Posted on: February 22, 2024
Louard_le_Barbare
Verified ownerGames: 295 Reviews: 126
Still great after almost three decades
I truly believe that Quake is a better FPS than most of those that came after it. It’s not one of those culturally significant but poorly aged titles that you force yourself to get into without having that much fun: like Doom before it, it’s a classic that most players today, kids and grown-ups alike, will still have a blast playing! It is a masterpiece of action. Its minimalist control scheme, even lacking an “interact” key, encourages you to go berserk with a set of simple-to-master yet powerful and versatile guns, while all of the complexity of the gameplay comes from the level design and enemy behavior. The game is all about finding keys and switches to unlock the next door and learning how to efficiently dispatch each monster type: it’s a simple, fun and stimulating slaughterfest which is challenging but rarely unfair. While Quake’s graphics have their detractors (it’s very... brown), its atmosphere has aged superbly. The excellent texture work and soundtrack make for a uniquely eerie experience, set in an alien world full of hostile locations and terrifying creatures. This vibe combined with the “lo-fi” 3D definitely has a lot of charm, and it’s no surprise that it still inspires shooters like Dusk or Wrath: AoR to this day. Most of my issues with Quake amount to nitpicks (like how half the weapons become obsolete once you obtain their more powerful counterparts), but it also has serious imperfections. Excessively cramped fight chambers filled with frustrating monsters are common annoyances, especially in the much-maligned, slime-infested fourth episode of the main campaign. In spite of that, it’s definitely worth playing. Getting it to run well on modern system used to be a bit of a hassle, but this recent “enhanced edition” works perfectly fine and is faithful to the original release in its gameplay and visuals (although it sadly restricts access to mods). It also allows you to play both original expansions PLUS two new ones, guaranteeing hours of fun!
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