Unreal and UT were a success.
All the followups failed.
Why ?
Because Epic didn't really understand what made UT99 a success. The gameplay was a lucky fluke for them. Tim Sweeney is brilliant, but he's an engine programmer. He doesn't care about games (just like John Carmack doesn't care about games). The UI of UT99 was good. It was made by an intern ! All games after UT99 have terrible UIs.
But the main reason was this:
In UT99 it was easy to play. But there was a learning curve. Of course if you had better aim, you'd do better on average. And if you invested in dodging, you would have another important advantage.
But those advantages weren't shocking. Better players would win. But average players could participate. Heck, even new or bad players could play CTF with the better players. And they would have fun. They could use spammy weapons: 8ball and flak. Or do ASMD combos. Or use the googun. (Ripper was lame, and always be lame). Even the redeemer was fun for some people. (And not always easy to use). Good players could dodge rockets and flak more than average players. But they would still go down once in a while.
The best players complained.
Their line of reasoning was: if I am better than another player, that player should *NEVER*, *ABSOLUTELY NEVER* be able to kill me. Get rid of the spammy weapons. And give me more advantage from dodging.
So we got crazy dodging, double dodging and wall dodging. Good players were untouchable.
Spammy weapons got nerfed. Rifle with headshots overpowered all other weapons.
Maps got huge hallways. No more spammy narrow corridors. You can't spam anymore. Your splash-damage weapons became useless. The best players got room to dodge everything you threw at them.
Result ?
The best players became untouchable. The new players, average players and bad players couldn't get a kill anymore. Not even a single one.
There was no slow curve anymore.
Either you ruled. Or you got walked over.
A bad player in UT99 CTF could always decide to go defend the flag. Stay in or near the flagroom, and spam the heck out of it when attackers appeared. Maybe not the most effective overall. But it would make that player feel useful. It gave him something to do. The good players would still win. But the bad players could at least participate. And on a FFA CTF server, people with different skill-levels could have fun games, as long as the teams were slightly balanced.
All that was gone with UT2003. And its followups.
The good players dominated the rest.
After you get your arse kicked for a while, it stops being fun.
Especially if you can't even get a single kill in.
So the bottom half left.
This doesn't stop.
After the bottom half leaves, there are new players who are obviously at the new bottom. And they can't kill the noobs anymore. They get stomped on by the top.
So after a while, they stop playing too.
In the end, you only get the absolute best players playing the game.
The average and bad players have left.
New players come in, and realize very quickly they have no business on online servers.
The new players don't play. They don't learn. They don't become better.
There will be no new growth of new average or new top players.
The game is dead.
Once a game (series) gets known for not being fun, the new versions will never gain attraction anymore.
I wasted a year of my life on UT99.
I didn't even buy UT2004 or UT3. I knew it would be a waste.
It was Epic who did this. They killed their own game.
This post is a lot longer than I planned. I guess it is still frustrating when I think about the UT series.
I still play quake live now and then.
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