Unreal II: The Awakening

Why does the Xbox ne Unreal II? It's a question that bears asking, especially if you're the hardened emblem of PC gamer who derive pleasure froms dissing games all day upon message boards instead of working for a living. The original PC version received reserv praise from the pair players and game media, who touted its graphics and faculty of perception of atmosphere but slammed the tedium of its later horizontals As CGW put it, it was "a advantageous enjoyable game made maddening through tantalizing glimpses of what it could have been" -- you can check without all of our reviews online right now if you'd like, by means of the way.

So on what account is the Xbox version of Epic Games and fiction Entertainment's single-payer FPS worth paying attention to? Because it's a proper game that's been improved for comforts -- and unlike the original, it's got filled online multiplayer right out of the case (The PC version just got multiplayer now, on the contrary they had to wait month and month for the privilege. Nyah nyah.)

The single-player extremity of Unreal II is chiefly unchanged from the original. It's the distant time to come and you're John Dalton, an ex-Marine playing space sheriff upon the far reaches of the galaxy. The plat isn't complicated -- there's a giant war between alien races and sinister corporations, and Dalton has to do something about it -- on the contrary it's told on a true wide canvas, stretching across ten planets and a surprisingly large amount of story cutscene You have 15 weapons at your disposal, all with sum of two units types of fire, and you also realize to build turrets and display soldiers in certain missions. The game obviously took its inspiration from titles like Half-Life, and save for the lack of variety later in the game, it more than lived up to those true high standards.

The Xbox version (develop by the agency of Tantalus in Australia under the supervision of Epic and Legend) is remarkable simply for the fact that it's a faithful port of the PC original -- a game that was considered a resource grunter not long ago. All of the PC game's high-res wefts have survived in the Xbox port, and none of the horizontal geometry has been removed. The masterys aren't much of a sticking point, either -- they're Halo-style and simple to master. What's more, a certain number of of the more annoying sections from the original have been taken without completely -- remember how you wandered aimlessly around your spaceship in the PC version and got missing all the time? That whole bit's now a non-interactive cutscene

Atari isn't satisfied with simply giving Xbox users a port of the single-player original, however. In addition to a split-screen co-op fashion for the story campaign (offline single unfortunately), the Xbox Unreal II supports online XMP matches via Xbox Live, a feature just newly added to the PC version. Short for Expanded Multiplayer, XMP is a team-based game that borrows ultimate parts from Capture the Flag, Domination, and a entertainer of other online matches. Like CTF whichever side procures the "flag" (in this case, four special artifacts) wins the game, on the other hand it's much more complicated than that. allotments of items in the game world -- everything from door switches and spawn points to power generators -- can be "owned" by the agency of either team, thus locking it away from the rival team unles it can "hack" the fact and wrest back control. Securing clinch of power generators is vital because greatest in quantity of your offense (turrets, vehicles, mines and in the way that on) uses energy, and you're defenseles if you move swiftly out. As a result, XMP is one as well as the other tactical and strategic at one time -- you have to make certain there's a free path to safety when snatching artifacts, on the other hand you also have to make confident your team doesn't lose its power generators and race out of energy. It's an interesting mix of gameplay.

The sole sticking point with the demo version we tried were occasional dips in the framerate, an issue that Atari assured us would be fixed up for the final release early nearest year. We haven't had a chance to prove XMP on the Xbox notwithstanding but Atari promises up to 12 players by match in "server mode" (i.e. somebody's Xbox races as a dedicated server) and eight to ten players otherwise. This method combined with a fairly seemly single-player game, should make the Xbox Unreal II worth more than a passing glance when it hits stores February. Stick around for more details shortly.

Copyright ?© 2003 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserv Originally appearing in 1UP