
<MAP NAME="boxmap-p8"><AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="14, 200, 103, 207" HREF="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" ><AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/thearmchairem-20" ></MAP><img src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/rcm/120x240.gif" width="120" height="240" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p8" alt="Shop at Amazon.com">	Platform Dreamcast Genre Shooter Publisher Infogrames Developer Secret Level ESRB M (Mature) Released Q1 2001

- Great controls - Nice character models - Good music and sound FX - Lots of game modes

- Some choppy animation and slowdown - Some levels feel small

Review: Unreal Tournament (PC) Review: Red Faction (Playstation 2) Review: The World is Not Enough (N64)
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Unreal Tournament

Score: 8.8/10

When first popping Unreal Tournament (UT) into my PC I was more than a little skeptical. After playing my fair share of console first person shooters I couldn’t help but wonder how clunky and awkward the controls to this game would be. Moreover, how close of a port would one of my favorite PC titles get? Thankfully UT for the DC is largely a well-done port. The controls are wonderfully streamlined, the levels are kept relatively intact, and all of the extra game modes are still intact. It’s really quite a solid console FPS.

The most important aspect in getting an FPS right on a console is keeping the control scheme intuitive what with all of the subtle nuances that a player has at their disposal while playing such a game. Often things can become overwhelming when a developer tries to put every last little tidbit of controlling detail, then on the flip side console first person shooters can get overly simplistic controls, limiting what players can do. This game is right in the middle. Players can do all of the important maneuvering without having to deal with too much, or too little. The controls are streamlined and very, very intuitive.

Surprisingly the game’s visuals are not very intuitive because, well, such a thing is just plain nonsensical. But if the graphics can’t be intuitive, at least they can be good looking. The environments aren’t hugely detailed, but the characters are where the detail is. There are some nice skins on the different characters of the game. Moving about the levels is a very nice experience because the way the corridors ebb and flow really leads you around, with plenty of alternative areas/routes, although the levels do feel a bit small here. The one problem is that there is some slowdown and choppy animation when a lot happens on-screen at once, which is very distracting.

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- Dreamcast Game Reviews
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- Reviews of Games Developed by Secret Level
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Filling out the aural part of the gaming experience is a very nice soundtrack, that while jam packed full of techno, is oddly ambient. It’s nice, but still sort of unusual. Sound effects too are very good, with appropriate thumpiness, and bots yammering their own special brand of trash. It’s everything one would expect to hear from a first person shooter.

Rounding out this cavalcade of gun blasting goodness are the extra game modes. Not only is

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there the tried and true Death Match, there’s also Capture the Flag, Domination (where you need to maintain control of the map), and Assault (taking turns attacking and defending installations). The extra modes really help add depth to UT, and with some ruthlessly smart bots on the scene it’s even better.

UT on the DC is surprisingly good for a console FPS. It has solid, intuitive controls, good visuals and sound, and a ton of extra modes. It’s definitely worth spending some time with.

Reviewed by Mr. Nash

(April 7, 2001)