Every now and then a free game comes around that has the power to draw you in and hold you there for hours before you realize what happened. Tremulous is one of those games. Similar to Enemy Territory where there are two teams working together to reach a goal. Enemy Territory uses mission based goals and the players ‘level up’ as they play and perform well. In Tremulous it’s much simpler, wipe out the other team before they wipe you out.
The concept for the game is very simple, Humans vs the Aliens, but the gameplay really makes it shine. Each team has three stages or tech/evolution, each being twice as strong as the one before it. When joining a game you have two options one to be a solder the other being a builder. The game has a strong strategy side to it that makes it vital to have have both at all times. The builders build spawn points,defenses and upgrades for the team. the Humans have a variety of weapons and gizmo’s at their disposal (from the standard rifle to the powerful Lucifer Cannon) and the Aliens have a good supply of defense from Acid Tubes to Hives.
You earn points from your hits/kills (money for Humans and evolution points for Aliens) which can be used to purchase upgrades. The humans need an Armory to upgrade their weapons and buy ammunition (energy weapons can recharge at the Reactor or a Repeater), Aliens only need their Overmind to be alive.
A hint for Human players: To get an upgraded weapon you need to sell your current weapon or it will not display on the list. I found a key binding scheme that makes buying weapons easy and quick (anecessity a lot of the time).
bind 0 "sell weapons;buy ackit;buy ckit;itemact ackit;itemact ckit"
bind 1 "sell weapons;buy psaw;itemact blaster;itemact psaw"
bind 2 "sell weapons;buy rifle;itemact rifle"
bind 3 "sell weapons;buy shotgun;itemact shotgun"
bind 4 "sell weapons;buy lgun;itemact lgun;buy ammo"
bind 5 "sell weapons;buy chaingun;itemact chaingun"
bind 6 "sell weapons;buy mdriver;itemact mdriver;buy ammo"
bind 7 "sell weapons;buy prifle;itemact prifle;buy ammo"
bind 8 "sell weapons;buy flamer;itemact flamer;buy ammo"
bind 9 "sell weapons;buy lcannon;itemact lcannon;buy ammo"
These will sell your current weapon and attempt to purchase the new one if you have enough funds and they are available.
Good news to me is that tjw has a Tremulous server to compliment the Enemy Territory server I play on. This means if I'm found online it's either at tremulous.tjw.org et.tjw.org or Puzzle Pirates on the cobalt ocean 
Finally, with this game being based on the Quake 3 engine which is now open source, Tremulous is available for Windows, Linux and Macs. It's a free download so you have nothing to lose!
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