NEXUIZ STEAM GAMEPLAY FULL
NEXUIZ STEAM GAMEPLAY PC

But it doesn't bode well for the future as players drift back to their shooter of choice. This won't be a problem when the servers are busy, or if you have seven friends who want to play. That appeal is further eroded by bare-bones online implementation that allows for almost no deep match customisation and leaves players hanging in lobbies waiting for slots to fill and matches to start. Fun in small doses, but a poor foundation for the sort of long-term appeal this genre demands. Instead, you get Kinder Egg game design, dashing about on a sugar high, hoping you get something decent at random. You want to be able to skate over a pick-up or select a mutator and instantly know what it is, allowing for tactical decisions on the fly. This is a game style that promotes fast, instinctive action, yet too many features here require laborious research in amongst the crude menus. There's a scrappy, thrown-together feel to much of the game's structure that irritates as much as it charms. Points earned in matches accumulate into 'pips' which can then be spent on upgrading these mutators, but the benefit of this is never explained anywhere. Fart noises and other bizarre touches give it an adolescent sense of fun, but ultimately serve to weigh the game down. Recharging health provides a practical benefit, but clunky jetpacks add little of value. There are over 100 mutators to unlock, ranging from the obvious to the ridiculous. CryEngine 3 gives everything an appealing HD sheen, but overly busy textures and fiddly layouts make these rat-runs seem even more cluttered and confusing than they really are.

NEXUIZ STEAM GAMEPLAY FULL

Others sprawl, vertically and horizontally, full of dead ends, fatal drops and bounce pads, taking up more real estate than necessary for a game with so few players. Some are tight and claustrophobic, channelling the action through obvious routes. The maps are functional but rarely inspired. This is a game where you can hit someone square in the face with a mortar and have them skitter away, only to finish you off with one hit from the default weapon. You respawn every time with a beefy shotgun, and with gameplay that never evolves, that proves ample for most encounters. Each has two fire modes, but few feel essential. The nine weapons on offer are a feeble selection, with little impact and sketchily explained benefits. It doesn't take long for the basic pleasures to run dry, however. Sadly, in crossing the hardware divide and picking up a price tag in the process, it's lost a lot of its charm and left its indie roots clumsily exposed.

NEXUIZ STEAM GAMEPLAY PC

It's the commercial incarnation of an open-source PC game, itself based on a Quake mod, that's been building an enthusiastic community since 2005. Nexuiz, as it happens, has better credentials than you might expect. With Unreal Tournament missing in action, and the rest of the pack chasing Call of Duty's cordite-scented tail, there's clearly a small gap in the market for an experience built on nothing more fancy than old-fashioned cat-and-mouse carnage. It seems strange to be pining for a multiplayer buzz when the landscape is strewn with first-person shooters clamouring for your attention, but Nexuiz taps into a neglected sub-genre in search of its fix: the arena shooter. It's a trap Nexuiz falls into almost immediately - and, for all its rudimentary charms, one it struggles to escape. Nostalgia is a comfortable trap, baited with the warm, fuzzy memories of a more innocent time when your mind was less bogged down with adult concerns, when simple pleasures were all you needed.

Nexuiz steam gameplay