Nexuiz

Overview

Nexuiz (not to be confused with the freeware title of the same name) is a multiplayer sci-fi first-person shooter developed by Illfonic and published digitally by THQ for the Xbox 360 (on February 29, 2012) and PC (via Steam on May 3, 2012).

Made partially by some of the original Nexuiz team, this game is restructured with the CryEngine 3, including 4v4 Team Deathmatch and Capture The Flag twitch-based combat set in futuristic Victorian-influenced alien battlefields. It introduces the concept of "Dynamic Mutators", which temporarily alter the gameplay rules (from over 100 different rules, such as lowering the gravity, giving the team a full arsenal, and giving everybody jetpacks) by either collecting a special power-up scattered around maps, getting a killing spree, or capturing the enemy flag.

The lore of Nexuiz involves a fragile truce between the red-armored Kavussari and the blue-armored Forsellians, in which their combat turns from a centuries-old war to a never-ending arena spectacle (The Nexuiz Competition).

While the Xbox 360 version never saw any updates since release, the PC version received additional maps, game modes (such as free-for-all Deathmatch), increased player cap (up to 32 players), and support for user-created content (via Steam Workshop). The PC version also received an alternate client, titled Nexuiz Stupid Mode, allowing for much higher quality shaders and other graphical effects, at the cost of performance - primarily meant for benchmarking and screenshots.

Due to THQ's bankruptcy, both versions of the game were delisted from their respective marketplaces (alongside the discontinuation of their "master servers") on February 2013. After three years without any online capability, the PC version of the game was re-released by both Illfonic and Psyop on March 14, 2016.

Weapons & Items

There are nine weapons to use in Nexuiz, each with their own primary and secondary attacks. Headshots using these attacks deal massive damage. Players can also melee enemies with any weapon, dealing heavy damage (instantly killing them when smacking them from beind).

Certain Mutators grant a "super" version of the weapon, giving them enhanced attacking properties and infinite ammo (as long as the mutator is still in play). Once the Mutator is over, the weapon turns back into its normal form.

The six items found throughout each map include both Cell (blue) and Munitions (red) ammo, small and large armor pickups, the Strength pickup (where all weapon damage is doubled for a short time), and the Dynamic Mutator pickup (which grant the player with a choice of one of three Mutators).

Shotgun

(Weapon switch key: 1) Each player's starting weapon with infinite ammo. Each faction has their own unique shotgun appearance (though these shotguns do not differ in functionality).

The Super Shotgun vastly increases the rate-of-fire for both attacks.

• Primary Fire - Fires a cluster of bullets over a wide spread. Good for close-range combat.
• Secondary Fire - Fires a tight cluster of bullets focused in the center, for use in longer ranges. Slower firing speed and harder aim than Primary Fire.

Crylink

(Weapon switch key: 2) Uses Cell (blue) ammo. An energy shotgun that fires glowing balls of energy (that bounces off surfaces, similar to the Flak Cannon primary attack in Unreal Tournament games). This power can be focused into a continuous beam of energy (similar to the Pulse Gun secondary attack in Unreal Tournament games).

The Super Crylink changes the attack to a "telefrag gun". By aiming at an enemy for a short period of time while firing, the user teleports at the enemy's position, instantly killing the enemy.

• Primary Fire - Fires a cluster of energy shells that bounce off surfaces.
• Secondary Fire - Fires a continuous stream of energy.

Electro

(Weapon switch key: 3) Uses Cell (blue) ammo. An energy rocket launcher. The energy can also be fired as weaker sticky bombs.

The Super Electro changes the attack to fire large area-of-effect balls of electricity that dissipates over a short amount of time, causing continuous damage to anyone inside it.

• Primary Fire - Fires a high-damage explosive energy projectile that detonates upon impact. Uses a large amount of Cell ammo per shot.
• Secondary Fire - Fires a small ball of energy that bounces off surfaces and sticks to enemies. Less damage than the primary fire, but uses less ammo and has a faster firing rate.

Nex

(Weapon switch key: 4) Uses Cell (blue) ammo. Standard railgun. Can be zoomed in like a sniper rifle.

Attacks using the Super Nex are one-hit-kill (no matter where it hits on the bodies of enemies), similar to the Instagib Rifle from the Unreal Tournament games.

• Primary Fire - Fires an instant pinpoint-accurate rail of energy. Uses a very large amount of Cell ammo per shot.
• Secondary Function - Toggles the weapons scope, zooming in for a better view at long range.

Hagar

(Weapon switch key: 5) Uses Munitions (red) ammo. A rapid-fire mini-rocket launcher. Mini-rockets can either detonate upon impact or bounce along surfaces before detonating.

The Super Hagar changes the mini-rocket to a shrapnel grenade, detonating upon impact while dealing larger area-of-effect shrapnel damage.

• Primary Fire - Fires a rapid-fire stream of mini-rockets that detonate upon impact.
• Secondary Fire - Fires a rapid-fire stream of mini-rockets that bounce upon walls before detonating.

Clancutter

(Weapon switch key: 6) Uses Cell (blue) ammo. An energy machine gun that fires accurate bullets of energy (similar to the Pulse Gun primary attack in Unreal Tournament games). Multiple energy bullets can also be fired in a spread.

The Super Clancutter changes the attack to a powerful beam weapon (similar to the Crylink's secondary fire).

• Primary Fire - Rapidly fires fast, accurate energy bullets.
• Secondary Fire - Fires a wide burst of energy bullets, similar to the Crylink's primary fire. (With a wider spread and no bouncing).

Mortar

(Weapon switch key: 7) Uses Munitions (red) ammo. Rocket launcher that fires missiles in an arcing trajectory. Not as powerful as the Rocket Launcher, but has a faster rate of fire and less ammo count. Missiles can either detonate upon impact or detonate after a short amount of time.

The Super Mortar changes the missiles into proximity mines, exploding when an energy or teammate is near. Once the mutator is over, all proximity mines explode for total carnage.

• Primary Fire - Fires an arcing missile that detonates upon impact.
• Secondary Fire - Fires an arcing missile that detonates after a few seconds.

Rocket Launcher

(Weapon switch key: 8) Uses Munitions (red) ammo. The standard rocket launcher. Rockets can be remotely guided and remotely detonated in mid-air.

The Super Rocket Launcher increases the amount of missiles fired at a time while automatically homing to the target on the user's crosshair.

• Primary Fire - Fires a powerful missile. Holding onto the Primary Fire button (while moving or aiming) guides missiles towards the crosshair.
• Secondary Function - Detonates rockets already in mid-air.

Ravager

(Weapon switch key: 9) Uses Munitions (red) ammo. The standard sub-machine gun. Can be fired at two firing speeds: fast and inaccurate, or slow and accurate. Uses a small amount of Munitions ammo per shot.

The Super Ravager makes the attacks acts like secondary fire, but turns the bullets into poison bullets (dealing continuous damage to hit enemies over time).

• Primary Fire - Fires a rapid-fire stream of bullets. Fast, yet inaccurate.
• Secondary Fire - Fires a rapid-fire stream of bullets. Slow, yet accurate.

Levels

Team Deathmatch

• Crash
• Refinery
• Sanctuary
• Station
• Strength
• Tension

Capture the Flag

• Overlook
• Vertigo
• Vigor

Mutators

Similar to other arena-based first-person shooters, Nexuiz features unique game mechanic adjustments (such as influencing the game's gravity and granting infinite ammo) known as "mutators". Unique to this game are Dynamic Mutators, which temporarily alter gameplay for one or more players. Players with a Dynamic Mutator in effect have three Mutators to choose from, the one they choose being put into one of four queues: Everyone (Yellow), Self (Grey), Friendly Team, and Enemy Team. They can earn a Dynamic Mutator in one of five ways:

• Picking up a Dynamic Mutator powerup scattered throughout the map.
• Getting a Killing Spree.
• Capturing the enemy flag in Capture the Flag mode.
• Having another player trigger the Mutator Madness Mutator.
• Triggering the Wild Card Mutator.

Mutators below that are marked with a star (*) can be toggled to "permanent" in Private and Offline matches, making the effect available to all players at all times. Doing this removes the Dynamic Mutator functionality.

Everyone (Yellow)

• All Weapons - All players receive all weapons.
• Auto-Pogo * - All players automatically jump as they hit the ground.
• Big Head * - All players have larger heads (with larger hitboxes for headshots). Unlocked in online play by obtaining the "In Your Face" achievement.
• Body Boom * - All player corpses explode after death, dealing area-of-effect damage to nearby players.
• Body Swap - All players randomly swap places.
• Bumper Cars * - All players can bounce off of each other with great force.
• Clean Up * - Removes all weapon and item pickups.
• Color Blind * - Desaturates the entire screen, making it difficult to tell teams apart.
• Copy-Cat - Copies the currently active Yellow Mutator to the queue. If there are none active, it will wait until the next one that is called.
• Debug * - Replaces all in-game textures with a generic mapmaking texture. Unlocked in online play by obtaining the "Globe Trotter" achievement.
• Detonate - After a short amount of time, a random player explodes.
• Farty Poopy * - Replaces all sound effects with poorly-made poop sounds.
• Low Gravity * - Reduces the gravity of all players.
• ILLFONIC * - Adds floating NPC enemies that shoot laser beams at nearby players. They cannot be killed and are paper-thin images of the developers' heads. Unlocked in online play by obtaining the "Killfonic" achievement.
• Increased Score - Increases the score limit.
• Infinite Ammo * - All weapons do not deplete ammunition.
• Instagib * - Gives the Nex to all players. They are limited to using the Super Nex.
• Jet Packs * - All players have jetpacks, which allows them to rise (using the Jump button), lower (using the Crouch button), and float in the air.
• Kill The Whale - Unlocked in online play by obtaining the "Medal Master" achievement.
• Melee Only * - All players can only use melee attacks.
• Mix Up * - After short periods of time, all players switch to a new weapon at random.
• Mutator Madness - All players receive a Dynamic Mutator powerup.
• Mute * - Silences all sound effects and music for all players.
• Night Time * - Alters the lighting of all maps to resemble night.
• No HUD * - All HUD elements are removed from all players.
• Oh James! - Superimposes a photo of the head of Illfonic's head animator on the heads of all players. Changes some player noises for comedic effect.
• Old Skool - Adds CRT-style scanlines and a pixelation effect for all players. Unlocked in online play by obtaining the "Top Dog" achievement.
• Pinata * - All players drop their entire inventory in a backpack on death. Their character models also wear sombreros.
• Rainbow * - Spawns a Pot of Gold in the level that teleports between multiple places, giving bonus points to nearby players. Unlocked in online play by obtaining the "Mutate" achievement.
• Rapid Fire * - All weapons have double the firing rate.
• Regen * - All players have quicker health regeneration.
• Slick * - Ground friction is disabled.
• Stop the Clock - Disables the timer.
• Third Eye * - All players switch to a third-person over-the-shoulder perspective.
• Uber-Nuke - After a short amount of time, a devastating nuke blast kills players in a wide radius.
• Vampire * - Damage given returns a small portion to the inflicter's health.
• Who Dat - Mixes up the names above each player's head.
• Wipeout - Removes all current and queued Mutators in play.

Self (Grey)

• Big Pockets * - Ammo pickups automatically fill up that ammo type.
• Bonus Points - All point awards give bonus points.
• Decoy - Spawns an idle holograph of the player at their current location.
• Double Jump * - Grants the ability to jump while in mid-air.
• Double Strength - Makes the Strength powerup deal quad damage instead of double damage.
• Head Shots - Makes the player's headshots one-hit-kills.
• Helmet Head - Grants immunity to headshots.
• Invulnerable * - Grants invulnerability to all weapons.
• Magnetism * - All pickups are drawn to the player within a set radius.
• Medic * - Shooting teammates heals them instead of damaging them.
• My Favorite - Grants the player's "favorite" weapon to them based on their statistics.
• No Name * - Hides the name above the player's head.
• Random - Triggers a random unlocked Mutator.
• Reflect * - All bullets and projectiles bounce off of the player in a random direction.
• Reincarnation * - Players receive their previous inventory when they respawn.
• Sacrifice (CTF only) - Kills the player to score a point.
• Speed * - Greatly increases movement speed.
• Strength - Grants the Strength powerup.
• Super Clancutter * - Gives the player a Clancutter. Grants use of the Super Clancutter.
• Super Crylink * - Gives the player a Crylink. Grants use of the Super Crylink.
• Super Electro * - Gives the player a Electro. Grants use of the Super Electro.
• Super Hagar * - Gives the player a Hagar. Grants use of the Super Hagar.
• Super Mortar * - Gives the player a Mortar. Grants use of the Super Mortar.
• Super Nex * - Gives the player a Nex. Grants use of the Super Nex.
• Super Ravager * - Gives the player a Ravager. Grants use of the Super Ravager.
• Super Rockets * - Gives the player a Rocket Launcher. Grants use of the Super Rocket Launcher.
• Super Shotgun * - Grants use of the Super Shotgun.
• Tesla-Man * - Surrounds the player in an electrical field that causes area-of-effect damage.
• Thief - Steals a Self Mutator from a random opponent.
• Triple Armor * - Gives triple armor for each armor pickup.
• Uber-Melee * - Increases the reach and damage of melee attacks while adding an area-of-effect burst after each melee attack.
• Wild Card - Grants the Dynamic Mutator powerup (essentially giving three new options).

Team (Blue/Red)

• Ammo Fairy * - Gives double ammo for each ammo pickup.
• Broken Hit Detection * - Scrambles the damage direction indicator of all enemy players.
• Chase Me * (CTF only) - Grants the ability to pickup and carry their team's flag.
• Counter Attack - Changes the currently active Red Mutator to a Blue one.
• Cure All - Grants full health and armor. Removes Red Mutators from play.
• Enemy Locator * - Shows the location of all enemy players at all times.
• Engineer * - Gives double armor for each armor pickup.
• Evil Summon - Teleports all enemy players to the current position of the player who activated it.
• Flag Bomb * (CTF only) - After a certain amount of time while not at home, the team's flag explodes and kills the enemy flag carrier.
• Flag Defense * (CTF only) - Surrounds the team's flag with a beacon that damages enemies and heals friendly players. Can be destroyed by enemy gunfire.
• Flag Locator * (CTF only) - Shows the team's flag location at all times.
• Flag Spawn * (CTF only) - All friendly players spawn near the team's flag.
• Frozen Flag - Surrounds the team's flag in a chunk of ice, requiring the enemy team to destroy it or wait until the Mutator expires.
• Grounded * - Increased fall damage for all enemy players, including at standard jump height.
• Inverted * - Switches the Y-axis controls of all enemy players.
• Lasso * (CTF only) - Dealing a melee attack at a nearby enemy flag carrier pulls them towards the friendly player.
• Lead Flag * (CTF only) - Slows down the speed of enemy flag carriers.
• Magic Flag * (CTF only) - Teleports the friendly team's flag to several locations.
• Regen Flag * (CTF only) - Grants quicker health regeneration to friendly flag carriers.
• Regicide - Grants bonus points for killing the scoreboard leader of the enemy team.
• Safety Net * - Falling off the map instead teleports that team's player back to a team spawn point.
• Slow Fire * - Reduces the firing rate of all enemy players.
• Spikey Flag * (CTF only) - Slowly hurts enemy flag carriers.
• Strength-4-All - Grants the Strength powerup.
• Summon - Teleports all teammates to the current position of the player who activated it.
• Team Locator * - Shows all teammate locations at all times.
• Team Spawn * - All teammates spawn near the player who activated it.
• Weapon Locker * (CTF only) - Spawns a weapon locker near the team's flag that contains all weapons.
• Wild Fire * - Reduces the accuracy for all enemy players' weapons.