Unreal II: The Awakening

"Another singleplayer FPS added to the Xbox's growing collection. How does it stand up to the others?"

Overview
This is the newest in the Unreal singe player series, with its last and first appearance in 1998's Unreal. This game is a port of the PC game of the same name that came out last year but it also includes the XMP patch that added multi player into the game later on.

Storyline
You play as John Dalton, an ex-marine and now member of the Terran Colonial Authority(which is basically the police of the future), and his main job is to basically just patrol around and make sure everything is ok. John wants to get back in the Marines but he keeps getting rejected. One day, you receive a distress call(right after being denied for the marines again) from a planet called Sanctuary. You soon find out that the Skaarj(pronounced scar) and another race have banded together to collect these artifacts of great power. Throughout the game, you will have to defend or retrieve these artifacts and find out their ultimate purpose.

Gameplay
The gameplay in Unreal 2 is unchanged for the most part and it is fairly straightforward. Moving from area to area is extremely simple and the controls are set up similar to Halo's. What is bad however is the loading times for when you start new levels. It usually takes 30 seconds or so to load and once you've played for about 10 minutes, it has to load a new section which takes about 10 - 15. Overall, it's not too bad but it does distract you a little. The enemies just mainly move around shooting at you or charge you. They don't really use tactics as other FPS AI does. The weapons include your obligatory machine gun, rocket launcher and sniper rifle, but does toss a few other weapons into the mix, like a chargeable pistol and a grenade launcher that can fire various types of grenades. Unreal 2 has 12 missions for you to take part in and uncover the plot. Each mission is rather well designed and it also sports nice variety. The objectives are varied as well, ranging from a simple 'Retrieve this Item' mission, to protecting a group of marines until your ship can land, and infiltrating an enemy base. Between each level, you are on your ship and you get briefed on your new weapons that you found and what your mission objective is for the next map. This has been changed from the PC version, which let you walk around the ship and talk to the crew in any order that you wanted. Now it is just a video that seems thrown together. It does help save time from walking back and forth around the ship though. A split-screen Co-Op mode has also been added.

The gameplay online in the XMP(Extended Multi player Mode) is somewhat similar to a futuristic Battlefield 1942 game. It includes the three smallest maps from the PC version and includes a fourth that appears to have been downed in size. The maps still are too big for only 12 players at a time, seeing as that is how they were designed. You have vehicles to drive and three different classes of characters you can be with each having their own set of ''skills''. It has spawn points scattered all over the map and your various objectives, all of which require you to ''hack'' them. Your teammates and yourself can also lay down various defensive items like auto-turrets and force fields. The multi player is fun for the most part but all the servers that I have played on suffer from either mild lag or major lag and there just aren't that many players around.

Audio
The sound effects and music are good but the voice acting is also pretty well done. All the voices fit the characters for the most port and do show a decent range of emotions. The music is your like all your over FPS games and the environments have their added sound effects as well(like birds or insects). You can also overhear enemies talking to each other and from that you can plan on what to do next if you are lost.

Graphics
The graphics in Unreal 2 are mediocre and feels stripped down in a way for the Xbox. The environments themselves look pretty good, but the characters and enemies have really stiff movement and sometimes it looks like they are just 2D cutouts with rather poor animation, and it doesn't compare to over FPS for the Xbox. The environments however do have a variety of looks, from outside a factory, to a swamp, to a forest. They all look pretty good and have some decent looking details. The weapon effects look fairly nice as well, like the flamethrower for example. Yet, it raises the question if the Xbox could handle this game or if it was just a rushed port.

Replayability
The replay value isn't really here. They are no unlockables and there is really no reason to play the game again. The multi player is pretty fun to play however, but as said above, there isn't really that many people around to play with.

Rent or Buy?
This game is a good buy if you are expecting a decent single player game and with a good, albeit empty for the most part, multi player mode. The single player will also last you around 9 hours or so.

Final Score
7.0(not an average)

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/29/04