The original Unreal Tournament, first released in 1999, launched with a ton of maps, most of which have long been consigned to the Recycle Bin of history. There’s one very simple map, however, that has stood the test of time: Facing Worlds.
Princess Peach’s Leading Role And More New Releases
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It’s a simple, fundamentally broken map. One that features two stone towers linked by two small land bridges, a symmetrical murder rock that is wildly unbalanced, favours snipers above all else, and by today’s standards, wouldn’t even make it to a whiteboard in a brainstorming session, let alone into the retail release of a game.
And yet! And yet. We love it all the same, because as busted as it is, it’s beautiful. It’s simple. It captures everything about the game it was a part of, and everything we loved about shooters at the time.
All of which, and more, is explored in this excellent video about the map by Noclip. The video is rightly critical of its flaws (by 2022's standards), but also right to point out that—like so many other games and moments from the dawn of the 3D age—it’s endured and is regarded as a classic. The technical limitations of the time created a sort of purity, a distilled experience born out of what the developers couldn’t do with these new 3D spaces, as much as what they could.
