Barry
Mr. Do It All
Apr 12, 2005, 10:06 PM
Post #1 of 1
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Unreal Championship 2 for XBOX Review
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Unreal Championship 2 for the Xbox broadened the gameplay of the popular and lightning quick FPS action that includes hand-to-hand combat. So is the game all delight or are there problems with new features?
Flak in the Saddle
Unreal Championship 2 comes from a world-class graphics pedigree, and it depicts some of the most detailed visuals ever seen on the Xbox. But while Unreal Championship 2 is amazing on a technical level, it's short on creativity. The characters are an unlikable mob of generic alien warriors, robots, and Goth chicks clad in garish, glowing costumes. Even Mortal Kombat's Raiden (in a guest appearance) can't spice things up. Meanwhile, the environments flaunt plenty of sharp details, but instantly succumb to the dullest clich?s of the genre. You'll trudge through industrial facilities, Egyptian temples, and neon-adorned space dungeons. So basically they look great, but are pretty mundane.
In a sharp departure from the PC titles, Unreal Championship 2's soundscape is just one big din: a mish-mash of electro-metal tunes, clanking noises, and the occasional boom, scream, or yelp. Past Unreal titles have showcased heavy-hitting audio, but Unreal Championship 2's sound falls way short.
Unreal Championship 2 makes some fairly earth-shaking changes to the series' core gameplay, with mixed results. First and foremost is the new third-person camera view, which proves to be a primarily cosmetic change; players can swap back to a traditional first-person view at any time. But the emphasis on melee combat is a far more controversial decision. Unreal Championship 2's melee scheme heaps an alarming number of commands onto the Xbox controller--which, for a game as blindingly fast as Unreal Championship 2, is bound to cause confusion. The melee system is more satisfying than you might expect, but it's no replacement for the classic UT style.
Despite these spirited complaints, Unreal Championship 2 makes an
excellent companion to Halo 2, particularly for Xbox Live gamers. Even
though the game isn't what series veterans would expect, that's not
necessarily a bad thing--familiarity. In the end, Unreal Championship 2
deserves big props for exploring intriguing new gameplay possibilities,
but here's hoping the next installment comes down a bit closer to Earth.
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