27 Years Ago This Game Changed The World Forever

Описание: "I'm sorry, did I blow your head apart?!"

Recently I finished playing all the way through the very first Unreal Tournament from way back in 1999, getting my arse kicked by bots that are nearly as old as I am, playing all the way through singleplayer campaign as well as playing around with some mutators in custom matches and, of course seeing how I fair in some online multiplayer as well, and you can see all that and more in my latest video somewhere in the top right corner now if you want to check it out.

I played it on my modern windows 11 PC with no trouble whatsoever, using the latest version of the OldUnreal community patch which brings the game up to modern standards by adding higher resolutions and adjusting the UI to look like it should, but you know what surprised me the most?

This game looks and plays just as well today as it did back when it was brand new, way back when I was a 13 year old kid playing it on the family computer on a heavy wooden desk in my dad’s big black leather chair which had no posture support, was way too big so you couldn’t slide the arm rests under the desk, and was absolutely unsuited to gaming in every single way… But that was just what PC gaming was in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, and I loved the heck out of it and I still do!

But HOW can a game from 27 years ago still look and play this good? I mean look at it! An indie studio today could release this game and it would get overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam in no time. Granted arena shooters are no way near as popular today as they were back in the early days of FPS games, with people preferring games with a bit more depth nowadays like the inventory management in battle royales and extraction shooters, and that’s fine, but I think games like UT99 still offer a level of simplicity and magic that’s maybe been a bit lost to time…

Maybe it’s the simplicity of the gameplay loop: Spawn in, kill enemies, dodge, duck, dive and die, respawn and repeat until you hopefully come out on top, or maybe it’s the raw brutality of it and the feeling of being directly in control of your character. There’s no unnecessary animations and no fluff, it’s just you, your mouse and your reaction time vs some of the most skill-intensive bots ever made, who by the way REALLY love insulting you every time you die. It’s great!

Also the amount of maps you get in the base game is almost unheard of today, and that’s not taking into account the ridiculous amount of modded maps you can get for it as well. Every game mode has its own set of maps which adds up to a total of 37 maps according to the wiki, and some of the most cunning AI bots I’ve ever encountered in a game to this day.

The maps are simple, the character models and weapon effects are simple, and even the gore chunks flying around the room after someone gets hit point blank in the face by a flak cannon are simple – Hell the whole game is simple! But it’s perfect.

Respawn timers are basically non-existent, the time to kill ranges from instant to a couple of seconds depending on where you get hit and what you get hit by, and it’s just non-stop sweaty heart pounding action from start to finish.

I mean think about this. 6 years earlier, DOOM was the pinnacle of FPS games, and in those 6 years we went from this… to THIS… We just don’t see that kind of technological leap anymore and I think that’s why many people whole late 90’s and early 2000’s games in such high regard… Because when a new game or a brand new console came out claiming to be next-gen, it really WAS next gen, almost as if you were staring the future straight in the face and could touch it and experience it for the first time, compare that to today where you just get the same game with a couple of new maps and some new, usually stupid looking skins, and we’re expected to pay anywhere from 60 to 100 euros for it…

The amount of bang for your buck you get with older games is insane compared today, but that’s especially true when it comes to UT99. Maybe it’s nostalgia or maybe it really is one of the best shooters ever made – I don’t know, and I don’t want to get all philosophical or pretend to have all the answers about stuff that’s as much about individual tastes as it is pure technological achievement… All I know is I fucking love Unreal Tournament, and Epic Games cancelling the whole series to focus on Fortnite should be considered a crime against humanity…

Anyway rant complete – See ya!

#classicgaming #classicgames #retrogaming #gaming