Unreal Tournament III: Black Edition

Story

Unlike in previous “Unreal Tournament” games, the single-player campaign does not revolve around the tournament’s Grand Championship, which is why some of the teams in “Unreal Tournament 3” do not even participate in the tournament. The five playable factions are: the Iron Guard, a team of human mercenaries led by former tournament champion Malcolm; the Ronin, a group of four survivors of a Skaarj attack on a human colony; Liandri, a series of advanced humanoid robots built or retrofitted specifically for combat; the Krall, a warlike alien race that was formerly under Skaarj control and now returns following their first appearance in the original “Unreal”; and the Necris, warriors who have undergone the process of the same name, which makes them stronger—though at the cost of replacing their biological processes with “Nanoblack,” effectively turning them into undead soldiers (hence the name Necris). In the campaign, you control members of the Ronin, and the Necris are the main enemies. In the game’s story, set in the year 2307—several years after the events of UT2004—a Necris force attacks a colony on an unknown planet and unleashes armed Kralls on the humans. The colony is defenseless, but a group of Ronin arrives on the scene and defends the survivors. Reaper, the group’s leader, instructs his second-in-command, Othello, and his sister, Jester, to destroy the Necris blockade in orbit with a fighter, and orders the team’s sniper, Bishop, to provide cover while he charges forward to save the colony. Suddenly, he is caught in the blast of an incoming missile and loses consciousness—but not before he sees an unknown Necris woman shoot a soldier standing next to him. Reaper is rescued by Othello and Jester and wakes up at the base of the Izanagi, a guerrilla group fighting against the Necris and Axon, where he meets the leader, who turns out to be Malcolm, who also commands the Iron Guard as the Izanagi’s army. He explains that the Necris attack was orchestrated by Liandri, who has also transformed some of the Krall into Necris-controlled undead soldiers. The unknown woman Reaper saw turns out to be Akasha, the Necris agent who destroyed the colony and also commands the Necris forces. Reaper wants to kill her, but Malcolm tells him he must prove himself first.