So here’s the good news: developer Epic Games has done a really good job getting the revered PC series working on a console controller. Any concerns about the lack of a keyboard and mouse should be thrown out the window straight away. Sure, it’s not quite as sharp as the PC input devices, but the game retains all of the twitch, reflex combat and too-much-red-bull gameplay speed of its PC iterations. The game does not feel slowed down in any way, nor do you feel challenged in keeping up with the pace: in short, the humble joypad does not get in the way of the UTIII experience.

That experience is all about online. We were a little surprised when Epic Games belatedly announced that they would be including a single-player campaign with the game, but that statement is a little misleading. The Campaign mode does feature a couple of solid, but not spectacular, cut-scenes and a cast of poorly acted characters for you to get acquainted with, all chewing away on B-grade dialogue. But rather than objective-based linear gaming as we’ve seen with the Unreal adventure games of the past, the story is just loosely linked together multiplayer battles against Bots.

The Bots offer a stiff enough challenge and while there is nothing particularly wrong with this campaign approach – we’ve seen it before in the likes of the Battlefield series – it’s not solid enough to recommend to offline gamers. A few novel ideas like earning battle cards which you can play before a bout for a tactical advantage and issuing commands to your team reveal potential, but aren’t properly fleshed out. Really, it’s but an entrée to the main course, and that delicious feast is online.

Indeed, there is no shortage of great gaming to be had online with Unreal Tournament III. There are six main gameplay modes: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, CTF, Vehicle CTF, Warfare, and Duel, and enough maps between them to put most FPS games in the marketplace to shame. Most of those modes will be second nature to FPS fans, with Warfare – a combination of Assault and Onslaught from the pervious games – being the game’s unique showpiece. Here teams fight to control power-nodes that are linked together across the map. Once they are all under one team’s power, their opponent’s base can be attacked.

As teams are required to hold onto the last power-node in the link while attacking their opponent’s base, it splits the force and requires intelligent team work. And because the action is always focused around the most forward positioned power-node, it acts like a frontline and ensures that even on the larger maps you’re never far from a meaty explosion of whizzing bullets. As a slight shift in team tactics over the previous games, additional power-nodes also exist in Warfare, which when captured provide a new spawn point for players, vehicles and weapons but don’t affect access to the opponent’s base.

Indeed, while some fans were disappointed by the amalgamation of Onslaught and Assault, Warfare actually acts as a smartly refined version of both. Key to this is the addition of hover-boards, which seamlessly slip underfoot with the tap of the square button. One of the biggest issues that faced gamers in the larger maps created for Onslaught was simply getting from A to B. No one wants to be stuck miles away from the battle slugging it out on foot – those days are now gone. Much like the vehicles – some new, some returning – the hover-boards are a cinch to control, but more importantly they further act to keep the action always in your face.

The map quality is excellent too, proving to be inventive without making things too complex. From space stations floating in space to wars waging amidst the huge trunks of ancient forests there is plenty of variation on offer, but the maps never feel difficult to learn. Even on your first run of a map, you feel like you’re in with a chance, able to stock up on weapons and move towards the combat with confidence. We’re not, however, over the moon about the mini-map, whose info is little too tough to absorb in quick glances as rockets are thundering past your head, but of course you do get used to it.