Gameplay - movement

Light speed, ridiculous speed, and ludicrous speed

After playing my share of Quake 3, one of the first things I noticed about the movement speed in Unreal is that it's quite fast. The run speed on UT is considerably faster than Quake 3 and probably on a par with Quake 1. Aiming and shooting definitely requires a good deal of precision and twitch, due to the extreme speed of the players. Hitting people with the instant hit weapons like the sniper rifle is not going to be easy. One thing that balances out the speed of UT is that many of the maps are quite large. But for the smaller, more cramped ones, you're definitely going to feel the speed. UT actually has 3 speed settings, normal (which is about Unreal speed), Hardcore (which is the default setting), and Turbo (which is incredibly fast - like Doom 2 speed). Within each of these categories you can further modify the speed with a slider bar.

Head flying one direction, body in another

Another satisfying head shot

Air Control, jumping

So what is air control? It's the ability to change direction while you're in mid air. Yes it's totally unrealistic, and violates every physical law, but a lot of gamers still like some degree of air control. Just like everything else in UT, air control is fully adjustable in the console via a slider bar. By default, the player is given a good deal of air control, and in some levels with alternate gravity areas, it seems like players can almost fly!

Jumping in Unreal Tournament isn't restricted like it is in Quake 3 test, so you can bunny hop around to dodge shots if you wish. Just be aware that a lot of UT's weapons will bounce people up and around by a huge amount and jumping will only increase the amount that you're thrown. If you can't get enough air you can always pick up the anti-grav boots, which give you the vertical leaping ability of Michael Jordan, at least while they're charged up.

In my sights

Green bubble gum? I think not

Footsteps

So what's the deal with footsteps and the sounds they make? This is another sore spot when it comes to debate in the action gaming community. The people who don't like footsteps argue that it slows down the game (at least in 1 on 1 situations) because the entire game becomes a matter of crawling around with "walk" and listening for the other person to move. People who do like footsteps insist that it adds more strategy to the game and is more realistic. One thing that we've noticed is that at the highest levels of competition, games with footsteps on play more like chess than fast paced action games. Look at the kind of scores you get in a high caliber Quake 2 match (kills in the teens at most, sometimes as low as 3-2), compared to Quake 1 matches (dozens of kills in a 20 minute match). Because of this, we've always advocated no footsteps. Epic has taken a middle road by leaving footsteps in but making them rather subdued. You're not going to hear someone running two rooms away like you do in Quake 2. It seems that even with a person running, they have to be quite close to you before you hear them.