Shooty, shooty, shooty
First of all, there are some new additions to look at. There is an attempt at a story but if we’re being honest, it’s fag-packet standard and nothing more than a flimsy excuse to run around shooting people. We also now have bombing run, which involves taking a ball and throwing it through a goal portal and double domination, similar to the domination of old but with only two points to guard. Races also make their first appearance in the series. Pick a certain race and you’ll have their trademark weapon and different characteristics to play around with. Finally there are adrenalin moves. Killing opponents or finding pick-ups add to your adrenalin count and when it reaches 100, you’ll have four extra moves to choose from (invisibility, berserk, agility and recharge).
Still, underneath all the new additions, the classic Unreal formula is there and that hasn’t been changed at all so in reality, you’ll still be too busy running, jumping and shooting to care about too much else.
The main aim of this game is to kill, kill, kill and then kill again. There are no subtle stealth tactics to be learnt, nor hanging around considering the best way to attack. This is all about firing a rocket in the opponent’s face before someone else does. If you die then you respawn, grab the nearest weapon and jump feet first into the nearest shoot-out. This makes Unreal Championship a lot faster than Halo and more intense than Timesplitters 2 and also helps boost the pick up and play factor.
All first person games live and die by their weapons and it’s one area that the Unreal series has always managed to excel in. Here, your weapons range from traditional weapons of death such as mini-guns and rocket launchers to diverse additions such as bio rifles and flak cannons. They all have their own advantages and are useful in different situations. The levels, however, are hit and miss. Most of them are designed as deathmatch arenas and have the usual multiple routes, vantage points and sprawling corridors available to the player. Other levels seem rushed, with only one obvious route throughout the level and easy camping points to pick from. There are a few open-ended arenas too and these seem to take a lot of the intensity and atmosphere out of the game.
The graphics don’t really help this. The death animations are good and the particle effects are neatly done but nothing really stands out and grabs your attention. The look and feel of the levels is a little generic at times and the arenas you’re playing in can feel empty and soulless. It would be unfair to criticise the graphics too harshly as they do their job of conveying the grimy, industrial arenas but the developers haven’t gone that extra mile and added the extra polish that the game needs. The same applies to the sound effects; most of them are competent but nothing is spectacular.
There’s only one problem with Unreal Championship and it’s a rather big one. The artificial intelligence ranges from moronic cannon fodder to blood lusting psychos that want to eat your children. There is absolutely no inbetween. On the harder difficulty levels, the concentration required to keep up with the computer is so intense and zen-like that you don’t have time to have fun. Seeing as the story is flimsy and the game modes all boil down to the same thing – shoot them before they shoot you – it relies on decent AI to provide lifespan and sadly, it fails.
Flicking the difficulty onto the harder settings also reveals another problem; some of the weapons are incredibly cheap. The lightning gun - a fancy sniper rifle, in case you were wondering – is the worst offender. The one shot kills it offers are fine on lower difficulty levels but the rock solid AI seems to be able to hit headshots wherever they are. Right next to you or in a different postcode, if they have a lightning gun, you’re dead. There have been occasions where I’ve respawned, only to be killed in one shot before even figuring out where you are in the level. It’s not difficult, it’s not tricky; it’s simply infuriating and will make you want to put your fist through the TV screen.
Unreal Championship doesn’t do anything wrong but conversely, it doesn’t excel in any area that Halo and Timesplitters 2 haven’t already covered. Xbox Live should change how people view this game but without it, Unreal Championship feels little more than an offline practice arena for a deathmatch party you’re not invited to.
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