Unreal Tournament 2004

Unreal Tournament 2004 (often abbreviated to simply UT2004) is a first-person arena shooter video game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. Part of the Unreal franchise, it is the third game in the Unreal Tournament series and an updated rerelease of Unreal Tournament 2003.

Among significant changes to gameplay mechanics and visual presentation, one of the major additions introduced by Unreal Tournament 2004 is the inclusion of vehicles and the Onslaught game type, allowing for large-scale battles.[3]

A sequel, Unreal Tournament 3, was released on November 19, 2007.[4]

In December 2022, the Epic servers for all games in the series were closed. Currently, no games in the series, including UT2004, are available for purchase on any digital platforms and stores. Epic Games has not yet announced the reason for this decision.[5]

Plot

Gameplay

Unreal Tournament 2004 is a first-person shooter representing a fast-paced extreme sport of the future. The game, designed primarily for multiplayer gameplay, offers multiple ways of movement including double-jumping, dodge-jumping, wall-dodging and shield-jumping.[6] UT2004 also features an extensive array of weapons, all of which come with a secondary fire. Some of them were designed specifically for use in vehicle-based game types, and typically appear only in those game types such as the Anti-Vehicle Rocket Launcher (AVRiL) and the Grenade Launcher. More than 100 maps are included in the game for all new and existing game types.[7]

Gametypes

The available game types are:[8]

Assault: An objective-oriented game type in which one team attacks the objectives (usually one at a time in a specific order) while another defends. Often, attackers will be rewarded for completing an objective by being allowed to spawn closer to the next objective. If the attacking team completes the final objective within the allowed time, the teams switch roles and another round on the same map begins. If not, the original attackers lose. If a second round begins and the new attackers complete the final objective in less time than the first attackers, they win; if not, they lose.
Onslaught or ONS is a vehicle-based game mode in which the objective is to capture a series of power nodes connecting the player and their opponents' bases and destroy the power core located within their base. First team to destroy opponents' power core wins.
Bombing Run: Each level has a ball that starts in the middle of the playing field. The player's team scores by getting the ball through the enemy team's hoop. The player scores 7 points for jumping through the hoop while holding the ball and 3 points for tossing the ball through the hoop. The player holding the ball cannot use weapons but can pass the ball to teammates. The ball is dropped if the player is killed.
Capture the Flag: The player's team must score flag captures by taking the enemy flag from the enemy base and returning it to their own flag. If the flag carrier is killed, the flag drops to the ground for anyone to pick up. If the player's team's flag is taken, it must be returned (by touching it after it is dropped) before their team can score a flag capture.
Deathmatch or DM, is a game type, in which the point is to either reach a certain number of frags (or kills) or to the highest number of frags at the time limit for the match.
Team Deathmatch: Two teams duke it out in a quest for battlefield supremacy. The team with the most frags wins.
Invasion: It is a simple survival mode. The players are forced to work together to try and survive endless waves of monsters from Unreal that get increasingly difficult with each wave. Once a player dies they cannot respawn until the round is over. Rounds can either end after a time limit (victory) or when all players are dead (failure).
Double Domination: The player's team scores by capturing and holding both Control Points for ten seconds. Control Points are captured by touching them. After scoring, the Control Points are reset to neutral.
Last Man Standing: Each player starts with a limited number of lives. The last remaining player to still have lives wins the match.
Mutant: All players start in a deathmatch setting with all weapons, and the first player to kill becomes the "mutant". This player receives unlimited ammo, camouflage, Berserk (increases rate of fire and knockback) and super speed for an indefinite amount of time, but he slowly loses health and cannot pick up any health items. When the mutant is killed, the mutant powers are passed to the killer.

Vehicles

There are many vehicles available in Unreal Tournament 2004. Most of them make an appearance in the Onslaught game type, while a few feature in Assault. The full set consists of aircraft types and vehicles. There are also two spacecraft which only officially feature in one Assault map and different types of gun turrets which players can take control of.

Release

A playable demo was released for multiple platforms in February 2004, including Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Linux on x86-32, and Linux on x86-64. An updated demo version, including all the bug fixes from official patches and some original content, was released on September 23 of the same year.

After being delayed from a late 2003 release,[10] Unreal Tournament 2004 was released in March 2004 in North America and Europe, for the PC (Linux x86-32/x86-64 and Windows). At release, the game could be purchased as a standard six-disc CD-ROM release or a special edition DVD-ROM release that included a Logitech microphone headset and a second DVD filled with video-tutorials on how to use the included UnrealEd. The European DVD release did not include the bonus extras. A DVD-ROM release without the microphone followed suit in the United States on April 13. All original PC versions of the game included a $10 mail-in rebate requiring that a short form be completed and sent to the publisher along with a copy of the manual cover for Unreal Tournament 2003, although in Europe the rebate required sending in the play CD for Unreal Tournament 2003 instead. MacOS version (DVD only) followed on March 31.

In summer 2004, Epic and Atari, in collaboration, released an XP Levels downloadable map pack, which included two Onslaught maps, ONS-Ascendancy and ONS-Aridoom.[11] The pack is free for download and use on any system capable of running the game.

In September 2004, Atari released in stores the "Editor's Choice Edition" of Unreal Tournament 2004 which adds three vehicles, four Onslaught maps, and six character skins to the original game, and contains several mods developed by the community as selected by Epic Games. This extension (excluding mods) was released as a Bonus Pack by Atari on September 23, and is available for free download.

The version for Windows x86-64 was released as a downloadable patch on October 1, 2005.

In December 2005, the Mega Bonus Pack was released online by Epic Games, which included several new maps, along with the latest patch and the Editor's Choice Edition content.

In June 2006, Midway Games acquired the publishing rights to the Unreal back catalog from Infogrames and Atari.[12] That November, Midway released Unreal Anthology, a bundle that includes Unreal Gold, Unreal II: The Awakening, Unreal Tournament (Game of the Year edition), and Unreal Tournament 2004.

In March 2008, Epic Games released the game on Valve's digital distribution service Steam, and was also included as part of the Unreal Deal Pack, followed later in the year by the "Editor's Choice Edition"[13] on GOG.com.

Subsequent Midway editions of Unreal Tournament 2004 omit the Linux installer from DVD game content.

In December 2025, the fan community OldUnreal announced that UT2004 was coming back with Epic's blessing, "free of charge" and with support for modern systems. As of January 2026, no specific release date has been given for the OldUnreal re-release, but shortly after its announcement, initial patch notes were posted online by community members involved with the project. OldUnreal expects public testing to begin sometime in early 2026.[14][15]

title	Unreal Tournament 2004
developer	Epic Games Digital Extremes
publisher	Atari (Windows) MacSoft (MacOS) Epic Games (Steam)
producer	Jeff Morris
designer	Cliff Bleszinski
programmer	Steve Polge
composer	Kevin Riepl Starsky Partridge Will Nevins
engine	Unreal Engine 2‡R1R‡
series	Unreal
platforms	Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Linux
released	Windows, Linux NA: March 16, 2004 EU: March 19, 2004 MacOS NA: March 30, 2004‡R2R‡
genre	First-person shooter
modes	Single-player, multiplayer

Unreal Tournament 2004

Plot

Gameplay

Gametypes

Vehicles

Development

Release

Music

Modification

Reception

Awards

External links

References