ANEWQUAKEGAMEIS
NOGUAR ANTEEOFA
PA RT IC U L A R ST ORY
ORSTYLE
SEISMICSHIFTS
Finally,theQuakestorybecame...weird.Aftertwoofficial
expansions(ScourgeofArmagon, aka“TheOneWithout
TheDragonInIt”,andDissolutionofEternity, aka“The
OneWithTheDragonInIt”),iddisappearedfora while
andreleasedQuakeIIasa single-playerfocusedsci-fi
shooterinwhichyouplayeda spacemarinefightingthe
unfortunatelynamedStrogg.Itwasnotverygood.Atall.
Itsmaincontributiontotheworldwas,alongwithUnreal,
teamingupwith3DacceleratorstosplashcolouredFAR LEFT: Using a
rocket in close
quarters is asking for
a quick death.
LEFT: Shamblers are
the most powerful
regular Quake enemy.BOTTOM: The
nailgun is another
reason Quake’s
combat is great.Blahbalicious and Apartment Huntin’
now looking somewhat... yeah... in
the era of Red vs. Blue and Source
Filmmaker and whatever the hell
people are doing to the Overwatch
girls today. At the time though, they
were often very impressive, especially
when run live in-engine, and did pave
the way for something new.
Much as the Doom mapping
community still puts out new levels,
Quake still has a modding scene. In
2017, Arcane Dimensions garnered
headlines for being the biggest mod
in Quake history. Carmack open
sourced Quake’s code in 1999,
meaning coders have been able to
completely overhaul the old engine
and bring it much more in line with
modern standards. The DarkPlaces
engine, for instance, offers real-time
rendering of light and shadow and
enhanced effects. Others, like
QuakeSpasm, focus on accuracy.
No game since has managed to
replicate Quake’s spectacular level of
success as a canvas for modding.
Others have impressive modding
communities, for sure, but not the
same scale. With Quake, anything
seemed possible – as long as it didn’t
take too many polygons. Games like
Second Life tried to replicate the
phenomenon online, and of course,
now would-be programmers can get
their hands on the likes of Source and
Unity and Game Maker for free,
rendering modding less important
- at least for making total conversions
or a wholly new game out of the
bones of the old.
However long it lasted, the Quake
era was important – kickstarting
many an industry career, as well as
providing the kind of playtime that
most games can only dream of
supplying. Some mods even got a
commercial release, though not
necessarily fondly remembered ones.
X-Men: The Ravages of Apocalypse,
anybody? The answer, in case you’re
wondering, is ‘hell no’.
lightning around the world whether
it liked it or not. Then Quake III
ditched all of that for a futuristic
arena shooter starring characters like
a giant cyborg eye... before Raven
Software’s Quake 4 went back to the
Strogg nonsense for another
single-player focused game.
With the recent Quake Champions,
it seems clear a new Quake game is
no guarantee of a particular story or
style, but rather a way for id to make
use of owning the name. Despite that,
close your eyes and picture ‘Quake’.
What comes to mind isn’t just
another game to be ticked off as
completed, nor a technical
achievement to be respected, but that
rare game that blew past its limits.
Quake lives on to some extent in just
about every shooter that followed it,
and made gaming a better, more
advanced, and endlessly more
exciting place for its existence.The Legacy of Quake
FEATURE