Unreal II Xbox Impressions
We take an advance look at the upcoming Xbox version of Unreal II.
The original Unreal II on the PC was the highly anticipated sequel to the 1998 shooter Unreal. Developer Epic has constantly worked with its proprietary game engine (known simply as "Unreal technology") and revamped it through Unreal, Unreal Tournament, UT 2003, and finally Unreal II, and the result was a graphically spectacular PC game that some fans found to be disappointing because of its rather short length (many players got through the game in less than 10 hours). We met with Epic producer Cliff "CliffyB" Bleszinski, who conceded this point but assured us that the upcoming Xbox version of the game will offer players more bang for their buck.
The Xbox version of Unreal II will feature the entire single-player campaign from the PC version, in which you play as John Dalton, a former space marine assigned to routine patrol duty until the antagonistic and extremely dangerous skaarj aliens (the primary villains from the original Unreal) make a reappearance in the universe as they attempt to recover a mysterious artifact. As Dalton, you'll have to fight your way through different futuristic environments on different planets while traveling with your crew, which includes the alien Ne'Ban, the gearhead Isaak, and the less-than-fully-clothed navigator Aida. In between fights, you'll be treated to real-time, in-engine cutscenes, and you'll be able to wield many of the original weapons from the first Unreal and Unreal Tournament, like the shock lance, and new weapons, like the flamethrower.
We started with a rundown of Unreal II's features, which will include an improved control scheme that will be "as good as Halo's," according to Bleszinski. In addition, the Xbox game will have higher-quality voice-over than the last Unreal product to hit the Xbox (Unreal Championship, which was released last year), as well as split-screen cooperative play for two players, which segments the screen so that each player's view is on top of the other. He conceded that although the Xbox isn't quite as powerful as some of the most high-end PCs out there, it's still an excellent platform and seems to have translated many of the PC game's graphical frills, such as its lighting and fog effects, as well as environmental effects such as foliage, just fine, even at this early stage in development.
Bleszinski went on to describe Unreal II's online multiplayer mode via Xbox Live, which he simply referred to as "XMP," or "expanded multiplayer." XMP will be a class-based multiplayer game that will "add more depth" than Unreal Championship by letting players choose to play as actual classes (similar to the multiplayer mode in Wolfenstein for Xbox Live), such as a ranger, a sniper, or an assault character. XMP will feature a goal-based mode in which two opposing teams must capture and control all the artifacts on a map to win; in many cases, each team will start the game in control of two artifacts and will attempt to capture the other two to score points.
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- Atari
- Tantalus Int.
- Sci-Fi First-Person...
- Release: Feb 10, 2004
- ESRB: Mature
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