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Platform: Xbox Genre: First Person Shooter
Number of Players: 1-2 players (2-8 players via System Link)
Unreal Championship 2 for the Xbox is exactly what the gamer ordered. On top of all the usual multiplayer frag festing to be found, there are some new twists, and an entire single player story mode to keep us loners out here happy for a little while, at least. Built specifically as a console game, rather than a port of a PC game, UC 2 throws down with some of the best first (and third) person shooting action to be had, and wraps the package up in what may well be the most beautiful visuals seen on the big black ‘box yet. UC 2 ups the ante for the arena style frag fest by adding a new focus on melee combat. Most shooters of this type relegate brawling to almost an afterthought. UC 2 makes hand to hand weapon fighting an integral part of the action. If an enemy gets too close, switch to your melee weapon, and have a go. Rather than having to pound him a million times, your melee attacks do significant damage. Indeed, I have found that I actually prefer the fun of making hamburger out of my opponents up close and personal, and use my ranged weapons as secondary attacks, blasting away while moving toward my opponent to go for a melee kill. Whichever way you choose to fight, a click of the right thumb stick locks on to your opponent, keeping him on screen to make targeting a little easier. Stunning your opponent offers you the opportunity to do a “coup de grace” move, or as those familiar with Mortal Kombat would call it, a fatality. Some of these finishers can be difficult to pull off, but those MK veterans out there will tell you, there is nothing more satisfying than pulling off a hairy button combo to show ones ownage. Speaking of Mortal Kombat, there is an option in UC 2 to use the MK announcer’s voice in place of the UC announcer, and rice hat sporting, thunder lobbing god Raiden is a sometimes bot opponent and unlockable playable character. Plan to spend a lot of time playing if you wish to unlock him, though. And if you are wondering how a first person perspective game manages to pull off melee combat in any kind of playable way, fear not. Melee combat is always handled in an excellently done third person view, while the rest of the action can be played in first or third person- whatever you like best. Along with the Story Mode, there is also a fighting game style Tournament Mode, and the Challenge Mode. This mode pits you against the machine in a series of extremely difficult settings. This is best of the best stuff. I have no doubt that the Xbox live community of UC 2 games will be all about bragging rights on this mode for the life of the game and beyond.
While general movement seems a bit more deliberate than I remember from the PC Unreal Tournament games, there are various ways to speed up your killing. Picking up adrenaline power ups fills the adrenaline meter- using adrenaline; you can use abilities such as Speed and Nimble to make your character a jumping, flipping, Neo-esque avatar of speedy fast death. While the agility of your avatar can get crazy fast at times, the control is as tight as any gamer could ask for. Once you have mastered the basics of getting around how you want to, you will be delighted in the fun you can have dashing to and fro, spinning, flipping, and jumping to dizzying heights. As previously stated, the graphics in Unreal Championship 2 are simply superb. There is an ancient Egyptian theme running through the games levels, and each one is rendered in beautiful detail. Lighting, explosions, particle effect, all look great and believable. Character animation is fluid and transitions well from one move to the next, but the chunks of body parts that go flying about when you blow up an opponent are not as good looking as the rest of the game. There is plenty of gore to be had (you can choose from three settings, from not so much to far too much), but there is a distinct lack of detail when compared to the rest of game.
Unreal Championship 2 is a must buy for online or LAN party regulars, offering hours of bloody good fun. With the addition of a well rounded, if not very long, single player story mode, even those who find worthy opponents hard to come by will still want to pick this one up. With plenty of unlockables, challenging bots, and beautiful visuals, Unreal Championship 2 offers up a compelling experience for the solo player, as well. -Ed- |
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Playing
previous Unreal Tournament games has been somewhat bittersweet for
me. Sweet because the action is fast and fun, and bitter because I
usually had to play a bunch of bots. Finding human persons to play
against has always been a challenge for me. Finding human persons
to play against that are actually any good was damn near
impossible. Often, I have thought, “Damn, it would be so cool if
they would make a single player story mode for this game.”
Beyond
the single player modes, there are the many multiplayer modes for
you to get your frag on. Some fifty maps will span across modes
such as Capture the Flag and Deathmatch, familiar to anyone who has
multi played before. Then there is the Nali Slaughter mode, which
has you racking up kills faster than your opponent; Overdose mode,
in which you must grab radiation filled balls and get them to
matching goals; Survival, a king of the hill style Deathmatch; and
of course, Team Deathmatch. There are plenty of tweakable options
to make every match you play a little different. Game rules can be
changed, the mutators are back, allowing further modifications, and
you can custom choose your opponent bot roster if you like. Also,
you can set up what weapons you first go into battle with. You must
choose one each from a number of explosive and energy weapons, while
your default pistols and melee weapon are determined by your
character choice. You can also choose the difficulty setting from
among five available. 
The
sounds of the game work very well, too. The music follows the style
of previous Unreal Tournament offerings, and while you probably
won’t be yearning for the soundtrack on CD, it works well enough
within the game that you will probably not want to instantly turn it
off (EA, are you listening?). Characters all have unique voices,
which are done well. The voice acting in the story mode and the
battle taunting is not the greatest, but is certainly what I would
call above average. Weapon sound effects, explosions, and the like,
are done in a satisfyingly convincing manner.