Unreal Championship

"Let the fragging begin."

Although Unreal Championship (UC) was released as an Xbox Live launch title back in November 2002, Its only now that I’ve managed to get Live and get playing.

Unreal Championship is basically a first person fragathon, where you run around arenas picking up guns and power ups killing anyone who gets in your way. Points are everything here so get the highest and you win. You start the game by creating a profile whereby you choose a character from a huge roster of various misfits. These include Mercenaries, cyborgs, vamps and many more. Each character has his her own abilities which may include agility or jumping power to just plain stamina. Also each character has an affinity with a particular weapon. I found it best to play around a bit here and create multiple profiles to get a feel of which character is best suited for my style of play. For the single player game you get to choose some team mates for all those up and coming team mode games. A helpful tutorial is available for those unfamiliar with the workings of unreal.
So you’ve chosen your character. You’ve picked some team members. You’ve played the tutorial so now you are ready to do combat. Lets start with the single player mode. This basically is one huge training level (if you have Live) whereby its you and your team verses CPU controlled bots. Its a great way to introduce the novice player into the game modes, maps and skills to learn to become good online. The game modes available are standard, including death match (all vs all), team death match (team vs team), capture the flag (grab opponents flag and bring it to your base) , domination, double domination (secure various points on a map for the longest time), survival (1 on 1 ladder) and ball run, the latter being a football type team game. These modes all take place in arenas suited for close quarter combat. The onus on these modes is for you and your team to score the most points to win. You earn trophies for completing the single player modes and that’s it. Unreal isn’t about the single player its about either trashing your mates huddled around a single TV in split screen or, going online with live .

Playing Unreal is very simple thanks to an easy control method which seems standard for any console 1st person shooter. You will be killing with the best of them in no time. There is an auto aim feature for those who are new to the genre but I find it more satisfying to have it switched off. The arenas themselves are impressive showing off the Xbox capabilities whilst running the “Unreal Engine” , which was used also in Splinter Cell. The weapon effects are also impressive, especially the shock rifle with its combo firing mode and the link gun with its colourful lasers. Learning the use of all weapons is paramount to your success as often you will run out of ammo of your favoured weapon. Sound in the game is of a very high standard with convincing gunfire sounds and vocal taunts for the various characters. The only letdown here is the pretentious music which can only be described as typical and unimaginative. Although I did find a secret trick with the music that can help your game play, but that is another story. For me Unreal in single player is entertaining but ultimately unrewarding.

Unreal comes alive as soon as you log on to Xbox Live. Here you are able to participate in the single player modes but with a mixture of human opponents or team members and CPU bots. Finding games to play of all the game types is easy and you can always host your own games with various preferences that you may have, such as big head mode or one hit kills mode. The presence of the headsets and the fact that there are some good players out there means you have an endless supply of challenges ahead of you (both verbal and on the killing fields). This is what Unreal was designed for. You are also ranked online which adds that extra challenge
Unreal is a cool game that is easy to play and even easier to enjoy. You would have to spend a lot of time with the game if you are to try the harder single player difficulties or to beat the best players online. Definitely a must have Xbox live title.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/09/03, Updated 06/09/03