History VideoGame / UrbanTerror

* [[BrokenBase/VideoGames Broken Base]]: The current 4.2 version had a long and troubled history, having been cancelled altogether in favor of a complete remake (called HD) and then picked up again when HD took longer than expected. The result, while not quite an ObviousBeta, had a multitude of issues (for example nasty edge cases affecting stamina drain) that made many players declare 4.2 garbage and refuse to touch it to this day. Leagues upgraded quite early on, as soon as the most egregious issues were fixed, forcing competitive players to choose a side, while those pub players who like any of the unofficial mods have necessarily stayed on 4.1.

* RareGuns: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remington_SR-8 Remington SR-8]] was an experimental sniper rifle that never saw production, while [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heckler_&_Koch_PSG1 H&K PSG1]] is ludicrously expensive in real life. Desert Eagle (the most-used sidearm) was added quite early on for its high [[CoolGuns Hollywood quotient]].

No relation to the WarOnTerror which was still more than a year into the future when the first beta was released; the game has never featured terrorists of any kind.

Being one of the last survivors from the wave of realism mods from around the turn of the century, it’s often compared to ''VideoGame/{{Counter-Strike}}'' which started the craze. However, gameplay-wise it’s closer to the granddaddy of them all, ''Action [[VideoGame/QuakeII Quake 2]]'', and in fact many of the original developers came from the ''[=AQ2=]'' community with the intent of recreating similar gameplay on a more modern engine. (Apparently ''Urban Terror'' got its very name from a popular map in ''[=AQ2=]''.)

* FacklerScaleOfFPSRealism: Listed under “other”, which is telling.

* ExcusePlot: The earlier versions made a pretense that the game is about mercenaries waging a shadow war, the default maps being what you’d expect (industrial and urban areas). The 4.0 release changed that to SWAT team and a criminal gang named Red Dragons (presumably freshly escaped from prison, as evidenced by their orange overalls). None of this has any relation to gameplay or the selection of weapons though, and one of the oldest default maps still in the game in fact depicts a scene from ''SavingPrivateRyan''…

''[[http://www.urbanterror.info/home/ Urban Terror]]'', commonly abbreviated as ''[=UrT=]'', is a [[FreewareGames freeware]] multiplayer FirstPersonShooter. Although it started out as a [[GameMod total conversion mod]] for ''VideoGame/QuakeIIIArena'', since 2007 it has been de facto a standalone game thanks to [[http://ioquake3.org/ ioquake3]], the open-source version of the ''Quake 3'' egine. Its gameplay is explicitly characterized as “Hollywood realism” and “[[RuleOfFun Fun over realism]]” by the developers, featuring more or less realistic weaponry and completely unrealistic movement. A [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIeyUrOXnWQ promo video from 2009]] gives a basic overview of the look and feel of the game.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/urban-terror-4_1-new_4201.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Urban Terror 4.1.1 (the current version is 4.2.021), map ut4_turnpike.]]

''[[http://www.urbanterror.info/home/ Urban Terror]]'', or ''[=UrT=]'', is a [[FreewareGames freeware]] multiplayer FirstPersonShooter, “Hollywood realism” [[GameMod total conversion mod]] for ''VideoGame/QuakeIIIArena''. Since 2007 it has been a de facto standalone game thanks to [[http://ioquake3.org/ ioquake3]], the open-source version of the ''Quake 3'' egine. Its gameplay is explicitly characterized as “[[RuleOfFun Fun over realism]]” by the developers, featuring more or less realistic weaponry and completely unrealistic movement. A [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIeyUrOXnWQ promo video from 2009]] gives a short overview of many of the features of the game.

It’s often compared to ''VideoGame/{{Counter-Strike}}'' (both conversions came out roughly at the same time), either as a free alternative or a rip-off. Comparing it to ''Action [[VideoGame/QuakeII Quake 2]]'' would be more correct since most of the original developers came from ''[=AQ2=]'' with the intent of creating a similar fast-paced gameplay on a more modern engine. In fact, Urban Terror got its very name from a popular map in ''[=AQ2=]''. (No relation to the WarOnTerror which was still more than a year into the future when the first beta was released; the game has never featured terrorists of any kind.)

The game is still being updated after thirteen years, currently receiving bug fixes and new features every month or so. Its long-awaited [[VaporWare next-generation version]] will be using [[http://www.unrealengine.com/ Unreal Engine 4]]; you can participate in discussion on the [[http://www.urbanterror.info/forums/forum/73-ue4-urban-terror-discussion/ UrT HD subforum]] and read developer diaries in the [[http://www.urbanterror.info/news/blogs/ blogs section]].

[[caption-width-right:350:Urban Terror 4.1.1 (the current version is 4.2.020), map ut4_turnpike.]]