OpenArena and Xonotic both keep classic arena shooting free and alive on open-source engines descended from Quake III. OpenArena stays closer to the original Quake III Arena experience; Xonotic reinvents the movement and visuals into something faster and more its own, with more active ongoing development. Both have strong bots for solo practice.
Both are free, open-source descendants of Quake III Arena's engine, and both exist to keep classic arena shooting alive without a Quake license. They diverge on how far they modernised past that shared starting point.
| OpenArena | Xonotic | |
|---|---|---|
| Base engine | ioquake3 (Quake III's engine, open-sourced) | DarkPlaces (heavily modified Quake engine) |
| Movement | Classic Quake III movement | Faster, more technical — strafe-jumping, bunny-hopping |
| Download size | ~405 MB | ~1.1 GB |
| Visuals | Closer to original Quake III era assets | Fully original, more modern art and effects |
| Active development | Slower, maintenance-focused | More active, regular updates |
| Bot support | Strong, good for offline practice | Strong, good for offline practice |
You want the truest continuation of Quake III Arena itself, assets and all, with the least reinvention.
You want faster, more technical movement and a more actively developed, visually distinct game.
OpenArena is pure arena-shooter adrenaline. The movement is fast, the weapons are satisfying, and every second of a match demands attention. Rocket jumps, rail shots, frantic weapon switching, map control—it rewards mechanical skill in a way that feels increasingly rare in modern FPS games.
Xonotic has no interest in slowing down for you. It belongs to that wonderfully aggressive school of arena shooters where movement is a skill, weapon choice matters, and standing still is basically volunteering to die. We picked it because firing up Xonotic feels like stepping into a version of multiplayer FPS design that modern shooters largely abandoned.
OpenArena and Xonotic both keep classic arena shooting free and alive on open-source engines descended from Quake III. OpenArena stays closer to the original Quake III Arena experience; Xonotic reinvents the movement and visuals into something faster and more its own, with more active ongoing development. Both have strong bots for solo practice.
You want the truest continuation of Quake III Arena itself, assets and all, with the least reinvention.
You want faster, more technical movement and a more actively developed, visually distinct game.
Yes. OpenArena is released under Open Source (GPL-2.0) · assets under CC/GPL and Xonotic under Open Source (GPL-2.0). Both are entirely free with no trials, paid tiers or in-game purchases.