Tremulous Game Tremulous review

[page=The then and now]

As the first person shooter \ real time strategy mod becomes increasingly popular, each must find a way to keep the game fresh and exciting. Tremulous, a free standalone Quake 3 Arena mod, has found yet another fusion well worth your time.

The squad fans out, shining their torches into the oppressive gloom. The room is empty, gleaming metal reflecting in the near total darkness. Yet, from beyond the shadows, they are being watched. The smallest sound makes them jump in terror, shining their lights into every corner, the room seems empty, but there, on the edge of their vision, the enemy lurks!

Spawning is important if you're going to survive Tremulous.

The squad leader kicks in the door, revealing pulsating, organic turrets. Before the squad can react, a spray of bile hits them, melting through their armor like a high caliber bullet through butter. A gunner falls, his flesh boiling from the acidic spores. The rest of the squad finally comes to their senses, moving into position and firing at the alien outpost. Gunfire, yelling, screams of pain and the inhuman wails of the creations beyond blend together, echoing through the corridor.

Nobody notices the soft thud of wet mass on the floor behind them. The small, spider-like creature advances on the marines with calculated precision and supernatural speed. Claws rip through armor and blood pours on to the floor. Within seconds, the squad of marines is dead, corpses and weapons clattering to the ground.

The spiders move away, heading after the next squad, while a few stay behind to heal their living, breathing defenses.

The first person shooter is a genre that has seen its fair share of revolution since inception. Games like System Shock and Deus Ex have blended role-playing elements into first person action. But it wasn't until Gloom, a mod for Quake II, that real time strategy elements were brought to the first person shooter. Since then, mods like Natural Selection, Empires and the recent Iron Grip: The Oppression have enjoyed huge success. Even commercial games such as Savage: The Battle for Newerth, and to a certain extent Battlefield 2, have blended FPS/RTS gameplay.

The formula has been modified in each iteration. Each game blends the genres differently and finds a blend that suits gameplay, incorporating different commands, interfaces and strategy elements to key effect. Tremulous is another in a growing chapter of FPS/RTS games. An action game at its core, Tremulous successfully implements real time strategy elements to find its own unique blend of RTS and FPS action. It's fast, it's furious, it's tactical and it's atmospheric.

Damned if it's not fun, too.

[page=What to do, what to do?]

A suitably alien setting. Hah!

Perhaps the most notable thing about Tremulous, when compared to other FPS / RTS titles, is that it doesn't have a commander view. There is no chair or position that will grant the player a top-down view of the battlefield to build and give commands to units. All of the action takes place from a first person perspective which is more similar to Gloom or the alien faction in Natural Selection than it is to the more recent Empires mod and others for Half-Life 2.

At a glance, this sounds restricting, but it really isn't. With the right tools, a player can build, upgrade and destroy structures without ever needing anything more than the first person perspective. Players can focus both on building the base and killing those who try to destroy it, always anchored in the here and now. It also eliminates the issue of getting a really crappy commander and losing the game because of their lack of skill.

However, it is not a perfect design decision. I found that one really important effect of the commander view in other FPS / RTS titles is that it gives one player control over the important decisions. In Tremulous, anyone can do whatever the hell they want and no one person has the authority to stop them and keep some sort of order. Picture a match where players have radically different ideas as to where to place buildings. Some of you might be working together to get everything organized and well defended while some chump is off pursuing his own agenda, wasting valuable resources and screwing up any tactical advantage you may have once had. Unfortunately, this happens a lot.

But if you'd like to be a chump and ruin everybody's fun, at least you have a lot of options as to how you'll go about it. One thing Tremulous does very well is provide choices. There are tons of different buildings available, each of which unlock huge amounts of weapons, equipment and different life forms for the alien faction. This, combined with the large amount of levels, makes for a lot of different outcomes for any given game to take. Each level contains several different paths for the players to choose, and combined with the ample supply of weaponry available to both sides of the conflict, it is almost impossible to have two games pan out the same way. I've played a fair bit of Tremulous and I have yet to play two games that have been even remotely similar.

Okay, so vents scare me!

Thankfully, things never dip into the excessive range. It's not like there are 20 different shotguns that all do basically the same thing. In Tremulous, everything has purpose, and nothing is there for the sake of it. For example, there are several different alien life forms, but each and every one of them suits a different play style or tactical approach. The same goes for the marine faction. All the weapons are useful in different and sometimes innovative ways. Each and every building performs a different function, and all the armor and equipment has a distinct purpose behind its design. Tremulous doesn't fall into the trap of oversaturating the playing field and instead provides a lot of really useful options to give every different type of player something to do.

In fact, the best thing about Tremulous is that when it's played correctly, it all comes together and works amazingly. All the features work together in a kind of harmonious synergy to make a play experience that is really, really enjoyable. The levels allow for multiple approaches: stealth, use of cover and anything else the player can come up with. The variety adds to this, and the end result is that when it is played correctly, Tremulous can cater to any player that even remotely enjoys FPS or RTS games.

The combat, however, is brutal! It's really a case of kill or be killed; shoot first, ask later and every other combat related cliché out there. I found myself creeping through dark corridors for what seemed like hours, jumping at little scratches and creaks. It's shameful, sure, but Tremulous is a game that makes me quickly glance around my room every now and again while I'm playing. The expectant atmosphere that the game oozes means that when something does attack, and combat does literally erupt, the game has the player already on the edge of their seat, and it doesn't take much to get that heart-in-the-mouth-jump-into-the-air feeling so many action games strive for. It's when the combat does erupt that the game really delivers though. As soon as the marines come round the corner, or the bugs creep up from behind, it's a sudden outburst of blood, claws and bullets. It's fast, it's furious and more often than not, it's over within seconds. If fast, frantic combat is your cup of tea, then Tremulous is a godsend. It follows in the footsteps of Alien vs. Predator 2 to bring really atmospheric and intense combat that is somehow really, really fun.

Where's down? Why is everything distorted? What's going on? So confusing.

As the rest of this review has hinted at, Tremulous doesn't really stray from the roots of FPS/RTS action. Not just in gameplay, but also in the setting. The human versus alien combat taking place on abandoned space stations is starting to get old, and for all the variety it does give, Tremulous suffers for this. While games like Savage: The Battle for Newerth have interesting game worlds, Tremulous presents the players with another generic human versus alien combat system, complete with alien xenoforms and full body armor. It's a pity that there isn't enough imagination to bring the game into a really interesting setting, because it would be much needed plus for Tremulous.

By now, I've been dying to say something: Tremulous is as confusing as hell. Even as a long time player of Natural Selection and a definite fan of Gloom, Tremulous takes some real getting used to. For example, the little alien critter that is the first life form can coast along at a breakneck speed and climb on walls, much like the Skulk from Natural Selection. However, when the creature does venture up on to the walls, the entire viewpoint rotates so that wall becomes the floor. To makes this even worse, the camera then gets a fisheye distortion effect. The end result is that moving quickly, jumping from wall to wall not only gives me motion sickness, it's also completely disorientating. Some of the corridors don't always have a distinct floor or roof, and the last thing I needed in a brutal fast paced game like Tremulous was being forced to stop every ten seconds to figure out what way was up and what way was down. Natural Selection's version of climbing up on walls, where it's as though one were climbing a ladder, makes a lot more sense and leads to less confusion in the middle of combat.

[page=Let's have a shootout]

The more, the, ummm, easier to blow up alien scum.

Really, the fact that it can get confusing to all but the most experienced players is the main drawback to Tremulous. Unless you're willing to put in the time and effort to get used to its little eccentricities, then it's not really worth playing in the first place, as it can be mighty frustrating during the learning period. Really, the only other thing is that players coming from Natural Selection and Gloom may notice a lot of similarities. Many of the Gloom aliens look similar to their Natural Selection counterparts, to the extent of my friends and myself calling the big beefy tank the “Onos” instead of its real name. Players of Gloom will notice a lot of the gameplay has been “borrowed” and altered, for better or for worse. However, Tremulous manages to do enough different to both of these, and indeed all other, FPS/RTS titles to stand on its own.

The graphics have had a lot of work put in to them, too. Tremulous is a standalone Quake III Arena modification, but it is really difficult to tell that they share an engine. The lighting and shadows have had a huge overhaul to keep up with modern standards. All the textures are sharp, high resolution pieces that suit the style of the game really well. Not only that, but the character models are nicely detailed, as are the weapons and buildings. Perhaps more impressive than the actual textures and models themselves are the designs. Sure, it's easy to see the influence movies like Alien have had on the concepts for creatures and weapons, but the weapon concepts and building designs look really sharp and in some cases are really original. Some buildings are solid and there are others that the player shouldn't feel comfortable hiding behind. All the weapons look beefy and the alien designs all look suitably utilitarian, with huge claws and random sharp bits for tearing away at your foes.

Explosives! Great for blowing stuff up.

While the art might be nice, the sounds aren’t too crash hot. A lot of the aliens sound terribly goofy, like the sound designer just made funny noises into a microphone and hoped all would go well. The weapons aren't too bad, but they sometimes don't sound believable enough, especially when you are going up against huge armored aliens. However, the sound isn't so offensive that it detracts from the atmosphere.

At its core, Tremulous is a fast paced action game with strategic elements which are implemented very well indeed. It can be great fun, or it can be tedious and frustrating. Either way, it's worth checking out for almost all fans of action and strategy, though those not willing to put the time and effort in to work around some of Tremulous' questionable design choices will be turned off pretty quickly.

Tremulous sure as hell isn't user friendly. But for those who can handle the learning curve, it's more than worth the effort.

(+) Fast, brutal combat.
(+) Really freaky atmosphere.
(+) Great graphics.
(+) Tons of variety.

(-) Epic learning curve.
(-) Some really confusing "features."
(-) Generic humans versus aliens setting.
(-) Very similar to other games in the genre.
(-) Some questionable sounds.