Unreal Championship

"Not what I expected, but still good"

Unreal Championship was originally intended to be the ''Halo Killer''. When the development crew realized how incredibly hard this feat would be, they quickly opted to paste Unreal Championship 2003 onto an Xbox disc and call it another name. Though this isn't COMPLETELY true, the game does exhibit most of the same levels and qualities that the PC game has. For example, characters now have affinities to weapons and specific abilities. Also, the inclusion of ''Adrenaline'' moves alters the game slightly.

Graphics are more than just polygons

Unreal Championship's physical graphics are astounding. Any still shot of the game would look fantastic, almost Halo-quality. The game looks amazing, and even sports some incredible particle effects like smog, rain, and sometimes ash.

What it doesn't do well, however, is move these pictures seamlessly. The framerate, while often decent, is very unstable and can bog down to the point where the game is unplayable. Bad framerates are typically the result of numerous characters in a single room, which in most cases is understandable, but in the case of an Xbox game this is unacceptable.

Also, hit detection seems to be inaccurate, as oftentimes you shoot an enemy in the torso and their head goes rolling off. Weird.

Sounds like death, don't it?

Unreal Championship has generic ''butt rock'' music that you'd expect from a fragfest game. The verbal taunts are rips straight from UT2K3, and, while initially decent, become incredibly annoying.

Control

The game controls identical to Halo, making use of both analog sticks. Good control overall, though I recommend switching to ''Inverted Y-Axis'' mode.

Xbox Live

The sheer amount of Live features saves this game. Not only does it rank you on a weekly, monthly, and overall basis, it also presents downloadable content and an incredible selection of voice masks. Also, the amount of multiplayer games boggles the mind. You have your typical Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Double Domination, Bombing Run (football-style game), and Survival Mode (fight one-on-one).

The game runs very smoothly on Xbox Live..... depending on the host. Yes, this game doesn't have dedicated servers, you or your buddies gotta host the games. Lets just hope someone has a stable server structure!

Overall

Not a bad game, but nothing to cry home about. It is what it is, a simple shoot-em-up thats fun to play but requires little to no brain activity. However, it fills the void of FPS online shooters that Xbox most definitely needed to fill.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/05/03, Updated 03/05/03