Warfare

Main objective of Warfare maps - blow up the enemy Power Core.

Replacing Onslaught and Assault in Unreal Tournament 3 is the Warfare mode. It has its roots in Onslaught as you fight over multiple control points (known as Nodes), but there are several features: Nnlinked Nodes that can be captured at any time (awarding access to vehicles and an additional spawn point), Countdown Nodes that help the controlling team with a special vehicle or a special event when held for a time after capture, and the Orb.

Normally, unlocked Nodes are captured by shooting down the defenses hovering around the Node until it turns neutral, and then entering the Node to finish the capture. The Orb, though, allows you to instantly capture a node without the spending time shooting at it. This translates into very different gameplay; the Orb carrier rapidly becomes the prime target for the other team, but should you manage to reach enemy Node carrying the device, you can instantly swing around the tide of the battle. As only one of the linked Prime Nodes for each side is open for capture, a quick dash with the Orb to a relatively unguarded enemy Node can shut off a heavy assault on your open Node, as it locks up and the "front line" of the battle moves in a flash.

Warfare - duking it out in the air.	Prime Node on a Warfare map - blow it up to open the next node (or the Power Core) for attack.
In case you are not familiar with the map, just follow the glowing arrows and shoot everything that moves.	Vehicles, such as this tank, spice up the action in Vehicle CTF and Warfare maps.

In a way, Warfare combines good features from both Onslaught and Assault. Warfare maps tend to be large and open with vehicles playing a large part in most of them, yet Assault's shifting "front line" system is retained. As both sides are simultaneously attacking and defending, it isn't quite the same thing as Assault, but overall Warfare plays really well. With the indicator arrows and map feeding information to everyone it plays acceptably even on public servers, as it's easy to stay on top of things even when the battle rapidly moves from location to location as Nodes change hands.

The Vehicle selection in Warfare and Vehicle CTF is mostly familiar from the previous UT, but there are a couple of new ones. The Necris bring their own selection to the fight, including Viper, Nemesis, DarkWalker, Fury, Nightshade and Scavenger. These vehicles do not mirror the normal Axon vehicles directly, but their capabilities are roughly equal while being noticeably different.