Alien Arena 2008 7

You Know What They Say...

by: SceptreX on 22-Mar-2008 08:48:51 AM

Pros: ...if you got the money, play the UT series. If you don't got the money, play the Nexuiz. If you don't got the computer for Nexuiz, play the Alien Arena.

Alien Arena is a fun game that runs on nearly any machine to some extent (though eventually you'll be playing Quake II wuth alien skins). The game looks nice for how well it runs, and the community is alright (though they will give PCLinuxOS fanboys a run for their money in terms of sheer fandom).

The weapons are balanced and fun. The game looks and sounds nice. It's on Linux and Windows (weeee Ubuntu!). It's fun for a few minutes here and there. So why the three stars?

Cons: The maps suck.

Looking at maps from Nexuiz or Unreal, we see complex designs and details that bring out the best in every asset of the game. In Alien Arena, we see boring hallways. And more hallways. Most of the time the celing is very large. Sometimes there are hallways off the hallways, leading into more hallways. But in the end, AA's maps all deviate from very simple corridors that go into more, leaving very little to the imagination, and making skill a very moot point online.

This would be fine if it didn't make the game so boring. There are some great fan-made maps on some of the third-party sites, but of course no one plays these maps because a good fraction of the fan base isn't technologically saavy enough to put a map file into their directory. This doesn't apply to them all, but goodness me, it would be nice to play a new map now and then...one that doesn't want to be like an office complex.

Some other things that drag it down: the so called "brilliant UI enhancements" that were bragged about in 6.10 were really no more than a main menu ripped right from UT 2004 (the rest of the UI looks exactly like ugly old Quake II). The bots are also pretty stupid compared to other bots from freeware games; you can't even play with them on CTF, they just run back and forth between the bases and shoot at whoever appears.

Regardless, I would say that for those it concerns, Alien Arena 2008 is a fun game that is worth a download. It's free, right? What could possibly go wrong?

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