Why We Still Play Unreal Tournament

This article first appeared on USgamer, a partner publication of VG247. Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team.

Unreal Tournament

The original Unreal was the Crysis of its day; it was the game you loaded up to see if your new desktop PC build was up to snuff. These were the days of 3dfx Voodoo2, the Nvidia Riva 128, and ATI's Rage Pro. Unreal was a single-player game, with the player taking on the role of a prisoner stranded on an alien planet. It had great graphics, beautiful environments, and a host of alien foes to encounter. Unreal was the first full production from the Epic Megagames team.

Unreal Tournament was a completely different beast. It dropped the single-player focus for a fast-paced multiplayer battle in various sci-fi arenas. It was intended as an add-on pack for Unreal, based on programmer Steve Polge's Reaper Bots for Unreal competitor Quake, but it eventually ballooned into its own product. The bots allowed Unreal Tournament to provide multiplayer play even when you were playing alone, which was amazing at the time. It launched in 1999 with six game types: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, the area-holding Domination, Last Man Standing, and Assault. Assault was probably the game's most unique mode, pitting two teams against one another; one team held a fortified base, while the other was tasked with assaulting that base. The game also introduced some amazing maps to the series, like Facing Worlds or Deck 16.

Unreal Tournament was a hit, eclipsing the game that it had spun off from. The game spawned two iterative sequels, Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal Tournament 2004, and one all-new sequel, Unreal Tournament III. Most players tend to treat the latter as a different game from the Unreal Tournament 99, 2K3, and 2K4 chain. One factor in the long-life of the Unreal Tournament series was the focus on mods. UT shipped with the same tools that the developers used; players could create new levels, new games modes, and even new Mutators to tweak gameplay slightly.

Still, Unreal Tournament is an old game. Surely other shooters have surpassed the title since 2004. Why are there still people who jumping online to do some anti-gravity fragging in Morpheus?

Keep Your Feet Off the Ground

For some like myself, we play Unreal Tournament because there's nothing else out there that plays the same. 2007's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare marked a shift in the development of first-person shooters. Instead of the high-flying sci-fi action of Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 Arena, FPS games became more based in reality and trapped on the ground. If you were an Unreal Tournament fan, it's been a cold decade since 2K4 released. Only in the last year or so has UT's style of play has seen a return. Games like Shootmania, Titanfall, Toxikk, and even Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare seem to be acknowledging gameplay that's been missing in FPS games.

"I still play the original UT99 once a week because no other first person shooter is nearly as much fun," Unreal Tournament forum member WhipperSnapper told me. "I play on a server where old timers gather every Friday and Saturday nights. The original Unreal Tournament had near perfect gameplay and it just 'feels right'."

For Redditor TheMarginalized, the skill ceiling in Unreal Tournament is higher other FPS titles. They describe the feeling of flow when facing off against another high-level player in UT.

"When I play UT all that exists is me and my enemy. Everything else in my life fades to nothing."

Redditor TheMarginalized

"There are many attributes that comprise a great game, but this is one of my favs because high-level play is so much more rewarding," they explained. "When you meet another equally skilled player/team in high-level competition the intensity is amplified, the emotion is amplified, the struggle is amplified, the adrenaline flows. And when you get the kill - that sweet, sweet message that flashes across your screen telling you that you have vanquished your enemy after a struggle in which you both gave everything you had... oh, the feels. When I play UT all that exists is me and my enemy. Everything else in my life fades to nothing."

Fall Before the Onslaught

For others, Unreal Tournament's unique gameplay modes are the key. The first Unreal Tournament introduced Assault, but Epic later expanded that with the vehicle-based Onslaught mode in Unreal Tournament 2004. Onslaught has players capturing connected power nodes to order to destroy your opponent's base. It remains some players' favorite mode to this day.

"I played UT when it came out, but didn't really get into it as I was just getting into PC gaming at the time," said TheMarginalized. "I started playing 2K4 and soon found Onslaught. I fell in love. I played many hours on public servers and got pretty good before I learned of clans. Then I joined a clan, played on [TeamWarfare League] ladders and learned just how good I really wasn't."

"I played 2K4 and UT99 more than UT3 after it was released, because graphics and tech are just not enough to make a fun game," said Unreal forum member HenrikRyosa. "The older ones were more functional and the gameplay just worked on a level UT3 didn't. Onslaught was superior to [UT3's Warfare]. People also wanted to mod 2K4 and knew how, so we had many more fun gametypes and maps to play."

"Loading up a custom map with some mutators and fragging bots evokes memories of playing UT from years ago, so it's like literally taking a trip down memory lane."

Redditor Predalienator

Nostalgia, Just Like It Was Yesterday

Of course, Nostalgia still plays a part. Unlike Everquest, the base Unreal Tournament game is still in stasis. Epic Games has long since moved on, leaving the games in the hands of the mod community. That means when players fire up a UT game, it's still the same as they remember it.

"Played Unreal and UT99 as a kid. Ran one of the top [Last Man Standing mode, Instagib mutator] clans in UT99," said Redditor Tralexer. "I don't feel as if I've ever gotten so much enjoyment out of a game since. So I still fire up UT99 here and there to reminisce and remember a time when games were a big part of my life."

"Loading up a custom map with some mutators and fragging bots evokes memories of playing UT from years ago, so it's like literally taking a trip down memory lane since everything's the same (the sounds, the gameplay, the map layout, the general feel of the game)," added Redditor Predalienator.

Like SOE, Epic Games is hard at work on a new follow-up, simply titled Unreal Tournament. The game is in pre-alpha, and Epic has turned to the community for ongoing development feedback. You can get in on that action at the official Unreal Tournament site. If you want to play the originals, Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 2004, and Unreal Tournament III are available on Steam individually, or in the discounted Unreal Deal Pack.