Quake 3 Arena was extremely graphically impressive at the time, and the ( OpenGL-based) engine is still occasionally used by new titles four years later (as I write this, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Star Trek: Elite Force II have recently launched). Some arenas are little more than arrangements of metal platforms and bounce pads suspended in a black void. The levels are heavily stylised, with a mixture of biomechanical, sci-fi, medieval/ gothic and infernal architecture. The game is basically a collection of fairly small levels (arenas), and a pack of nicely animated character models with highly detailed skins. There are three game styles: deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the flag.
The usual Quake powerups such as Quad Damage and Invisibility are still there, joined by some new ones such as Flight and Regeneration.
Health and ammo collectibles are now represented by large glowing icons. This is especially handy for the railgun (almost identical to its Quake 2 counterpart), the weapon of choice among skilled players (although all of the weapons serve a useful purpose). There are no 'sniper scopes', players are allowed to zoom in their view at the press of a button, regardless of what weapon they are using. There are nine weapons, each of which represents a typical FPS weapon type ( mélee, machine gun, shotgun, rocket launcher, etc.). The controls, game rules and weapons have been tuned with the intention of making them as 'pure' as possible. Quake III Arena takes Quake 2's deathmatch mode as its starting point. Q3A is often criticised as being an 'engine looking for a game', although within the narrow gameplay boundaries it sets itself (straight deathmatch), it is easily the best implementation yet seen.
This was seen as a daring move at the time, when online gaming was still seen as something of a novelty by many gamers.
Q3A is almost entirely based around networked multiplayer gaming, with the single-player component being little more than a training mode against computer-controlled bots. Quake III Arena is another in a long line of graphically ambitious first-person shooters from the originators of the genre, Id Software. Platforms: PC CD-ROM ( Windows & Linux), Apple Macintosh, Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation 2 (as Quake III Revolution)
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