#682
Posted 08 September 2019 - 08:05 PM
Quake was the first FPS game that I ever played, and probably to this day the FPS the I've played the most throughout my life. I played it non-stop from 1997 to around 2008, later using fitzquake during the early to late 2000s. Since then I play through it at least once every year. That is until I started using the QuakeSpasm source port around 2016. It really reignited my love for the game and I've been replaying it often now.
I know many people accuse Quake of being drab and using way too much brown, but there's a nightmarish atmosphere the game captures that for me it just feels unique. It's kinda sad that no other Quake game went for that kind of mood afterwards. The only thing I can fault Quake on is the boss fights. I'll admit they were somewhat disappointing.
I remember when I finally got to play a little bit of Quake II at a friend's house in 1999, I was 9 years old and being a stupid kid I completely dismissed it because it 'didn't feel like Quake'. And sure, even now I stand by that statement, but once you get over the fact that Quake II has nothing to do with the original game other than the name, its a pretty solid shooter on its own right. Granted I only got to experience it fully years later with the great convenience of source ports, so any issues around launch or before those ports escaped me, but I wish I had played it more back in the days.
Quake 3 was fun, and there were a lot of people in my school playing it, but I always gravitated more towards Unreal Tournament. That flak cannon was weapon porn.
Now, Quake 4 flew under my radar back in the day and I only got to play it for the very first time this year. It was very similar to Doom 3, a game that I hated at first but with the years have grown to love and appreciate. Much like Doom 3, Quake 4 had spectacular use of lightning and a lot of it still looks really good for today's standards. Only issue was that I had to manually configure most of the graphical features through an autoexec.cfg file using the settings somebody provided on the steam forums. When I first played Quake 4 without the graphical fix, it looked more like Borderlands 2. Very bizarre. Quake 4 is certainly the weakest entry in the series, but it isn't at all boring or poorly designed. I find myself with the desire to replay it, although I'll admit to being somewhat of a Raven Software fan so I'm clearly biased. I have yet to play Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, so I can't comment on that title.
Anyway, Quake was very inconsistent as a franchise, but it was at least very consistent in quality. Wrath looks promising in recapturing some of that Quake 1 feel, but I also like that they are using a more broad color spectrum. I'm cautiously optimistic.
This post has been edited by Putrid Pete: 08 September 2019 - 08:11 PM
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