How to get Nexuiz (2012) playable in 2021

This is how to get past the intro videos and actually play the game.

Introduction

Since the central server went down, Nexuiz 2012 can't be played online without hassle anymore. To make matters worse, the game will rapidly try to connect to the server while the game is open, causing the game to freeze (ignoring alt-tab trickery).

The only way to get it sanely working is to launch Steam in Offline Mode. This will put the game into a "demo mode", disabling achievements and Workshop intergration but it will allow bot matches and LAN play.

Note: It may be possible to stay online on Steam and stop this connection issue by utilising Windows Firewall and blocking the executable from network access, but I've had no luck with that method.

Instructions

1. Open Steam.
   
2. On the top left corner of the Steam window, click on "Steam".
   
3. Click "Go Offline".
   
4. (Optional) Create a shortcut to the game's executable. This will stop going through the installscript admin prompt every time you launch the game.
   
   Go to "<Steam install folder>\steamapps\common\Nexuiz\Bin32\" and look for "Nexuiz.exe". Then right click it > Send to > Desktop (create shortcut).
   
5. Launch the game!

Closing notes

I think the game can theoretically be played online through LAN tunnelling (e.g. Hamachi) but I can't confirm it works.

[Pentakill]

Step 1: Never buy Illfonic games again.
Step 2 :Profit.

[CLANG-CLANG]

@TrialMacameau The real great thing about arena shooters is that they tend to prioritise proper bot support.

You're probably well aware of this, but if you'd like to try similar AFPS games with bot support I can suggest Quake 3/Quake Live, nQuake (Quake 1 MP package), Unreal Tournament '99 GOTY & 2004.

There's a lot more games I can recommend, but I'd rather not type them all here. I've listed more games in my Steam curator page here , but generally speaking games and mods built on the Quake 3 engine tend to have good bot support.

[TrialMacameau]

To be fair the game is only good against bots which I always love playing against.

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@TrialMacanmeau I tried blocking the game in Windows Firewall but I still had the connection problem while logged into Steam.

While I'm not inclined to try it again (the game isn't good if I'm honest), I'll add a note that it may be possible to prevent this issue with Firewall tools.

@Ch3wy_T4rg3t[cZk] I'm sorry to hear that.

[TrialMacameau]

One easy app you can use is OneClickFirewall.

[TrialMacameau]

This is not required to go Offline on Steam... You can simply just Firewall block the executable of the game both In and Out and you won't have that freeze issue.

[Ch3wy_T4rg3t[cZk]]

Was able to do bot training but I could not get a LAN party started.

[Rosemary225]

God I miss this game.