Urban? Yes. Terror? No.

Continuing the theme of Quake 3 mods gone standalone, this week I decided to take a look at Urban Terror.

First things first, Urban Terror is my kind of game, so I'm much more predisposed to liking it than I was with Tremulous. For me, in the shooter world it just doesn't get much better than a good tactical shooter, although the Urban Terror team calls it a "hollywood tactical shooter", and rightfully so.

Installation on Linux may be tricky for some, since there's not really any installation information included in the README (at least that I could find). But, it's easy enough: extract the ioUrbanTerror archive (if playing standalone, like I am), extract Urban Terror itself, then place the q3ut4 folder in the Linux-i386 subdirectory of wherever you extracted ioUrbanTerror.

Even if the gameplay is good, a mod can be ruined for me if the maps aren't up to par. Luckily with Urban Terror, this is not the case. Every map I've played so far has looked great, and was balanced extremely well. Everything looks about as good as a Quake 3 mod possibly can.

Gameplay follows suit, weapons feel well tuned, and you certainly don't get the "cheap deaths" feeling you can get in other, similar mods. One thing I really like is that once hit with a weapon, even if you aren't killed right away, you'll bleed. And yes, eventually, that will take you down.

Urban Terror definitely does not tall into the "play it enough to write about it, then throw it away" category. I get the feeling I'll be playing it on and off for some time.