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Review Title: Quake
Review Date: Nov. 11, 1998
Reviewer: Sulman Syed
I'm not one who is surprised by much that ever happens in a game anymore. At least, that's what I believed. On one of the first few levels of Quake, I found myself jogging my on-screen alter ego around a tight bend in one of Quake's gloomy dungeon halls, and entered a clearing. Now, my computer speakers aren't the greatest, but I could swear I heard the distinctly menacing sound of a blade being drawn (sshinngg!) and I watched, amazed, as three blood-spattered, sword-wielding maniacs leapt towards me and slashed me in half.
I haven't had that type of reaction to a game in a long, long time. Amazement, I mean. That's why Quake is so special, for all its drab colours -- it's got the killer style and finesse previously only seen in the best of action movies.
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For those of you who have been in hibernation for the last few years, Quake debuted in 1996 as the first true-3D first-person shooter ever, and also as one of the most heavily hyped games in recent memory. Many people agree, though, that it wasn't all hype, living up to most peoples' reasonable expectations. The story isn't one of those things, however.
The entire story line consists of the tale of an evil organization code-named 'Quake' that is sending hordes of gruesome monsters to Earth from an unidentified location. Of course, story doesn't matter to most people when they discuss the pros and cons of an action game, but, hey, it still matters to me.
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[ Story: 1/5 ]
Describing Quake's graphics to one who has not seen them requires a bit of a primer. You see, back before the year 1996, the engines that ran first-person shooters used sprites to display characters and objects in the game. The significance of this was that those objects could be viewed from one perspective only; even if you ran around them so that you should be seeing the backside of the object, you saw the initial view. Hence the two-dimensional quality of those games.
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Quake's 3D modeling engine changed all of that. Suddenly, objects in the game could be viewed at any oblique perspective, giving the player that much more of an idea of where s/he stood inside the game. You now knew more than whether you were in front of or behind a monster; your enemy could be guarding a north-west corner entrance while you picked him off from high above; you knew if you were spotted or not (an important tidbit of info in multiplayer games).
What I'm trying to say, of course, is having Quake rendered in 3D made it that much more real. At Quake's lowest resolution of 300x200, it was playable. Near the high-end scale of things (512x384 to 800x600), it looked amazing, albeit a little dark and brownish for my liking.
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[ Graphics: 17/20 ]
Evaluating the audio aspects of Quake is a toss-up. The sound made when you jump in the game still makes me cringe - it sucks. Same goes for the sound of discharged shotgun shells, whether you're using the regular or the double-barreler. Then again, the shots from the nailgun makes a highly satisfyingly rapid report, same going for the triple-barreled 'perforator.' Best of all, though, is the sound the rocket launcher makes: a solid thump as it exits the rocket tube, then a subtle hiss as it streaks across the room.
Character sounds in the game are also generally well-recorded. Growls, grunts, screeches and screams add greatly to the atmosphere of the game. There's nothing like watching a hungry enemy jumping on top of you and raking his claws across your chest with a gut-wrenching scratching sound.
[ Sound: 7/10 ]
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First-person shooters, with rare exceptions (Jedi Knight, to name one) are easy to get into. There are a minimum of keyboard controls and the on-screen HUDs are generally spartan. It's best that way - nothing distracts you from the infliction of raw carnage onto your enemies. Quake accomplishes much in that respect... maybe too much.
Developers of Quake, id Software, have done away with the 'use' key - buttons are now activated either just by running up close to them or by shooting 'em. I feel this diminishes the feel of realism in the game, but my main concern is with the fact that Quake includes no in-game or overlay map screen. That bites; it's always been a very useful tool, especially when trying to keep track of your comrades in a cooperative game.
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id almost makes up for this oversight by integrating a new type of cornering ability into Quake; instead of moving forward and turning on the spot like you would in Duke Nukem or Doom, traveling around corners in Quake swings you in a neat arc, which enables you to come into corners always facing forwards. It also make circle-strafing around enemies much easier. Top marks for this feature, id.
[ Playability: 16/20 ]
You'll notice in the first few minutes of a game how sweet it feels to run at full tilt into a corner blasting away at, well, everything. The gameplay will definitely attract the attention of the adrenaline junkie who loves to play at the edge of his seat - they're no telling what's coming next. If you can handle the constant feeling of queasiness in your stomach telling you that you're about to be ambushed, you'll love this game. I did, and that's why I decided to give it the amount of Fun Factor marks that I have. Opinions differ, of course, but my guess is that you'll like it too.
[ Fun Factor: 28/30 ]
Firstly, it is important to make the realization known that Quake in multiplayer mode still sets the standard for the way competing games' multiplayer options are compared to. It's that damned good. Quake's programming has been highly optimized for multiplayer gaming, and it shows. Gameplay on the Internet is slightly laggy on local servers but still reasonably smooth at 28.8 and 33.6 bps. 64k ISDN and above makes you feel like you're playing against a number of really smart computer opponents in single-player mode.
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There has been a huge effort by the people at id Software and Quake aficionados alike to make Quake's multiplayer mode the best it can possibly be. John Carmack himself (senior programmer on the Quake project) worked long and hard on possibly the most popular gaming utility of them all, QuakeWorld.
Permanent, high-speed Quake servers have been set up by the hundreds across the globe. Ardent Quake fans are playing twenty-four hours a day and Quake modifications/addons are limitless. It takes only the standard version of Quake (no extra download time required) and a minute or two to connect to a server and you're playing Capture the Flag alongside eight team members, complete with grappling hooks enabling you to swing around on the walls at breakneck speeds. Magnificent.
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[ Multiplayer: 20/20 ]
At the end of the day, a reasonably sane gamer like myself can only conclude that Quake is one of the best games ever, and if not one of the best, at least one many will try for a long time to beat. It's set a new threshold on what constitutes a good first-person shooter, and for that, we owe the people at id Software a lot. One can only assume that games can only get better from here on in, although from where I'm standing, things are looking pretty damned good already.
[ Total Score: 85% ]
We're not done with our look at Quake just yet! Click to see:
 Detailed instructions on playing Quake on the Net.
Frequently Asked Questions about Quake.
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