Do you remember? Unreal Tournament 99

Dominik Bärlocher

27.7.2018

Translation: machine translated

No other game defined my youth like "Unreal Tournament". That was almost 20 years ago now. The nostalgia shows what was good about the game and why the former gaming icon became a marginal phenomenon.

"M-M-M-M-Monsterkill!"

I remember my first time well. The first time the announcer with the strikingly deep voice confirmed that I had shot six enemies within about three or four seconds. My weapon: the Ripper, a kind of sawblade launcher. Not only does it have a short reload time, but if you hit the enemy well, you can cut his head off cleanly. Headshot! I only need six shots for six kills and six points.

While others spent hours playing the first "Counter-Strike" in 1999, I was hooked on "Unreal Tournament". I still don't understand why. Was it the announcer? The nuclear missile called Redeemer? Instagib, i.e. One Hit Kills? Almost twenty years later, I set off in search of clues: What makes "Unreal Tournament" special?

At the first LAN party

My first contact with "Unreal Tournament" was at my first LAN party at a colleague's living room. There were six of us and we put our old PCs and CRT screens on the family dining table. There's a mess of cables between the screens and under the table. We live on hot and cold pizza and cola for a weekend. We start with "Counter Strike", especially Dust 2. At some point, when it's dark outside and we're wondering where we can get something to eat at this time of night in the St. Gallen pampas, we get the suggestion "UT99". I don't know it. Okay.

We play DM Morpheus. Deathmatch, instagib. So no frippery. It's all about shooting the opponents. One hit from the modified shock rifle kills you. Whoever shoots 30 people first wins. Hooray.

Morpheus and Instagib will keep me busy for the next three years. At every LAN party, we play the level until our eyes close despite the caffeine, swear at each other and laugh at the stupid bots. I still have Alexander Brandon's soundtrack in my head to this day.

The shock online

On my 18th birthday, I got myself an internet connection. It wasn't as ubiquitous back then as it is today. I look at online comments in forums and download my first maps. To my horror, I realise two things.

1. The bot Loque is not perceived by the general public as the arsehole he actually is
2. The level DM-Deck16 is apparently more popular with players than DM-Morpheus

For the first time, I decide: The Internet has them all after all.

Let's start with Loque: The bot is the only bot in the game that's any good. The pale Necris fighter is the only computer-controlled player who can aim. He can even aim so well that he can hit you directly in the head at long distances. It doesn't make any difference in Instagib, but when Loque gets a sniper rifle, it's a no-go. He gets me every damn time. For years. Tamerlane, Archon and other bots in the game are completely useless and essentially cannon fodder. Loque though. I still hate Loque to this day.

I don't understand Deck 16 either. Sure, the level is quite charming and offers lots of hiding places and a large arena where you can throw yourself into battle. But that's just not wild enough for me. You can't hide on Morpheus. Or not really, unless you know who respawns where and how. You learn that over time.

I've always enjoyed playing shooters. The simpler the better. Sure, I can get excited about a good story, get involved with newer characters like Ezio in "Assassin's Creed" or Shepherd in "Mass Effect", but I can't really play games for hours on end. As soon as I can't shoot at something for about 30 seconds or have the prospect of shooting, I switch off. The question now is whether that's why I like "Unreal Tournament" or whether that's why I don't like the new games.

I don't know. But now, twenty years later, I know about my fascination with the game. It's a mixture of a minimal story - tournament, evil company something, shoot yourselves for sport - and lots of action. After work or school, "UT" was a game I could sink into, brain off, but fingertips at maximum concentration. I was looking for the headshots, the best sniper angles and, of course, the monster kill.

"Yes, but what about UT2003 and UT3?"

Of course, I also played the successors to "my" Unreal. To this day, my alarm clock music is the track "Mercs Entrance" from the "Unreal Tournament 2003" soundtrack. When my smartphone rings, it plays the "UT2003 Menu Theme".

However, the games never got me as excited as the first part. I missed DM-Morpheus in 2003. The developers replaced it with DM-Plunge, but the map was too labyrinthine to be much fun right away. CTF-Face, the sniper level with the two towers, was there, but there was a cumbersome pyramid in the centre that prevented about three quarters of all headshots from long range. Why? "UT2004" wasn't much better and the vehicle mode was a bad joke. The new Onslaught mode, which we're all supposed to like now, was even worse.

Then came "UT3". Things went wrong there. More onslaught, more of this weird mode where you have to destroy nodes. The traditional deathmatch took a back seat. And with that, I've stretched my weapons. I don't want more complex game modes or bigger storylines. I want my shock rifle, a quick map and then some techno music. That's why I always have fond memories of my UT days, on my CRT monitor, with colleagues in the basement or in the dining room. But after that, my passion died out. Perhaps the announced fourth instalment of the series with the resounding title "Unreal Tournament" will manage to get me excited again. The first signs are already good: Morpheus is back.

So, that's it. By the way, did you know that if you rename the map file CTF-Face to DM-Face in "UT99", you get a totally good sniper and instagib deathmatch map?

Dominik Bärlocher

Senior Editor

dominik.baerlocher@digitecgalaxus.ch

Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.

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