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This is really amazing game...and its free.

I gave it a try after I saw sh00ter's review of Nexuiz and made mention of this game.

The first thing that makes this game great is that the install is so easy. Just download the zip, extract it, and run the EXE. No install, no configuration, nothing.

The first thing you will find is that the game mimics Quake 3. Thats because its a heavily modded Quake 2 GPL'd engine.
Everything mimics Quake 3...the menus, the game configuration, the sounds, the in-game server browser.

Unfortunately, this is just an online game. There is no single player. Fortunately there are a host of servers to play the game on, but at the time of testing there was nobody on any of the servers. But for testing, that was fine.

The graphics in the game are great. In some places it mimics Quake 3. In others, it resembles Quake 2. I can give some examples.
The rooms and the environment? Quake 2
The weapons and the ammo boxes? Quake 3
The player models? More Quake 2 than Quake 3.
The explosions? Quake 2.
The HUD? Quake 3.

However, for a quake 2 engine, im just impressed at the quality of the graphics.

I must note, though. The developers decided to take the route of the game No One Lives Forever, the first person shooter that resembles a comic book. You might notice this from the screenshots. Everything sprite in the game has borders which are heavily boldfaced, like a comic book. Actually, a better example is the game Okami
Take a look at screens of Okami here: http://ps2.ign.com/objects/678/678618.html

The sounds also mimic Quake 3. Its very nice.

The gameplay mimics Quake 3 more than Quake 2...with the consecutive jumping making you go faster, and all that stuff which just makes it feel more like Quake 3.
They added a gameplay element in the game which is nice...there is the dodge button, which makes you do a jump in the direction you are going (further than the general jump), and can also be used to jump off walls.

The in-game browser is like quake 2's infused with quake 3's.
I say that because it looks like quake 2's, however quake 2's required stored favorites and didnt browse games like gamespy does. But the server browser in Warsow lists all the available servers without adding any favorites, but it does lack a few things in direct comparison with Quake 3's server browser (i.e. map screenshot).

However, this game isn't without its negatives.
-Quake 3 comes with a zoom button. There is no zoom button in this game.
-Like Quake 1/2/3, this game follows suit in giving no alt fire :P.
-The models of the explosions from the rocket launcher and grenade launcher are fair at best. They could be done better considering there is a mod for Quake 2 called Quake 2MAX (http://quake2max.planetquake.gamespy.com/) which gives some really nice exploosion models for the rocket launhcer.
-The weapons (while in hand) have no animations, they just sit there. I wish they would give some animations to the guns when they are fired.
-Not too many players play this online :P.


But yeah, as a free first person shooter, its better than WarRock and its better than Nexuiz. However, WarRock has the multiplayer numbers there but there is no guarantee it will remain free.

I suggest you give this game a try. What do you have to lose? Its free.