What's Your Favorite Arena Shooter?
COMMUNITY QUESTION | With QuakeCon popping off, we direct our sights to the great arena shooters over the years.
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It's QuakeCon time, so that means this week's community question is centered around it. Duh! So let us know: What's your favorite arena shooter? Quake? Unreal Tournament? It can be anything!
Also did y'all catch that Doom Eternal footage? Seeing that grappling hook and dash in action made me feel like that one Antonio Banderas gif.
Kat Bailey, Editor-in-Chief
I'll admit, I don't actually have a favorite arena shooter. I used to play a fair amount of Unreal Tournament, but Quake never really did it for me. Does Jedi Knight count? I really liked Jedi Knight.
The one and only shooter for me is Battlefield (I've been known to play some Overwatch as well, I suppose). That's because I can hop in a tank or a plane and actually do well, which is not something I can say for most other shooters. It makes it much less likely that I'll get no scoped by a 14-year-old.
Interestingly, the traditional "arena shooter" of old appears to be a dying breed. More and more, shooters are focusing on team-based mechanics and other more esports friendly approaches. It's sad in a way, but time marches on, I suppose. There will always be a subset of fans who love arena shooters. I'm just not one of them.
Matt Kim, News Editor
Halo 2, full stop. I haven't played a Halo game since Halo: Reach (I never finished Halo 4), but Halo 2's multiplayer will always have a spot in my heart for introducing me to the thrill of arena shooters. It'll never, ever get better than playing a tense game of Slayer on Lockout or Coagulation.
In fact, just talking about Halo 2 is making me nostalgic for the pre-class based multiplayer days. Maybe I'll boot up Quake Champions now that it's free-to-play?
Caty McCarthy, Features Editor
I dunno if I'd actually say this is an all-time favorite, but the first game to come to mind when I think of arena shooters is Devil Daggers, an indie game from a few years ago. Devil Daggers is a lo-fi arena shooter, lifting inspirations from old school Doom and other hellish things. It features rad PS1-era graphics and some nail-biting "try to stay alive for as long as possible" action. I wouldn't necessarily call it underrated since it got a whole lot of buzz around its release, but Devil Daggers is still one of those rare games I revisit every now and then, only to find hours slip away effortlessly as I chase high scores. If you haven't checked out Devil Daggers, I highly recommend it. Also it has some spectacular (and disgusting) sound design.
Also I'm going on vacation for about a week (yay!), so I've been kicking around whether to bring my Nintendo 3DS or my Switch. For the 3DS, I'd have WarioWare Gold to keep me company, but with my Switch, I can finally dive into Dead Cells. Or maybe just pick up Okami HD again, because I'm an idiot who has to own Okami on every console I own. The 3DS is more compact which is why I'm leaning towards it, but man, Dead Cells sure is tempting. Help me decide please, readers.