If you hate Unreal, then stop reading here since probably nothing is going to change your mind. If you`re expecting something new, like planting bombs or headshots with more than the sniper rifle, then go back to playing Counterstrike. If, however, you`re just itching for some fast paced action and hearing "Dominating" or "Double kill" whenever you kill someone, then you`ve come to the right place.

There`s this saying, that I`m sure you`re all familiar with: "If it isn`t broken, then don`t fix it". This fits the Unreal Tournament series like a glove. To be honest, the game doesn`t really bring anything new to the table. But it sure is a lot of fun... After logging on to your online account, one option will quickly draw your attention. At least is certainly drew mine. Clicking on the "Campaign" button will reduce your enthusiasm, though, as this is nothing more than playing the multiplayer maps with bots, in a certain order, and watching some cut scenes from time to time. The storyline goes something like this: You`re Reaper, a big muscled, heavy armored dude (what were you expecting?), whose colony is attacked by The Necris (the space baddies). Of course you won`t be killed during the raid, and so, you gather your team of mercenaries, and start a holy war with the sole purpose of exterminating the Necris off the face of the Universe. Well, actually, you just want to kill the chick that knocked you out (male ego, anyone?), but the holy war sounds better.

The cut scenes which progress the story are nicely made and are quite a novelty for the Unreal Tournament series so I enjoyed watching them. Of course, the story is very predictable and could have just as well been missing. As soon as you start playing you will forget all about the Necris, revenge, and the mission map (which is a new thing, but entirely useless). After completing certain missions you will receive reward cards that that are pretty useful if you find a mission you just can`t complete. They can remove a number of enemies, add allies, improve armor or health, and so on. The only interesting part about the campaign is that you can play it online with friends, and that makes it more interesting, but you can just as well play a deathmatch

You can use the campaign as a more advanced tutorial, and you can change the difficulty every time you click resume campaign, so as you learn, you can make the bots smarter. The same problems as in the previous parts remain with the AI. On the first difficulty levels are dumb as a post, and don`t even bother shooting when they see you, and on the final difficulty level (Godlike... sounds very intimidating) they are beatable, but will cause serious frustration. However, the problem is that you can`t rely on them in the more complex game modes. The only thing the difficulty level changes is the reaction time and the aiming, it doesn`t make them smart, remember.

But enough about the so called campaign and the bots and let`s see if the multiplayer battles are as good as we were used to. First, let`s take a look at the different game modes. Most of them should be familiar to you, even if they had a different name in the previous part. We have the classic Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and the more exotic Duel, Vehicle Capture the Flag and Warfare. Warfare is the new name given to the Conquest game mode in the previous part. Assault and Domination modes have been removed from the game, but I`m sure you won`t miss them very much. The "Duel" mode is your standard deathmatch with the mention that only two players are allowed and the winner remains on the map, while the loser returns to the waiting queue.

Capture the Flag is the same as it always has been, with two teams trying to capture each other`s flags and take them back to their respective bases. It now has a twist, and as you can guess by its name, Vehicle Capture the Flag revolves heavily around using the supplied vehicles to quickly reach your opponents base and make a run for it with the flag. The problem is that you can`t carry the flag while inside a vehicle, so what do you do when you jump from your tank, take the flag, and realize that you`re stuck there, with a Dark Walker around? Well, you use the hover board, of course. The hover board is available to all players, and allows you to travel a lot faster than you did on foot, but one shot will make you eat some dirt and then spend some time trying to recover your teeth (AKA stun). Of course you can`t use any weapons while on the hover board, so usually you`ll have a big red sign over you that reads: "Kill me now, please, I`m totally helpless". The advantage is, though, that you can carry the flag while on the hover board and you can grapple onto vehicles and be towed to your base. You will feel the adrenaline when you`ll dangle behind a fast Scorpion while the entire enemy team is shooting at you and one shot means death usually.