Nexuiz

The Good
Nexuiz impressed me when I first played it because it was free. Which is a great price in my book. And then, after playing many other freeware deathmatch games, I found that few, if any, could hold my attention as long as Nexuiz did.

First off, most of the levels in Nexuiz are well-designed and accommodate a varying number of players excellently. There's also a good number of them, assuring plenty of fragging with your friends and enemies.

And then we have the graphics. For being free and using the Quake I engine, they look pretty spectacular. The lighting is magnificent, the particle effects really work, and better still, the visuals can be scaled down to work on nearly any PC you could find.

Also, there are even bots included so you don't have to play online if you don't wish to. Although they'll never replace live players, they can hold their own on some of the higher difficulty levels.

Finally, I have to say that the weapons feel really balanced and fit the game like a glove. I have found each to be useful in its own capacity, and each has enough "omph" to make you smile.

The Bad
That all being said, Nexuiz isn't without its problems.

Firstly, the character models are the worse I've seen in a game since...well, the original Quake. They're lifeless and bland. A little injection of personality would have made them so much better.

The sound and music leave a lot to be desired as well. The sound effects are unimpressive, and the music fails to capture anything about the gameplay. It's just tiresome rock and heavy metal.

Some of the levels are also poorly designed and seem to be meant for looks rather than gameplay. Fortunately, this is more of an exception than a rule as most of the levels are solid.

The Bottom Line
Overall, I would call this game a definite must-play for anyone who loves the simplistic joy of deathmatch. There are also team modes like the standard capture the flag and team deathmatch, but this game isn't going to be a Battlefield replacement. It has, however, supplemented my meager supply of proper deathmatch games, and should hopefully tide me over for quite some time.

And since it's free, there's really nothing stopping you from trying it.