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Sound
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Value
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| | Genre: Action | | Min OS X: Any Version  CPU: G3 @ 800 MHz RAM: 256 MB Hard Disk: 200 MB Graphics: 640x480 @ 16-bit, 16 MB VRAM |
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The game is very configurable, both in the options and the server settings. The server settings are even adjustable without needing to restart the game; want some more bots to temporarily fill up the server? Just a few mouse clicks while the game's running, and suddenly things get a little more interesting.One drawback to the game is its performance. Even though frame rates are decent, the game just didn't feel as smooth as games like Quake 3 and Doom 3. With only three to four players, on my dual G5 2.7 GHz desktop Mac (with 1.5 GB RAM and an ATI Radeon 9650) with most of the settings turned up and playing at 1024x768, the game races by at a healthy 50-60 frames per second (fps). Unless everyone is in the same room at the same time (which isn't very often with only 3-4 players), the game is very playable in this situation. However, throw in a few more players, and things start slowing down, particularly when there are three to five (or more) players on the screen. If I was by myself or only one other player was on screen, the game would maintain an average frame rate of 40 fps. But once the screen filled up with players and effects, frame rates would drop to 25-35 fps with some skipping (likely due to network lag rather than rendering speeds). Reducing the settings to their defaults (though still playing at 1024x768) gave me back about 10 fps. Also, any time I used a teleporter (unless settings were all turned down), the game would pause and even hiccup for a second or two, making it seem like it was crashing. All in all, the game is playable with decent hardware, but I wouldn't recommend using the higher settings unless you've got a computer that's less than a year or so old. For a game that's based on an engine that's 5-10 years old, I was a bit surprised by this aspect. The positive side is that because the game is so configurable, turning down the settings will help the game perform better (and it should still perform satisfactorily on an older computer). Look at all the pretty lights The game's graphics really depend on the settings and your computer's power. If you have a machine that's not more than one or two years old, you can turn on the dynamic lighting, effects, anisotropic filtering, texture resolution, shaders, etc. and the game looks pretty darn good. Missiles have fiery trails and light their surroundings dynamically, players explode into pieces amidst splattering blood, weapons leave their marks on the walls, and lights and weapon fire have a bloom and corona effect that make them look more realistic. Turn off all the extras, though, and prepare to take a trip back to the days of Quake 1. That's quite a graphical range, but really, that's a good thing for those with older computers.Unfortunately, the dynamic lighting and shadows don't seem to work properly. The lighting produced all kinds of moiré-like patterns on the walls, and the shadows simply didn't work at all. There is a workaround for this, but it's not a very good tradeoff. If you turn off the OpenGL shaders option, then the lights and shadows work, but at a severe hit to performance. Frame rates dropped from 40-50 fps to about 15-20 fps for me. Some people on the Nexuiz forums do seem to know about the issue, though, and as I understand it, fixes are being worked on for a future release. Update: Apparently the issues with dynamic shadows are the result of problems with Mac graphics drivers that the Nexuiz team does not have any way to fix. They are doing their best, however, to get in touch with Apple in order to work with them to resolve the driver issues. While the gameplay's graphics are nice, the interface leaves a bit to be desired. There are no Mac-like elements, and even simple UI commands, such as Command-Q, are not implemented (instead F10 quits the game). Furthermore, when playing in window mode, the cursor will not leave the window unless you Command-Tab out. The UI is simple enough to figure out, but most of the controls and buttons are just plain text. Click on the word and the option changes. Functional, but not exactly pretty. Text entry is even confusing at first since the cursor is barely visible and doesn't move, nor is the text editable, unless the mouse is hovering over the word or number. In addition, there's a pause of about five to ten seconds when loading up the game (depending on window vs. full screen mode and probably computer power too), making it seem as if it has crashed. Pump up the volume If there's one area in the game that could use some improvement as a whole, it would be the audio. It's certainly adequate; the weapon effects all seem to match the type of gunfire, the sound of exploding body parts is squishy enough, and the music has a pretty standard techno industrial beat. But none of it really immerses me in the game. Even with the sound turned up on my 12 inch woofer speakers I don't really feel the game.The sounds need some punch to them and the music could use a little variety, but for a free game, the audio is definitely good enough to get the job done. What's there to lose? The game is free, so what have you got to lose? It's definitely good for some fragging thrills, so go ahead and download, unzip, load it up, and check out the instant action! Yep, there's actually an instant action button at the bottom of the menu screen that will take you right into a game. Oh yeah, did I mention fast load times?The game does have a few areas that could use some polish, but all in all, for donationware it's a pretty good ride. Pros • By adjusting the options, game can be played with fairly good performance on most OS X Macs made in the last four or five years
• Fun fast fragging action
• A good mix of "old school" down-to-basics deathmatch with modern special effects and some original twists on game modes and weapons
• Free!Cons • Not too many populated servers
• Dynamic lighting and shadows don't work properly (though this will likely be fixed or at least improved in a future release)
• Sound could be more punchy
• Performance takes a hit when there are more than four or five players in the game, especially when they're on screen
• Interface could use a facelift
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