W
henQuakearrived,it
wasa true3Daction
game– everything
builtinpolygons.
Untilthen,most
gameshadjustfakedit.Wolfenstein
3Dtookplaceonentirelyflatmaps.
Doomoffereddifferentheights,but
everythingwasstilldrawnin2D.It
wasn’tpossibletohaverooms
underroomsandthelike.Duke
Nukem3DandotherBuildengine
games,particularlyShadow
Warrior, usedadvancedcheatsto
faketheeffect.Whenyoujumped
intowaterforinstance,youwere
actuallyinvisiblyteleportedinto
anotherzoneelsewhereonthe
map.Quakewastruly3D,doing
thingslikespiralstaircasesandlava
pitsforreal,andbeingastwistyand
turnyasit liked.Therehadbeenfull3Dgamesof
course,likeDescent, ortheFreescape
gamesthatpoweredthelikesof
CastleMasterevenasfarbackasthe
ZXSpectrum.Todothis,though,
theytypicallyhadtochoosebetween
simpleandslow.Quakedidn’t.Itwas
a technicalshowpieceandit moved
likea greased-upferretona decent
PC.Noexcuses.Nocompromises.
Oratleast,notechnical
compromises.OfQuake’s threegreat
achievements,thesingle-playergame
is easilytheweakest.It’snota terrible
gameoranything,butwhereDoom
stillstandsupasa greatcampaign
fullofdetailandwonderfuldesign
despiteitssimplicity,Quakeis a
largelyblandandjoylessexperience
whosememorablemomentswere
almostentirelyrestrictedtothefirst
sharewareepisode.Theywerepretty
cool,though.A mainmenuintheABOVE:Chthon,one
ofthebiggest,
scariestbosses.
Bringrockets.
BOTTOMLEFT:
Despitethesimple
geometry,it’san
atmosphericgame.RIGHT:Thewaythe
enemiesspurtblood
is gruesomely
satisfying.form of a 3D level, with each
chapter’s area themed around the
aesthetic to follow, forcing you to
jump a lava pit to select hard mode
and seek out the Nightmare mode in
the small level beyond. Big baddie
Chthon, hurling fire in his lava lair.
The first time having your face eaten
off by a Fiend. The low-gravity
physics of the secret level, Ziggaurat
Vertigo. They’re effective, as was the
experience of being in a fast-paced
3D world full of action.
Players hoping for a constant
stream of such innovation were
disappointed. Despite the
Lovecraftian influences, there was
little to fear or any sense of anything
great going on. There were no more
giant, dramatic bosses, with the final
one, Shub-Niggerauth, just being a
static blob defeated with a cheap
telefrag rather than a weapon. There
was little sense of place. The levels
were murky shooting galleries, where
even Doom had tried to make its
locations feel like real locations – to
whatever degree of ‘real’ you can get
from starbases slowly being taken
over by biotechnology. Certainly
players just coming in from Duke
Nukem 3D and its real-world settings
and constant variety couldn’t help but
be disappointed, even if Quake has
honestly aged much better. It’s still
dull, but at least unlike Duke it’s not
writing cheques its engine long
stopped being able to cash, and much
easier to take as a simple shooter
rather than a bigger experience.FAULT LINES
The main problem was that after
years of promises and expectation, to
have a game that was basically Doom
again – only set in a castle – wassomethingofa letdownboth
internallyandexternally.AlltheRPG
features,mostplannednewgameplay
concepts, even the idea of a main
character wielding a hammer, had
been sucked out, mostly to get the
thing out of the door. This led to a
major schism within id. John
Romero packed his bags to go start
Ion Storm and create the more
narrative/detail driven game
that he wanted to make. In a
case of history repeating,
his co-founder Tom
Hall had done much
the same over the
original Doom,The Legacy of Quake
FEATURE
something of a letdown both