Game Reviewed: Nexuiz
Developer: IllFonic
Publisher: THQ
Platform: [Reviewed:Xbox Live Arcade], Playstation Network PC
Genre: First Person Arena Multiplayer
Price: $10
Rated: T for Teen
Nexuiz has an interesting story behind it. Technically this version of Nexuiz is the sequel to a free to play open source PC game of the same name. Some of the people behind that original game took what they had and went off to find a publisher for their game. Nexuiz is a first-person multiplayer based shooter, much like Quake or Unreal Tournament. There is a story, if you can even call it that, which tells us why these teams are fighting, but it does not really matter.
The main gameplay is online multiplayer, but there are bots for training if you so desire. There are only two modes of play, Capture the Flag and Team DeathMatch. Each of those modes is only available on the maps that were made for them. There are nine maps total three of them are CTF maps and the other six are TDM maps. Nexuiz goes for the same type of setting that the Unreal Tournament games went for which is a mix between futuristic and fantasy. The problem I have with the maps in Nexuiz is that, especially for the CTF maps, everything on the map looks the same. I found it difficult to navigate the map effectively and found myself running in circles for most matches, until getting to know them better. After the learning curve then it became easy to find where I wanted to go.
The thing that makes these types of games either live or die, other than its community, are their weapons. Nexuiz has a decent spread of weapons that for the most part are fun to fire. The one mistake I believe they made was giving the players a shotgun to start out with. The shotgun is not very powerful and fires really so. This would not seem like a problem as everyone starts with the same gun, but you pick up guns on designated areas on the map and if you come across someone without the shotgun you might as well consider yourself dead. There are nine different weapons to collect which cover the entire basis that you want out of a game like this. You get a sniper, assault rifle, rocket launcher etc.
The last thing that differentiates Nexuiz from other games of this type is what they call, Dynamic Mutators. These are power ups that appear randomly on the map and do different things to different groups of people based on the Mutator. For example you can get one that gives everyone infinite ammo or one that just turns to invisible. The problem with these mutators is that unless you read the manual, even then it’s questionable, you will have no clue what is going on. With so much going on at one time it would have done the game a great service if they would explain it a bit better.
Overall Nexuiz is an interesting game that, if you were a fan of Arena shooters of yesteryear you definitely should give this a look. I would suggest you have a couple friends that get the game as well because it can be difficult to get into a game, and even when you do it is possible that the majority of players will drop out before the game even starts. $10 for Nexuiz is a perfect price and is a great deal.
Embedded below is gameplay from Nexuiz.
The Scores
Gameplay: 3/5
Visuals: 4/5
Audio: 3/5
Controls: 4/5
Value: 5/5
Overall Rating: 4/5
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