Mod for: Unreal Tournament

Available: here

Team Fortress (TF) has been a mainstay of on-line gaming since the glory days of Quake. If TF is old hat to you, then you already know the story behind it, so skip the next few sentences. TF was the result of a few people that loved Quake but wanted a different on-line experience than straight death match. Basic design was simple but very effective: two teams attempt to capture the opposing team’s flag, each team composed of a variety of classes such as Sniper, Pyro, and Engineer. TF had the tendency to reward team tactics whether on defense or offense. If you had a team composed of Soldiers you would find yourself behind pretty quick if the other team had a mix of classes. (Unless you count the infamous Engineer War, where every player is that class.) Anyway, long story short, Valve saw how popular the mod was and hired the team to work on a version using the Half-Life engine – changing the name from Team Fortress to Team Fortress Classic. It’s still a crowd favorite among the on-line crowd and it was only a matter of time before versions of TFC spread to other games.

Unreal Fortress (UF), as the name suggests, is an Unreal Tournament mod that looks to duplicate, if not improve, the original TFC. To a large extent it succeeds.

Like TFC, there are number of classes to choose from including Pyromaniac, Scout, Demolitions, and Heavy Weapons. They are near direct translations of the classes found in TFC. For example, the Engineer can build sentry guns and dispensers. The Heavy Weapons guy totes a chain gun and walks painfully slow. The only addition is the Armorer, whose basic function is to run around and replenish – yes, that’s right – armor. One of the funny things with installing UF is that you have to configure the keys for each class before you start. I say, "have to" because you’ll want to use each class’s special abilities. Take time to implement a comfortable control scheme for each class before you start. On the whole, the units are just as balanced as TFC. (And the Arsonists flame thrower looks way better than the one found in TFC.)

UF benefits from using the Unreal Tournament engine and tends to look a little better than TFC. The models aren’t dramatically different from each other but you can separate the classes to help with target decisions. The "make or break" aspect of virtually all mods is the level design. In terms of design, UF is hit and miss across the 14 maps. (But everyone will have a different opinion on that statement.) Indoor maps fare better than outdoor ones. The outdoor levels tend to be on the wide-open side of things, which is fine when playing with large numbers of players, but will bring a six-player game to a crawl. The outdoor levels have plenty of places to snipe from. However, in some areas everything is slapped together at right angles making for a less than "organic" experience. The indoor levels are far better and help maintain faster action. For the most part, they’ll remind you of UT’s maps. There isn’t much in the way of new and interesting textures to look at – these are the same Lego blocks that built UT, mixed with a few pieces of Duplo. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. Sound and music are on par with UT. Although, I would have expected the Heavy Weapons guy’s chain gun to sound more like a cyclone than a breeze.

Finding a server isn’t a problem since it’s been incorporated into UT’s browser. Ping times are, on the whole, pretty good. You can play against bots but I don’t recommend it. They really like to guard the flag. Most of the time, half the opposing team can be found milling about their flag just waiting for some fool – you – to wander in alone without any back-up because your team members are running around elsewhere or standing still. (Strangely, they don’t bother to guard your flag.) As in most cases, human players are much more fun to play with. Especially when you work as a team – laying down cover fire, providing back-up, building a sentry along an escape route. The experience is just as good as that found in TFC.

Bugs are few and far between. I never experienced anything game-stopping. One little thing is that when you switch to the heavy weapons guy during the game, the message, "You will return as an Arsonist" is displayed. You come back as a HW guy anyway – just a small detail. Overall, if you have UT you should download Unreal Fortress. While not all the levels are stellar (which can be said of just about every game out there), there’s more than enough servers and players out there to satisfy your craving for more a more in-depth on-line experience than simple Death Match or Domination.

Reviewed by Omni