Others say...

"A Lifetime of Entertainment"
this is the most entertaining video game ever. it has SO much depth and character that you could play it for the rest of your life and never get sick of it. i thought Unreal Tournament G.O.T.Y had a lot of weapons, but this game's arsenal is ridiculous. and not just hand-held weapons, but tanks and turret guns and all kinds of stuff. the levels are beautiful and COMPLEX and there are hundreds of them. THIS GAME IS WAY BETTER THAN HALO, HALF-LIFE, OR ANY OTHER MULTIPLAYER SHOOTER. M-O-N-S-T-E-R KILL!

"The UT series still have it with 2004"
Unreal Tournament 2004 has got to be the best FPS I've ever played. There is not a thing wrong in this game, the only problems for this game that most people will encounter are the high system requirements and that there are five installation disks [whoa]. But aside from those, when I got into this game, I was truly amazed of how stunning and well-executed this game pulled off. The fun factor and replay value is very high (for even rookie FPS players) and the weapons, the weapons are just state-of-the-art.


Here are the cool weapons that make this game so much fun (some of them won't be as cool as most UT players think, so be warned):

Assault Rifle: While it causes weak damage even when wielding both rifles, the grenade launcher installed underneath more than makes up for deadly proficiency. Experienced players can kill an enemy with the Assault Rifle's bullets without resorting to other powerful weapons or its mounted grenade launcher.

Flak Cannon: This futuristic looking shotgun can inflict devastating damage, even at long ranges. This is one of my personal favorites for all-around combat.

Sniper Rifle: An oldie but a goodie. Although it is not available in some certain levels, once you have your hands on this rifle, you will be glad that you'll be scoring kills with this bad boy, provided that you find a safe location so that you can prove its full effectiveness.

Rocket Launcher: One of the reasons why most UT players pick this as their personal favorite. Despite the popularity of this weapon due to it being devastating and also being able to cause splash damage, this isn't considered one of my personal favorites.

Minigun: It has been around since the first UT game. Many UT regulars don't seem to use this weapon that much now since the first UT games. In my opinion, I prefer this weapon over the rocket launcher more because the minigun is considerably more accurate and that the rocket launcher isn't because the rockets are unguided.

Shock Rifle: Another old favorite weapon among many UT players. I won't forget how awesome this weapon is due to it being able to cause a shockwave by firing the plasma ball and then the photon beam into the ball to cause that wave for maximum damage.

Mine Layer: As powerful as this weapon is, it is avoided by most UT players in both multiplayer and single player games because in multiplayer, human opponents are smart enough to avoid these mines while it single player, it is technically useless because even the AI are smart enough to avoid mines as well.

Shield Gun: This weapon is only used as a last resort. While it has unlimited ammo due to the charge meter, you have to be dangerously close to your enemy to truly inflict damage when using its primary mode. In its secondary mode, it can also be used defensively to deflect damage from most projectiles and energy beams.

Biorifle: This weapon has developed a "love it or hate it" relationship with many UT players. While some UT players consider the Biorifle fun to use for splattering enemies with the green blobs, others criticize it for being ineffective to use against tougher enemies. I'm not that much of a fan of this weapon.

Link Gun: Back in the first UT game, it was called the Link Rifle if I can remember correctly. But now its back, renamed the Link Gun. This weapon has changed dramatically; the secondary mode inflicts greater damage than first UT's Link Rifle. The primary mode, however, doesn't seem as powerful; the damage inflicted by the energy balls are surprisingly weak. Not a recommended weapon by most UT players.

Grenade Launcher: I wonder why this weapon had to be included in this game, there's already the mounted one on the Assault Rifle. The damage results are just the same and what's worse is that they get bouncy and inaccurate. If Atari came up with a better weapon than this one, we could have had more fun. Oh, well. This is the only tiny mar of this game.

Translocater: Though you can teleport with it, using it as a weapon can be difficult to pull off. While there is the fun of instantly killing an enemy by "tele-transporting" with this unique device, it requires precise timing and skill to really make it an effective weapon. Experienced players can use the Translocater with deadly efficiency without wasting precious ammo on their other weapons.

Redeemer: The most devastating weapon in the game is also the hardest to find. Also, since it only fires one instant-kill rocket, you have to use it wisely or else you've squandered the usefullness of this weapon. Oh, and don't get caught in the massive explosion generated by this weapon because if you do, it's instant death.




With the introductions of these weapons, the vehicles and aircraft in this game are just as awesome. The coolest part in the game is that you get to fly in a fighter in space and after the battle you board on an alien spaceship for some FPS action.

If you think Halo (both 1 and 2) are the best FPS games you've ever played, you're an ignorant moron. The Unreal, Quake, and Doom series, Half-Life (both 1 and 2), and Call Of Duty (both 1 and 2) are the games a true FPS gamer should play. Halo and its successor Halo 2 are for ignorant wussies who want no depth in their games. And to that one reviewer who called this "The New King Of Crap", you are an absolute idiot. Halo is what many professional FPS gamers call "The New King Of Crap." Unreal Tournament 2004 beats Halo and Halo 2 both at their own conditions. Halo (both 1 & 2) can both have a new life in the garbage incinerator while the Unreal series stand tall, proud, and indomitable in the skies.

"A few tips to properly enjoy this game!!!!"
This game is awesome right out of the box but if you really want to see this thibg take off.do this------

1. download the latest patch from gamespot.com (search for unreal2004) their is also the editors choice edition bonus pack which has extra vehicles and extra players on this website too!

2. after that go to this website http://www.planetunreal.com/cbp/
to get the community bonus packs and unpack the files to their specific folders.


3 go to this website http://skincity.beyondunreal.com/ to get the skins you like for unreal 2004 and unpack them to their specific folders

4.Enjoy the game!!! it has lots of levels which are just awesome to look at. I hope this helps---cheers!!

"Fantastic game, however..."
I'm not going to praise to heaven its wonderful graphics or gameplay. I can't comment on its online quality (I'm still using dial-up and I just don't have the time anyway).
But there is something here that has not been mentioned.
Hitches.

That's right. An enormous amount of people have been having problems with the game hitching and stalling no matter what is done (although various workarounds have been tried). The good people at Atari have been completely useless in addressing this problem saying to download the latest patch which doesn't fix the problem.
That said, the game is amazing. It's graphics are stunning (say what you like about Half-Life 2, I've played it and I still enjoy playing Quake (quake one)), the offline bots are fantastic and gameplay is just downright fun, the way games should be.
I just couldn't let all these fine reviews go by without a mention of this problem.
If you have this, or are planning on buying it, and have these problems then I recommend the Atari forums. The fans have done far more than the developers, though that seems to be a sad truth in todays world.

"Freakin Awesome!"
Unreal Tournament 2004 is the best first person shooter game I have ever played! The graphics are quite impressive. It really seems like you're actually there in the game. The designers paid very close attention to detail on every level; that's what makes it so neat. Realistic rain, smoke, fire, and lightning effects certainly help the game to be more enjoyable to play. There's a horde of different bots (characters) to fight against, like "aliens", robots, and humans.
There are many modes to play in, for example: there's a Deathmatch mode where you just try to kill as many of the bots as you can, an Assault mode where you complete a mission with a team, an Onslaught mode where you capture and hold strategic points in order to destroy a power core in the end, Capture the Flag mode where you take the other team's flag and return it to your base, Domination mode where you capture points and hold them for as long as you can, and many more (10 total). These really add to the excitement of the game by giving a variety of things you can do. My favorite mode is Onslaught because there are all sorts of vehicles to drive around and blow up the other team's nodes with.
With multiplayer there can be up to 32 people playing against one another on LAN or online compared to Halo which only allows 16 people to play at one time. You can start your own server or join up with someone else's. There are usually many servers online running at any given time during the day of which you can connect to and play with whoever is on there. I recommend a faster connection than dial-up because it can lag a bit while playing larger maps with a bunch of people.
When I get tired of playing the maps that came with the game or just want more excitement, there are hundreds and hundreds of maps available online on various sites for no cost. Simply type "unreal tournament maps" into a search engine and numerous results will show up. There are also mods out there which are complete modifications to the game and give it a totally different feel. You can even make levels of your own with the level editor (UnrealEd) supplied with the game. Just about any scenario you could think of can be made with the editor. The possibilities are really endless. You can even design your own vehicles, weapons, and characters with Maya Personal Learning Edition which is also supplied with the game! I have made a couple maps of my own and it's a lot of fun.
There is free demo version available from www.unrealtournament.com if you want to try the game out. One drawback may be that you need a powerful computer for the high graphics. I have a 3GHz processor with 512MB of RAM and 32MB video card and it runs great without too many bots running around. The installation size is large (5.5 GB), but don't let that scare you, it's an awesome game!