I loaded up the single-player campaign and was first surprised to be presented with an incredibly long, incredibly Gears of War-esque introductory cutscene. For those who are not familiar with Gears, it goes something like this: big, meaty dudes with big, gruff voices discuss big, manly things in the middle of a big, destructive war. There's a girl this time, though. Actually, I think there are two, and one of them is evil. And you're part of a special ops team.

Let me state again that this cutscene is long. It is very long. I tried to skip it one point (after all, I only had so much time to preview the game itself), and was presented with yet more cutscene, which I then skipped only to find more cutscene. Epic obviously did not skimp on the budget here, which makes sense given how flush with cash the company must be with the success of Gears and its Unreal Engine 3.

After watching (or continually skipping) this big, meaty, gruff, manly cutscene, you will find that UT3's single-player mode isn't anything like the actual gameplay from Gears of War. In fact, it's more like an extended training mode for UT3's multiplayer, which some people may find disappointing but which makes a lot more sense for this game than traditional linear single-player gameplay would.

Each mission is basically a multiplayer game, with AI-controlled bots serving as the opposing team members as well as any friendly slots not occupied by human players. The first mission is a simple ten-kill deathmatch, the second is a longer deathmatch, the third is a game of Capture the Flag, the fourth a round of UT3's new Warfare mode, and so on.

As you play each mode for the first time, the game will explain how it works. Though I already had a vague idea of how to play CTF and deathmatch (from what I can tell, you shoot the other guys in the face), I had not yet played Warfare, UT3's new spinoff of UT04's Onslaught, and the campaign version caught me up handily. (Warfare was not included in the recent UT3 demo, but if you'd like to be filled in on its full details, check out Shack's coverage from our own Nick Breckon.)

Though many of the UT seriers' weapons are fairly self-explanatory, the campaign mode also takes the opportunity to familiarize players with more unusual equipment such as the Translocator, the franchise's semi-indirect personal teleportation device that allows players to zip through levels in a Nightcrawler-like manner--appropriately, it's first introduced alongside CTF.

(Amusingly, there is actually a half-hearted attempt to rationalize all the completely abstract elements of multiplayer--flags, frags, and the rest--in the context of a story-driven campaign. Apparently, the purpose of a deathmatch is to exhaust the enemy's respawners. And the flags of CTF--spelled "FLaGs," as part of some wacky acronym--actually serve to power the enemy's respawner devices, so by capturing them repeatedly you are making crucial tactical progress.)

Missions are punctuated by a world map that gives the impression of a larger war making up these smaller multiplayer-like battles. Of course, you'll never actually forget that you're really just playing a bunch of AI skirmishes, but it's nice that Epic wrapped it in such an ambitious package.

In the end, Unreal Tournament III's single-player mode isn't all that big a gameplay departure; you're basically playing a bunch of themed games against bots. However, it's a nice inclusion for the surprisingly huge series player base that doesn't actually do much multiplayer--Epic producer Tanya Jessen told us earlier this year that about half of UT04 players never went online. The series is well known for its excellent AI bots, often praised as FPS gaming's best, so it's only fitting that Epic highlight them more than ever before.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Midway plans to ship the PC version of Epic Games' Unreal Tournament III for PC on November 19. A PlayStation 3 version is planned for release in December 2007 or early 2008, and an Xbox 360 version is in development for release some time in 2008.