. -Gameplay is smooth, fast, and slick. I enjoy the PC version of Halo, but trying to go back to it after playing this made me realize how slow and sluggish that game's pace really is. -Has some very cool, unusual weapons for an FPS, like the Biorifle (slime-slinging gun) or the Lightning Gun (hey, it's called Unreal for a reason, right?) -More than just your standard game modes. Yes, there's your free-for-all Deathmatch and it's friendlier cousin Team Deathmatch, and the classic Capture the Flag; but there's also Onslaught, which is a kind of territory control map; as well as Assault, which involves intricate scenarios with one team on offense, one team on defense; not to mention Invasion, which involves fighting off waves of aliens and bugs and stuff. And this is just to name a few! (There are even custom game types -- the most famous is probably CTF4, which as the name implies is Capture the Flag with 4 teams instead of 2.) -The bots in this game perform excellently. Their AI behavior is some of the most convincing I have ever seen. You have the ability to adjust how well the bots play among a wide array of difficulties, including adjusting individual attributes on individual bots in a given match (attributeslike aggressiveness, twitchiness, etc.) You can also have the bots adjust their difficulty level based on how well you are doing. I am admittedly not the best at FPSes, but I'm no slouch either, so this is a huge feature for me. This brings me to my next point... -This game is just as fun when playing alone. Seriously. It's definitely multi-player focused (the actual single player "campaign" is really just a run through of the various game modes), but when you can set up bots that play well and will even talk shit to you, well, what more could you want? -Unreal modding tools! This is easily my favorite part of the whole deal. The ability to create your own levels, characters, weapons, total conversions, and so on (not to mention to partake of the wealth of already-existing custom content out there) is what really completes the longevity and replay value of this package. If you have any love for FPSes at all, you should not hesitate to get this game. Even if you don't, there's a good chance there's some UT2004 mod out there that has some crazy new gameplay -- some of the more total-conversion-y mods made for this game include RPGs and RTSes. All in all this is an insanely good buy.
