- PS2 ››
- Action ››
- Unreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament
- November 24, 2000 14:47 PM PST
- Email this!
The tournament begins on the PS2! Strap into some of the most powerful futuristic military hardware and compete against rabid 'bots and three of your best friends in Epic and Infogrames' Unreal Tournament.
- GamePro Score
- User Score
- Write your review!
Console Tournament
Unreal Tournament is already legendary on the PC for its fast action, multitudes of gameplay modes, and insane amounts of violence and ridiculous weapons. The idea is simple: You're a contestant on some sort of intergalactic, futuristic game show, in which you compete against tons of other stone-cold assassins to rise up the ladder of the Unreal Tournament. You blaze through massive levels designed with deathmatches in mind as you blast 'bots and fry your friends, all in the name of glory. If you have what it takes, you get to take home the prize; if you don't, you become giblets all over the floor.
Epic has taken their PC masterpiece and redesigned the front end and interface, and they threw in a little bit of auto-targeting, an auto-centering feature, and other little tweaks to make things easier for gamers using a Dual Shock 2. If you can gather a USB mouse and keyboard, you can default to the old-school PC WASD configuration and take out fools in a more traditional PC style. You can even use the FireWire link cable to link four PS2s and TVs together and throw your own UT LAN party. Awesome!
Giblets And Gravy
You'll never hear anyone complain about UT's looks on the PS2. Easily one of the best-looking console shooters ever, UT bursts with fast action, good-looking characters, and blazing bright colors in weapon effects. If you know what's good for you, you'll always be moving, and UT easily keeps up. You may notice some slow down early in a level as the game streams from the DVD, but other than that you'll be too engrossed in the colorful, blinking lights to notice.
UT's sound boils down to grunts, taunts, and explosions, and it sounds very, very good. It might benefit from a little more vocal clarity in the taunts, but otherwise you'll find little to complain about. The soundtrack pumps pretty hard, and it accents the fast action nicely.
While UT's controls on the PS2 seem stiff and awkward at first, you'll quickly adjust to the dual-stick control scheme on the Dual Shock 2. The auto-targeting and auto-centering controls are a godsend, virtually eliminating the need to spend a lot of time learning precision right-stick control. The game recognizes a USB mouse and keyboard on the fly, so if you think switching methods will help, you can do so by just plugging them in anytime. PC users might find the game hard to play without a mouse and keyboard, but console gamers should have no problem with the Dual Shock 2.
The Final Round
Unreal Tournament made real waves on the PC, and it manages to translate very well to the PS2. What little it lacks in gameplay sits UT a close second to Eidos' excellent TimeSplitters. If you're looking for a fast-paced action party game, then UT is simply unreal.
