So, Unreal 2 - ring any bells? I'm sure PC gamers have probably heard of the original Unreal game. And now there is an upcoming sequel planned for the Xbox. Due out on 2nd April 2004, it looks set to be a high contender with several games for Xbox Live this year. John Szoke from Tantalus Int. spills the beans for us.
How does it feel to be developing the sequel to one of the most popular games on Xbox Live?
Well it feels good to be developing any game that has a big licence. However Unreal 2 - The Awakening is not the sequel to Unreal Championship. It's the sequel to the PC game Unreal from a few years ago.
What new features can we expect for Xbox Live in Unreal 2?
As this is not a sequel to Unreal Championship, and it has nothing to do with the Unreal Tournament games the Xbox Live component is a totally new game that is team based. Teams battle for energy, deployment points, weapons, vehicles and artefacts (similar to flags in CTF). The game is all based around team-work, it's definitely not your standard frag-fest.
What new features can we expect in the multiplayer and single player modes?
The single player mode is taken from the PC game released last year which has an epic storyline and a few cool new twists for FPS shooter fans such as deployable auto turrets, rocket launchers and force walls. The game also supports splitscreen Co-Op mode for single player. The multiplayer mode known as XMP (eXpanded Multi-Player) is entirely new. It's not taken from UC or UT and combines lots of elements from the single player game. The game is perfect for clans to battle it out and besides Rainbow Six there is currently no game available with this much emphasis on teamplay.
There were many glitches found originally in the Xbox Live player mode for Unreal - will there be similar bugs this time around or will they be sorted before release?
I couldn't tell you the problems UC had. I guess the major thing that has changed since UC and Live launched is that Microsoft have many tools, standards and testing methods in place. Theoretically every game released now has much more access than ever before to these tools and systems so no game should be released with serious bugs. To that end we are released an Auto-Update for Unreal 2 very soon. This will have some improvements that the gaming community asked for. We've also finished work on a couple of new maps so we hope they will be released as downloadable content very soon.
How do you think Unreal 2 will do in today's competitive video game market?
We think it will do well. The single player game has a deep storyline and quite a few new things for FPS shooter fans. There are a huge amount of weapons and a great engine with lots of cool effects and massively detailed environments. If you are an experienced FPS player then we recommend playing the game on HARD difficulty. We made a point of making the EASY setting much easier than the PC version as it was labelled too hard. As mentioned previously you can also play the game co-operatively in split-screen. If one player dies they can be healed by the surviving player...this is something done in great lengths in XMP that we though would be cool to add back to the single player game. XMP can be played on Xbox Live or System Link and offers a totally new style of team based gaming. With massive levels that come complete with their own type of vehicles (buggies, trucks and tanks), massive gun turrets and both indoor and outdoor environments. ..there is plenty to do before the battle even begins to take shape. The main attraction to XMP besides the teamplay are the vehicles that are capable of carrying two or more players and house their own weaponry. Another aspect is the class structure of the selectable characters. Characters behave vastly different from one another....wether it be basic running and jumping capabilities to weapons that they carry. Much of the strategy used in gameplay is dependent on the character being played.
U2 seems like it will have vehicles this time around. How are they going to be driven and will more than one player on a team be able to drive them at once?
All vehicles are driven by the player in either 1st or 3rd person. Each vehicle has a position for one or more other players to man a mounted weapon.
