly around pre-level, you will see some of the coolest architecture ever put into any video game -- particularly the Necris stuff. The sheer vibrancy and detail of things is honestly humbling, and the fact that it all runs astonishingly well means that PS3 owners are that much more well off in Epic's capable hands (and if that agreement between Sony and Epic says anything, then hopefully so too will other developers, because let's face it, UE3 games on the PS3 so far have been... crap).
The audio also deserves a particularly giddy nod. Not only does the game sport most of the usual effects that you've come to love from the series: the over exuberant announcer, the explosions, squirts, blasts and reports from weapons all have solid bunch; the warbles and mechanical or other-worldly pulses from craft all carry a ton of weight, and all of it is done in deeeeelish 5.1, but what's truly impressive is the music in the game. From the update to the traditional theme to the way themes from Japanese and industrial themes were worked in the soundtrack, Jesper Kyd, Rom DiPrisco and Kevin Riepl did an absolutely killer job writing music that for the most part will never be heard because there's too much going on aurally otherwise. If you haven't listened to the themes on the Unreal Tournament III web site, you're missing out.
And then there's the fact that what's offer on disc is not the end. For years, console gamers have been slighted because the technology just wasn't there to give console gamers the ability to use mods and total conversions -- arguably the most important part of the better PC first-person shooters out there. Now, thankfully, Epic is actively supporting the mod community even on the PS3. The reason this review is so late is because, frankly, we wanted to know how long it would take to get mods for the PS3. The answer, surprisingly, was a matter of days.
Granted, for a while PS3 owners had to sit tight and wait for the tools to come out, and you still have to own the PC version of UTIII to get the tools to design your own levels, but Epic graciously released the tools to let PC mod makers re-package files to work with the PS3, and the results already are awesome. Mutators, tweaks to existing gameplay, are downloaded automatically when you connect to a game. Maps and new modes are as simple as dropping them on a USB drive (or, if you have the compatible ports on your PS3, any of the memory card formats). The process is insanely easy (though it has to be done one at a time, since all the files have the same name, which is a little annoying for newcomers), and it really does add to the longevity to the game.
Bottom line, though, Unreal Tournament III is an astonishing accomplishment in its own right. Epic delivered a PC-level multi-player first-person shooter on the PS3, and did it with no real compromises. This game kicks ass. It kicks tons of ass, actually, and it's secured a spot right alongside Call of Duty 4 as a default office gaming night activity. With all the mods and additions coming down the pike, it's only going to get better. If you like first-person shooters, and particularly if you like them with a keyboard or mouse, you need this game. It rocks, plain and simple.
