Gameplay Problems

Where the fun stops

That, ladies and gentlemen, is all that we have to say about UT2K3 that’s complimentary. The rest falls into the ‘major gripes’ category. We’ve already gone over the performance problems that UT2K3 faces, and the disadvantage it puts players who even have the recommended system specs at. But there are more serious issues purely with the design.

Maps are atrocious. There is no other word for them, as maybe one in ten is designed properly. Free-for-all maps are designed with terrible killzones and spawning points. It’s just too common to spawn and die immediately – the maps feel overcrowded despite their generous size. The availability of powerful weapons nearly every spawn doesn’t help that. Bombing Run maps have stupid chokepoints that could be defended by Starvin’ Marvin and a bag of cheesie poofs. Double Domination, on the other hand, has control points that are just too easy to capture. Once the countdown starts, all it takes is someone flying by the point to block the scoring opportunity. Worse, players remain at the places they were in during the last score, which often results in situations where the scoring is back-and-forth since the losing team is healthy, freshly armed and ready to assault the weak control point positions.

Somebody bettah call the doc-tah!

For me!

Lockdown about to be shutdown

Weapon selection

The weapons are just… bad. The most effective tools in the game are essentially all about spam. Even the assault rifle starts with four grenades that come off the alternate fire. Just find a crowd and spam the area for cheap kills. There’s no skill involved. The BioGun, rocket launcher, flak cannon and shock rifle don’t require any aim. Knockback effects seem random – sometimes someone flies wildly, other times they barely budge. In a game where the primary test of skill is in avoiding damage, what’s the point of littering it with area-effect high-damage weapons? The only weapons worth keeping for a competition mod are the chaingun, rocket launcher and shock rifle. In its current shape, UT2K3 demands less skill and is less likely to show the difference between good and average players than even its predecessor was.

When combined with the level design, like certain bombing run maps which have bottlenecks, the game actually becomes frustrating. While we weren’t expecting Unreal Tournament 2003 to be a killer pro competition app, and made it clear why it isn’t, we did expect it to be more fun than it is.