Open Source Game Review: Alien Arena 2008 (Page 1 of 1)
Written by
Steve Lake
Posted on: Apr 14, 2008 at 02:02pm
Section:
Gaming
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Alien Arena is an open source First Person Shooter (FPS) that takes the fun
extraterrestrial theme of games like Area 51 and combines it with the hard hitting
deathmatch action of great shooters such as Quake and Unreal Tournament. The game is
themed around a 1950's era alien invasion, complete with all the classic bug eyed and
bulbous headed aliens and weird robotic monsters. But what makes this game even
better is that it's completely open source! It's a completely free game that comes
at no cost to you, but provides you with hours of unending, frag filled carnage. But
what makes the new Alien Arena so special? Let's have a look.
Back just about a year ago I decided to give Alien Arena a spin. Honestly, I was
completely unimpressed with it. The graphics reminded me of an early to mid 90's
shooter, the bots were dumb as a brick (or they glitched and did the impossible) and the
controls were clumsy and rather difficult to deal with. I tried to keep a good face
on the whole thing and even tried to bring myself to write a review of the game. But
in the end, I just couldn't do it.
So one year later I decided to give Alien Arena 2007 a try. With the new CRX
Engine powering things, graphics quality was greatly improved, the bots were redone to
make them a lot better and the game actually became fun. No longer did you feel like
you were in a fifteen year old game, but rather a more modern game. Sure, the
graphics are still late 90's quality, but that's a far cry from what they used to be.
For an open source FPS, the graphics are actually quite good. The bots have
gotten smarter too. Actually, I think they've picked up a little bit of a devious
streak. While I can't say they were plotting against me, I suddenly became the only
thing they cared about most of the game after I consecutively fragged a couple of them
early on. It was not unusual to get hunted down by two or three bots during the
course of a round. ^_^;; Normally I have time to work my way around a map
early in the game and get a feel for the arena I'm fighting in. The bots never gave
me that chance and had me reeling and on my toes the entire round. 0.0;;
But if bots aren't your thing and you're more of a player who enjoys the human
opponents, there are plenty of players online in the various arenas that would gladly give
you a complimentary shellacking. Despite the large number of improvements that have
occurred over the last year, the game has remained not only playable, but surprisingly
easy on the hardware. It plays very comfortably on older hardware and runs without
any lags or hangs.
The maps in this version of Alien Arena really up the ante and provide a greater degree
of fun than the last time around. Also, the character models are a ton more fun to
look at because they're better designed. The 2008 version was released in early
March and it's surprising that it didn't receive half the press that the 2007 version
received, even though the improvements to the CRX engine, gameplay, models, bots, weapons
and pretty much everything else is well worth note.
The weapons are also something to take note of. There's a few of your traditional
weapons such as the machine gun and the rocket launcher, but there is also the blaster, a
variety of melee weapons, and several that I highly recommend not being on the receiving
end of. >.<
For those who haven't played Alien Arena before, I recommend you get yourself a copy
and give it a spin. It's really top notch and I loved it. In fact, it was so
much fun this time that I had to force myself to leave the game. I was having too
much fun to put it down!
Alien Arena 2008 is available from Planet Arena
or your favorite distro's software archive. Alien Arena is available for Windows,
Linux and Freebsd, and is completely free! There's also a rapidly growing list of
mods available to expand, improve, and enhance your gameplay.
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Average vistor rating: 4.2 out of 5 (86 total votes) | |
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