Unreal Championship is fun on all levels, but really needs more in in some spots that are lacking.
The entire premise is all multiplayer battles, whether fighting alone against bots, with friends, or online against players. Sticking it alone is the part where it's lacking. Not only do you have no one to talk to (except issuing commands), but the single player campaign is a short, storyless mode that only takes about three hours to beat. How the game comes together in the end is pretty cool, but the campaign is surely nothing at all to wow about, and just seems tacked on. It does have great battles, but you'll find yourself doing most of the work. That doesn't mean the bots aren't helpful, though. They are actually quite intelligent, and will listen to your commands well. Those commands consist of Attack, Defend, Freelance (let them do as they please), or Taunt your opponents with a dumb phrase that either doesn't make any sense, or just isn't insulting.
So, while the game lacks on the single player side, it makes up for it in multiplayer gameplay. With multiple modes, like Deathmatch (free for all or team), Capture the Flag, Bombing Run (run the bomb to the opponent's goal), Survival (one-on-one), and even more. There is a good variety of gameplay, which can be played with bots or other players, online or off, and has many modifications. There are Mutators, which set some funny and tactical modifications to your matches, and you can set the time limit, points needed, friendly fire, and so on and so forth. However, this game lacks in the weapons department. There are really only around 10 weapons to use, which is a total lackage of variety. Sure, they're all different, but with games like TimeSplitters 2 out at around at the same time, it couldn't compare. In fact, the whole game can't compare to games like TimeSplitters 2, which had more levels, weapons, and variety.
The graphics look nice, except the blood and gore, which looks really phony and blocky. The blood effects just look poor, but the game itself looks great overall. The music in entirely forgettable, and the sound effects aren't really all that realistic. They match the game well, though, and that is waht matters most.
Overall, Unreal Championship is a great game to play with friends, but I highly recommend TimeSplitters 2 over this, as it has not only better multiplayer (no Xbox Live, though), but a great single player story mode, as well. And, since I wrote this review 4 years after this game's release, I would recommend TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, as it does have Xbox Live. If you're an Unreal fan though, you can't quite go wrong with this. Just don't expect a good campaign mode or a huge weapon variety.