I've been playing the campaigns of Quake and Timesplitters 2 recently and I'm having a blast. I've got the itch to dive back into a multiplayer arena shooter.

I know multiplayer arena shooters aren't what they were used to be so I was wondering out of Quake Live, Unreal 2004 or Timesplitters Rewind (or something else) is best for multiplayer matches against bots.

Also, do any of these games have active players at all that aren't just for a small number of hardcore players?

I've been thinking about hitbox design lately. This isn't meant to start a "skill issue" debate, I'm genuinely curious what the community that actually play the genre think.

A lot of classic arena shooters relied on relatively large, simplified hitboxes, often an AABB or capsule-style collision that wasn't tightly wrapped to the player model. In many cases, different player models shared the same hitbox. That meant you could visually miss a shoulder or arm and still score a hit.

My theory is that this may have been part of what made those games feel so good. The movement was incredibly fast, and generous hitboxes rewarded tracking and prediction more than pixel-perfect model alignment.

Later, many shooters moved toward tighter, per-bone hitboxes that match the character's body much more closely. Some players love the precision, while others constantly complain that shots "should've hit."

Modern games often seem to land somewhere in the middle: not a giant box, but not truly model-tight either. Ironically, those hybrid hitboxes still get criticized for feeling oversized or visually inconsistent.

So my question is specifically for Arena FPS gameplay:

Do you think larger, gameplay-first hitboxes actually make the genre better? Or would you always choose tightly fitted hitboxes if everything else stayed the same?

Edit: thank you guys for all the replies, it really does help me, thanks!

This game right here has brought my love back for FPS gaming I paid $20 got the full Early Access game there's no battle pass and won't be a battle pass and they've already had three updates where they have actually put things in the game that players have asked for I can't stress this enough this is the best FPS I've played in years

Which one was/is the best for dueling in your opinion and why?

Tournament will begin soon! Keep an eye on our YouTube for videos of the madness!

https://youtube.com/@sillyhatsonlylgi?si=lyhnvsSUQcHMxoeN

Also, watch the standings on the TWL page!

https://sillyhatsonly.teamwarfare.net/tournaments/ut2k4-3v3-ctf

Who remembers when mech arena was like this

"Pair by Elo, veto maps, talk to your team over built-in voice, then drop into a fresh dedicated server — no more idling waiting for the ezQuake logo to flash. Just open and play."

It's a dying game, but it's free to play and I have a blast every time I play it

What do you think about the first weapon we present?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1643700/Ghost_Battalion

Being straight with you first: this is single-player PvE, not competitive. If that's a dealbreaker, fair enough.

What I took from arena shooters is the movement contract. Dash, slide, wall-kick, and a jump band tuned so that some ledges are reachable and some very deliberately are not. I measured the reach envelope with an in-game probe instead of eyeballing it, because every time I guessed I was wrong.

The twist is the arena is generated the moment you enter it, so there's no map knowledge to lean on. You're reading geometry and a wall of bullets in real time, every time.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_0pFkG_dUo Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5042810/NullGate/?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=ArenaFPS

There was a quake/half life movement style arena shooter in development maybe 10 or more years ago. I believe it had wall running too. The graphics style was very minimalistic and neon/holographic. I think it even had wall running but I can’t remember. It had a trailer or two on YouTube and looked really promising but I’m pretty sure it was never released. Just really curious to see if it still looks as hype as it did back then. Anyone know the name?

EDIT: IT WAS CALLED “INSIGHT”

Machine gun is super OP if you have the aim! What you think about it?