Caesar

Xonotic

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I've been playing this game for quite a while and I mentioned it multiple times in posts I made so I thought it'd finally be time I'd write a somewhat decent review about it.

 

 

Xonotic is an entirely free-to-play fast-paced first-person arena shooter for PC, Mac & Linux. Xonotic is a direct successor of the Nexuiz project.

 

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Let's get started:

Graphics/Map design:

For a fully free-to-play shooter game the graphics are simply amazing. It has the typical Quake/UT style graphics but with more detail and better lighting. The maps look great and there's hardly anything to complain, my biggest issue is the looks of the lava in the game, it looks a bit funny. Most of the maps are from the original Nexuiz project, though there's also a lot of Quake Live maps (which are mostly remakes of older Quake maps), and several new original Xonotic maps. Combining Nexuiz, Quake and original maps brings both a great amount of variety and an oldschool/nostalgic feeling. Though I haven't played every map myself most of them are really good, I've only found myself in the situation where I disliked a map once or twice. I must say the map-design overall seems well thought out.

 

Movement: 

The movement in Xonotic is much like Quake, Nexuiz and most any other game in this genre. It's fast and you'll need to have good reflexes if you don't want to fall off of several maps. The system is made so that you'll increase speed the longer you keep running, so you have a default moving speed, but the more you keep running without interruptions, the faster you'll go, once you stop and start running again you'll be back at the default running speed, which I really like. In the overkill and instagib mod weapon's have a secondary fire that shoots a red explosive which launches you up in the air when aimed at the ground (pretty much rocket jumps), allowing you to be able to make higher jumps, that doesn't apply to 'vanilla' gameplay though. The game does feature a grappling hook, but it isn't enabled in every campaign level and multiplayer server, though the grappling hook is a great way to move around a lot faster, and combined with the secondary fire jumps that you can make, this enables you to get around fast and efficient (provided that you don't suck at using them). The movement is very smooth and not once have I encountered a situation where the controls failed me and did something else than exactly what I told it to do.

 

Weapons:

The weapon variety is very much what you'd expect from a game in this genre. I have not experienced any major balancing issues, though the rocket launcher has too much auto-aim, I stand corrected at this by someone over at the Xonotic forum: 

As for the "auto-aim" of the Rocket Launcher (Devastator): This is actually a feature. If you hold the button for primary fire and move your mouse you will be able to guide the rocket! (Secondary fire mode detonates it btw)

So yeah, versus skilled players it might actually feel like it's seeking you.

Though my opinion remains it's a slightly overpowered feature. For a more detailed weapon overview I'd like to refer to Halogene's Newbie Corner: http://xonotic.org/posts/2012/halogenes-newbie-corner-part-4-the-core-weapons/ Which doesn't contain any opinions, just explanations on what the weapons do.

 

Sounds/Music:

The music in this game is pretty decent, though I wouldn't say outstanding or anything renewing. It suits the gameplay pretty well and definitely stimulates players to pick up the tempo. It has nice quality but I have encountered several situations where the song doesn't loop nicely, which to me personally can really ruin your concentration. The sound effects are good quality too, though I find the death sounds rather annoying and the jumping/landing voice-samples are a little repetitive. 

 

Campaign:

The singleplayer mode does not have a story, it is completely based on multiplayer levels and multiplayer combat. You play in matches against bots. Every new level the campaign introduces you to a new game mode or new feature. It constantly gives out instructions and tips as you play through Free For All, SpeedRun, Capture The Flag, Team Deathmatch and various other game modes. Though the bots could be improved (after a while you'll notice they run the same paths, stand still in the same places), one thing you'll notice right away is that the AI in Xonotic are a lot more aggressive than in Quake Live, Nexuiz or Red Eclipse for example. Overall, the singeplayer mode can be the right amount of challenging, but not frustrating and it is a great way to learn the game before going to multiplayer.

 

Vehicles:
A small amount of maps actually feature vehicles. I'm not a big fan of the vehicles to be completely honest. I played such servers 5-6 times but I don't feel like going back a 7th time. The vehicles I've seen and used we're some small 1-player helicopter, some crab-like robot and a floating racecar-like machine. As far as I know all the vehicles can only hold 1 player and it's not possible to take over one's vehicle, but I don't know much about the vehicles because once again, I dislike them. In my personal opinion vehicles completely ruin the game experience I came to Xonotic for in the first place, and I don't think they belong in the game.

 

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My experience:

Alright so, I really like the fact that singleplayer is basically a warm-up for multiplayer. It spawns a multiplayer experience which is a lot more competitive (and in my opinion a lot more fun) than in a normal storyline campaign. It doesn't require any type of installation which is great and super easy since you're not bothered with gigantic files and security control issues. The gameplay is very addictive and I keep coming back to play it. Sadly the player base isn't huge and the server lobby might not be always very crowded, but it's tons of fun nevertheless. I haven't really encountered any bug or glitches and the game has never crashed for me, though sometimes the main menu has frozen on me. This is based on playing it on OS X 10.7 and 10.7.4, but the game seems stable in general. In my opinion this is the best Free-To-Play shooter game I have played, ever, and I really like the fact it's 100% free (unlike Quake Live). I most definitely would recommend this game to everyone who enjoyed playing Unreal Tournament, Quake, Nexuiz or any game in this genre, because it is a very worthy continuator, and the gameplay is a lot of fun.

 

Pros:

-Map variety/design and graphics.

-Fun, addictive multiplayer experience.

-The music creates a great atmosphere.

-The game's singleplayer mode reduces the learning curve.

 

Cons:

-At some points the sound looping isn't fluent enough.

-Vehicle gameplay seems unbalanced.

-Bots walk too much in the same paths, do the same actions.

 

9.3/10

Edited by Caesar
Takka and Sceny like this

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Tiddy-bits:

I tried playing this a while back. Absolutely no populated servers every time I tried. Sad though, because it's a pretty decent looking arena shooter. In the end I just went back to Quake 3. :|

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I tried playing this a while back. Absolutely no populated servers every time I tried. Sad though, because it's a pretty decent looking arena shooter. In the end I just went back to Quake 3. :|

 

When I tried it at first about one and a half year ago there was a decently big server list with a decent amount of players. Now there's a handful of servers with a handful of people. TheRegulars Instagib server seems to always have some people in it though.

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On 08/05/2015 at 6:39 PM, Pra3tor1an said:

Great game, just not enough players.

This is unfortunately what happens to most arena shooters these days. You have a small dedicated fanbase but that's about it. 

Takka likes this

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