Reader Reviews

Quake (PC)

by Master Blaster

Boomsticks, shafts and pineapples. Do these words mean anything to you? Have you been an online gamer for more than five years? If you answered 'no' and 'yes' respectively to those questions then shame on you! If they have meaning then of course you'll instantly know that this review is of the Grandaddeh of online games: Quake. Quake nearly ruined me, and I suspect many others. Loss of contact with friends, lack of regular sleeping patterns, huge phone bills (£150 a month, anyone?), and homework neglect to name but a few. But it didn't matter; unloading my buckshot into some stranger's face from the other side of the planet with a quad-enabled, double-barelled shotgun was way more satisfying than another algebra assignment.

The beauty of Quake was its simplicity. Pick up a weapon, get some ammo, find another player and shoot the hell out of him/her until they move no more. Classic, mindless deathmatch. Throw in some of the best maps ever made, great moody graphics (for the time), good soundtrack, very fast action, wacky physics and a dozen or more other players and you have yourself an addiction problem.

Although not great by today's standards, the netcode allowed for almost-playable games, even on decent 28.8k modems. Then, with the launch of QuakeWorld that further improved the netcode, the prospect of team-based play became a real prospect. And this is where the real fun began. Organised teams (termed clans), in organised leagues competing for recognition as a force to be reckoned with - it was gripping stuff. Nightly practicing, proudly displaying your clan's tag name, getting ready for the big match. The 'readying up', palms sweating and hands shaking, your heart pumping, waiting for the second restart when the match would begin. It never got dull.

Another great attribute of id's classic was the ability to really master the game. Not over a week or a month, but only through constant practice and dedication over many months or years. This really enticed the player to keep coming back and perfect those rocket jumps, grenade jumps and ledge-traversing, wall-hugging leaps just so they wouldn't lose the next duel by one frag in the - often gut-wrenching - last 10 seconds. Undoubtedly, there were a lot of bugs in the Quake engine - bunny-hopping, speed running and all sorts were possible, but again, only ever mastered by the more hardened Quaker. Even today, some seven years on, I still see or find some tricks that I never knew existed. The feeling of perfecting a gravity-defying trick is extremely rewarding; to then land a pineapple on your enemies bonce as you complete the move is digital ecstasy.

Quake laid the foundations for a lot of the characteristics we see in many of today's online First Person Shooting games for very good reasons. However, for me at least, none have bettered the 'gaming experience' it offered as a whole; not even its successors Quake 2 and 3. Sure, if you're looking for something a little more taxing on the brain then Battlefield 1942 or Counter Strike is probably your best bet. But, for pure adrenaline-driven, classic deathmatch action, it doesn't get much better than Quake.

All of the above positive comments are focused towards the multiplayer side of Quake (and in particular, Quake World). This is no coincidence. The single-player element was Quake's biggest (only?) let down. There was no story to speak of, no goal to the levels, no clever AI. The aim was to get from start to finish and try to uncover (usually) 4 or 5 secrets. Repeat over and over. But for almost everyone who purchased Quake this was not the point, it was simply something to do when your Mum had ripped out the modem.