If you have never played Unreal Championship or any of the Unreal Tournament games, then you would be unaware that the game focuses on the multiplayer style of things, pitting you against human adversaries in game modes such as deathmatch and capture the flag. The games are played in first-person perspective and generally involve you moving around in an arena, picking up weapons and power-ups and blasting anything you see, while trying not to die yourself. Don’t fret if you haven’t played any of the previous games however, as Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict looks as if it will play completely different to any other title in the series.
While the premise of the game is much of the same – going into a multiplayer arena, (also referred to as “maps”) and using a large array of weaponry to annihilate your competition, many features make it stand out as a brand new game. Unreal Championship 2 is the first game in the series to let you play in third-person perspective. This new feature is needed because of the innovative melee combat involved in the game. Yes now you can run at your opponent with various deadly close combat weapons and try to slice them to pieces, not possible in any previous games in the series. This feature however, isn’t just blindly added for the sake of it, but adds great depth to the gameplay. Furthermore melee combat involves more than simple “button mashing” and your character will be able string combos together and block for a limited amount of time.
Dodge this.
But how in the world can close combat work in the Unreal Tournament universe? Like there will be situations were people are using rocket launchers, sniper rifles, and you wouldn’t even get close, some of you might say. Well thankfully the developer, Epic Games have thought about this and implemented ways to make each fight “fairer.” You can deflect enemy fire, straight back at the shooter, and this technique works for all projectiles, even sniper rifle fire. You'll also have the ability to air dash and pounce forward while in melee mode to get to opponents faster and carve them up.
Don’t worry either, if you still want to use guns, as all your old favorites are there, including the famous flak cannon, which primary fire shoots off a shotgun like blast of hot lead, which can bounce of walls and secondary fire launches a devastating impact grenade. Expect all weapons in Unreal Champion 2 to follow suit of its predecessors and be fast and furious. First-person perspective is still available, so you can still play the game like the previous titles.
Players will be able to choose from different set of characters, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. For example the player can choose to be a massive jugganaught, someone who can withstand massive amounts of firepower, but when it comes to speed and mobility makes a tortoise look fast. Every character has a different melee style too and can attack with a light fast attack, or with a slower heavy attack. Characters also have special adrenaline abilities which can be triggered when they achieve enough kills, and bestow offensive and defensive bonuses for short periods of time.
While previous games in the series have included single-player gameplay, it was much in the form of what multiplayer gameplay was, except instead of competing against fellow human players, AI controlled players (also known as bots) would take their positions. The single-player mode in Unreal Championship 2 will be a tournament that allows the player to take on the role of a variety of uniquely-skilled characters, as well as the role of heroic Anubis as he fights to reclaim his people's Rite of Ascension tournament from the omnipotent Liandri Corporation. The bots like other Unreal games are quite smart, and will offer a good challenge to most players.
Multiplayer however, is what this game (and its predecessors) is made for. Unreal Championship 2 will support Xbox Live and system link and also downloadable content. The well known game types are back including deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture the flag while some new unknown game types are being thrown in for good measure and will hopefully work with the new gameplay mechanics.
Not a very good idea to jump into gunfire...
It cannot be stressed how awesome the game looks at the moment. The visuals are very crisp and framerate is excellent at this point, even with the chaotic battles on screen. If you don’t like fast paced games you may want to stay away from this one, as its on-screen action is crazy, with people jumping around, close combat weapons tearing into flesh and weapons being fired off erratically all around the environment.
Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict looks like one game which will deliver fast-paced shooting action and change the way will play Unreal Tournament games forever. Currently slated for a 2005 release, Unreal Championship 2 looks like it has what it takes to become one of the best online Xbox shooters.
Loading...
