Spontaneous Sunday is back! - Unreal Tournament

Semester 3 is now under way, which means that Spontaneous Sunday is back! For the first instalment of semester 3, I have played an influential game from FPS history: Unreal Tournament (2001, Epic Games, Digital Extremes, PS2). Of course, Unreal Tournament runs on the first generation of the Unreal Engine, which has since evolved into Unreal Engine 4 which is my primary game engine, so it will be interesting to see how the engine worked in the early days. I'm playing it on the PS2 and the servers are no longer active, so I won't quite be getting the full intended experience, but hopefully the single player campaign will give me enough to work with!

"Unreal Tournament is a first-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. The second installment in the Unreal series, it was first published by GT Interactive in 1999 for Microsoft Windows, and later released on the PlayStation 2 by Infogrames, and on the Dreamcast by Secret Level. Players compete in a series of matches of various types, with the general aim of out-killing opponents."

- Wikipedia on Unreal Tournament.

What do I expect from the game?

I have never played this instalment of the Unreal series of games (I have only played UT3), but I am given to understand that it is something of a quintessential title in the FPS genre and was well-received by players and critics. Therefore, I expect good things from Unreal Tournament. I expect that its strong suits will be the core gameplay and mechanics. I expect that it will be a well-designed, refined and entertaining FPS gameplay experience at its core, though I expect it may lack the depth of later FPS games in that it won't have the same level of customisation options, upgrades and progression etc.

I expect that the game will show signs of age in such things as it's graphics, UI and audio, which is perfectly forgivable seeing as its nearly 20 years old. Level design, however, is timeless, and I am expecting good things from the levels. I have quite a lot of experience with later FPS games, so this will no doubt be an interesting insight into the origins of modern FPS design.

First Impressions - What do I think of the game in its first few minutes?

The front end is not really how I expected it to be. The visuals and music feel like they would suit a mediaeval RPG better than a futuristic FPS. The game is a port of the original PC version that was released in 1999, before the PS2 actually came out, and this is somehow recognisable when seeing and navigating the front end - though I can't quite put my finger on why this is. With it being an early PS2 game, it is on a blue disc, which I discovered today means its a CD rather than a DVD and runs less smoothly and with more noise.

After idling on the front end for a while, the game enters "demo mode" showing clips of in-game action. Oddly, the demo shows action from a 3rd person chase-camera perspective instead of the first-person perspective that the game is played in, but it still gave a decent demonstration of what to expect from the gameplay and graphics.

A screenshot from the Demo Mode

I started a new game and was given an option to choose from a handful of characters and to choose the difficulty level - I decided to play as a character called "Thunder" on "Skilled" difficulty.

Character select.

Difficulty select.

I played the tutorial level first, which is a church-like environment in which a female narrator tells you how to move around, jump, collect weapons and so on. There's also on-screen graphics of the PS2 controller with the relevant buttons highlighted. It's an effective and no-nonsense way of communicating the controls. The problem is, however, that the controls themselves are of a very strange configuration. The left stick controls looking with the Y axis and left-to-right strafing, while the right stick controls looking with the X axis and forward-backward movement, which makes moving and looking a rather difficult task. Meanwhile, jumping is achieved by pressing L2. I've never encountered controls quite like this before and I think that whoever was responsible for the controls made some questionable decisions. Nevertheless, the gameplay seems fairly solid, and the fact that each weapon has two different modes of fire adds another dimension to the combat.

Screenshot from the Death Match tutorial.

I then jumped into the first proper DeathMatch level: "Oblivion", which takes place on a space transport vessel that is taking contestants to the tournament events on Earth. To cut the game's back-story short, there is a war with an alien civilisation in the 24th century, and Earth mining companies have set up the tournament to pit their workers against each other in an effort to alleviate riots within the companies... It is slightly confusing logic, but I shan't dwell on it.

The first round went surprisingly well. The level features just one AI enemy. I quickly hit the 15 kill goal and my only death was at the hand of my own rocket launcher. I even began to get a better grip of the wacky controls! The second level was in a parking garage and saw the addition of a 2nd enemy combatant, which elevated the action and provided a greater challenge.

What do I like?

I continued to fight my way through the various arena levels, which took me through such environments as an underground water treatment plant and mining facilities. Though the graphics are dated, the creativity and quality of the level design still shines through. The levels are small, but this means that they are easy to navigate and the action is almost constant. The gameplay is very enjoyable, with just the right amount of challenge, lots of pick-ups and varied weapons.

The levels all generally have something different or unique about them. "Oblivion", the space transport vessel level, has windows that allow you to see out into space, with stars whizzing past as the vessel travels at light speed. The levels also have good layouts that compliment the gameplay well, with different sections and routes that can be taken between areas, and well-thought-out pickup placement. Unreal Tournament features a mixture of symmetrical and asymmetrical level design, which makes for more variety and gameplay opportunities. The levels visual themes are also good, with each one having its own sort of visual style.

After winning a few rounds of DeathMatch, I unlocked the Domination game mode. This game mode consists of two teams fighting for control over set points in the map. This has become a tried and tested staple of FPS game modes - and its easy to see why when you play it in Unreal Tournament (an almost 20-year-old game) and realise that its just as much fun as it is in more modern shooters. 

Levels are unlocked one after another, and eventually you also begin to unlock new game modes and characters. This is how the game incentivises and rewards continual play. This works well because each level and game mode is varied, so you remain interested and want to see what is next. Also, the quick rate at which you complete levels and unlock new things keeps the variation and rewards coming. It makes for a well-balanced input:reward system.

A control point in the domination game mode.

Aside from the single player campaign mode, there is also the "Practice Session" feature, which allows you to instantly get into the action quickly and play maps that you have unlocked in single player, aswell as a handful of pre-unlocked maps, as any character and on any difficulty. You can also modify game settings such as time limit and number of bots. This provides a more player-controlled, arcade-y experience which makes for a nice break from the single player campaign. Again, this is a good way of balancing the game.

"Condemned" - Probably my favourite map from an environment art view.

Other strong features include such things as the inclusion of a choice of different characters. While your character is rarely ever actually seen, the simple inclusion of knowing that you are controlling a character adds to your investment into the universe of the game. Feeling invested into a game ultimately makes the whole experience more enjoyable. The music is also a strong point. The game features a large and varied collection of music, with most levels having their own unique soundtrack. The music is mostly electronic and drum and bass, with some classical soundtrack too. The high energy music complements the visual themes and gameplay well.

What do I not like?

Given Unreal Tournament's age, I will admit that I expected to find more things to criticise. In reality, there is only a handful of bad things to pick up on. Firstly, there is the controls. As I mentioned previously, I have never encountered controls like those in Unreal Tournament. The movement controls are more akin to that of a vehicle than of a character. In the end, I was able to get used to them after about an hour of playing, but as I was playing I found it hard to overlook the fact that the controls just don't make much sense.

It's clear to see why the movement controls in Unreal Tournament did not become the norm as the FPS genre evolved. Throughout my time doing these Spontaneous Sunday blog posts, I have played a number of old FPS games including Hour of Victory (Xbox 360, 2007) and Brothers In Arms: Road To Hill 30 (PS2, 2005) and have realised that FPS controls have come a long way to get to the optimal, standardised systems that we see in current-gen titles. The evolution of FPS controls is fascinating to me.

Another of the game's negative points has to be the audio. While the music was very good, the SFX, voices and overall audio quality left a lot to be desired. This is particularly noticeable when taking a lot of damage, as your character lets out the same single pained noise many times in quick succession. The audio can often be quite low quality, particularly the voice over for the tutorial levels, which can leave it sounding muffled and jarring (and also sometimes genuinely drowned out by the whirring of the blue disc inside the PS2!).

Final Thoughts

Overall, Unreal Tournaments interesting level design, solid core gameplay and mechanics, well-designed progression/unlock system and varied game modes make it a very enjoyable classic FPS experience. The action is fast-paced and fun. It is definitely deserving of its status as an influential game in the history of the genre. It's downsides, such as the unorthodox controls and audio quality issues, are forgivable given the game's age. Playing Unreal Tournament has been an interesting and insightful experience and I now feel like I have a better understanding and appreciation of the origins and evolution of both the FPS genre and of the Unreal Engine.