A game that on paper should have printed money, especially coming around the time of Avengers Infinity War and Endgame. And people weren't quite tired of live service games yet.

But sadly the teams behind this just didn't have the experience necessary in the live service space to pull it off.

I appreciated the story mode for what it was, every different character having their own playstyle, the visuals were fine and thank god they didn't just give everybody an assault rifle and called it a day.

There was genuine care and talent visible in aspects of this, which makes it even worse that it bombed like it did.
Clearly some of the people in charge had no idea what direction to go and continued steering it poorly after launch too.

Maybe it was all for the better as these studios are now free to go back to their own ip's and it kind of signalled the downfall of lazy live service games.

This feels like a Marvel game from the old days, before the MCU became a thing.

It's such a wacky premise, cast of characters and gameplay. But somehow, it works in the end.

You can easily show a random moment from this game and completely ruin it as often it doesn't look that great. But stick with it and it starts getting It's claws into you, in a good way.

This has (O)cult hit written all over it.

THE game of my early teens and the first franchise I even considered myself a fan of.

UT99 for me wasn't just a Multiplayer game, in fact I barely played with other people, mostly played against Bots.

What I saw and felt was the atmosphere, the cool characters, interesting locations, the awesome guns and snappy gameplay.

Just simply existing in this world, sometimes choosing to defend the base from Ai instead of rushing into battle, hearing the bots communicate over the coms. Analysed their tactics and movements to learn the game.

I played this game my way, and in doing so got immersed in the world created (however unreal it was)

Surprisingly I don't remember fighting against or hating this new aesthetic for the series. Back in my youth I just accepted it as the next step, Heck I was just glad we were getting another UT.

The game did feel a bit different from 99 for sure and ultimately this version (2003) would effectively be replaced by UT2004, the definitive "next gen" unreal experience.

As a sort of stepping stone for the series it was good enough and I still remember the main menu theme song and the announcer going ham introducing all the characters.

If UT2003 was the prelude , this was for sure the full course meal.

UT 2004 sits at the same level as UT99 for me, but with a different aesthetic and feel.

The addition of vehicles was cool, and all the new maps and characters really expanded the world and lore in my mind.

As a fan of the series I absolutely ate every piece of information, screenshot and video up leading into the games release. The hype levels were through the roof.

Sadly the game itself didn't deliver on my lofty expectations.
I dunno how to put it but it just didn't really look right, even though some things looked really cool.
The Story was very meh, should have just sticked with the tournament setting.

Felt like it lost a lot of charm versus the older ones. But maybe I just needed to play it more.

What a weird and charming game this is.

I both understand how it could be someone's favorite final fantasy and another's worst.

It's really all over the place, but odly enough it worked for me. I appreciate the imagination, style and just vibe of the whole thing.

The soundtrack is instantly nostalgic, the visuals were surely a treat back on the old ps1 and the cast of characters endearing.

A memorable entry in the franchise for sure.