Unreal II: XMP Preview

The ranger has access to XMP's powerful 'Widowmaker' Sniper Rifle.

XMP is, after all, a class-based game, so let's take a look at the game's player classes. There are three XMP player classes, the lightest of which is the ranger. This means while rangers are fast, they have the weakest armor. The ranger also doubles up as a sniper and medic, and spawns with Unreal II's 'Widowmaker' sniper rifle. Thankfully, the Widowmaker has gone through some fairly drastic changes since it last appeared in single player Unreal II. Its firing rate is now slower, and each Widowmaker clip now holds just three rounds, with players able to carry up to 15 rounds in total. Snipers positions are also given a way by easy-to-spot bullet trails in their team's color. This is a great addition, and allows snipers to be easily located in larger maps. The Ranger also comes equipped with 'Grace' (Aida's pistol from Unreal II) as well as a grenade launcher capable of firing both frag and smoke flavored grenades and the Shock Lance, which does a fair amount of damage to turrets and vehicles. As previously mentioned, the ranger is also XMP's medic class. While any XMP class can revive a fallen team-mate, a newly-revived player will come back to life with only one health point, and so the ranger is at an advantage in that he can heal any team-mate, or drop health packs for others to pick up.

The 'medium' build class is the tech. The tech is a compromise between the ranger and gunner classes, with medium strength armor and medium walking speed. The tech specializes in equipment, vehicles and other technologies. The tech's main strength comes from the fact that he can hack equipment faster than anyone else, which comes in useful when claiming generators at the start of a match. Weapon-wise, the tech is equipped with powerful EMP and toxic grenades, ideal for

Techs can build force walls and deployable turrets.

taking out vehicles, turrets and other players alike. In addition, the tech has access to the Shotgun and Combat Assault Rifle, two dependable mid-range weapons which haven't changed that much from their Unreal II incarnations. The tech's greatest advantage, however, comes in the form if his ability to place force walls, auto-turrets and rocket turrets. Unreal II single player gamers will recognize these right away. Placing force wall posts allows you to form a shielded perimeter around an area of strategic importance, while the automatic and rocket turrets do exactly what they say on the tin -- bombard approaching enemies with bullets and rockets. The tech also has the ability to repair team-mates' shields, or drop shield repair packs for others to pick up.

Finally, we have the gunner class. The gunner, as you might have guessed, is XMP's strongest but also slowest class. The gunner is deployed with a hefty arsenal of weapons too. Unreal II's rocket launcher returns, although you now have to hold your crosshair over enemies for longer in order to gain a lock. The gunner also wields a slightly-tweaked version of the Unreal II flamethrower, and a grenade launcher capable of firing whiteout and incendiary grenades. Like the tech, he can also place defenses in the form of land or laser-triggered mines. These provided a great deal of amusement in some of the 16 player matches we played on Legend's XMP test server, where an unsuspecting group of attackers would drive their tank over a cluster of mines, with hilarious results. As for laser mines, they've been done before, but it's still hugely satisfying to watch some poor sap turn around a corner and walk right into your laser mine!