This game rewards the patient, while the rest may find this game fun but somewhat frustrating.
Gameplay (7/10): There is a LOT of good and a LOT of bad that is here in this game. I will mention the bad first. There isn't enough enemy variety. A lot of the enemies are merely different colors of the same enemy and are powered up. This makes it really easy to come up with a simple tactic. The puzzles are often complicated in a way that forces you to travel all over the place and you will likely forget where you needed to go or how to get to a particular place at least a few times. Also, the game is actually pretty difficult, having limited weapons and most of them eating up your mana quickly or requiring melee, which often proves deadly for you. With my complaints aside, let me now get to the meat of the game.
Unlike the typical FPS where you just run around killing things, this one has a few special tricks. First of all you get to choose from one of four classes, each with 4 unique weapons and 2 unique abilities, as well as a difference in stats. Yes you read correctly, I said STATS. Once you choose your class, and jump into the game, you will notice that you gain experience points for defeating enemies. Of course you will level up and your stats will raise accordingly, and you will gain abilities as well depending on your class. It really is a unique way to change the typical FPS formula and I personally like it. It gives you a reason to kill all the enemies rather than for the sake of opening a door or just clearing the way for you. You actually benefit from going out of your way to destroy enemies that aren't necessarily bothering you. The weapons are pretty unique to each class as well which is a definately a plus, and this means that you can essentially play through the game four times and find a slightly different experience every time. The bosses are pretty challenging but are really fun and exploring is actually pretty fun thanks to the detailed environments. The one thing really holding this game down is the difficulty and often confusing puzzles. It is nice that all areas for a level are connected so that you feel like you are in a large world, but they could have been a little more helpful with pointing you in the right direction sometimes. At least there are a variety of interesting items for you to play around with, including a stone used for summoning a little demon helper.
As far as multiplayer goes, it is actually pretty neat. Thanks to the class system it makes things interesting, but for some reason I just can't have as much fun with this as I do with Quake. There is something missing, though I am not quite sure what.
Graphics (9/10): Considering the age of this game, this is is actually pretty darn good. Putting the graphical limits aside, I find that a lot of games even NOW are not nearly as detailed as this game is. Each environment is very unique, ranging from an Egyptian area to a Roman area. You will find little details put in all over the place that leave you realizing that there was a lot of work put into this. Even better are the enemies, which are pretty detailed themselves. Artistically speaking, this game is very beautiful, and makes complete use of the Quake engine.
Sound (7/10): The music is actually pretty well-done here. The sound effects are not all that bad either. The main problem is that since there is no variety in sound effects the enemies make, you will often hear the same incomprehensible words being said by the enemies OVER and OVER again before you kill them. This can REALLY get annoying and if they weren't going to add variety to the lines and noises the enemies made, they could have at least cut down on how often it happened. Otherwise it is nice.
Value (8/10): The multiplayer is something worth playing with for a while, but I am sure you will find yourself drifting to other FPS games after a short while. The good part is that since the game has 4 unique classes, you can play through it again as a different class and hence playing in a different style. Not to mention the 3+ difficulty levels for you to play around with. The game will likely not take you more then 10 hours to complete but I assure you that you will want to play through it at least once more. I played through it the first time as a Necromancer and I am currently trying out the Assassin. Though the game can be a difficult at times and somewhat frustrating as well, it really does have its heart in the right place. This is quite a fun game and even though it isn't the best of FPS games out there, it is highly recommendable merely because you can find it for around $5 now. If you enjoy FPS games, this is worth giving a try. Enjoy.