Diabotical is a newly released Arena FPS that emulates the gameplay of the Quake franchise. Developed by a former professional Quake 4 player, Diabotical features the same weapons, moves, pickups, and an overall experience very similar to the Quake franchise.
Experienced Quake players will already be at the top of the game, while newer ones will have to learn the many classic mechanics. These include grape jump, circle jump, weapon change, etc. The game is available for free on the Epic Games Store, so there's no reason not to try it out.
There are 6 major game modes in Diabotical with the launch of the game. Each is unique and has a different purpose. While some are familiar to Quake players or even players from other multiplayer shooters, some are new to the genre as well.
Free for all
Free For All is each player for themselves, where the objective is to score the most kills before the time runs out. In this mode, you will only start with a melee weapon and a machine gun and will have to move around the map to find the other weapons. You will also need to memorize the health and armor placements, as there is no regeneration and the only way to get your stack back is to collect pickups.
Most importantly, remember where the diabotic bonus appears, because 240 seconds after the start of the match, whoever collects this item will deal 4 times more damage to opponents for the next 30 seconds.
Annihilate
Unlike Free For All, Wipeout is turn-based and players automatically spawn with a full loadout. This means that as soon as the game starts you already have all the weapons, so you don't have to go around the map looking for each one. This includes a Healing Weeball. In this mode, there is no armor and health recovery scattered around the map, which means you have to use your time wisely and find a way to recover using the Weeball whenever you have a free moment.
In Wipeout, each death of an individual player increases their respawn time. The team with all dead players at the same time loses the round. The first team to win 4 sets wins the match. If you're the last one alive on the team, you have to choose whether it's worth pushing a fight or whether you should step back and wait for a teammate to reappear. It might be worth it if the enemy team has only one player left, but 1v4s usually don't go very well.
Aim arena
In Aim Arena, players appear with a full loadout and only have two lives per turn. When a turn is over, players are moved to a different arena. Arenas are small parts of existing maps that are used to limit the space in which players can move.
Keeping players in a small area with specific weapons like a PNCR, rocket launcher, or tree helps train your aim and get a feel for the combat of the game without needing to look very far for a fight. Players start with full health and armor and cannot self-inflict damage in this game mode.
MacGuffin
MacGuffin is a turn based mode where the objective is to get the MacGuffin to your base to generate 100 coins, while preventing the opponent from stealing it and trying to do the same. Each team is assigned a base at the start of the turn, swapping bases at the start of the next turn.
Carrying the MacGuffin generates 10 coins while being carried by players, which are instantly dropped when the MacGuffin enters the base. 100 pieces in the base can take some time and some serious defense, so be prepared with a full stack and loadout when you deliver the MacGuffin to your base. In this mode, you will need to collect all the weapons and health items on the map, as you will only start with a melee weapon and a machine gun.
E
This is a turn-based mode where each player only starts with 3 lives, and the first team to lose all of their lives loses the round. However, if you are not alive, be sure to pay attention. You will continue to respawn as long as there is a living player on your team. Ghosts have a much longer respawn time, but can protect their living teammate and attempt to take a life or two from enemy players who still have plenty of them.
If the remaining player on your team has more lives than anyone on the enemy team, ghost players on your team will have less health upon spawning depending on the difference and drop a deadly orb that reveals the location of the living player. if it is picked up by an enemy. There is a new bonus each round, either Vindicator, Vanguard or Siphonator. No loading to start in this one, so map control and weapon management are extremely important.
Duel
The classic competitive Quake game mode. The duel is a 1v1 battle to see who can score the most kills before the time runs out. Each player starts with nothing, needing to manage the map and weapons to get their loadout.
After the time runs out, a player must obtain the Golden Frag to win the match. The game's base time limit is reduced by 30 seconds for each point of total kill difference between players. This means that if someone is completely destroyed, the match will end faster. Once this time limit is reached, the Golden Frag means the winning player needs a kill to win and the losing player has one last chance to come back.
Playlists in Game Mode
Diabotical offers several playlists to try out each of the game modes mentioned above. This includes practice, quick play, ranking, and customization.
- The practice modes of this game are quite good. There's a aim trainer, a free roaming map to try out weapons and abilities with mobile robots for aiming practice, and a running track to learn and practice your strafe jumps.
- Quickplay is a casual rank-free playlist where standard play modes are available to practice with real teammates and foes to get a taste of what the leaderboard will be like.
- Ranking is available with team modes, single player, 3v3 and more. Players have an individual ranking for each game mode, which is given to them after completing 10 full matches.
- Custom gives you the ability to define your own settings, choose your own map, and even allow users to find and join your server.
