I had been meaning to try Alien Arena for a long time. Ever since I saw some screens of the game and had heard comparisons that the game was similar to another First Person Shooter that I enjoyed playing back in the day, and still enjoy occasionally these days - Unreal Tournament. Once I started playing the latest version of Alien Arena 2007, I was blown away.  It was just like the old days, playing games like Unreal Tournament online against other opponents, and really getting that sense of competition but all in good fun to try and be the top fighter in each battle.

With Alien Arena, one can see the amount of effort and hard work that has gone into making this one of the best freeware First Person Shooters out right now. With some great graphics, plenty of action, weapons, and different maps to explore and some different game modes as well, plus the ease of getting online and finding games makes Alien Arena just a good all around game.

When you first install the game, you will notice two icons on your desktop, one for Alien Arena 2007, and Alien Arena 2007 Quickplay. If you want to set up your options, display and controls choose quickplay to do all this, the other icon will load up the multiplayer client that Alien Arena 2007 uses to find other games people are playing. You can also practice against bots in the quick play mode before you head online to start competing against other players if you wish. Alternately you could just go right ahead and start playing right away, it's your choice.  There are some good players online though, so be warned. Make sure to set up your controls especially, and get used to the different game modes as well.  You need to get the feel of the game. If you have played a game like Unreal Tournament then that will help a bit.

Graphically the game looks good. If you have a good graphics card, you will get to see the full extent of how the game looks.  From the environments, to the different players and even weapon effects, they all look very nicely done. Each level has their own unique characteristics about them. From a skyscraper, to a space base, and many more.  Some of them are very reminiscent of Unreal Tournament maps I thought, but these levels were done more so with it's own unique style that makes them stand out. There is always plenty of action going on in game. From the battles between opponents to other things like in capture the flag, you cannot escape the action for long. All the action though is done with quickness in mind, so you have to act fast and shoot fast before your opponent frags you.

The game is meant to be played online because there is no single player campaign to experience from the installation. You can however head to Alien Arena's homepage and download a couple of single player campaigns that were made for earlier versions.  They should still work if you would like to not play online sometimes. The client that is used to connect Alien Arena 2007 with other games running is very easy to use. The server should look up the games that are available to you when you boot it up by clicking the Alien Arena 2007 icon, otherwise refresh whenever necessary and the games will appear. Double click the game you want to enter and Alien Arena 2007 will load up the game.  I did not have any trouble with gaming dropping out and or rejected connections, so it is excellent on this front as well.

Overall this game excelled in pretty much every area and highly recommended that you check it out if you are a fan of this type of game. Alien Arena 2007 is one of the best freeware First Person Shooters out there right now, definitely check it out, and see it for yourself.

UPDATER'S NOTE - APRIL 2012

The latest version of Alien Arena has been released - 7.53.  It has been tweaked, and features a lot of improvements.

Some of the new features in this release:

• Big performance gains on high settings.
• Two new levels(ctf/tca).
• Entity definition files.
• DM lights server option.
• Various improved effects.
• CTF scoring changes.
• Bot AI signifigantly improved.
• Optimizations, bugfixes and more!