Certain games and their respective series have always been synonymous with a certain kind of game play. Mortal Kombat makes you think of going one-on-one with your friends, whereas Final Fantasy has always been associated with a single player adventure. In the same token, Unreal Tournament has always been at the forefront of kick ass multiplayer action involving the “baddest” weapons with the craziest game types. So how does Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict stack up to past incarnations of the bloodsport? It’s the best damn one, yet.

Gameplay:

The original Unreal Championship had issues similar to the problems Halo 2 has now: balance problems. Like Halo, the game could be too easily dominated by the ‘bigger gun.’ However, UC’s imbalance lied more with the different character classes that had one advantage over the other classes, and the characters being forced to start with a particular weapon instead of you choosing the weapon you wanted.

Well no longer. UC2 takes that problem and fixes it perfectly. As this easy-to-understand instructional will explain, the road to kicking ass has only two simple steps.

Step 1: Pick any character you want! With different races like the Humans, the Nakhti, the Necris, the Skaarj, the Juggernauts, and of course, everyone’s favorite returning Liandri robots, there’s no shortage of choices. Each race has a specific set of race-tailored adrenaline abilities, with different weight classes in some of the races, as well, in order to give you a broader range of options. The three differing weight classes – light, medium, and heavy each have different attributes. The light weight characters like Lauren, Selket, and Sapphire may suffer from less health than the heavier classes, but are incredibly fast, capable of dancing circles around the heavier classes and just plain outrunning them. The medium class fighters like the game’s star Anubis and the classic tournament badass Malcolm have a balance between health and speed that allow them to move faster than the heavier characters without giving up too much health. And of course, the heavy weights like Gorge, Raptor, and Szalor can take beating after beating and keep on going.

Step 2: Choose your weapon! Similarly to the brilliant single player game Deus Ex: Invisible War, UC2 uses a universal ammunition system. All weaponry is fed through Explosive Ammunition or Energy Ammunition. The Explosive Weapons – the Rocket Launcher, Flak Cannon, Grenade Launcher, and Ripjack – are used for when you need a lot of damage in a hurry with splash damage capabilities and the Energy Weapons – the Sniper Rifle, Shock Rifle, Bio Rifle, and Stinger – are used for more precise fire. Each character uses one weapon from each of the categories, which when paired with their default race-specific weapon and melee weapon, gives you a tremendous amount of freedom in your fighting style.

Melee, you ask? Yes, melee! UC2 challenges you to bring a knife to a gunfight, and blends the two forms of combat so perfectly that you’ll wish more people would copy Epic for this feat. Swords, Staves, Claws, Kamas, and even Fists can be used to throw it down Street Fighter style. For those who have a natural inclination to keep it down and dirty without those new fangled fire arms, never fear. As per the extraordinary balance within UC2, melee users can reject any shot – be it rocket, sludge, or bullet – back at an attacker by timing their backlash correctly. Although this is all well and good, the true draw here is the dynamic one-on-one duels that can take place, and let me tell you, they can be downright spectacular.

Melee combat is all about timing; knowing how your character swings his or her weapon and moving in at the right moment to get in a strike, while trying to avoid your opponent’s attack make for some white knuckle encounters, to say the least. Of course, if you want to be a little more acrobatic with your particular close quarter weapon of choice, you can. Some of the most breathtaking moments happen during air battles that look like they were taken straight out of Dragon Ball Z – characters dashing and power attacking high above the arena floor, and bouncing off of walls with a series of spectacular double jumps.

All of this – the melee combat, ranged combat, and adrenaline – is done smoothly thanks to Unreal’s streamlined controls, because UC2 was designed specifically for the Xbox Controller. A new feature that absolutely rocks is something of a departure from the Unreal Tournament standard. UC2 now allows you to play a First Person Shooter or Third Person Shooter by pressing the Black Button to switch between the two perspectives seamlessly.

Graphics:

What’s truly impressive? UC2 does all of this and looks downright gorgeous the entire time. The character models, the environments, and the effects are the best you’ll find on the Xbox, and are easily on par with the best visuals you’ll find anywhere else on Microsoft’s big, black machine. The environments in particular are impressive, with buildings and architecture stretching off into the distance and expansive interiors making up some of the more confined levels. Water and other effects are impressive in all of the levels, and all the while without any slowdown.

Sound:

While the music isn’t anything spectacular like what you’d expect from Martin O’Donnell or Nobuo Uematsu, the sound effects are top notch. The voice acting is also surprisingly good, with a few exceptions like Brock and the Juggernauts. What’s most surprising about the voice acting, though, is how incredible it is during the cut scenes.

Longevity:

UC2 has cut scenes! Another first in the Unreal series (at least in the Tournament spin of the series, anyway) is the addition of a storyline and cut scenes to explain the role and journey of the young Tournament competitor Anubis. Not only is the voice acting good, but the mannerisms and gestures are extraordinarily good, as well, with top notch, high quality movies between each match. The only real complaint, as good as it is, is that there isn’t more meat to the Story Mode, since it will only take you a few hours to complete. The upside, though, is that each character has an individual tournament ladder, and that there are tons of special challenges for you to complete.

While I wish that some of the old game types had been brought back (for God’s sake, Epic, give us Domination again!) the new ones are still fun. Overdose is a new game type that has each player scrambling for a bomb in order to score points by dropping it into a goal; it has the added twist of your character overpowering if they hold onto the ball for a prolonged period of time. Nali Slaughter – perhaps the strangest game type on the Xbox these days – has each character trying to kill a set number of innocent alien bystanders. Naturally, Deathmatch and Capture the Flag are here as well, as per the great commandment of gaming.

Overall:

With all of the added single player goodness of a Story Mode, Tournaments, Challenges, the new/classic game types, and the inclusion of Xbox Live play (which is a rule for Unreal) Unreal Championship 2 has the highest replay value of any 2005 release yet, and every minute, online or off, is just damn fun. The game play is balanced, tuned to perfection, and downright flawless, and the graphics are, as we’ve come to expect from a Cliffy B. game, jaw “droppingly” good without any slowdown. The addition of melee and third person play is brilliant, and the focus of skill over firepower puts games like Halo 2 to shame. The Rocket launcher is only as good as you are, and that goes for every weapon in the game. No weapon is the be-all-end-all of UC2, and when the day is done, the better man will have won. See you online, Flak Monkey, because this is a definite must buy for anyone with an Xbox.

Pros:

• First or third person combat is an excellent feature.
  
• Smooth, seamless controls and high mobility make the action fast and intense.
  
• Online play is brilliant, as expected.
  
• Seemingly endless number of levels to fight on.
  

  Cons:
  

  • There needs to be more different gametypes. There are too few, especially since none of the old gametypes from UT or UC are here.
    
  • The Story Mode leaves you wanting more, or at least some sort of reward related to the conclusion (wink, wink).