Warsow (video game)

Warsow, also stylized as War§ow, is an open source first-person shooter video game.

Not to be confused with Warsaw (video game).
Warsow
Warsow logo
Developer(s)Warsow Team
Publisher(s)Chasseur de Bots
EngineQfusion
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux
ReleaseJuly 28, 2012 (version 1.0)
June 8, 2014 (version 1.51)
November 30, 2015 (version 2.0)
March 28, 2016 (version 2.1)
December 21, 2017 (version 2.1.2)
Genre(s)First-person shooter
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Development

Warsow was first publicly released on June 8, 2005, as an alpha version. The stable version 1.0 was released on July 28, 2012, after 7 years of development.

Warsow's codebase is free and open source software, distributed under the terms of the GPLv2 license; it is built upon Qfusion, an advanced modification of the Quake II engine. The artwork and other media were originally licensed under the proprietary Warsow Content License, which allowed the contributors of this media to use the work in a "personal portfolio" but not in any other game. Some assets were later released under the Creative Commons License Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license,[1] while others are under the non-free license CC-BY-ND.[2]

Warsow is loosely based on the E-novel Chasseur de bots by Fabrice Demurger.[3] The novel is the basis of the game's cyberpunk visual style, which is achieved by combining cel-shaded cartoon-like graphics with dark, flashy and dirty textures. Since visual clarity is important in maintaining competitive gameplay, Warsow tries to keep effects minimalistic, clear and visible.

On October 18, 2012, the game was released on GOG.com.[4] Warsow was submitted to Steam Greenlight on February 9, 2013,[5] and was greenlit on September 18.

At the end of 2016, the former main developer of Warsow posted: "2.6 this weekend".[6] As of September, 2022 version 2.6 of the game has still not been released.

The game was later forked under the title of Warfork,[7] and is being actively developed as of October 2021 by a different development team.[8][9] Its code is licensed under the same free license as Warsow, while its assets are a mix of proprietary, CC-BY-SA 3.0 and CC0 licenses.[1]

Gameplay
A screenshot showing Warsow's cel-shaded visual style

The very competitive gameplay of Warsow focuses heavily on movement and trickjumps.[10] Many of the tricks in Warsow originate from the Quake series, including circle-jumping, bunny hopping, strafe-jumping, double jumping, ramp-sliding, and rocket jumping, but Warsow also gives players the ability to dash, dodge or wall jump, tricks that were originally possible in Urban Terror. It uses a separate button for most of the special movements, making it easier to use them while doing other things at the same time. The various movement tricks combine to add an extra dimension to the gameplay; as the player's proficiency at moving increases, they can collect health, armor and weapons more quickly, and to overpower less capable enemies. The variety and flexibility of the physics have spawned an entire community dedicated to competing on the various Race maps that the game offers.[11]

Reception

Media coverage

Warsow was mentioned on the Australian television show Good Game on 14 April 2008 in a segment listing the best free to play games available.[12] Warsow was reviewed with 8 of 10 by Linux Format in August 2011.[13]

Competitive play

Warsow has been accepted as a competition-worthy game by several large online leagues such as the Electronic Sports League[14] and ClanBase.[15][16][17] In addition to acceptance by large leagues, many specialized Warsow cups have emerged. Well-known examples are Bamboocha, a Europe-based Warsow Duel Tourney,[18] and ESW: Warsow, a Japanese Warsow cup.[19] In 2007, several LAN tournaments featuring Warsow have emerged such as Crossfire Devotii Archived 2018-06-14 at the Wayback Machine Challenge 3,[20] Warsow.nl LAN,[21] and E-Sport Stadium 2007.[22]

Additionally, Warsow has been featured on the German TV-channel GIGA Television several times,[23] namely in GIGA eSports and its sub-shows Skill Sunday and Free For All and the Pay TV IPTV station GIGA 2, also produced by Turtle Entertainment.

See also

References
  1. WARFORK, Team Forbidden LLC, 2021-08-16, retrieved 2021-10-12
  2. warfork-free-soundpacks, Team Forbidden LLC, 2021-09-13, retrieved 2021-10-12
  3. Demurger, Fabrice. "Chasseur de bots". Archived from the original on 2003-08-10. Retrieved 2007-02-09.
  4. GOG.com (2012-10-18). "Free Release: Warsow". CD Projekt. Archived from the original on 2014-02-21. Retrieved 2014-02-03.
  5. Warsow Team (2013-02-09). "Warsow's status on Facebook about the submitting to Steam Greenlight". Facebook. Archived from the original on 2022-02-26.
  6. ""Making a few things clear" at Warsow Forums". warsow.net. 2016-11-02. Archived from the original on 2016-11-14. Retrieved 2021-10-07.
  7. "Warfork's Steam Page, 2019 archive". Steam. Archived from the original on 2019-09-06. Retrieved 2021-10-11.
  8. "Warfork - Welcome". warfork.com. Retrieved 2021-10-12.
  9. Dawe, Liam (19 August 2019). "Based on the classic FPS Warsow, the new Warfork is now live in Early Access". GamingOnLinux. Retrieved 2023-02-08.
  10. Demurger, Fabrice. "Warsow About page". Retrieved 2012-08-20.
  11. "Warsow Racenet" (in German). Retrieved 2007-08-31.
  12. "Good Game episode 2008-04-14". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2007-11-24.
  13. Linux_Format_147_August_2011 on Linux Format
  14. "ESL Warsow". Archived from the original on 2015-10-18. Retrieved 2007-02-09.
  15. "ClanBase Warsow Duel OpenCup Fall 2006". Retrieved 2007-02-09.
  16. "ClanBase Warsow TDM Hosted Cup". Retrieved 2007-02-09.
  17. "ClanBase Warsow Ladders". Retrieved 2007-02-09.
  18. "Bamboocha Warsow Duel Tourney". Archived from the original on 2007-02-04. Retrieved 2007-02-09.
  19. "ESW" (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2007-02-20. Retrieved 2007-02-09.
  20. "CDC3 Announcement". Retrieved 2007-08-31.
  21. "Warsow.NL LAN". Archived from the original on 2020-10-27. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
  22. "E-sports Stadium 2007". Retrieved 2007-08-31.
  23. "GIGA 2 Warsow VOD archive" (in German). Retrieved 2007-02-09.
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