Lush visuals are achieved through clever lighting and an ambient colour palette, yet general texturing is not of the same class and detail as Q3A. Weapon models and animations are, however, excellent. It is easy to be distracted mid-game by weapon movements, they look that good. However character animations are not. Model skinning is fine, but movement is jerky and a little awkward. The result is that ingame action can appear artificial.
Levels are both good and bad.
They look lovely, but often their design is blocky and pokey with lots of small rooms and short corridors. Perhaps that was a design decision, or maybe it was in an effort to keep the polygon count down to a level at which the engine could cope smoothly during intense deathmatch action. It's not that there aren't open outdoor settings, but these mostly occur in other gameplay types. The Big Guns Where UT really shines is in its weaponry. The rocket launcher has the added bonus of working like Unreal's Eightball.