First off, this demo is one of the most fun-filled activities I’ve ever had the pleasure of taking part in. I mean it’s UT, so I knew it was gonna be fun, but bo-hoy.
I found myself sitting here just playing it offline against the bots after I downloaded it yesterday and before I knew it, it was 4:30 AM. That was 4 hours just playing it offline. Where the hell did the time go?
Anyways, I picked it up again today and played it online for another 6 hours until I thought I really have to post what I think about it, so here we go.
This thing plays like a dream, while my computer’s ok, it isn’t exactly the cream of the crop, but with a 128 MB card, I was running it on almost full graphics and I was still getting a very nice FPS of about 60. The graphics aren’t exactly phenomenal or ground-breaking, compared to some games coming out soon, but the performance is mind-blowing.
As I’m sure any of you who have been following this have heard, there are 2 more game modes: Assault and Onslaught. First off, I’ll talk about onslaught.
Onslaught is THE mode to play if you want to blow shit up in a big way or just drive around ripping people’s heads off as you fly over them in the Manta (which I spent like half an hour doing). It is so much fun. While the vehicles DO look like they’ve come straight out of Halo or Tribes, they do have that UT quality and weaponry about them.
Take the Hellbender: Looks like a run of the mill Army buggy. One weapon shoots a high energy laser weapon that you can charge up, creating one hell of a light beam, the other weapon shoots skymines that look strangely like plasma balls. Now these balls dissappear once they touch anything, however, alt-fire and they all send a massive energy charge to each other, blowing them all up in a frenzy of plasmaic fire. Or if you prefer, go with the Scorpion: First weapon shoots out a green energy rope. Doesn’t sound like much, but if used right, it can keep an enemy vehicle trapped against a wall, or tighten around the enemy taking off a lot of damage. Then there’s also the alt-fire, which lets you kill enemies in the old fashioned way of chopping them to bits. Alt-firing unleashes massive blades on the two sides of the scorpion, cutting off a fair chunk from a grunt. However, the blades can be broken off if they hit a wall or another vehicle.
The main point of Onslaught is to capture nodes strewn across the map, once you have a chain of them, you can attach the enemies base and power reactor. Sounds simple enough, but with vehicles spawning at every node, it can get very hectic very fast. This mode is the most fun, you can either go at it all out, guns blazing or use a very strategic approach, either way has an equal chance of winning because the balance of power can switch so much and so easily.
Now let’s talk about Assault: it’s made a comeback from the original UT and it has been VASTLY improved for online purposes. This game shines a lot more online than it does offline. The problem this had online on UT was that it wasn’t very streamlined at all, and it took aeons switching between defense and offense. This has all been changed. It takes a matter of seconds to switch between offense and defense in 2k4 and it is also so much more of a challenge.
It’s also so easy to arrange your team now, with the addition of voice chat. You just have to press F and you can talk down the mic. This is great online as chatting causes no slowdown to the game whatsoever.
Now of course there are the new weapons. All of which I don’t think much of at all, give me a Flak Cannon or Minigun anyday.
All in all, I really cannot wait until this game comes out. See you in the tournament.
