Constant viewers of the undertow will know that I’m not that big into FPSes.
I loved Goldeneye, raved about Perfect Dark... but today’s crop of copy-pasted, grimdark,
cover-littered offerings holds nothing for me.
Never mind the complete elimination of local multiplayer, and the resultant threat of immediate
physical retaliation if you did or said something completely asinine or out of line.
I was fine with this departure from a part of my gaming past.
(More time for RPGs or something.)
But then I was handed Nexuiz.
And for a few hours, a funny thing happened...
I could’ve sworn I was back in ‘98, playing Quake online, Barenaked Ladies on the stereo,
trying to get in a few games before Mystery Science Theater came on.
Except it’s really shiny and plays on broadband.
But this isn’t Quake.
But it was.
Kinda.
Nexuiz began life back in ‘05 as a freeware shooter distributed primarily around Linux
circles, based on a modified Quake engine called DarkPlaces.
And, as freeware games distributed around Linux circles go, it saw a healthy reception
and plenty of user-created maps and modifications.
But since the development was so decentralized, not to mention that no one was making a dime
off of it, the “Official” Nexuiz languished for a bit before Illfonic swooped in, bought
the rights, and began development of a commercial version for XBLA, PSN, and Steam.
DarkPlaces was scrapped in favor of Cryengine 3, new maps were designed with significantly
more architectural detail, and a plot that no one cares about was added.
But that doesn’t matter.
DELICIOUS, DELICIOUS ARENA COMBAT.
This is what I’d been missing.
Wonderful, frenzied action on well-crafted stages, with a diverse array of arms and enhancements.
What sets Nexuiz apart, though, is the “Dynamic Mutator” system, which gives you the option
of three effects after picking up the glowing shiny atom orb thing.
Some are pretty obvious, like powering up specific weapons, making your armor pickups
triple in value, or granting invisibility.
Some, though, break through into a wholly different kind of weird.
Activate the “Pinata” power-up, and your foes will drop all of their weapons on the
spot when killed; Old Skool, which takes the graphics back to those halcyon days of Quake
on a 56K, and Third Eye, described as switching everyone to the third-person “Gears of Crysis”
viewpoint.
On the one hand, these are exactly what I want from a game: interesting effects that
are, y’know, FUN.
On the other hand, the game hasn’t even released yet and I can already hear the cries
of “NO ITEMS FOX ONLY FINAL DESTINATION” from those with a warped concept of fun.
Part of this game is adapting and surviving through what are certainly rather drastic
paradigm shifts.
Deal with it.
It’s weird how I’d gone from avoiding all non-Rare shooters for over a decade, to
suddenly falling all over myself for Nexiuz and Alan Wake.
It just goes to show that prejudice never serves anyone.
This is a really good time, for the new and old schools alike, so long as you’re willing
to accept that not every game has to be morbid to be entertaining.
If you’re keen on the idea of a new arena shooter, but don’t relish the prospect of
dealing with the kind of people who play games like this, don’t worry!
A full compliment of customizable bots are available for offline play, to fill in the
standard four-on-four competition.
Bots don’t care if you use Pokeballs.
Or the bat.