Epic seems to have ensured that everything that went wrong with Epic multiplayer went right in Unreal Tournament. The weapon sounds for familiar guns like the flak cannon are the same as the much improved ones in the 220 patch for Unreal that were created by Sonic Mayhem and the new weapons such as the Impact Hammer sound just as solid and ear shattering. The weapons themselves also appear to have had some serious balancing applied to them as one is not really more powerful that another. The chaingun has a huge rate of fire yet runs out of ammo quickly and means you have to train your crosshair on a usually moving target for a time. The Shock rifle is deadly accurate and has a fast rate of fire, although it doesn't do a huge amount of damage with each shot unless you pull off the tricky combo shot (primary shot fired into the secondary fire). The Enforcer pistol is a little weak but pick up another and you've got a surprisingly powerful combo, especially when rapid-fired gansta style close up at an enemy. And of course the sniper rifle can give one shot kills (two words: head shot) but has a relatively long reload time and close up most weapons will tear you apart if you are carrying one. Damage and rate of fire thankfully seems pretty balanced in all of the weapons. I could really go on about the balanced weapons from this quick hands on session of the game, but it would fill pages. Suffice to say everyone will have his or her favourite weapon, but it won't give you a huge advantage over any other.

Another thing that has been hyped about the game is the levels, and rightly so. In every level I tried, gameplay and movement flowed very well, of course they looked beautiful (this is the Unreal engine after all) and had guns and health evenly scattered throughout. They are also wonderfully varied. One level is actually a space ship flying through space, complete with stars streaking past. Another is a refinery with numerous lethal lava pits scattered around. On this level a rocket launcher can be found in a furnace room but if you don't get out of there fast enough once you have the launcher, you're in trouble. The doors will shut and the heat will slowly be cranked up until your vision goes blurry and you pass out, subsequently to be burnt to a cinder. Such novel details are dotted around most of the levels in Unreal Tournament, another contribution to its top-notch level of pure, twisted fun.