Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict Updated Hands-On

LAS VEGAS--Midway showed off Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict at its 2005 press event today, giving us an updated look at the unique hybrid shooter that will be hitting Xbox Live in April. Though no major new content was shown today that we haven't seen before, we managed to get a better feel for the game and are anticipating its upcoming release.

The biggest news about Unreal Championship 2 since Midway announced it would publish the title, was the announcement that Mortal Kombat thunder god Raiden will appear as a playable character. Sadly, Raiden wasn't available in the build we got to try, but the various other characters on hand were quite diverse in their own right. Your choice of character will influence a multitude of factors, from the style of melee attacks you can perform to your available special moves to even your basic run speed. We found the seamless switching between first- and third-person perspectives to be especially easy to get a handle on, and the powerful melee attacks add some nice variety to the frenetic gameplay.

We're looking forward to getting more in-depth play time with Unreal Championship 2 in the future, since the game contains some complicated and unique mechanics, such as a counterattack system that lets you literally deflect projectiles back at your opponent for extra damage. For now, though, we can say that the game has the polish of many finished games--so we anticipate Epic won't have any problem bringing it to shelves in time for its April release date. Stay tuned for more on the game in the near future.