I'm a huge fan of Unreal Tournament (and it's mods and mutators, such as Soul Harvest, Weapons Factory UT, Unreal Fortress, and a stack of maps, especially Goldeneye conversions, and the brilliant XMaps), but I've not really played Unreal, as for some reason I missed it the first time round. I did buy Unreal Gold some time back, but when I tried Unreal it didn't hold my attention, so I just gave up on it. Anyway, I love modding the Unreal Tournament games (well, UT1 and UT2004, I'm no fan of UT2003 and UT3) and I've always meant to try the single player campaigns for UT1 that I've read about on UT forums, such as 7 Bullets, and Spacial Fear, so I thought I'd try Unreal again.
So I was wondering what it is about Unreal that makes it so popular with fans, even after all this time? Do people still play it, time after time, and do you attempt speed runs, 'handicapped'* runs etc? What do you like about the game, and do you prefer it to more modern games. Personally, I love some older first person shooters, such as Goldeneye, Perfect Dark (my favourite game ever), Duke Nukem 3D, and Doom, and I think that for the past few years especially the first person shooter has been in a rut. The last really good FPS to be released I think was Singularity in 2010 (which sadly very few people played, and I think the official reviews really under-rated it), it's sort of like Bioshock crossed with Half-Life 2, and the few people I know who played it loved it, although like both Bioshock and Half-Life 2, the scripted events that move the story along also contribute to the lack of replayability, as they make the levels more memorable, so you know what's coming next.
Also, what single player campaigns for Unreal Tournament would you recommend? Is there anything I should know, any order I should play them in, etc?
Thanks for any answers.
* 'Handicapped' runs are where, when you replay a game you known inside out, you make up your own rules about how to play the game to make it more difficult for yourself, to give the game extra challenge. Like in Perfect Dark or Goldeneye, where you set the enemies health, speed and damage-to-player settings to maximum, or non-lethal playthroughs of Deus Ex, where you deliberately don't kill anyone (except for the few people who must die, as dictated by the game), or the Thief games, where you 'ghost' the levels (i.e. you don't let anyone see you, or even suspect your presence, at all).
So I was wondering what it is about Unreal that makes it so popular with fans, even after all this time? Do people still play it, time after time, and do you attempt speed runs, 'handicapped'* runs etc? What do you like about the game, and do you prefer it to more modern games. Personally, I love some older first person shooters, such as Goldeneye, Perfect Dark (my favourite game ever), Duke Nukem 3D, and Doom, and I think that for the past few years especially the first person shooter has been in a rut. The last really good FPS to be released I think was Singularity in 2010 (which sadly very few people played, and I think the official reviews really under-rated it), it's sort of like Bioshock crossed with Half-Life 2, and the few people I know who played it loved it, although like both Bioshock and Half-Life 2, the scripted events that move the story along also contribute to the lack of replayability, as they make the levels more memorable, so you know what's coming next.
Also, what single player campaigns for Unreal Tournament would you recommend? Is there anything I should know, any order I should play them in, etc?
Thanks for any answers.
* 'Handicapped' runs are where, when you replay a game you known inside out, you make up your own rules about how to play the game to make it more difficult for yourself, to give the game extra challenge. Like in Perfect Dark or Goldeneye, where you set the enemies health, speed and damage-to-player settings to maximum, or non-lethal playthroughs of Deus Ex, where you deliberately don't kill anyone (except for the few people who must die, as dictated by the game), or the Thief games, where you 'ghost' the levels (i.e. you don't let anyone see you, or even suspect your presence, at all).