and it's a shame that we never got another game like it.
I fucking love this game so much and cannot believe how well it still plays nearly 25 years later.
The art style is hands down the most unique in an FPS games. It's easy to criticize ID games for overusing brown and grey textures, but there is really nothing else that looks like Quake. It's weird mix of Lovecraft and Satanic Horror with Sci Fi, actually works when it seems these things wouldn't blend well together at all. Some levels have Sci Fi lighting and then it's mixed in with all these gothic castles that you explore.
Quake 1 had ridiculously fast movement speed similar to Doom but with a bit of physics, which makes for cool stuff like rocket jumping and playing with the grenade launcher for fun. That's another strength to this game - the weapons. They kinda feel underpowered but are satisfying to use and the grenade launcher is the first "fun" weapon that ID Software put into a game.
The gibbing in Quake is the most satisfying I've ever experienced in a video game. ALL the enemies gib and they make that hilarious sound effect which is impossible to describe, but it's so funny.
QUAD DAMAGE! A power-up so infamous that it wound up in Doom 2016. There is nothing more satisfying than getting that Quad Damage and listening to the GRRRRRRRR sound effect every time you fire a gun. The face down at the HUD status bar changes hilariously and then most of the enemies explode into gibs when you kill them. Quad Damage is still fun all these years later. I don't even care so much about the other power-ups, this is the one that makes you go on a rampage.
This game had truly unique atmosphere and I think that is what is so memorable about it despite it's aging. The soundtrack was done by Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails and it sounds terrifying. Playing this game for hours in the dark, it's so immersive. Just listen to this in the dark and you see what I mean. Trent also did all the sound effects, including the iconic 'cha ching' when you pick up armor, the loud booming of the guns and the player sounds which are almost comical and you can tell it's him sitting in a sound booth making grunting noises.
If I had to make a pick for most disappointing game I ever purchased, Quake 2 is probably it. They stripped away that unique Lovecraftian/Satanic horror mixed with Sci Fi and went with a generic Sci Fi shooter with no atmosphere whatsoever (but a pretty damn good Metal soundtrack that still rocks). The Strogg are just generic bad guys who are boring. Quake had enemies that were the stuff of nightmares like the Shambler, Death Knight and the Ogres who's grunting alert sound always gave me nightmares. What enemies does Quake 2 have that are scary? I can't think of anything. Even the level design in Quake 2 is just bland.
When Bethesda rebooted Doom, I was hoping we would get a Quake reboot that went back to the original game and it's art style. It's a pipe dream at this point. Quake is more of a multiplayer game now with Quake Champions and it went in that direction years ago with Quake 3 that had great death matching, but there's something about Quake 1 that always brings me back to it.
I played Doom online well into the 2000s and I can attest to the fact that nothing comes close to that style of lightning speed movement. Staif-running towards an opponent in a game of shotgun chicken to see who can keep their nerve until enough distance is closed to one shot them. Wait too long and you 're a puddle. Too early and you won't kill the bastard and you're still a puddle.
Then there were the rockets. There was nothing quite like the feeling of catching a glimpse of your opponent and slinging a couple rockets at the next corner so they catch one straight to the face.
Zdaemon capture the flag was the best thing ever created.
Nice to see another Doom player on here. I've been playing Doom religiously for years. It truly does not age. I can download so many MegaWADs and usually find something I enjoy.
Lately I have been going back and replaying the old Memento Mori WADs as well as their sequel Requiem that is one of the best WADs I ever played. It even has a Casali map in there.
Try DUSK. Huge Quake inspiration (along with Blood and Heretic). Lots of gibs, banging soundtrack, and retro aesthetic done right. Plus they did bunnyhopping at the speed of sound right
Dusk was great, although the movement was definitely less technical than it was in Quake. On the subject of New Blood games, while it's definitely more in the strain of the Doom reboots, I've been playing Ultrakill lately and it's just so good. Easy recommendation from me if anyone wants to try something new.
If there's one thing that chaps my ass about id games, it's that they've almost all turned into tech demos of some denomination. Civvie pointed out in his Quake 2 video that there's a sort of cookie cutter "id" design in terms of arsenals, and the same can sort of be expanded to other aspects of their games as well.
I 100% agree with you. Civvie is correct too.
Quake 2 feels like a tech demo more than anything. I played Daikatana a few years ago, which is the infamously bad game that John Romero made with the Quake 2 engine, and I unironically say that it's a better game than Quake 2. If you play it with all the patches and the option to turn off the AI sidekicks; Daikatana has a bad first level but when the game gets to the second level, it suddenly becomes really fun and there was a lot of creativity put into it. I had far more fun with Daikatana than I did with Quake 2. It might not seem like it, but there's a good game buried in Daikatana.
Quake 2 has nothing memorable about it whatsoever. All the previous ID games usually have something in their level design, weapons and enemies that stick out and is memorable. All the Doom games, including Doom 64 which was made by Midway, have memorable architecture in levels and their art style. Quake 2 just has nothing that sticks out and Civvie accurately called that in his video.
I agree with him too in defense of Doom 3 vs Quake 2; a lot of people hate that game and call it a tech demo but Doom 3 has an atmosphere and is scary. It's a flawed game too, but it's problems aren't the same as Quake 2 and I feel that a lot more effort was actually put into Doom 3. The writers behind the PDAs and the back story around the UAC was thoroughly fleshed out and you could tell the writers were passionate for that. Quake 2 on the other hand, is just bland as hell.
Yooo, OG Team Fortress was incredible.
The wildest shit is playing D as a Solly and having a good HWG on offense hauling ass through the demomans pipe trap
I never got around to Quake TF or TFC, but I wasted a lot of hours on Fortress Forever back in the day. Just one server of maybe 12-16 regulars, and every kind of map you could imagine for a Source game. Good times, and it was the game that got me to start wrapping my head around bunny hopping.
I never really had a problem with the gunplay in Quake 1. The only flaw I really see in the game is that enemies have such large hit boxes, that you can snipe them from distances and kill them with just barely hitting them.
One thing I have to point out is that when developing Quake 1, they could not really cram in a bunch of monsters into rooms like Doom. This is why the monsters have double HP and why the guns feel slightly underpowered. To make up for not being able to put hundreds of monsters in maps, they gave most of the enemies double HP and nerfed all the weapons. Quake 2 didn't have this problem with it's engine.
Quake 2 is IMO the worst game ID software made which is still quite a statement given that it's not a terrible game, it's just so bland. People constantly rip Doom 3 and I wrote a long post about why I have a love/hate relationship with that game (here - https://hexbear.net/post/39695 ) but compared to Quake 2, there is an actual atmosphere in Doom 3 and it can be scary when you've been playing it for hours on end. I hate the shotgun in Doom 3, but the plasma rifle and chaingun are awesome and fun to use. Outside of the Railgun, Quake 2's weapons just feel as generic as it's enemies and setting.
protip: quake champions still exists and it's free
fuckinnnn play it :)
unless you don't have an ssd cause the loading screens are killer :(
diabotical couldn't kill it since the arena shooter genre is omega dead alreadyI enjoyed the hell out of Quake Champions. My current PC just don't run it as well, same problem with Doom 2016 and Eternal. Running on an older PC is why I mainly am playing retro games again.
pc gaming is a total scam, i'd take paying $500 every 5 years and get acceptable (post day1 patch lol) performance of all games for the system than having to buy a new graphics card cuz the one you bought 2 years ago can't run the new 300% optimized for esports game on minimum settings
i'm running a 1060 from 2016 and i still get a solid 60 at 1080 on ultra in pretty much every new game i've played
To each their own, I can't play FPS games without a mouse and keyboard. Playing them with a controller just feels so awkward and I don't have my mouse aiming controls, and I find it much easier to strafe and move around with the keys than a joy stick.
Playing Tunderwalkers CTF on a 33.6 modem with 32 other people blew my mind. Took years for other multiplayer games to catch up.
