Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict

"Taking a new FPS direction, and doing it in an Unreal fashion"

I stood for several minutes at my local game store trying to make a decision between two games, Time Splitter: Future Perfect, and Unreal Championship 2 (UC2). I wanted something I could get a lot out of alone, and something to spend hours with in multiplayer mode. I knew both had their good points, and am a fan of both series. The first UC was my top favorite FPS on the market for a good two years, and for good reason. Halo offered a fancy presentation and some nice multiplayer options, but the multiplayer aspect simply couldn't compete with UC in my personal opinion. Things were so hectic, frantic, and fast paced it was hard not to like UC as a FPS fan. But here I was..and I ended up obviously choosing UC2. Now at first I'll admit I felt I'd made a bad move. Things were so different than before, the melee combat was odd, as was the third person perspective. And I continued to feel this way for almost a whole night...then something clicked. I'd decided to give a hand at the single player Tourney mode, selecting the coolest looking character to me, Lauren. As I'd experienced briefly earlier in the night, the AI was not dumb, in fact quite intelligent, and brutal. But I began to get into the swing of things, and found a fondness for the melee striking. Soon I was knee deep into the tourney, and quite enthralled. And since I've found UC2 to not only be unique, refreshing, but ultimately an excellent game. Now on to details...

There is a story here surprisingly, something along the lines of a king (Pharaoh) retiring from his throne, and a tournament being held to decide the next heir. There is a fairly solid story mode where you fill the shoes of Anubis and fight your way to victory. I've not completed this, but what I have witnessed, it eases you into the new control scheme and presents you with challenges of various degree, along with some nicely polished cut scenes. But the meat of this game isn't story...it's UC. It's all about taking the number one spot in an arena by sheer force and fire power.

The graphical aspect of UC2 is simply fantastic, showing off the fact that it was built exclusively for Xbox. Characters look superb, and environments look rather well also. Melee combat also looks rather fluid, which is a very good thing. My only real complaint here is the splattering body parts effect that happens when you get creamed via a melee attack..it looks very generic. Just a splatter and some red chunks flying through the air..not so cool, but nothing major regardless. Weaponry also looks excellent, each firearm looking menacing before even being fired, particularly the Ripjack. As far as the graphical stand point goes, UC2 is in excellent shape.

Gamely, the real meat here, how does it all play out? At first it will appear much like any other FPS, especially any Unreal related experience you may have had previously, but this all soon changes. If you've paid attention throughout the first half of this review, as well as followed this game even a little bit, you have heard a lot about the melee combat and third person perspective. Both of these aspects are not only completely new and unique to the Unreal franchise, but also rather fresh and unique to the genre as a whole. And in a very fortunate sigh of relief, these two features play out very well and not like a thrown in gimmick. In fact so much that you'll find that things have ultimately been geared towards them. These are key features, not just something new, and must be mastered to survive in the game.

If you refuse to use your melee skills you'll more than likely never see a victory screen after a match. Not only does the melee attacking work to take care of enemies in your face, but also as a priority method of fragging. Things have been evened out to make things fair. Obviously you're at a slight disadvantage as far as range is concerned when using your melee attacks, but this is balanced with the fact that you can do more than simply attacking. To start, you have a basic, weaker attack, and a heavy, but slow hard attack. But what makes things keep balance is the ability to not only power up a limited energy shield by pressing both triggers simultaneously, but also the ability to deflect incoming projectiles with the click of your left trigger. If timed correctly, this can not only simply keep a projectile from hitting you, but even reflect it back into your opponents face, sometimes even resulting in a headshot. When this happens, the announcer will declare "Rejected" making you think of rejecting the ball in a game of basketball, and this proves very satisfying..sort of an "In your face" moment..quite literally at times. Now it's obvious that there's a major focus on melee combat, and your third person perspective (which you can toggle in and out of with the simple press of the black button, with the exception of melee mode, in which you are always in third person during for obvious reasons.) Entering third person with a firearm equipped with slightly limit the precision of your aim, but broaden your view of your surroundings.

But with such an emphasis on melee combat, how is the actual FIRST PERSON SHOOTER aspect played out you might ask. The answer being well, but at the same time a bit more limited than in previous titles. Nothing is lacking whatsoever in the functionality of the FP shooting aspect, but only the variety in firearms. For starters, as surprising as this is, there are no weapon pick ups throughout the stages. You only have the guns you pick before each match. You are allowed to pick 2 guns to bring into battle with you, aside from your standard "pistol" and melee weapon. Instead of weapon pick ups, you find ammo pick ups for your chosen weapons throughout each stage. The selection isn't as broad as I'd originally hoped, with only 8 weapons to choose from, categorized into two categories, Energy and Explosive. You pick one gun from each category before each match. However, one thing does make this a bit better than it initially sounds, most of the guns are capable of sort of third feature, or combo feature besides the primary and alt fire methods. An issuance being the Shock Rifles combo last seen in UC, shoot the alt fire to release a ball of electricity, and proceed to shoot the ball with the primary fire burst to cause an electric explosion.

The guns you can select you will probably recognize from earlier installments, but each has had a face lift, and an overhaul. However, you quickly find that this initially limited firearms selection actually plays a role in adding an element of strategy to each match. Not only must you pick weapons that suit you before each match, but sometimes a certain gun can work better in a curtain match. Put this into the fact that with a more limited arsenal you get to focus more on fine tuning, and perfecting your skill with your chosen weapons. You will master weapons, and find what works best for whatever situation. This also helps to essentially highlight the use of your melee weapons, sort of creating your own custom fighting styles. For instance, using the Stinger to lure in your prey, then quickly switching to your Ripjack to set up a few buzz saw mines in the path of said opponent. When he/she waltzes into your trap, or erectly dodges it, you dive in for the kill with your melee weapons buzzing.

You can even "Finish" off your opponents in a Mortal Kombat-esque fashion. By stunning or "freezing" you opponent in place with either a barrage of light melee strikes, or a well placed charged pistol blast. Then you must lock onto the character, and break out the melee weapon, and a swing of button prompts appears above the players head. If you can input this sequence before either the opponents breaks free or the time expires, you'll unleash a flashy kill called a "Coup de Grace" that obliterates the enemy. Although this may sound cheap, you'll find it actually works better than expected, because it's actually quite difficult for you to perform the button inputs before running out of time. It is flashy, and is good for showing off, and also if performed correctly can result in an instant kill no matter how much health the opponent had, but often times it's too difficult to pull off. And that's actually fortunate, considering in essence it could have been spammed in a very cheap fashion.

This about covers the basic gamely, but feel assuredly know there is a meaty variety of play modes at your disposal, for you alone, and with friends, and even through Xbox Live. On top of just brawling through various match types in instant action, you can take on the Story mode titled "Ascension Rites", conquer the standard tournament ladder with your character of choice, and even work your way through a list of brutally difficult challenges in the Challenge mode. Even if you're only playing stand alone, that's a pretty decent variety of gamely to keep you sucked in, let alone going into multiplayer. There's also a fair share of unlockables, the most important being the characters, you start the game with roughly half the roster, and it totals out into 14 playable characters. Even including Raiden from Mortal Kombat stardom. But also unlockable mutators, and bots. And on the multiplayer front of things, the game truly shines, especially considering it's variety in match types, ranging from standard death match, and capture the flag to Nali Slaughter, a unique game mode in which you must race to kill more of the peaceful Nali race than your opponent. My ONLY complaint with the multiplayer aspect of the game is that due to the third person view aspect, split screen play is limited to two players. It makes sense, but it at the same time is a slight let down, but still, nothing major, especially if you have a link cable, or Xbox Live.Gamely is quite obviously the shining gem that truly makes up this title, and it does shine quite brightly.

As far as sound goes most everything is pretty good, nothing excellent, but mostly done pretty well. Firearms sound pretty well, as do the taunts and death screams of the characters. And the Unreal announcers deep voice is still present and still cool. And as an added bonus you can even select the MK announcer to replace the standard Unreal one. The only thing really lacking in this department is the music. It's not really a big deal, because you barely notice it anyway, with all the chaos going on. But regardless it feel pretty weak, and could have been done at least a bit better.

Well as you can probably see the good HEAVILY out weighs the bad in this title. Every single complaint I've stressed in this review and in general is a very mild complaint, and actually doesn't do anything to tarnish the shine of the overall package. Just very small gripes. Put simply, this game offers a lot, and it's a good, actually great lot. Replay value is present, and actually pretty good, and if nothing else mentioned above, should warrant this as a purchase rather than a rental to an FPS fan. And as an avid FPS fan personally, I can strongly recommend this game. An excellent, very well polished package that only gets better with continued gamely. one of the most unique, refreshing, and actually best FPS games I've played in recent years. A true gem to add to any FPS fan, hell even Xbox owners library.

I give Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict a rock solid 9/10.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/26/05