Linux Got Game: Urban Terror 4.1 Review

I had the time to play yet another exciting game on my Linux box. It’s a free first person shooter called Urban Terror. The game is a total modification of the immensely popular Quake III Arena. It introduces many elements of the tactical shooter genre --team-driven gaming in more realistic environments. Urban Terror is one of the best FPS games that I have ever played --you will know why later on.

Urban Terror, usually abbreviated as UrT or UT, is currently developed and maintained by FrozenSand, LLC. It is available for free, but unauthorised modification and selling is not allowed. The latest version of UT (4.1) is using ioUrbanTerror engine (rebranded ioquake3 engine) which means it can now be played as a stand-alone game even without Quake III Arena.

To get the party started, you will only need to download the ZIP file at Urban Terror website’s download page HERE. Then, extract the ZIP file to any directory that you want and look for the ff.:

ioUrbanTerror.i386 – for those with 32bit machines
ioUrbanTerror.x86_64 – for those with 64bit machines

You can start playing Urban Terror by simply double-clicking one of those files. But first, you have to make it executable.

To make it executable: right click --> properties --> click on Permissions tab --> tick the ‘program’ or ‘allow execution’ box.

That’s about it, no installation is needed.

Gameplay:

Since Urban Terror is primarily an online multiplayer game, I started playing it by joining an online server that hosted the game. The good thing is that there are plenty of available servers most of the time, so you can always choose those that suit your game level. Urban Terror also features several game modes such as:

* Free for All (FFA, DM)
* Team Deathmatch (TDM)
* Team Survivor (TS)
* Capture the Flag (CTF)
* Capture and Hold (CAH, C&H)
* Follow the Leader (FTL)
* Bomb Mode (BM)

Once inside the game, you can choose from a variety of realistic weapons. There’s an assault rifle, grenade launcher, sniper rifle, machine gun and much more. Players automatically spawn with a Ka-bar knife, pistol and a primary weapon as the bare minimum. A secondary weapon can also be chosen. Finally, grenades can also be carried. Both grenades and secondary weapons remove an item slot. If both are chosen, only one item slot remains. If only one is chosen, two item slots are available. If a player chooses to carry only the bare minimum, there are three item slots available. Weapons picked up after spawning do not affect the number of items that can be carried. Similarly, holding three items does not prevent one from picking up a secondary weapon or grenades from a dead player. Two pieces of equipment - the IMI Negev and the Kevlar vest - affect stamina drain negatively.

Urban Terror' allows players to perform superhuman feats. Damage is a key example; while damage taken depends on the part of body which is hit, one can keep going after receiving numerous hits. Further breaking from reality, Urban Terror includes wall jumping and power sliding. Wall jumping allows players to literally jump off of walls. Wall jumping has been made into a secondary part of Urban Terror but is not a full focuse meaning it's downloaded as 3rd party. Jump maps are focused around using wall jumps, powerslides and "circle jumps". Jump maps are done by working with curves, kicks, and slides. Power sliding lets them move rapidly in a crouched position. Urban Terror also retains the movement speeds from Quake III Arena which allows players to move through the screen incredibly quickly.

Sounds and Graphics:

Graphics wise, Urban Terror is as stunning and as solid as Nexuiz 2.4. The game environment is indeed very realistic and is full of details. I had no problems playing Urban Terror on my Xubuntu 8.04 Macbook Pro (Penryn) with NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics card. Although, I needed to custom set the screen width and height to match the optimum screen resolution of my MBP. The game’s audio like the effects and music sounded great even on my laptop speakers.

Recommended System Requirements:
CPU: Pentium 4 1.2GHz or higher.
RAM: 256MBs (512MBs highly recommended).
VID: NVidia or ATI card with 128MB RAM (256MB or more highly recommended).
HDD: 50GB, but the more the better for additional levels.

Conclusion:

Urban Terror is another action packed, fast-paced, and highly-addictive first-person shooter game that is available for Linux. Though I’m not really an avid gamer, I still enjoy playing this game even up to now. By the way, if you are a hardcore FPS gamer, there are several gaming leagues for Urban Terror that you might be interested in joining. For inquiries, just visit Urban Terror’s official website HERE.

Here is my rating for Urban Terror 4.1:

Sounds and Graphics: 9/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Total: 8.5/10