CodeRED: Alien Arena
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| Alien Arena 2008 | |
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| Developer(s) | COR Entertainment |
| License | GNU General Public License |
| Engine | CRX engine (id Tech 2) |
| Version | 7.10 |
| Platform(s) | Cross-platform |
| Release date | 6 June 2008 |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer, Singleplayer |
Alien Arena 2008 is a free standalone deathmatch game based on source code released by id Software. Begun by COR Entertainment in 2004, the game combines a 1950s-era sci-fi atmosphere with gameplay similar to the Quake, Doom, and Unreal Tournament series. Alien Arena focuses mainly on online multiplayer action, although it does contain single player campaigns against bots.
Alien Arena has been released for Microsoft Windows, Linux and FreeBSD. Alien Arena has been free-to-play since its inception, and there are currently no plans to change it to pay-to-play.
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[edit] Gameplay
There are 49 standard maps to choose from, 5 player characters, and 9 weapons with alternate fires, and a grappling hook. The game is powered by the id Tech 2 based CRX Engine, which features 32 bit hi-res texture support, shaders, textured particles, stain maps, reflective water with refractive shaders, light bloom, real-time shadows, real-time vertex lighting, normal-mapping, and other modern effects, all of which can be turned on or off in the menu. Also featured is an internal server browser for finding other people to play online and the external Code Red Galaxy program which also serves as an IRC interface.
Alien Arena features standard Deathmatch, similar in style to Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament. Also included are Capture the Flag, Deathball, Team Core Assault, Team Deathmatch, All Out Assault, and Cattle Prod, a variant that requires players to herd robotic cattle to earn points. There are six game mutators (excessive, instagib, rocket arena, vampire, regeneration, and low gravity) which can alter the game to play differently. All modes can be played online against other players or off line against bots. The bots can be customized using an external program included with the installation of the game.
[edit] History
As of Thursday, 2008-3-6, the latest released version of Alien Arena was version 7.00. (Alien Arena 2008.)
On October 12, 2007 Alien Arena was reviewed by Linux.com with the title "New Alien Arena 6.10 blows away its FPS competition "[1].
Alien Arena was first released as a beta in August of 2004 titled "CodeRED: Alien Arena". This title continued to be used until Alien Arena 2006 was released in November of 2005. Alien Arena 2007 was released in September of 2006.
[edit] Weapons
Alien Arena features 9 weapons and a grappling hook, each with a secondary function. You start out with the Blaster and the Violator, and can pick up other weapons at their spawn points in the various levels (assuming a weapon-modifying mutator isn't set on). The weapons progress from 1 to 9 roughly in order of power.
- Blaster
The first starting weapon. The primary fire shoots out a slow moving plasma ball that does minimal damage. Takes 4 hits to kill a newly spawned player. The alt fire shoots out a much weaker plasma beam that may fire and hit immediately, but does little damage compared to the primary fire and isn't used very often. The primary fire can be used for trickjump maneuvers.
- Violator
The second starting weapon. The primary fire is a melee attack that kills fairly quickly. The alt fire is a weak attack that launches enemies into the air. The violator functions very much like the Quake 3 Arena gauntlet melee weapon.
- Alien Disrupter
A railgun type weapon. Primary fire shoots out a beam that takes 2 hits to kill a newly spawned player. The secondary fire, when held down, is a scope, much like a sniper rifle, and when released fires a beam slug that does three times the normal damage. However, the secondary fire emits a noise that can be heard by other players, so it's not a good function to be sneaky with. This weapon is used (with modifications) in the instagib mutator and also has a small amount of splash damage that can be used for trickjump maneuvers.
- Chaingun
Machinegun-like weapon. Primary fire spins the barrel and fires a stream of rapid fire bullets. The secondary function engages all the barrels simultaneously for a powerful shotgun burst, which is very effective with the quad damage powerup.
- Flamethrower
Spews fire that is most useful for damage over time. Primary fire is a constant but short ranged stream of flame that does moderate damage, but is enhanced with damage over time. Secondary fire shoots a long range mortar shot that does more damage than the normal shots, but consumes more ammo.
- Rocket Launcher
Does what the name suggests and shoots rockets. Primary fire is a moderately fast and quite powerful rocket shot with a fairly large amount of splash damage. Secondary fire is a slower moving rocket, but if the player has cell ammo, it homes in on players. The most commonly found weapon in the game. This weapon is used in the rocket arena mutator.
- Alien Smartgun
A grenade/mine layer that deals electrical damage through its blast radius, as well as with direct, electrically charged hits. Primary fire is a grenade that explodes in a few seconds time. Secondary fire is a mine layer function, where the mines either explode when walked over by a player, or, if not touched, in a period of time. When groups are laid, they all expire at the same time.
- Beamgun
A very powerful and sought-after weapon that shoots a stream of beams that may not have the power of blast radius or large areas of effect, but deal damage quickly. Primary fire is the constant stream of beam slugs. Secondary fire is a more powerful, but delayed blaster shot that can also be used to blaster-jump, and can also be used to plasma-climb walls.
- Vaporizer
The most immediately-devastating weapon in the game, this is Alien Arena's equivalent of a BFG. The primary fire is an instant-killing blast that may take a few seconds to come out, but deals a lot of damage over a large blast radius. The secondary fire is a plasma bomb that also deals damage over a large area. This is the hardest weapon to find in the game.
- Grapple Hook
A weapon not found normally in gameplay, but is decided by a server setting. The setting determines either if the grapple is disabled, or a player spawns with it, along with the blaster and violator. Primary fire is a hook that, when attached, will bring a player to its destination rather quickly. Secondary function is a hook that doesn't grab things and isn't very long range, but is used primarily to attack players. However, the normal function can also hurt players, just not as effectively.
[edit] Community
Alien Arena has two main components to the community; the COR Forums , and the IRC Channel #alienarena@EFNet, or #alienarena@QuakeNet.
There are also several active clans which participate in official Cups, Ladders, and Free For All matches. Player stats are also tracked and can be accessed via the Galaxy Client, or, if in the EFNet IRC channel, by using the !aastats <playername> function programmed into the channel bot.
[edit] Martian Mayhem Tourney
Every Sunday at 6 PM EDT the community has its Martian Mayhem tourney. Martian Mayhem is a weekly free-for-all ritual where a large sum of players gather into one password protected server (password given out in IRC) to frag until the timelimit is reached. There is no fraglimit. These games are typically played on large, newer maps designed for free-for-all type play. After the main match, there is usually a fun round where a mutator is turned on for less serious action. When the fun round starts, the server is usually lifted of its password protection.
[edit] Screenshots
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