Unreal Tournament 2004/Setting

"(DOM-SeppukuGorge's description) "Ah, nature. The earthy browns and lush greens of the jungle. The quiet hum of animal and insect life going about its business. The piercing battle cry of a gene boosted harpy bounding across the forest floor in her power armor.""
 * Abandoned Area: Plenty of them, especially 2004's DM-Corrugation.
 * Ancient Egypt: The arenas BR-Anubis, BR-EyeOfJahan from UC, BR/CTF-Twin Tombs, CTF-1on1-Joust, CTF-Avaris, CTF-Face3, DM-1on1-Serpentine, DM-DE-Osiris2, DOM-Aswan, DOM-Deserted from UC and DOM-SunTemple.
 * Battleship Raid: AS-Mothership in 2004.
 * Border Patrol:
 * Try to get far from the islands in ONS-IslandHop..
 * Try to escape from the exit in the center of CTF-GrassyKnoll.
 * BFG: AS-RobotFactory has a variation, the Ion Cannon, a stationary BFG.
 * Convection, Schmonvection: CTF-Magma, DM-Inferno, DOM-ScorchedEarth. Watch out when touching said lava, but standing directly to the side of it grants no damage.
 * Cool Train: AS-Convoy.
 * Crapsack World: Several of the planets, ranging from blood-stained former mines to corporate-controlled hellhouses.
 * Deadly Rotary Fan: In the center of DM-Insidious.
 * Doomed Hometown: Many cities have suffered this luck after the war against the Skaarj.
 * Down in the Dumps: AS-Junkyard, DM-Junkyard and DOM-Junkyard. All that's missing now is ONS-Junkyard and BR/CTF/vCTF-Junkyard.
 * Downloadable Content: Championship had a Bonus Pack which included 4 maps.
 * 2004 also has a "Mega Bonus Pack" available for free download, including 13 new maps, 3 new vehicles and 6 new characters.
 * Floating Continent: Multiple floating islands which you actually get to fight on: CTF-Face3, CTF-FaceClassic and AS-RobotFactory.
 * Gateless Ghetto: Many of the city maps of the series, such as AS-FallenCity.
 * Ghibli Hills: Arborea (house of CTF-LostFaith, DM-Antalus, DM-TokaraForest, DOM-Renascent and DOM-SeppukuGorge among other maps, and the home planet of the Gen Mo'Kai, including the Fire Storm team) is a Ghibli Hills planet.

""Thanks to the Tournament we've been able to add protein bales to our list of exports. Don't worry - it's no one you know.""
 * Hazardous Water: AS-Glacier, (except the first area) BR-Canyon, CTF-DoubleDammage, (only the part without any buildings) DM-IceTomb.
 * High Altitude Battle: Aside from the space platform maps, there're BR/CTF-DE-ElecFields, BR/CTF-TwinTombs, BR-SkyLine, CTF-Citadel, DM-Morpheus3, DM-Plunge, DOM-OutRigger and ONS-Icarus.
 * Hold the Line: Aside from the return of the Assault gametype, there's also the Invasion mode. In it, all the players in a map form a single team defending themselves against waves of monsters from the first Unreal game. As you may notice, the monsters grow more difficult every time: near the wave 5 there are Skaarjs, and in the wave 11, there are Warlords. The last wave is a Warlord-only wave.
 * Human Resources: In the description for the map CTF-Geothermal:

""(...) Within a year the Skaarj had pushed humanity back to the brink of destruction. (...) A Skaarj Mothership orbited the Earth, and rained death upon the planet in preparation for the final landing. (...)""
 * Ice Palace: DM-IceTomb.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: The map CTF-DoubleDammage takes place... in a dam.
 * Invisible Wall: You'll find these pretty much in any open level or a Border Patrol.
 * Joke Item: One of the drivable vehicles is an insanely slow toilet on wheels.
 * Joke Level: AS-BP2-Outback, from the Bonus Pack 2. The plot: pissed off redneck Australians get annoyed at the new city beer and go to destroy the factory that's making it, protected by the city slickers and hipsters that prefer the watered down beer.
 * Land Down Under: AS-BP2-Outback, from the Bonus Pack 2, takes place in Australia, complete with Kangaroos everywhere and hilarious Australian accents. Bonus Pack 2 even comes with the "Rootator", which populates any level with kangaroos. To murder.
 * Lethal Lava Land: CTF-Magma, DM-Deck17, (more of a lava refinery rather than a lava land) DM-Inferno and DOM-ScorchedEarth.
 * The Maze: DM-1on1-Serpentine..
 * Mineral MacGuffin:
 * The map AS-Convoy is about stealing two missiles from the N.E.G.
 * The map AS-Glacier is about storming an Axon facility and stealing the Ion Tank contained within.
 * The map AS-BP2-Acatana is about a Skaarj raid on a planet in order to steal it's blueprints.
 * The map AS-BP2-SubRosa is about an N.E.G. raid on the Liandri headquarters in order to retrieve confidential data.
 * This is also the reason of why some Onslaught maps are being fought, and why some arenas are mining caves or spots.
 * The Mothership: AS-MotherShip.
 * Nostalgia Levels: Some of the game's levels are remakes of older maps from the first Tournament game, such as DM-Deck17, ( Deck16][ ) DM-Gael, ( Morbias][ ) CTF-FaceClassic, (CTF-Face) CTF-LavaGiant2, (CTF-LavaGiant) and Epic also ported many other obscure levels like those made for the console versions (Osiris and Flux, both from the PlayStation 2/DC versions of the first Tournament game, though in different shapes) or those who had appeared on Bonus Packs, along with some non-so-remembered old levels. (Phobos, Morpheus and November) In 2004, there's also a level based on the Rrajigar mines of the first Unreal game.
 * No OSHA Compliance: Lampshaded in all of the stages: it's stated Liandri confiscated or shut down the factories involved due to unsafe working conditions, and then turned the facilities into Arenas.
 * Scenery Porn: The games have many gorgeously looking maps.
 * Shaggy Dog Story: As the description for AS-MotherShip implies, despite the losses incurred on the planet Na Pali, the Skaarj were still strong enough to not only wage war against humanity, but push them back to Earth and nearly win the war, within one year.

"(DM-Aqua_Mortis description) "The Allerian ice shark is a fearsome predator capable of devouring a man in seconds. If it could carry a weapon, there's no doubt the Overseers would have found a way to put him in the tournaments as well. Not surprisingly, it has still managed to rack up a respectable number of kills. Impromptu games of water polo are highly discouraged.""
 * Single Biome Planet: About the only thing you'll be able to see in the Allerian Penal Colony (DM-Oceanic, DM-Aqua_Mortis) are technological concrete buildings... and sharks:

""This scenario is a recreation of the Liandri robot uprising on the mechanical asteroid of LBX-7683 and the subsequent quelling of this rebellion by human forces. LBX-7683 was an outpost for research and development of the next generation of Liandri robots. Liandri's best scientists were able to introduce increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence into the machines that they designed. Eventually, they rebelled against the humans and took the asteroid as their own, brutally disposing of their creators and mining the rich materials embedded within the rock for their own gain. Liandri's commanders devised a plan to strike directly at the production facility manufacturing the robots. During an all-out assault on the world, a small team was inserted with the sole goal of destroying the AI generators, thereby destroying the ability of the machines to reproduce themselves and ending this uprising.""
 * Storming the Castle: Most of the Assault levels require you to do this, due to the nature of the game. Inverted in AS-Junkyard, which takes place in a, well, junkyard, whose objective is basically to escape.
 * Train Job: AS-Convoy, the Spiritual Successor of AS-HiSpeed.
 * Turned Against Their Masters: The story behind AS-RobotFactory:


 * Underground Level: DM-Rrajigar, based on the Rrajigar mines of the first Unreal game.
 * Who Shot JFK?: CTF-GrassyKnoll.