When comparing Unreal Tournament vs Warsow, the Slant community recommends Unreal Tournament for most people. In the question“What are the best PC arena shooters?” Unreal Tournament is ranked 5th while Warsow is ranked 12th. The most important reason people chose Unreal Tournament is:
This game is in such early development and has so many tutorials for helping people get involved in development that if you're able to create a good map (or mod), there are still few enough mappers/developers around to where if you can get that map noticed, it might end up sticking around for the rest of the game's life as a main staple. Your map has the potential to live forever.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Great chance to get involved in the development
This game is in such early development and has so many tutorials for helping people get involved in development that if you're able to create a good map (or mod), there are still few enough mappers/developers around to where if you can get that map noticed, it might end up sticking around for the rest of the game's life as a main staple. Your map has the potential to live forever.
Pro Great movement
You can run, sprint, jump, dodge, slide, wall run, wall dodge, lift jump, and lift dodge. That's a lot of movements for you to utilize. And once you master them, it feels like you're surfing around the map, just flowing.
Pro Lots of pro players to learn from at this early phase of the game's development
Because it's still early in this game's development (UT4), a lot of the players you'll run into are top players from previous UT's (UT99, UT2K3, UT3) and have been at the game for over 15 years. This means that yes, while you'll likely get dominated when you run into these veterans, it's also a great opportunity to better your own play. There aren't a lot of gaming communities out there where you can just jump in and immediately start playing with and learning from the best players in the world.
Pro Completely free, open, and mod-able
Pro The cleanest graphic representation of projectile/area of effect/hitbox
You will know just from a glance how big of an area each weapon will EXACTLY affect, how long it takes for a timed grenade to explode, how big each projectile is and so on. Graphics are made for competitive accuracy but it didn't sacrifice the amazing visuals and cool (but subtle) particle effects.
Pro Strong community
Members of the community are beyond supportive, and they generate some amazing content. Gametypes, Maps, Custom Weapon Sets, etc. there are also semi-frequent ESL cups that anyone can join.
Pro You get to have your say in the game's development and future
The game is not yet in Beta. It's not yet even in Alpha - it's currently in the "Pre-Alpha" phase. You have the chance to interact with both Epic and community developers to make a difference.
Pro Ultra-fast gameplay
Here some numbers: Warsow is based on Quake game engine, just like Counter-Strike so numbers are comparable. In CS you are moving usually at speed 320 ups. In Warsow average duel match goes with speeds 600-900. In CA mode most of players moving at speeds around 1000ups. And in insta CA mode on some maps you can expect opponent flying at 1500-2000ups.
Pro For both competitive and casual players
If you want to go hard then go to the online servers and pick duel mode. This is the hardest mode in the game. You will need to have many different skills to beat even an average player. If you want to just have fun you can pick bomb or ica modes. Bomb mode is much like de_* maps in Counter-Strike.
Pro One of the best gateway arena shooters for your friends
Well optimized, small file size, good bots, cute graphics, free, standard arena weapon set, good tutorial... If you are trying to get your friends to try playing hardcore arena shooters with you, like your Quake, UT, Reflex or what have you, this is a quick and free download that won't take too much convincing that will also give you a great experience.
Pro Good old Quake-like game mechanics
Pro Has match-making feature
Game optionally can collect your statistics to find game that matches your skills.
Pro One of the best gateway arena shooters for your friends
Well optimized, small file size, good bots, cute graphics, free, standard arena weapon set, good tutorial... If you are trying to get your friends to try playing hardcore arena shooters with you, like your Quake, UT, Reflex or what have you, this is a quick and free download that won't take too much convincing that will also give you a great experience.
Cons
Con This game is abandoned and will never be finished.
It's been over 2 years since Epic Games did any work on Unreal Tournament, and the last communications they have had with the community is a few throaway comments on a stream or a Discord chat server. The game is dead and older Unreal Tournament games are more polished & populated, go play those instead.
Con Difficult to know how big the game will ever get
The Unreal Tournament franchise has been around for over 15 years and used to reign supreme above all the other FPS's. Today however, it's much harder to predict how well it'll do compared to other top FPS games. That combined with the fact that it's a very difficult game to learn, you might end up honing your UT skills for nothing at the end of the day.
Con Constantly changing game mechanics and balancing
Because the game is still in "Pre-Alpha," the game has the potential to change in both major and minor ways from build to build. The majority of your gained experience will transfer from build to build, however it can be a bit of an annoyance having to relearn balances over and over again.
Con Playerbase is a little small these days
Con Unbalanced weapons
As of writing this (8/19/2016) the flak canon is over powered, but it's not a big deal because they change the weapon balance with each new build (about once a month).
Con There's a huge skill gap
Many of the players currently involved in the community at the moment have been playing Unreal Tournament for over 15 years. If you're new to the UT franchise or arena shooters in general, there's a chance every time you boot up the game that you'll run into and get trucked by those vets.
Con Hard for beginners
Quake is hardcore game. Sharp shooting is far from enough to be good at it. You need to control position of your opponents, plan your strategy really fast, control powerups, etc. Warsow is much like Quake, but movement is more complex and plays an important role.
Con Too few people online
Usually 80-150 players are online, and all the people are spread out over many modes of the game. So if you want to play duel or arena, you must wait or pickup opponents on an IRC.
Con Small difference in skill results in a huge difference in score
For example you can lose with a score such as 20:1, and this is okay.