Unreal Tournament takes place in the distant future (from 2291 to 2341) where the Liandri mining corporation have organised the tournament which allows players to fight through tooth and nail to win. You play as one of the competitors chosen to compete with other players and become the new champion. Like Unreal, you can choose whatever skin you like to have for your player (e.g. male, female, skaarj hybrid, nali). You can play practice mode if you need to. In the single player campaign, you get to play different game types like deathmatch, capture the flag, assault and domination. Once you completed all the game types, you advance your way to the challenge game type where you challenge yourself against elite bots and the most challenging boss of them all, Xan Kreigor before winning the tournament. Don't worry, the tutorials for deathmatch, capture the flag, domination and assault are quite easy to follow through. You also have the option to play multi-player with other players or your friends. The arenas are creative and diverse. The graphics are top-notch despite being 25 years old. The music is action-packed and catchy thanks to Straylight Productions and Michiel Van De Bos. The weapons are efficient as always (especially the redeemer). The voice-over of the announcer is iconic with unforgettable lines (HEADSHOT, DOMINATING, RAMPAGE, DOUBLE KILL, ULTRA-KILL, MONSTER KILL, GODLIKE). There won't be any future arena shooters if it wasn't for Unreal Tournament and Quake III: Arena. Unreal Tournament was that inspirational towards other arena shooters, you cannot deny it's legacy. It is a shame that Unreal Tournament 99 was de-listed from the stores and thrown to obscurity like Unreal.

Overall Rating: 10/10

Unreal Tournament was always the GOAT as far as shooters went for me. It really is a shame UT is pretty much dead now, but such is the curse of time I suppose. My old CD got plenty of use on those weekends off from school, many nights spent fragging away. Wouldn't trade those memories for anything.

Though my Steam account has only clocked 12 hours of gameplay as of writing this, UT99 is a game I've played since I was a kid (Way too early lmao). One of the most fun multiplayer experiences I've ever had, and is the main reason why I still play it all these years later. The gameplay has aged well (Dodge, strafe, point and shoot!), the maps are fun and diverse with space stations, ancient alien planets, weird floating pyramids, and everything inbetween, and the soundtrack is iconic and was ahead of its time. It'll bring you back to a time when Epic Games actually had talent and made original games with unique concepts instead of lazily slopping every IP they can into their "king of the hill" gamemode ripoff, which they abandoned this series for. This game may have been created to compete with Quake, but it was still its own unique flavor - much like the many DOOM inspired shooters of the time.

You can still find servers populated today, use a VPN to play local with homies, or play with bots to sharpen and hone your skills. To miss out on this game would be to miss out on a piece of gaming history. Unfortunately you can't buy it anymore but like with all abandonware, if you know where to look you know how to get it (And I'm sure the community is more than happy to help keep the game afloat, after all patches are still being made by them!). Happy fragging!