Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict

"A powerful effort in blending classic Unreal with arcade action."

The Unreal series, since its introduction in 1997 with Unreal for the PC, has attempted with varying degrees of success to create a fast, frenzied FPS with an emphasis on aerial tricks and novel, almost gimmicky weaponry. The first Unreal Championship was largely a straight port of the PC's Unreal Tournament 2003, a title that had to fill the massive boots of the original Unreal Tournament. UT2003, although a quality title by all means, was hated by many who felt it changed the formula too much and claimed it felt too "console-like".

Unreal Championship, on the other hand, was lauded as one of the first quality Xbox Live titles and helped fill the void of a lack of online support for Halo: Combat Evolved. Unreal Championship 2 is not a port of the much-better received Unreal Tournament 2004 for PC, as many would initially expect. Instead, this is a completely different beast. It's got a new publisher (Midway), an enhanced graphics engine (pushing Unreal Engine 2 to the max, as well as Xbox hardware) and an increasingly close-ranged and brutal efficacy behind its combat engine. Midway's influence is clearly felt on the game, with nods to the Mortal Kombat series (perhaps a bit more than just nods as a character from MK is in the game) and combat similar to Midway's brief treatise with an Unreal Tournament-like arcade shooter The Grid, an underappreciated game.

So what is Unreal Championship 2? It's still distinctively Unreal, but there's a clear dichotomy between this title and the direction the PC Unreal Tournament series is taking, with PC Unreal combat being slated toward a long-range vehicle-enhanced game demonstrated by UT2004's Onslaught Mode while the Xbox side of things is looking more towards smaller arenas, melee weaponry, and an eight-player limit. The merits of each can be clearly and expressively stated, but the bottom line is that Unreal Championship 2 is clearly worthy of the Unreal name.

Unreal Engine 2 is perfectly up to speed with the graphic requirements of this game, with environments looking very good (albeit a bit generic) and particle effects being top-notch. The character models are considerably high-quality, although I felt the art direction was slightly too focused on the Egyptian side of things. I felt some of the races in the Unreal world were a bit too present, such as the Egyptians, while others were pretty nonexistant. However, if you like this style, the game will clearly cater to your tastes and overall the game's graphics go beyond adequacy.

Sounds are typical Unreal fare, with taunts, screams of pain, and explosions providing a solid aural background to the carnage. Nobody's going to buy an Unreal game for voice-acting. The music was also decent, but it lacked the great tunes of the original Unreal Tournament. It's not a big issue, and you're not likely to feel disrupted by the otherwise adequate music while engrossed in the finer points of disembowelment.

The gameplay, which is the most important to any Unreal title, is solid here and provides a decent balance of power between weapons and characters (slight imbalances exist in the retail version, but balance is an area that has greatly been improved upon since the original Unreal Tournament). Eight players is a bit disappointing for a limit, but the developers state it's the max the Xbox can handle at a smooth framerate. Given the framerate problems of console shooters in the past (Perfect Dark is a..uh, perfect example of this), I'm glad they decided to limit it to eight rather than have the player deal with stuttering and the aiming problems that arise from overworking the limited Xbox hardware. This is clearly a multiplayer title. If you don't have Xbox Live or friends to play with frequently, the single-player campaign will likely not hold your interest to justify the $50.

Overall, Unreal Championship 2 clearly exceeds expectations of it and provides another strong incarnation of the Unreal series to the Xbox.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/25/05