While there ain't much of a story, there's enough bullet-whizzing, missile-dodging, cannon-firing, leap-of-faith action to make up for that omission. UT takes the fast fragging action of online FPS combat and drops it into players' laps, making it easy both to travel out onto the net to whomp noggins or to play against scalable bots in the privacy of a home system. Unreal's porky net play has been fixed, for the most part. 56K modem players can join games and play, but UT still skews to favor those with faster connections (bite the bullet and get a DSL connection or cable modem already).

In a single-player game, bot intelligence is a beautiful thing. There are multiple levels of skill to assign them to help players learn the level layouts and increase their overall playing skills. On the smarter settings, the bots are devilishly hard to deal with. Even deathmatch masters will have a hard time with four bots set on "Masterful", and there are two more higher skill settings. Most of the time, making bots "smarter" means that they're just better cheaters, able to sense where you are and aim their weapons with deadly, inhuman accuracy. UT's smart bots are vicious fighters but maintain the illusion of playing against human opponents. We did notice that they were taking almost the exact same path every time they'd run through certain areas. In a CTF match on the Facing Worlds map, we were able to train the sights of the sniper rifle a little to the right of the enemy structure and nail head shots every time a bot appeared without having to move the cursor.

Joining a multiplayer game is a snap. The entire UT interface is based on a Windows model, providing instant ease of use and familiarity for gamers and non-gamers alike. Run the cursor over the Multiplayer tab at the top, choose Find New Internet Game, and UT begins pinging servers from its master list and arranging them in order of fastest to slowest connection. Find a fast server, double-click on it and get on with the killin'. It's that easy. The UT Server Browser has multiple tabs for Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Domination, Assault, Team Deathmatch and LAN servers. Simplicity at its finest. Even starting a server is mercifully uncomplicated, with plenty of flexibility for types of games, number and smartness of bots, maps etc.

Standard deathmatch and Capture the Flag (CTF) modes have been included (couldn't really have a multiplayer game without them), but Epic has also created (more or less) two new types of innovative multiplayer frenzy: Assault and Domination. Tribes players will recognize these team-oriented modes, but it's unusual to see them included in a straight action FPS, and they are a welcome addition. In Assault, one team attempts to invade a base and take out certain objectives, while the other team defends the structure from attack. Domination pits two teams against each other for control of three areas; the longer the team holds them, the more points they get. These new approaches to team play provide relief for gamers tired of running in circles, playing endless series of deathmatches.

The level design is over the top, as we knew it would be from the demo. Each level has a theme that makes it instantly recognizable when you pop into a multiplayer game (also, the multiplayer search tool will show a small graphic of the level in a little window to help cut down on confusion). Castles, pirate ships, floating pyramids, conveyor belts and low-gravity cityscapes are just some of the excellent maps available within the game. Even the usual loops of techno-tunnels show a serious commitment to level creation and flow that we don't see in most multiplayer maps. There are spots within levels that are simply perfect for camping, but those very same spots are usually exposed to incoming fire, or they're hard to reach, making campers work for their slacker kills. Some levels have sneaky traps built into them, such as a tempting room full of weapons and armor that turns out to be a gas chamber or a shield belt that sits over a trap door to nothingness.

The weapons have been seriously retooled from the first go-round, thankfully. Unreal's weapons, while showing flashes of uniqueness, were hampered by wimpy sounds and ineffectual damage. The original minigun, for instance, sounded as intimidating as a hedge clipper and didn't hammer nearly enough pain on the intended target. The eleven weapons found in UT are a lot of fun and mostly well-balanced, but we found the Flak Cannon to be a bit overpowered, firing a killer shotgun spray of shrapnel in normal fire and a devastating grenade of flak as its secondary mode. Dropping an opponent armed only with the starting Enforcer pistol will usually net a second Enforcer for John Woo double-fisted drama; the combined fire of the two guns is almost as devastating as the minigun. New additions to the Unreal arsenal include the huge Reedemer rocket (imagine a guided BFG blast); the Impact Hammer, a jackhammer melee weapon; and the M-16-styled sniper rifle. Epic's also made across-the-board improvements to the original arsenal, tightening up the secondary abilities and altering rates of fire. There are also powerups for invisibility, extra damage, bonus health, armor and force field belts.

We love UT. Much thought has been put into this game, both from the design and the technology perspective. It's obvious that Epic had the desire to innovate with this product, not just release a series of Unreal add-on deathmatch maps with some new technology. Internet play is faster, easier and less flaky than Unreal was when it was released. The levels are great; we can't say enough good things about the majority of the maps within the game. Assault and Domination are welcome additions to the team multiplayer genre, and we expect to see many games in the future adding these modes. The lack of any sort of storyline is lamentable, but the pure adrenaline buzz generated by the serious bot competition is almost enough to make us overlook this minor annoyance.