The first great first-person shooter of the new millennium!

If you are a fan of FPS games like Quake, Counterstrike, and the original Unreal Tournament, UT2003 is definitely the game for you.

Though demanding in terms of hardware (my high-speed laptop still runs it with occasional lag), UT2003 is by all means the first great first-person shooter of the new millennium. Not much has changed since the original Unreal Tournament, but additional elements have been added to further improve gameplay and open up more strategic battlefield options.

Take, for example, the newest addition called Adredaline. It is available in the form of capsules scattered around the levels, but you can also gain it by killing enemies or accomplishing map objectives. It is measured in a meter and once that meter hits 100, you may perform special Adredaline moves that boost your combat performance in one way or another.

The weapons have also been modified somewhat, which is to be expected. The old "Pulse Rifle" is now revamped to the new "Link Gun" which may be used in team situations, linking energy beams with your comrades to increase the firepower of their own Link Guns. The "Impact Hammer" of Unreal Tournament is now the "Shield Gun", featuring a secondary defensive shield that helps to deflect enemy fire. There's more, but I won't elaborate too much. Suffice it to say that some old favourites such as the "Shock Rifle" and the "Flak Cannon" still remain, relatively unchanged.

UT2003 features beautiful streamlined graphics and lovingly detailed levels, balanced for a fine gameplay experience. The music scores are another major highlight, perfectly setting the scene and being the overall best of all game soundtracks I have ever heard. There are plenty of bots and skins to choose from, all with their own data sheets and personalities.

The single-player mode, while quite dull, heats up at the end when you (and two other CPU-controlled bot teammates) face off against the three veterans from the first Unreal Tournament: Malcolm, Brock, and Lauren. Make it through the semi-final against them and you'll enter the tournament finals, a one-on-one showdown versus Malcolm alone in one of the game's toughest levels. Also, once you win the game, you get to use the bot skins of the three old-timers in future games with friends (or foes).

New game types have also been added, the old Domination style of gameplay being replaced with a new Double Domination format in which your team must seize two control points on the level and maintain hold over them for ten seconds against the enemy. There's also the new Bombing Run gameplay, basically described as "football with guns". I'll not elaborate on that one.....Anyway, the old Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch modes still remain, along with the all-time favourite Capture the Flag mode.

There is a lot about Unreal Tournament 2003 which defines it as the best FPS ever made. Too much for me to put in severe detail here. For all you FPS fans out there who don't own UT2003 yet, I highly recommend this. It beats all other FPS games ever made so far, above all the enduring but fading Counterstrike.

My rating for UT2003: 10/10 a true triumph for EpicGames.

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First-person shooter video game designed mainly for multiplayer gaming. It is the second game in the Unreal Tournament series and introduced the Adrenaline power-up and double-jumping.

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Unreal Tournament 2003

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