by:	April 30, 2005

When Epic Games released Unreal Tournament 2003 for PC, they completely redefined their wildly popular Unreal Tournament series ushering in a number of new Unreal games in this new “era” such as Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004, Unreal 2, and Unreal Championship (a modified UT2003 made exclusively for Xbox). Now Epic Games looks to go beyond redefining their own series of FPSs and redefine the entire FPS universe itself, as we know it. With help from Midway, Epic Game’s newest Unreal installment, Unreal Championship 2, does just that and will quite possibly influence all FPSs of the future in an entire new way.

Story
Unlike most previous Unreal installments, Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict comes packed with a rather evocative and interesting Story Mode. You play the role of Anubis: a rising, new contender in the Liandri Ascension Rites Tournament bent on winning something other than the grand prize. Not long ago Anubis was in the same tournament and just as powerful as ever, but at that time, his wife (Selket) was also in the same tournament. He feared having to face her and possibly kill her in one of the matches so he ran from the tournament in order to see if she would follow proving whether or not she was more interested in love, or power. Selket stayed behind seeking power but eventually failed and did not win the final match. Now, another Liandri Ascension Rites Tournament has begun and this time Anubis has returned. With help from an old friend and competitor in the tournaments, Sobek, Anubis will attempt to climb the ladder once again and try to stop Selket from winning the tournament and becoming Empress.



Unfortunately the Story Mode only follows the one path of Anubis and is relatively short leading up to a very overly hyped final battle. Aside from that fact, you will find that you will be able to play as a number of different characters and guide them through a Tournament Ladder, accompanied by their very own, short, but sweet story played out through text before the beginning of each match. Also you will find a Challenges mode where you will, as it sounds, go through a number of different challenges playing with a wide array of characters in a wide array of situations and matches. The only real catch to the Challenges are that they are insanely difficult, only to get harder and harder the more you unlock. Fortunately though, if you complete all of the challenges, for all of your hard work you will be rewarded with the option to play as Raiden, the Thunder God, from Mortal Kombat in the Tournament Ladder and through Xbox Live.

Gameplay
Like all past Unreal installments, the gameplay, physics, and mechanics have been the true highlight of each title breaking new grounds for FPSs to come. Unreal Championship 2 follows suit and continues the tradition but this time does it on such a massive scale, it is truly overwhelming. First off, just to get things straight, it is politically incorrect to call Unreal Championship 2 a first-person shooter; it is easily something so much more…but what? Well I have no idea what to categorize Unreal Championship 2 into because it is a perfect blend of a FPS and a Action/Adventure title that is quite indescribable…I really think we have a whole new genre on our hands here.

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