I was a big fan of the original Unreal Tournament. The maps were really cool, the controls were fluid, and it was an easy game to pick up and play. Then they came out with sequels and add-ons like UT 2003 and 2004. These were pretty good games, but they changed the direction of the game altogether.Along came UT III. I'm still largely undecided on this game, but there are a few things I can talk about. First off, the graphics. I don't know if the graphics look better so much as dirtier and grittier. To get something to look real you have to give it an "aged" look, but practically everything in this game looks leathery and worn. Characters look like blobs floating around rather than actual objects. They look really pixilated to me. The environments look pretty stunning, at best, but at other times it's just too dark to tell what's going on. Add to that the fact that the game is really fast, so if you happen to log on to a well-populated DM server, you'll be fried before you can say "ouch".
I do like the fact that they incorporated some familiar maps, but they feel quite different. Maps that used to be bright and easy to move around in have turned into maps that are dark and monotonous. It's really hard to tell apart one object from the other, and when that happens to be an opponent... blam! you're dead.
A lot of the elements that made Unreal Tournament seem to be missing here. There isn't a lot of innovation to speak of, and the weapons are still basically the same. When you're getting shot at, your vision goes blurry, which is "realistic" I guess, but also terribly annoying and hard to recover from.
This isn't a full review by any means, as I have yet to play through the different modes, but if my first impressions are any indication, it wouldn't be a very good review.
