Back in 2000, id Software released a revolutionary game that set the standard for first person shooters for a while. Quake 3 entered the market and dazzled everyone with its revolutionary graphical engine. Never before had we seen such a dynamic game that took serious skills to maneuver properly.

The source code behind the game was released and made public under the GPL license sometime in 2005. From there on, gaming enthusiasts recompiled the game and fixed some bugs. As a result, OpenAren was created from the ashes of Quake 3 to bring back the same gaming experience and quality graphics to those of us that had forgotten the long gone days.

I don't expect the new generation of gamers to praise the potential of Quake 3. After all, they grew up in a high quality texture and pixel shadered world. But for old-timers like me, this new version is a blast from the past that brings back memories of the days when games barely escaped the 2D reality and went into the 3D world.

The main menu and all the visual aspects of the game have remained the same except for some small modifications brought to the weapons and the players’ skins. When it comes to the rendering capabilities of the graphical engine, OpenArena only needs accelerated OpenGL hardware. This means that you will not need any special video card so that you can play the game.

On an overall performance of the game, it is safe to say that you will get all the great features of Quake 3, such as dynamism and graphical performance with low hardware support, within a free version that you can easily distribute and play in multiplayer mode with your friends and, why not, with your family.

The Good

OpenArena is free, redistributable and re-compilable, which means that everyone can safely add new features, fix gameplay bugs, and play in multiplayer mode benefiting from the same experience as they would with the original Quake 3.

The Bad

A soundtrack and other default skins would be more than welcome. Gameplay music is vital to a first person shooter especially if there is a rock band to make the blood pumping.

The Truth

OpenArena is great for a redistributable FPS that you and your friends can use to practice your skills in the same dynamic environment as Quake 3.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action: