Unreal Championship Impressions

At its ongoing Editors' Day, Infogrames showcased the upcoming console iteration of the popular Unreal franchise. Far from a PC port, Unreal Championship for the Xbox is attempting to legitimately translate the FPS deathmatch to a console gameplay style--something, arguably, that is yet to be done in earnest.

Developer Digital Extremes has seriously tweaked some of Unreal Tournament's rules for this Xbox game. Citing its inspiration as the fighting genre at large, the developer has made some pretty serious concessions. Foremost is the presence of a supermeter. Called the "Bioenergy meter," the bar sits right under your life bar and is constantly filled as you take out enemies. Once it's full, you'll enter a berserk state, during which you'll inflict more damage and suffer less. You'll also use bioenergy to power some of the game's combos. Though Digital Extremes didn't demo nor mention any in specific, the Infogrames producer present did mention that a host of variables would factor into their specific mechanics: things like your character's race, whether or not you're jumping, and the types of weapons you're using will determine exactly how these combos will behave. He also mentioned Unreal Tournament's shock cannon as an example as to how they might work, and it really makes sense in an FPS context: The weapon has two firing modes, one of which shoots forth a slow-moving sphere of energy and another that fires a fast, linear ray. Shoot the ray into the sphere, though, and a powerful explosion will result. This was always one of the PC game's most engaging mechanics, and we can't wait to see how it has influenced the Xbox game's combos.

Further distancing Unreal Championship from its PC brethren is its manner of weapon distribution, or lack thereof. Rather than littering the game's maps with continually spawning weapons, UC will take a much more radical approach: During every match, it will grant you immediate access to every weapon you've unlocked through continuous play. Ammunition and health, further, will be distributed at preset recharge stations that are scattered throughout the maps. So rather than having to spend a good deal of every round collecting choice weapons and bullets, you'll be able to get directly to the issue at hand: shooting people on the Internet.

Of course, Unreal Championship will be, primarily, an online deathmatch game. As such, it will have the proper trappings in place: all kinds of chat functions (including tools that will enable you to instantly track down online friends); online stat tracking; and even support of Microsoft's voice-communication peripheral, so as to allow actual spoken dissemination of strategies for teamplay. You'll still be able to play with friends without a broadband connection, however, as Unreal Championship will support both four-player split-screen matches and direct-network connections (or Xbox LAN parties). What's more, if you have a broadband connection, as well as an eager friend, both of you will be able to take it online, via the game's split-screen mode.

But PC veterans be wary: As per Microsoft's admonitions, the game will not allow for a PC-style mouse and keyboard control scheme. Instead, Digital Extremes is trying its best to fine-tune the standard console FPS control scheme so as to make the PC's unnecessary. And in all honesty, it seems to be on the right track. In essence, the right stick--which you'll use to "look" and aim--will have two levels of sensitivity: one that's subtle and precise (for aiming) and another that's fast and ultraresponsive (for turning). The game, basically, will gauge the velocity at which you'll input commands with the right stick to determine how to respond. If it believes that you're aiming at something (that is, if you're gently nudging the stick), it will respond with short, precise movements. Conversely, if you're attempting to drastically change the direction that you're facing, the game will detect the comparatively harsh inputs and compensate accordingly. In the end, if the game's controls are suitably tight, then the lack of mouse and keyboard support will be a little easier to miss.

The game will boast all the requisite play modes: a single-player tournament mode, as well as a bevy of online multiplayer modes, including a refined domination game, a standard capture-the-flag mode, both team and single deathmatch modes, fighting-style survival mode, and the all-new bombing-run mode. That last one seems pretty interesting: Two rival teams will attempt to plant bombs in each other's bases, in a sort of play on the standard capture-the-flag mode. While we didn't get to check it out firsthand, Digital Extremes assured us that it was a studio favorite.

Unreal Championship, we're happy to report, will not see release until Microsoft has its broadband plans in order. This will guarantee that it won't suffer from the all-too-common condition of feature kill. We'll have new media for it next week, so stay tuned till then.