DESCRIPTION

Legend tells of a race called the Vardrigar, and of the Arena they built to entertain themselves. Calling themselves the Arena Masters, they captured beings and sent them to the Arena to fight and die for the amusement of the Arena Masters. Even death is not an end to their torment, for the masters can bring opponents back from the dead to fight again. This is your fate, to fight and die.

Quake III Arena is a first person shooter game. However, unlike in other first person shooter games, instead of taking on a series of levels, such as with Doom, Quake gives players a number of battle arenas where they can duke it out with either their friends and computer generated opponents (called gladiators) or just the AI opponents. Or, players can take the game to the internet and take on flesh and blood opponents through the Arena servers.

A large number of maps (called Arenas) are available, from small ones than can accomodate about 5 opponents before it gets too crowded, up to impossibly huge maps that can keep almost 50 players busy and working for every advantage.

The object of the game is to kill as many opponents as possible while avoiding getting killed (known as fragged) yourself. To accomplish this end, players have a variety of weapons, from the low end machine gun and gauntlet that every player starts out with, to the aptly named BFG (Big _ing Gun), Rail Gun or Lightning Gun that can devastate your fellow gladiators with ease, Three kinds of Armor (shards, yellow and red, each providing increasing amounts of protection), health patches, and power ups.

However, players have to work for these goodies. Sections of the battle arena have areas where these items appear during the match, identifiable by a sound. If players already have the gun that appears at that patch, passing over it again while it is there increases their ammo supply for that weapon. Armor simply increases the player's armor as the gladiator grabs it, as does health patches (both can go over the maximum of 100, but the number slowly counts down to 100 again, even if you aren't taking damage). Powerups only last for a short while, but can turn players into supermen, with effects like Quad Damage, Haste, Mega Health and Regeneration. There are also medkits and teleporters that players can acquire, but these don't fade away until after they are used.

But these items are not all you will encounter in the arenas. Players will also find acceleration pads, bounce pads, doors, a nasty acidic radiation mist called the Fog of Death (well and aptly named), Gates (fixed teleportation pads), Lava, Pendulums (be careful not to get in the way, or you'll frag yourself), Slimes, Voids (endless falls that kill you), Teleporters (like gates, but you can't see where you will end up), and Lifts (open-sided elevators).

Players who choose single play must fight their way through six tiers of four Arenas each. They must beat each Arena. This means winning, not just coming out in the middle of the pack. Winning through all the arenas means players will fight head to head against the toughest opponent of all... Xaero.

Players also have their choice of play styles. Players can set the style to Free For All Deathmatch, where it's everyone for themselves- Devil take the hindmost, Team Play, which splits the players into Red Team and Blue Team, Tournament, which lets a player and his or her opponent fight one on one, and Capture the Flag, which is again, played in teams, but in addition to fragging your opponents, players must also capture the other team's flag while defending their own.

Can you survive the arena, or will you be reduced to blood and parts under the fire of your opponents guns? Here's your chance to find out, the ultimate kill or be killed contest. You've got your work cut out for you. ~ Lisa Karen Savignano, All Game Guide