Unreal Tournament

Unreal Tournament
Abbreviated UT, (sometimes referred to as UT99, UT Classic, UT1, or UT:GOTY to differentiate from Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004, and Unreal Tournament 3) is a popular first-person shooter video game and the first game in the Unreal Tournament series and the second game in the Unreal series. Development began sometime in 1998 after the poor reception to Unreal's multiplayer component as a multiplayer expansion pack for Unreal. Later, it was decided that the game had enough changes to make it into a standalone game. The game was released to stores November 23, 1999.

It is Epic Games' 1999 follow-up title to Unreal and focuses mainly on multiplayer action. It was launched in direct competition to id Software's Quake III Arena which was released ten days later. Although Quake III Arena was considered to have better graphics, streamlined gameplay and a widely adopted engine, UT had superior bot AI, "alternate fire" for weapons which introduced a further element of strategy, and a larger variety of multiplayer capabilities.

As with the original Unreal, the ease with which players can create and release mods to the core game is a key factor contributing to UT's longevity. UT improved upon the mod-friendly nature of its predecessor with support for mutators such as Sniper Arena, Instagib, BunnyTracks, MonsterHunt, Jailbreak and more. Further, UT clans, or gaming teams, and a score of UT dedicated clan and fan community sites continue to sustain Unreal Tournament's popularity years after its initial release.

Game Intro
In the year 2291, in an attempt to control violence between deep-space miners, the New Earth Government legalized no-holds-barred fighting. Liandri Mining Corporation working with the NEG established a series of leagues and bloody public exhibitions. The fight's popularity grew with their brutality. Soon, Liandri discovered that the public matches were their most profitable enterprise. The professional league was formed. A cabal of the most violent and skilled warriors in known space, selected to fight in a grand tournament. Now it is 2341, fifty years have passed since the founding of Deathmatch. Profits from the tournament number in the hundreds of billions. You have been selected to fight in the Professional League by the Liandri Rules Board. Your strength and brutality are legendary. The time has come to prove you are the best. To crush your enemies. To win the tournament...

Game Types
Although many mods have been released as game types for Unreal Tournament such as Monster Hunt, Frag Ball, UT Soccer and more, these are the original multiplayer game types released with the game.

• Deathmatch: A classic every-man-for-himself player vs. player combat. The objective is to finish the map with the most kills, or frags.
  
  
• Team Deathmatch: Teams compete together to out-frag the opponent team.
  
  
• Capture the Flag: Classic Capture the Flag. Players compete to capture the other team's flag and return it to their base. Competitive teams must use a great deal of teamplay. Both teams must defend the base from incoming attackers and get into the other team's base, take their flag and return to base. This requires that the team protect their flag carrier very well from enemies in order to complete their objective.
  
  
• Domination: Teams compete to control various control points to earn points and win the map. Standard maps contain three control points. Control of these points can be accomplished either through occupation (physically occupying the space) or from a distance.
  
  
• Last Man Standing: Similar to Deathmatch, the objective here is to remain alive longer than your opponents, putting an emphasis on number of deaths rather than kills. Players have a set number of lives and once they run out of lives they lose and have to wait as spectators till match end.
  
  
• Assault: This game type is played with two opposing teams, one assaulting a "base" and the other defending it. The map is set up with a number of objectives which the attacking team must complete (usually in sequence) such as destroying something, entering an area, triggering a button, et cetera. The team who first attacks then defends, and attempts to defend for the entire time they attacked. If they can accomplish this, they win the map. If the team defending first assaults the base faster than the other team, they win the map. If both teams defend for the maximum amount of time the map is a tie.

Weapons
Unreal Tournament has a fairly large selection of weapons, and many more are seen in custom maps or inserted through custom mutators. Unreal Tournament differs from other First-Person Shooter of its class, with its secondary fire mode for nearly all of the weapons, a feature which was not present in its close competitor, Quake III Arena. Typically, weapons range from melee, chainsaws, pistols, machine guns, plasma guns, missile launchers and hitscan weapons. Unreal Tournament also features a nuclear weapon, called the Redeemer, a missile that causes a gigantic explosion and the shockwave of which vaporizes players instantly.

Assuming no mutators are in use, the player always spawns with two weapons, one a melee weapon, which is essentially a large pneumatic piston and the other, a semi-automatic pistol, The enforcer, which is essentially the default non-melee weapon. As the player moves through the map, he can gather other weapons/ammunition that are scattered over various places around the map. A short list of weapons that are found in the UT ordinance are,

• Impact Hammer, A melee weapon. It can also be used to do hammer jumps, a hammer jump is when you use the impact hammer to boost yourself upwards.
  
  
• Translocator, A personal teleporting device, see translocator section below.
  
  
• Enforcer, The same weapon which the player spawns with by default. The player can pick up another enforcer and use it simultaneously for dual wield. The secondary fire tilts the enforcer sideways for greater rate of fire at the cost of low accuracy.
  
  
• Bio-Rifle, A weapon that shoots biological toxic greenish globs of goo which after a certain amount of time explode injuring anyone caught too close. The goo can be applied to walls or ceiling due to its ability to stick, thus becoming an ambush weapon, even when the player discharging the "goo" has left the area. One of the most infamous weapons in the game, it requires great practice to use it effectively. It can be quite damaging in the hands of an experienced player. The primary mode releases a succession of the toxic "goo" globs, while secondary mode can discharge one large glob directly corresponding to the length of time the player charges the weapon. This large glob can be released at the time of the players choosing.
  
  
• Shock Rifle, One of Unreal Tournament's most distinctive instant hit weapons. Upon hitting the player the shot gives a fairly decent impact pushing the player back. This characteristic was quite dangerous in arenas with low gravity where a small shove could send the player flying off the arena grounds, falling to his/her death. The Shock Rifle has 2 additional modes of fire: The secondary fire mode is a slower moving "shock core" or ball of plasma. The 3rd firing option is called the "Shock-Combo". This is achieved by first shooting a slow-moving shock core, then piercing it with the primary shock bolt. The result is a devastating explosion at the point where the 2 projectiles converge. A successful combo results in a loss of 4 units of ammo as opposed to only 2. The "Shock-Combo" is one of the most commonly used firing tactics in the game and gives the Shock Rifle a preferred status among many experienced UT players.
  
  
• Pulse Gun, The classic fictional weapon that produces a stream of green plasma bolts. The secondary fire fires a stream of plasma energy which you can walk into the target with. This plasma energy stream consumes the energy clips twice as quickly and does half the damage of the plasma bolts. However it is easier to keep the stream on a close moving target than peppering them with bolts.
  
  
• Ripper, A weapon that fires disc-shaped razor blades that can ricochet off of any surface making them deadly when used in a small enclosed area. This weapon can also be reflected upon yourself. The secondary fire fires explosive blades that explode upon impact with the first surface they hit. This weapon, like the sniper rifle, is capable of doing a head shot if one blade strikes the neck of a player. This type of hit normally circumvents any type of armour the player wears with the exception of person shield belts, which project a forcefield around the entire player.
  
  
• Minigun, A classic machine gun, that adds tracer fire. One firing mode is slower, but more accurate, while the other is faster, but less accurate at a distance.
  
  
• Flak Cannon, A classic UT weapon whose primary fire is functionally similar to a shotgun, though the pellets can bounce off walls. The secondary fire is an arcing contact grenade. The flak cannon is a deadly weapon when used at point blank range but increasing poor at longer ranges.
  
  
• Rocket Launcher. A bulky weapon with target locking capability, the rocket launcher is used heavily in UT. With a large splash radius the rockets can also injure the user as well, making this weapon most effective at medium range - at long range the travel time of the rocket in the air begins to count against it. The secondary fire launches rockets in the form of timed grenades allowing for close quartered ambushing.
  
  
• Sniper Rifle, A high-power, semi-automatic, instant hit rifle, the secondary fire of which activates the sniper scope which zooms up to 8.3x magnification allowing the player to see enemies from a long way. Many players used this rifle to kill with head shots which can kill most players with a single successful hit despite the armor they wore. Again the only exception to this is the personal shield belt, which projects a forcefield around the entire player. Sniper Arena (where the sniper rifle is the only weapon used in the game) is one of the default mods for Unreal Tournament, and continues to be a popular format for UT gamers evidenced by persistent UT sniper online communities like Unreal Addicts.
  
  
• Redeemer: A miniaturized nuclear warhead and launcher. The Redeemer's missile causes a gigantic explosion, the shockwave of which vaporizes players instantly. The secondary fire launched a guided nuclear warhead which the user can fly. While guiding the missile, the user is stuck to their present location and a sitting duck for any snipers who can easily trace the white smoke trail back to its source. Many snipers have also been able to shoot down the missile which explodes on the spot.