The negative aspects of the game include the new maps. Most of the new maps are very obviously based on existing maps, and some are even duplicates! New maps to explore shouldn’t be too much to ask for — a plethora of them can be found in other expansion packs. Most of the new models within the game are ugly and unimaginative. The teams are either red or blue, but the models have so much armor and other decor on them that trying to figure out who’s on what team from a distance is a total crap shoot. Even up close, the models’ details look rather hurried and hackneyed (oh, the weirdo chick with the strange eyes faces off against the bizarre android with a tentacle head). It’s all tired stuff.

You will hear new voice samples that sound as though they were recorded in mono at 4KHz with a $20 microphone. Perhaps id was trying to achieve a static radio sound, however the static makes it much too difficult to decipher anything, especially once the pace picks up.

And the pace does pick up, as the levels are designed for mental teamwork, with many having areas containing 15 or more players on them at once. Further complicated, if you recall from the aforementioned, how difficult the new teammate models are to identify.

Most of the levels are well designed, but they resemble the Las Vegas strip gone awry. I can’t complain about the 80 shades of brown found in previous Quake and Doom games, but the colors presented here have such a neon–like appearance they’re almost an eyesore. Team Arena contains plenty of color–coded directional arrows that point toward enemy and friendly sides, but there are better ways to accomplish this feat.

Even though the weapons balancing has been tweaked, the system is still not correct — some weapons are simply too powerful, while others are as effective as shooting rubber bands at one another. Unlike the near perfect balance found in UT, the weaponry in both Q3A and Team Arena desperately needs to be redesigned. If the devastating weapons were rare and only re–spawned once every five minutes, they might have been more acceptable. However, most of the heavyweight weapons are as common as the other less powerful weapons, rendering them almost useless. For example, the machine gun has been upped a little, but the shotgun seems to be lowered. The rocket launcher has the ability to occasionally do one–shot kills, while the railgun frequently takes three or more hits to score. If the damage model was consistent, then this modeling would make sense. I hope that id can manage to get this right next time!

Now about the good stuff. The outdoor levels in Team Arena border on the size of levels found in Tribes. They’re humongous, gorgeous and even the Q3A engine refrains from the occasional burp while switching from indoors to outdoors. Servers that handle 32 or more players are fantastic, and the teamwork is really apparent. However, servers with this capacity are too large for smaller groups. Playing with people that either don’t know what they’re doing, or simply don’t care, can pose a serious problem. If you find yourself stuck on a bad team, you are sure to have a miserable experience, being dominated by a team with better coordination. The game is not to blame, rather it’s a matter of choosing your teams wisely.

Although the new modes of play are hardly new, they’re still welcome to Quake fans. The game is equipped with Standard Capture the Flag (CTF) and "One Flag" CTF or 1FCTF. In this mode, there’s a single flag located in neutral territory at the center of the map. The object is to grab and deliver the flag to the enemy base. Teamwork and defense are demonstrated to a great degree within this mode, and with the right team, this can be a wonderful challenge.

The next mode of play is called Harvester which isn’t terribly creative, but it does present a delicate balance between defense and daring offense. Here you grab floating skulls from a centrally located receptacle (for lack of a better word) and must somehow manage to bring them to the enemy’s base. The skulls appear outside the receptacle for you or a teammate to grab and drag back to the enemy base. If you touch a skull of your own color, the skull will disappear and the enemy is unable to earn points. It’s another excellent mix of defense and offense, but is much easier to play than to explain.

The simplist, and perhaps the best, of the new modes is Overload. This final mode puts a giant skull in each base with the objective being that you must destroy the enemy’s skull to earn points. To destroy the skull, you must hit it with a ton of firepower, which is much easier said than done, as the skull will regenerate over time. Simply getting a few rocket shots off the skull won’t suffice. It takes a team effort to do the trick, and the opposing team will be ready and waiting to defend their skull. This is definitely a much better game on the small maps, since passing through miles of terrain just to fire off a few rockets is not much fun.

Guard, a new pick–up item that automatically boosts health and armor to 200, is by far the best part of the game, and continuously regenerates your health as needed until 200 is reached. Guard can be a rare pick–up, but is the most useful especially on defense, and is helpful even during offense, allowing you to obtain a virtual tank regardless of lag. However, whatever power–up the enemy has (if any) is unknown, which means you are asking for cheat/lag accusations. Although this is possibly another balancing issue regarding the game, it’s an excellent idea and will surely get fleshed out within the mod community.

Game play is nothing new, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Despite all of its problems, Q3A is a fantastically fun game, providing you have the right caliber of people participating. Team Arena offers the same experience with the emphasis on teams rather than solo play. The new server selection system enables you to join both Q3A and Team Arena games, and the system is much more streamlined than Q3A’s outdated interface.

Sniping spots are still present as well as huge open areas full of splash damage and there are enough paths available to enable you to lose the enemy. Since the expansion pack is based on teamwork, Team Arena’s success depends heavily on all of the teammates. With a bad group or a team of newbies it’s a painful lesson in patience and humility. However, with a skilled group, this game offers enough variety and challenge to warrant hours of play.

As fun as Team Arena can be, it’s nothing more than what other mods, both in the Quake universe and in other games, have already been doing for free. Weapons Factory Arena, Team Fortress and Strike Force have been in existence for a year or more and are available for download. Although Team Arena is definitely a grade A mod, the $30 price tag isn’t justified, considering the free mods that can rival its quality.