Romp, stomp, and glide your way through a futuristic free-for-all!
User Rating: 9.3 | Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict XBOX
Holding true to the "Unreal" feel and control Unreal Championship 2 keeps her veterans happy and offers a smooth and melodious transfer into a more action-based conflict. I have loved Unreal titles since that fateful day in the summer of... um... well I know I was in high school- when the first Unreal game hit the shelves of Wal-Mart one day early. I played that game for hours and never got tired of it. Since then my love affair for Epic's Unreal has had its peaks and valleys. Since the utter failure of the first Unreal Championship and the "Lets make money on what we have done" attitude they took with UT2003-2004 I have grown some-what skeptical of Epic's ability to consider the consumer at any point during their development process. Not that I think their attitude has changed- but at least we have a decent game to cloud our judgments and keep us consuming like the video game sheep we are... all politics aside- lets continue with this review. The story rests on another Lilandri corruption inspired "deceit-de-grace" where the intergalactic conglomerate uses gladiator combat and high tech "oohs and aahs" to control her populous. This time, however, UC2 focuses on the "Ascension of Rites" the Nahikiti peoples tournament to choose a ruler. Our struggle is between Anubis, a warrior for his people, and his sister, Selket (I'm not sure... I wasn't paying attention to her dialog). Deceit, treachery, and bullets riddle this game's story more than a Jewish diamond market... sorry to all my Jewish brothers but you know it's true. The dialog is more than satisfactory for a video game and the cutscenes queue at appropriate times. The gameplay is smooth in both first and third person perspectives. Not only are loading times short but when the game begins there's no frame reduction- this comes in handy when your enemy is right in front of you with her flak cannon poised. There are new additions to this title's gameplay: Jumping is easier and animated better than in previous editions. You start off every game with a loadout- you get one explosive weapon- one energy- your default projectile weapon- and your melee. This suits me fine since I hated cycling through my weapons on the mouse wheel while trying to get a bead on some a$$whole in mid air after performing a double rebound jump over his head- avoiding his rocket barrage... anyway. Melee is the chief enforcer his time. As many have said: in the past melee has been a list ditch-effort to kill, humiliate, or "go out with a bang". Not in this version- you can go toe to toe with someone who has a rocket launcher or flak cannon- repulse, gliding and super attacks now fill your arsenal not to mention a new menu for selecting on the fly- "super powers" which are only selectable when your adrenaline is full. In reality it seems like the developers had used StarWars Jedi Academy as a basis for some of their new ideas... play them both and see what i mean. In previous UT games most everything was available to you from the start. not this time around. To go along with the Entertainment Industry's "Philosophy" on replay-ability, and Midway's Mortal Kombat series they have made most of the players, mutators, and levels locked even in "Instant Action" mode. I personally hate it when they do this because all the great stuff is hard as heck to get and even though I love playing games- I don't like being obsessed with obtaining some lousy super character that doesn't really do anything significant. Fortunately, when you do unlock characters their abilities and weapons are different... you will have to master different combat techniques with each one. And it may take you time to get used to the player perspectives and melee combat. Graphics in this one are much better than UC and Unreal2 for XBOX. If you remember them you'll remember grainy graphics and in U2 you'll remember 2D NPC- what was that garbage?! No- this time the graphics are "smooth and silky"... textures are detailed, particle effects are fine, and character animations transfer from key to key with anatomically correct weights. Most arenas are indoors- however quite a few are outdoors; unfortunately I have not noticed any environmental effects like rain or snow- but you can be sure that some of you favorite levels from the previous games will be beefed up and available along with new maps. I really don't have much more to say... I got my UC2 on sale at Sam Goody; therefore I was happy. It is worth the money even if you can't stand your internet connection and never play LIVE. This is one of those games where you can get good quick- but if you play it enough you can be "GODLIKE" so it will cater to both novices, like me, and hard core gamers that wear-out an XBOX a week. Get it and play it for an hour if you like tournament style free-for-alls you'll love this title. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Disclaimer: >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I apologize if I have offended any race, religion, sex, creed, or economically challenged individual. I do not claim responsibility for any unsatisfactory purchase you may incur nor do I claim responsibility for little Timmy not discerning between reality and virtual violence. I am not responsible for any broken XBOXs, high school shootings, stabbings, strangulations, or violence of any type that you or anyone you know may commit after playing this game. Thank you. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
