Short after the recent release of the new Quake expansion, I decided to get my hands into this legendary title for the first time, and oh boy oh boy, I wasn't ready.
First of all, Quake's art direction is something truly special: medieval fantasy sci-fi. Now, I know what you're thinking: "Warhammer 40k exists", and you'll be correct, but the strength of the game's art direction isn't in the fusion of both genres, like in Warhammer's case, but in how it presents itself.
From the mostly ambient soundtrack, to the dark environments, to the rusted, ancient look everything has, Quake establishes an horror tone for the very first levels and drives with it. That's what distinguishes it from, say, Doom The Dark Ages and the many other games with the same art direction concept. And that's what makes it stand out to this day, and the first thing that really stuck with me.
The second thing that really stuck was the level design, in the best way possible. Even three decades in, Quake's level design is simply excellent, keeping in mind I've only played the first two episodes (so like, 1/10th of the game), and have heard glowing praise for its expansions, including the recent one.
Labyrinthian maps that tend to interconnect, vertically stretching up and down and all around, and secrets hidden in the most clever ways, always leading to a shortcut, or a new area of the map previously unchecked. Keys unlocking doors presented to the player in different parts of the level, all complemented by tons of enemy encounters that, despite feeling repetitive in the sense the enemy pool is on the small side, still manage to test the player's map awareness, reaction time, positioning, accuracy and mastery of the weapon sandbox, aka, make the player think constantly while zooming to find the exit.
Pacing is excellent too, but that's a given considering Id from their very beginning never wasted an ounce of the player's time with pointless detours (aside from Dark Ages' infamous dragon and mech sections).
Onto the weapon sandbox: first off, I really enjoy the instant switching, helps maintain the fast combat flow, which was designed with it in mind; Id has a tendency to design vast arsenals that keep the player face to face with the enemy at all times, never opting for long range options (outside of Quake 3's rail of course), and Quake is no exception, with the added benefit of more complex movement compared to Doom (of course I mean the Doom games before Quake); all the weapons feel great, have punchy sound effects, although crusty by today's standards, and all feel purposeful on the player's hands, as is tradition with Id's games.
In conclusion: as someone who didn't grow up in the boomshoot's golden age, but came to love those types of games through the years, I can safely say that Quake, even to this day, is really damn good. Outside of some bullshit enemy placement, what set the gold standard for how an Arena FPS should be designed, both for single player and, especially, multiplayer, is found here. To this very day, almost every single indie boomer shooter that comes out is inspired by Quake, not Quake 2, a little of Quake 3, thank goodness not Quake 4, but this first effort from 1996, and playing it, and just craving to play more of it, has shown me why.
I've glazed Id Software a lot in this post, particularly those people who designed the game in 1996 (without mentioning the mythical figures called John Carmack and John Romero), but even today, under Hugo Martin's direction, despite all the controversies, and while still following those same design standards their forefathers set thirty years ago (push forward combat, interconnected maps with lots of secrets, player accountability in enemy placement and emphasis on weapon sandbox mastery), they still are at the top of their game, and I was infuriated when I heard of the layoffs by Microsoft. Just the thought of almost losing the studio that birthed the FPS genre, innovating their framework time and time again, is gloomy.
DSnb666666 - BF64s
PTFO or mute.
