12.1.2004

Unreal was a major shooter on the PC, even managing to usurp the likes of Quake. Its appearance on Xbox promised much, and it almost delivers. Unreal Championship (UC) is a reworking of Unreal Tournament (UT) from the PC, written from the ground up by Atari and Epic. After online research to find out what players liked most about UT, the developers distilled the best elements into UC.LOOKS:The game looks stunning. Landscapes are amazingly detailed, giving Halo a real run for its money, though with a much darker, dirtier atmosphere. Buildings and interiors are solid-looking and well realised, and everything on-screen feels connected and convincing. This is in part due to some excellent shadow-casting and use of lighting.The graphics engine works very well in this respect, but does suffer some occasional but nasty frame rate slowdowns. This is disappointing but only really interferes with gameplay when several characters are in a complex-looking location and all shooting at once.SOUND:Sound is nicely done, but some people may find the thrash-rock music a bit monotonous. There is no ability to use music from the Xbox hard drive, which is a let-down. Characters are quite vocal, and will (optionally) call out taunts and insults during play. The "harsh" language is unlikely to offend even your mother, but there is an option to switch it off.CHARACTERS:We get a variety of character species, all of which are nicely done, distinctive and with special fighting skills. These add variety but the species you choose is fixed in your Player Profile. If you want to be something else then a new profile must be made. I ended up with many profiles because of this. It would have been nice to see ordinary Humans here, but there are none. In Championship mode the characters seem to learn as they go along, becoming better shots with experience. This makes it necessary to check which team members you choose for each battle.GAME TYPES:A variety of game types are on offer. The usual suspects are all here, including Capture the Flag, Deathmatch and Domination, plus a couple of new types. Of these, Bombing Run is the most likely to please. It involves two teams trying to capture a "ball", and then fighting their way into the enemy base to score points. Multiplayer is, of course, available. Nevertheless, there are simply too few maps for sufficient variety. For UT veterans who are used to being able to download literally thousands of additional maps, the maps included are just not enough.GAMEPLAY:If you are expecting to sneak around and ambush your enemies, forget it. In UC there is nowhere to hide, and if you stand still you will end up dead very quickly. UC is frenetic and absolutely non-stop action. In this respect it triumphs.As with any shooter, UC revolves around survival. You need to be quick on your feet and quick with the trigger. The controls are simple and easy to pick-up, though there is an excellent tutorial provided to get you started. You can carry up to 9 weapons, ranging from Lighting Gun (a futuristic take on a sniper rifle) to machine guns, rocket launchers and even a cool single-shot weapon (the TAG rifle) that allows you to launch an attack form a satellite hovering in the sky. Each weapon does a reassuring large amount of damage. You can expect to see many of your unfortunate enemies blown to giblets during a typical game. The downside of all these weapons is that cycling through each weapon to find the one you need can take so long that you end up dead before you have found it. Team play includes rudimentary commands with which you control your team. However, the "Cover Me" command is not present (it was in UT). This means that you are often on your own, with no backup in the heat of a fire fight.WHAT'S WRONG:UC is not perfect. It is when playing against other Humans that you become most aware that the behaviour of Bots in the single-player matches leaves something to be desired. Certainly Bot AI is better than in UT, but the missing "Cover Me" command is a downer.Something is missing in the gameplay. It just is not as much fun as UT. UC seems to lack the fluidity of movement and smoothness of aiming that UT had. The reticule is more difficult to aim than it should be, a problem that is mainly down to the large "dead-zone" in joystick movement. Compare it with the sublime smoothness of Halo and you will realise just how badly this affects UC. When using a gun sight to zoom in on a foe, the view you get is unaccountably fuzzy, though seems to have been intentional.Game difficulty levels seems to do little more than make the Bots jump around more and fire more accurately. This would be fine but for the fact that the Lighting Gun is too powerful in the hands of Bots that never ever miss. On the hardest level against Bots, you can expect to die every few seconds.One last point not picked up on elsewhere: Atari and Epic seem to be confused about the story line for UC. In the manual it mentions "winning your freedom", but in the game itself it is an organized sport - no mention of winning anything other than a trophy. I suppose the cursory vagueness of plot demonstrates that in UC there is no purpose to the game other than the gratifying zeal of personal survival.IN SHORT:If you like shooters then this is likely to appeal to you. If you are expecting some attempt at a story line or purpose to the mayhem then look elsewhere. This is classic arcade violence (almost) at its best.

14.12.2002

Anyone who knows about FPS should know about Unreal, so I won't go into detail on what the game entails. What I will do is comment on the games technical misgivings and it's multiplayer component.As I primarily bought this game to play with friends the split screen offline campaign is what I will concentrate on (as I don't have broadband where I live!). It plays superbly in a 2 player split screen bout, (I've yet to try 4 player). The action is rampant all the way, with bots taking up any unused places in the arena (though they can be disabled). Rockets, flak, grenades, body parts, you name it, they're flying all over the shop, frantic is the only word which can be used here!

17.1.2003

Having bought xbox live off the official xbox website, and having already had broadband for 2 years I was one of the few lucky Brits able to play this fantastic game over xbox live before it came out in the UK officially in february or march. While I had to wait a while after I had bought the game for xbox live to arrive I had the chance to play single player, which I never got tired of, as long as I didn't play it non-stop. The bots are very intelligent and in the highest diffuculty have the ability to win games such as capture the flag without requiring the player's help. There are nearly 40 characters to play with, each starting with their own unique stats and weapons, which can either do more damage,

21.11.2002

Unreal Championship is one of the greatest online games to be created. Graphics are unrivalled and will have PC owners twiddling their thimbs, trying not to be impressed. Over 25 characters and arenas to play in, 5 different types of game to play, and it's Xbox exclusive, meaning it surpasses everything seen on other formats.The single player game is a load of fun, and CPP-controlled bots are clever and act almost as good as real people. But of course, there is no substitute for the real thing. XBOX LIVE!!! Words are inadequate to describe the experience, but as I've got nothing else, I'll give it a go. You can enter a game with just a few buton presses via the Quick Match option,

15.12.2002

As a long-time fan of the unreal series on the PC, I expected nothing less than perfection for the XBOX sequel, and I was certainly not disappointed.The stunning graphics and extreme attention to detail compliment perfectly the smooth, fast action of the game. The format is pretty much the same as the previous titles, i.e. you lead a team through publicly exhibited battles towards your ultimate goal of the Championship title, but this should not put off newcomers, as it the world easy to get into and understand.I was initially stunned by the gameplay, graphics and sound of the game, but after choosing the difficulty setting "easy" (or "novice") on the single player career ladder,

20.2.2003

Having only an 830 Celeron and a TNT 2 my chances for running Unreal 3 was prettySlim, so I was pleased when Unreal Championship was released and I saw that Live enabled logo on the box, an instant buy I thought I think so. I was even more pleased to find that the live could be accessed with the Unreal disc, and that it was broadband compatible, and Telewest were doing X-Box live in my area. So I hooked up and never looked back. The game graphics are beautiful and to watch it run at such a smooth 60fps @ 60hz even online with a 4 ping and 16 characters was a cool sight. I will have to admit though the one player game is pretty poor and the whole purpose for this game is for online fun and trust me that’s what it is.

2.3.2003

Come on admit it, if anyone has ever played an unreal game you will know that the strongest point is the multiplayer, this follws suit. However the one player is pretty lame, its basically a series of multiplayer arena challenges, but on your own.Graphically the game is great, and has increadable textures and surrounding environments. There are a lot of levels,(around 25 in all) but some are a little boring and some are quite small. but there are many which are vast and interestingWeapons- The usual unreal weapons, for you who haven't played unreal this will include rocket launchers, snipers, assult rifles, mini guns etc. also each gun has two functions,

31.10.2004

A cracking game which meets all standards a 1st person shooter should meet. Choosing from multiple characters, some being more speedy than others, some being more heavily armoured. The strongest character on the game is probably a heavily armoured monster 'Gorge', (the one in the center on the front of the game box). He has 190 hit points (The most hit points a character has on the game). And he grasps a 3 barreled rocket launcher in his arms. You really don't want to wind him up.With lots of guns to choose from, with each gun having 2 different attacks, you shouldn't really let enemies come within 2 metres of you. They should already be a pile of guts on the floor.With great graphics,

4.1.2003

Well this game is the one of the first to be xbox live enabled. But with xbox live not available at the moment there doesnt seem to be much point buying it now as you are just deathmatch fragging in single playerPlaying this game on your own is very good, but it does feel like a scaled down version of unreal tournament 2003 on pc. That game was awesome and so is this. The levels are mostly just slightly modifed versions and weapons are reskined. It does feel rather short as well but an instant action mode allows for replay value.Graphically the game is very nice, but there are lots of areas where slowdown occurs from just walking around.overall a great game, excels in multiplayer,

14.5.2004

this really is a good game. i would like to echo the sentiments of the other reviewers somewhat, it is good, but may be a let down to PC owners.I loved it, although in areas repetative, i basically is just the pc's online game over and over. which for me is great, but for some might be boring.even if you are a pc user i think that you will like this, i like it, although i did notice that i was holding a controller and not using a keyboard and mouse, which is a obvious change if you have played it.go and buyt his game, its wortha ook to fans of the genre.

5.10.2003

If you're after a Live compatible shoot-em-up where you don't need to worry about mission objectives and other such things, then this is definately the game for you. Unreal Championship is about one thing: killing. Pick a character that suits your style of play and teach the rest of the world not to "get up all in your face" (etc). This is fast, frantic and frenzied shooting at its' finest.

28.12.2014

A great, fun, action packed game. Well recommended for people who like multiplayer feel games and a variety of imaginative shoot 'em up games such as CTF and domination. Well recommended.

6.3.2018

I love this game it is one of my favourites to play

27.8.2015

Excellent

Unreal Championship (Xbox) - Reviews

Info

Analysis

Detail