Alex
Member
Yo! Surprisingly little fanfare for this one, so I figured I'd do a write up to kill some time and help out any fence sitters if I can.
It's a pretty meaty game, I'll just do a little break down with some opinions on the absolute basics to begin with:
Presentation and superficial bits;
The presentation is a little jarring at first. First few load times are rather lengthy out of the box, and some choppy menus, but they seem to disperse after you settle your information in and the game takes to your HDD.
After that passes, menus flow fast, all options are present across single player, multi player and Xbox Live as you'd expect and managed in one of the better late-day XBL releases. Compared to the original UC, pulling up menus during game, checking scores, ect. All much nicer.
More importantly, in the grand and illustrious art of making any and all things shiny, UC2 does a very darn nifty job. Obviously in the top percentage of in any real visual category you can cram it in.
One thing that's cool about latter day unreal is the lengths it goes to convey some really unique and beautiful stages. Lots of outdoor environments flowing with detail. Water, trees, gardens, good outdoor lighting all that happy nature jazz mixed in with your wanton murdering. The variety and polish across the mammoth 40-50ish maps is pretty damn staggering.
For an FPS, UC2's character design so, so nice. Really nice designs, with actual somewhat satisfying history and all that nonsense to boot. Animations are unique to character as well, some very nice stuff mixed in. Lots o' personality all around.
Citing prior concerns, I haven't come across much screen tearing. Oh it's there, but only in rare occasions in my few meager hours of play.
Controls and general play
Quick intro
With some complaints in tow concerning UC2's controls, I was pretty worried. But it all came together not only VERY nicely, but a lot more simplistic than led on. To clear up another past concern, no clicking of any thumb sticks is required for anything but locking onto a target.
UC2 isn't really an FPS anymore, it's a third person action dealie. It also shares some things in common with Midways other big series, Mortal Kombat. Some decent focus on melee, fighting game-esque separation between characters concerning stats and moves, and of course, fatalities. The fighter-like presentation is also intact down to the character select menu.
Modes and polish
Unreal Championship 2 is pretty nicely polished all around. The single player game has a lot of meat and wonderful presentation, and the multi player is pretty typical of the Unreal series, but with some very nice nuances and mutators, but most importantly: RIDICULOUSLY PACKED WITH MAPS.
As far as single player goes: Theres a story focused campaign, nice CGs, solid VA and embarrassingly enough, the plot is already 10x more interesting than Unreal 2. Provides some nice context for the main mode.
Theres also a gauntlet mode, as per the usual single player in these types o' games. And joyfully enough, Ala Timesplitters and Perfect Dark a challenge mode to piss you off, huzzah! Seriously, I love this shit. I was downright depressed when the challenges stopped in SSB:M.
Anyhow, it's quite fun all around, and there are some really nice unlockables so it's very much worth spending ample time in the single player for a change.
Character separation
In typical skirmish or online modes. You select a character on a hex grid menu somewhat similair to MvsC2. Characters have their own individual differences in stats, Ala health ect. In addition they also have their own unique melee weapon, default projectile weapon and two totally unique moves per character. Although everyone draws from a pool that doesn't overlap as much as you might think so two characters can often be somewhat varied altogether.
From there, you pick two additional weapons from the selection grid. One in energy and one in explosive. There are four to choose from in each category. Classics like the shock riffle and the flak cannon, ect are still present.
The game defaults to, and highly recommends you play in third person altogether, although a first person view is available.
In terms of controls and play in general, it goes as follows:
~Both A and the L2 button let you jump/wall dodge
~B pulls out your melee weapon, and also acts as the heavy attack and charge attack button
~Y switches between your three projectile weapons when you've obtained ammo for the other two within the level
~X pulls up your move menu, from there you have three abilities mapped to A, R and L. Tapping it twice brings up the other three (for a total of six per character), same button presses apply thereafter.
~R is of course, the primary fire and the melee combo button. Need to hold it down for the three hit combo to go its course.
~L reflects projectiles when your melee weapon is out.
~The Dpad is now in control of everything from taunts to orders to teamchat, and works far more intuitively than in the original UC.
~R3 is target lock on
~White is taunt menu
~Black is 1st/3rd person view toggle.
A few advanced control thingies I've come across from playing and in the manual:
~R+L also can be used to form a shield to reduce projectile damage for a short period of time
~Charge melee attack is up + B and requires adrenaline
~Projectile combos being secondary (hold) then primary. Try shooting a orb from the shock rifle, hold the button, tap primary once then fire more orbs into the suspended orb until it blows up into a giant freaking nuke. Wheee!
~L with primary projectile weapon is a stun attack, required for fatalities.
~Wall dodge is the direction opposite of the wall and A or L2. Basically, it's like Mega Man X in 3D.
Adrenaline moves
These are so much more polished and solidly implemented than before. As mentioned above, every character pulls from a general pool to add up to six moves, some overlap but two are always exclusive.
I've spent the most time with Lauren, to find she suits my play style perfectly. Agile, tricky and focused on vampire health out, here are her moves for an example:
~Vampire: Heal yourself with each successful attack
~Agility: Increases agility and borderline nulls gravity
~Siphon: Projectile attack that drains health
~Speed: greatly enhances, you guessed it, speed.
~Ethereal: Enemies see you slightly out of position
~Wraith: Become as a ghost; barely effected by enemies that detect life force.
Closing
Well, just thought I'd put some basic notes up. I'll follow up as always later on, hopefully it managed to shed a little more insight into the game flow. Ask away if confused about anything.
It's a pretty meaty game, I'll just do a little break down with some opinions on the absolute basics to begin with:
Presentation and superficial bits;
The presentation is a little jarring at first. First few load times are rather lengthy out of the box, and some choppy menus, but they seem to disperse after you settle your information in and the game takes to your HDD.
After that passes, menus flow fast, all options are present across single player, multi player and Xbox Live as you'd expect and managed in one of the better late-day XBL releases. Compared to the original UC, pulling up menus during game, checking scores, ect. All much nicer.
More importantly, in the grand and illustrious art of making any and all things shiny, UC2 does a very darn nifty job. Obviously in the top percentage of in any real visual category you can cram it in.
One thing that's cool about latter day unreal is the lengths it goes to convey some really unique and beautiful stages. Lots of outdoor environments flowing with detail. Water, trees, gardens, good outdoor lighting all that happy nature jazz mixed in with your wanton murdering. The variety and polish across the mammoth 40-50ish maps is pretty damn staggering.
For an FPS, UC2's character design so, so nice. Really nice designs, with actual somewhat satisfying history and all that nonsense to boot. Animations are unique to character as well, some very nice stuff mixed in. Lots o' personality all around.
Citing prior concerns, I haven't come across much screen tearing. Oh it's there, but only in rare occasions in my few meager hours of play.
Controls and general play
Quick intro
With some complaints in tow concerning UC2's controls, I was pretty worried. But it all came together not only VERY nicely, but a lot more simplistic than led on. To clear up another past concern, no clicking of any thumb sticks is required for anything but locking onto a target.
UC2 isn't really an FPS anymore, it's a third person action dealie. It also shares some things in common with Midways other big series, Mortal Kombat. Some decent focus on melee, fighting game-esque separation between characters concerning stats and moves, and of course, fatalities. The fighter-like presentation is also intact down to the character select menu.
Modes and polish
Unreal Championship 2 is pretty nicely polished all around. The single player game has a lot of meat and wonderful presentation, and the multi player is pretty typical of the Unreal series, but with some very nice nuances and mutators, but most importantly: RIDICULOUSLY PACKED WITH MAPS.
As far as single player goes: Theres a story focused campaign, nice CGs, solid VA and embarrassingly enough, the plot is already 10x more interesting than Unreal 2. Provides some nice context for the main mode.
Theres also a gauntlet mode, as per the usual single player in these types o' games. And joyfully enough, Ala Timesplitters and Perfect Dark a challenge mode to piss you off, huzzah! Seriously, I love this shit. I was downright depressed when the challenges stopped in SSB:M.
Anyhow, it's quite fun all around, and there are some really nice unlockables so it's very much worth spending ample time in the single player for a change.
Character separation
In typical skirmish or online modes. You select a character on a hex grid menu somewhat similair to MvsC2. Characters have their own individual differences in stats, Ala health ect. In addition they also have their own unique melee weapon, default projectile weapon and two totally unique moves per character. Although everyone draws from a pool that doesn't overlap as much as you might think so two characters can often be somewhat varied altogether.
From there, you pick two additional weapons from the selection grid. One in energy and one in explosive. There are four to choose from in each category. Classics like the shock riffle and the flak cannon, ect are still present.
The game defaults to, and highly recommends you play in third person altogether, although a first person view is available.
In terms of controls and play in general, it goes as follows:
~Both A and the L2 button let you jump/wall dodge
~B pulls out your melee weapon, and also acts as the heavy attack and charge attack button
~Y switches between your three projectile weapons when you've obtained ammo for the other two within the level
~X pulls up your move menu, from there you have three abilities mapped to A, R and L. Tapping it twice brings up the other three (for a total of six per character), same button presses apply thereafter.
~R is of course, the primary fire and the melee combo button. Need to hold it down for the three hit combo to go its course.
~L reflects projectiles when your melee weapon is out.
~The Dpad is now in control of everything from taunts to orders to teamchat, and works far more intuitively than in the original UC.
~R3 is target lock on
~White is taunt menu
~Black is 1st/3rd person view toggle.
A few advanced control thingies I've come across from playing and in the manual:
~R+L also can be used to form a shield to reduce projectile damage for a short period of time
~Charge melee attack is up + B and requires adrenaline
~Projectile combos being secondary (hold) then primary. Try shooting a orb from the shock rifle, hold the button, tap primary once then fire more orbs into the suspended orb until it blows up into a giant freaking nuke. Wheee!
~L with primary projectile weapon is a stun attack, required for fatalities.
~Wall dodge is the direction opposite of the wall and A or L2. Basically, it's like Mega Man X in 3D.
Adrenaline moves
These are so much more polished and solidly implemented than before. As mentioned above, every character pulls from a general pool to add up to six moves, some overlap but two are always exclusive.
I've spent the most time with Lauren, to find she suits my play style perfectly. Agile, tricky and focused on vampire health out, here are her moves for an example:
~Vampire: Heal yourself with each successful attack
~Agility: Increases agility and borderline nulls gravity
~Siphon: Projectile attack that drains health
~Speed: greatly enhances, you guessed it, speed.
~Ethereal: Enemies see you slightly out of position
~Wraith: Become as a ghost; barely effected by enemies that detect life force.
Closing
Well, just thought I'd put some basic notes up. I'll follow up as always later on, hopefully it managed to shed a little more insight into the game flow. Ask away if confused about anything.
. 
Well, not really, but you hold 2 of 'em in your hand and fire them with one button, and you can charge them up just like in the halo games, thought it was a bit much.