Unreal Tournament 3 mod, The Haunted, is an award-winning third-person shooter with fast-paced demon-slaying action, a complex melee system, multiple upgradeable weapons, and highly polished graphics with a subtle Wild West feel. So it's kind of fitting that trying to find an online match is like moseying down the main street of Tombstone, as a tumbleweed rolls past in the distance.

Good, bad and ugly mods all struggle to attract a huge player base but The Haunted is also, well, haunted by UT3’s fading popularity and server hosting frustrations. You’ll rarely see more than three servers online, and all are as full of life as a morgue. It’s a shame really, because the game really shines in multiplayer if you can lasso up a few friends to go west with you (and if you can get a server working before breaking a keyboard over somebody’s head).

If you’re looking for single player action be warned: only one of the three game modes is available to the lone ranger – “Survival”. If Resident Evil and Left 4 Dead gave birth this would be its (Billy the) Kid. In this mode, Demons – which could easily pass for a zombie in the shade –relentlessly assault the player, and stronger incarnations will spawn as time passesAs they die, enemies drop ammo or weapon power-ups, which you can use to upgrade one of your four weapons – melee, pistol, shotgun and an automatic machine gun – through their four levels to help you deal with the accelerating oncoming horde. It's entertaining for a while, but a lot more fun with a few friends.

Just as Valve proved with L4D, waging demonic warfare in The Haunted is instantly more gratifying with a few amigos to share the bullet-pumping action, and there are also two more game modes available to a hell-spawn hunting party. “Battle” is obviously inspired by L4D’s versus mode, pitting four humans against four demons. The evil critters must hunt down and destroy the humans, using the abilities of one of nine different monsters. The final mode, “Demonizer”, is a more literal interpretation of the word’s meaning, and is reminiscent of Aliens Vs Predator’s Infestation mode. Each human who dies becomes a demon and must help eliminate the humans. However, with only four players maximum and the weight heavily in the humans’ favour, it’s not as intense or satisfying as AvP’s 18-player stalk-off.

The Haunted's graphics are nicely polished, being among the best we’ve seen in a mod (indeed, better than some retail releases) and the gameplay is engaging... even if it isn’t original or innovative. Still, it’s difficult to find third-person multiplayer shooters that look as good or play as smoothly as this, especially on PC. The four packaged maps look stunning: from the dusty American Mid-West village scene of Forsaken Canyon, to the earthy industrial Excavation, the majestic but creepy castle of Stronghold, and the eerie darkness of Lost Temple. And, despite the lack of easy to find public matches, there’s a nice community brewing in The Haunted: Custom Content, which has produced an additional 10 maps – some new, some rehashed UT3 maps.

Winner of Epic’s Make Something Unreal competition, The Haunted is currently being developed for a retail release under the name of The Haunted: Hells Reach by the mod’s developers (proud recipients of $50,000 cash and a commercial Unreal Engine 3 licence). With another layer of polish, a fresh menu screen, a few more maps, and hopefully an easier time finding an online match, The Haunted: Hells Reach offers a demonic twist to that great established gaming pastime – preventing the zombie apocalypse. Let’s hope it only costs a fistful of dollars.

Want to get your ghost on?
If you want a change from L4D2's monster hunt and have a few pals lined up for the challenge, here's what you'll need to play The Haunted:

1.) Install Unreal Tournament 3.
2.) Patch UT3 with the Unreal Tournament 3 v2.1 Patch
3.) Download and install the The Haunted 3.0 Final release
4.) Round up a posse of pals, and get ready for a quality third-person horror experience.