The second installment in the Unreal series, it was first published by GT Interactive in 1999 for Windows, and later released on the PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast by Infogrames in 2000 and 2001, respectively.

Free expansion packs were released, some of which were bundled with a 2000 re-release: Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition.

Unreal Tournament is an arena first-person shooter, with head-to-head multiplayer deathmatches being the primary focus of the game.

The single-player campaign is a series of arena matches played with bots, where the player competes for the title of Grand Champion.

[6] The player moves up the tournament ladder in order to challenge the current champion, Xan Kriegor, a mysterious being with exceptional skill.

Also available are "mutators", which drastically alter gameplay aspects, such as "InstaGib", which makes players compete with instant-kill Shock Rifles instead of the normal weapons.

[17] The PC version supports multiplayer mode over the internet or a local area network (the original Unreal was mainly a single-player game).

Soon, these matches became more profitable than mining, and Liandri formed a professional league to compete in a "Grand Tournament", the most popular event in the sport.

[32] Epic Games started considering an official expansion pack intended to improve the network code while also featuring new maps and other gameplay elements.

To remedy this, Epic decided to centralize the teams in Raleigh, North Carolina, and by September, work on the expansion could begin.

Lead programmer Steve Polge set about laying the foundations for the new game types, such as Capture the Flag and Domination, and level designers created the first round of maps for testing.

In November, after a meeting with publisher GT Interactive, Mark Rein suggested releasing the work as a stand-alone game instead of an expansion.

That December, Reinhart discovered an Unreal mod called UBrowser, which provided a new user interface for finding multiplayer matches.

The art director at Epic Games, Shane Caudle,[35] and the artists at Digital Extremes could not make enough new textures because of the amount of diversity in characters and maps.

[31] The game's level and content management program, UnrealEd, was written in Visual Basic and considered buggy, but no one had time to fix it.

[36] The soundtrack for the game, which employed the system of module files,[37] was written by Alexander Brandon, Michiel van den Bos, Andrew Sega, Dan Gardopee, Peter Hajba and Tero Kostermaa.

[106] Upon its release, Unreal Tournament received universal acclaim from critics, earning an overall score of 92 out of 100 on aggregate review website Metacritic.

[100] Mainstream press reviews lauded the title for its graphics, gameplay and level design, with Computer and Video Games calling it "a technical and game-playing marvel".

[59] Writing for GamePro, Nash Werner said the multiplayer flexibility was "immense", adding that mutators like low gravity, Sniper Arena and Chainsaw Melee "change everything about the way deathmatch is played".

[61] IGN stated that Unreal Tournament received the highest ever score at the time of their review, describing the game as nearly flawless.

[74] British magazine PC Gamer complimented the artificial intelligence,[82] and its American counterpart did the same to the game's "gorgeous" graphics and "incredible" editing tools.

[83] Computer Games Strategy Plus described the artificial intelligence as "outstanding", and commented that the Domination and Assault modes add interest.

IGN enjoyed the "perfect" gameplay and multiplayer options, but criticized the high system requirements and the user interface.

[60] On the other hand, the port scored 3 out of 10 in the television show The Electric Playground, with the reviewer lauding the audio and graphics but feeling that the controls could have been better implemented.

[88] In addition to receiving Eurogamer's first-ever perfect score, Unreal Tournament was named by the site one of the best games of 1999.

Whether it was trying to break the one-minute barrier in the speed running mayhem of Assault mode, battling back and forth amongst the alleyways of Domination, or dropping shrapnel shells at people's feet with the wonderfully chunky flak cannon in a fast and furious free-for-all deathmatch, Unreal Tournament was an endless source of entertainment".

One modification, ChaosUT, became popular enough that it was included with the 'Game of the Year' edition of the game, while Tactical Ops: Assault on Terror was released as a stand-alone retail product.

[157] The yearly naming structure, based around marketing the franchise as a competitive sports title, was abandoned before the launch of the third sequel.

[160] Unreal Tournament is the subject of anthology series Secret Level, created by Tim Miller for Amazon Prime Video and released in December 2024.

[161] The episode, Unreal Tournament: Xan, has the voices of Elodie Yung, Gideon Emery, Mitch Eakins, Chris Payne Gilbert, Carlin James, and Fred Tatasciore.