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I have created the following article to serve a number of purposes. First and foremost I wish to dispel a lot of what's been circulating in the UT "rumor mill" which is, by and large, conjecture, by providing some solid proof of what is known about the game to date. There is a lot more information out there, but you really have to dig to find it and usually you get 1 or 2 pictures with an interview that makes vague suggestions. Furthermore I wish to allay some of the fears seen in both camps - you know the two I'm referring to.. ..and if you don't, I'll just come out and say it - there's a (sometimes not so) clear divide between diehard fans of the original Unreal Tournament game and its two successors, mainly UT2004 which is the latest of the series. While I have played UT2004 for the past 3 years and enjoy it, indeed I must confess I have much more of a soft spot for the former, and not surprisingly it is the case for a lot of people. The big question being asked by some of the newer crowd on the other hand, is "isn't a 'return to UT' nothing more than some nostalgic pipe-dream? Is it really what the series needs?" To understand why this question is being asked, you must first understand how the focus of UT changed in UT2004, and how new gametypes further widened the gap between the schools of thought which UT2003 began. On top of arguing about weapons, movement, and the new "cartooniness" of the universe people now argued about vehicular warfare. The player scale issue seemed even more noticeable, with the vast outdoor landscapes that often led to fights taking place over a distance of hundreds of feet instead of toe-to-toe. And it is hard to argue the results. Interest in the series has waned, as to the general player pop the original game is rather outdated by now, and the newer games have obviously not caught on for most. But for a small group of dedicated players, the changes are an improvement. Clearly, some compromises must be made. The problem, in a word, is cohesion. This is what Epic Games has been taking the better part of 3 years to create. A game that brings the series together as well as moves it forward. It is easy to become the pessimist, and say they don't care, but I'm becoming pretty convinced that they are doing a rather good job. In addition to playing both casually and competitively in all 3 UT series games since the year 2000, for the past 2 years I have been lead developer of the Unreal Tournament Revolution mod for UT2004, which faces a somewhat similar challenge. So I know a lot about what Epic has to deal with - satisfying rabidly hardcore UT players who pay attention to EVERY detail. But the great/funny/ironic thing is, I'm one of them. I know these games inside and out and have often been vocal in expressing my views about the games. I have tried to do so in a mature manner as I expect a game developer would be more inclined to listen to that. Part of the frustration that comes with being dedicated to a game but not directly involved in its development, is not knowing whether your input, which you'd like to think has some value, is even being read. I think that is something a lot of people feel. So I'd like to encourage people to simply express their views, be calm, be patient, and it might pay off. Because whether by mere coincidence or not, several of my suggestions seem to have actually found their way into the new game, in uncanny detail. So without further boring you, let's begin to take a look at some footage taken somewhere in the middle of UT2007's development cycle. I have personally taken and compiled these screen captures from the HD trailer, to highlight some details most people have not yet seen, and I will give some commentary which I hope will prove a worthwhile read, and maybe even encourage Epic that they're taking things in the right direction. I will, however also take the opportunity to make a few minor criticisms/recommendations. Note: you can click each of the following pictures for higher res versions. Part I: An Impression of DM Gameplay Fig. 1 I chose this shot to begin my analysis, because it really says so much. Click the picture to bring it up in a full window to get the full effect. The first impression you really get is that this is UT. And when I say UT I mean it looks like a kick-ass next generation version of the game from 1999. Gone is the ugly lighting, bad use of static meshes, badly colored skins - In is the beautiful simple detail, complemented by higher resolution meshes and well color-balanced player models, a gorgeous, although seemingly not-quite-finished HUD, tasty looking effects, and oh yeah what's that there in the background.. is that a team symbol from UT on that wall panel? By the looks of it we are in a red team base. They don't know it yet, but soon it's gonna be a blue team base. Cause that thing in the middle, surrounded by armor and beams? That's a node. That's right, this base that could just as easily be a DM map or part of a CTF game, is actually Onslaught/Warfare. Remember what I said about cohesion? Anyway, when you shoot the armor on the node, it is damaged and the panels fly right off it. After you've taken it down, taken control of it and started to power it, panels float up into place one by one to form a new node. It looks suspiciously like a powercore, and I would guess they did to create greater consistency and kind of also give us a little bit of a larger target to shoot at, since nodes could be notoriously difficult to see, and consequently, to hit. So the first impression you get is that this is UT - the
second is remembering oh yeah! They haven't sacrificed what was good about
the "2004" incarnation to accomplish this. ONS fans, you can move the
razors away from your wrists now. The only slight weakness you could point
out is that the lighting of players seems to be buggy, as an astute
observer pointed out. It isn't that the overall model lighting is exactly
bad, but when you're standing under bright red beams, one would think they
would illuminate nearby players. Fig. 2 Side note: You can see what I was talking about in regard to the unfinished looking HUD a lot better in this shot - Some rather strange borders around the shield guy, but let's ignore that as it's in all likelihood a mockup image.
Fig. 3 Not much to
say about this one, except to show you that yes, the flak smiley returns!
And we can see a kind of distorted view of dual enforcers being wielded,
but more about the enforcers later...
Here we have a shot that while in itself is nothing particularly remarkable, and is kind of pixelated to boot, really shows you how the developers have been playing the original game more and taking players' criticisms to heart. The walls and floors are well detailed and "grungified" in just the right way, yet they are also very open and clean so you feel like you can run around freely in the corridors and not get stuck on something every 10 seconds. The enemy is well lit and definable from its background, particularly while firing his weapon, and feels reasonably scaled based on distance. This shot really has a UT feel to it. Am I getting repetitive?
Fig. 5 A nice shot of the player damage effect at its most extreme. If it seems distracting, consider that 1: it's very brief, 2: it's dynamic in its intensity, and 3: you can probably turn it off. Overall it's pretty impressive, sort of like the blast is giving you a real bad migraine headache with that wavy vision.
Fig. 6 Part II: Integrating Large Scale Warfare in the UT Universe Fig. 7 Switching gears now to some outdoor action - When I first heard about "hoverboards" infiltrating the world of UT, like many people I was wary. Would they be transportation devices as much as they would be a distraction to the game? Would they be like gay little back to the future skateboards, or something that actually fit the universe? Could they hope to replace something like the translocator? It's not quite visible in this shot but the boards are pretty bulky and they have little propulsion jets underneath - See the following image at BeyondUnreal for a better look. As we also know, you can not fire weapons while the boards are deployed but you can use a kind of grappling hook, which is more like a beam of energy to tow yourself behind vehicles. No longer do people need to clamor to double-hop onto the manta before an ignorant newbie flies away, passengerless, nor do people need to feel chased away from the game for not knowing its unique "vehicle etiquette". Simply latch onto the vehicle before it flies away, and you'll get wherever he's going just as fast.. if he starts heading the wrong way then hey.. you've still got your board and a speed boost. You can get to the right place without losing any serious time (extra for stopping while on foot to curse him). Go ahead and do a little mid-air tail grab to celebrate. Who cares if you have a new distraction, the game already got 10x more productive! Although we cannot pull out weapons while deployed, we can still carry objects such as this orb. Orbs however aren't carried so much as "levitated" over us. One might be able to also safely assume that CTF flags could also be carried in the same manner, as any speed advantage would be balanced by the fact that you can't otherwise defend yourself by carrying it. This differentiates itself from translocating with a flag, which would render the flag carrier nearly impossible to take down.. I really could see this as being something that progresses the game of CTF. Although, surely some people will want to play vanilla CTF with translocators and no vehicles, so maybe it will be a vCTF feature only. Fig. 8 Mr. Orby is now floating above the player's Hellbender, and we see Lauren in the gunner seat. The small turret on the upper right hand corner is the skymines, now operated by the driver, which is enclosed by armor. Man look at those guns.. and the ones on the vehicle are pretty nice too.
Fig. 9 Besides "Nocturne", you might be interested to know that some other bot names include Loque, Freylis, and Gorn. Sound familiar?
Fig. 10 A closer look at the bender. Look at that skull and crossbones.. It's dangerous! I'm starting to think the folks at Epic don't know how to play the game though, Player keeps team switching and Player1 doesn't know where to go with that orb. Noobs! The nice thing about this version of the Hellbender is that it feels a lot more like it fits in the setting of the game. Futuristic, but it still looks rugged, like something that's good for kicking a lot of ass.
A heartwarming scene of destruction. The earth wins! Tom Cruise saves the day! Oh wait.. Anyway, the lighting and effects here are pretty damn sweet. And a tripod, come on. How can you call this a simple "graphical update" to UT2004?
Fig. 12 Our beloved new Leviathan. The side turrets now take on more useful roles than just "spam green stuff randomly at air opponents and hope something hits em". The one occupied by the blue bald dude is a shield similar to the one in the Paladin, the one on the front left fires a shock beam, and the one in the background which is partially obstructed appears to fire Tarydium shards. In Figure 13 we can see one of the shards in detail:
Fig. 14 This guy likes his turrets. What I love most is how well colored he is without becoming gaudy and out of place in the environment.. I really want to stress that changing this would be a bad thing. Look how beautiful the lighting is, thanks to the normal mapping employed by UE3. The outdoor environments are surely breathtaking, and the man-made structures create a stark and somber contrast. This is the bleak but beautiful world of UT I remember, cast in a whole new light, and sure to be a great adventure to explore.
Fig. 15
Part III:
Where's the Beef? Since there are other areas worth discussing as well (say it ain't so!), I do have one or two criticisms based off what we've seen here which I have saved til last. Well here we finally get a clearer view of the new enforcer. This is one thing I just don't think they have got right. It looks like a toy compared to its original counterpart. It is thin and much smaller, designwise it still has much more in common with the Assault Rifle with the handle up top and no firing chamber action. Furthermore having the clip sticking out the side makes rather little sense, from a functional as well as aesthetic point of view. If you advertise that you are bringing back a beloved weapon I think you should damn well make sure that it is faithful to it. Another part of the problem is that you really need to see a hand gripping the weapon for it to have that "badass" quality to it especially when going akimbo. With this engine I doubt it would be difficult to script so that the hand matched the player model as well. Below is the new link gun, which I am not really too sure about either.. but I'd be willing to live with it if the Enforcer would just be done properly.
My one other small complaint is that although I really really love the theme of the HUD and the dominance of black throughout, it would be difficult for the casual player to tell what team they are on. I can only guess that the clock, the skull, and the border around selected weapons are meant to fulfill this role by becoming red or blue, but I feel that adding some kind of dedicated icon somewhere, perhaps with both a red and blue symbol and one of them actively highlighted, would be much more intuitive. None of these shots have been of DM/CTF per se, but it does offer a lot of clues about how these gametypes will play out and stack up to the original game. My conclusion is that a significant part of what people felt was lost had a lot to do with the art direction taken in UT2003/4 as well as insufficiencies in the games' assets and coding. I believe that Epic has learned from, and rectified most of their past mistakes as well as taken a lot of things that did work and add to them to make them more fun. In my opinion with a bit more work and attention to detail they should really be able to pull off a game that blows everyone away, regardless of which incarnation they preferred in the past. -BerZ |
