Taking inspiration from the works of HP Lovecraft, Quake immerses gamers into four separate worlds, all connected with Slipgates that connect the Earth with other dimensions. Each world offers slight variations on fully three-dimensional maps, where the search for keys, buttons, elevators, and secrets pushes you, the Ranger, through a grungy labyrinths of stone and metal. These places are filled with denizens you must blast through, including the undead, blood-stained knights, a chainsaw-wielding ogre that lobs grenades, fiends that leap at you with tapered stabby arms, and many stranger abominations. Once you collect four magical runes, you inevitably come face-to-face with the ultimate horror--the titular Quake--which threatens to destroy all mankind.
Even this synopsis is hard to extrapolate from the game itself, since it explains hardly anything about the Ranger character, the backstory of the Slipgates, and the threat of Quake. After going through a few halls designed to select your difficulty and episodes, you're immediately thrust into these worlds and have to simply fight your way through. It's similar to Doom in the way you simply glide through the levels, blast your enemies, solve simple puzzles, and continue into the next area--all with the story understated, to the point where it hardly even matters. The experience of slaying enemies is the point, and in Quake it's just as lucid and empowering as ever. Only, with a bigger slant towards cosmic and gothic horror, the game is given a slightly slower pace and a more unsettling atmosphere. Moody lighting effects, bleak textures, gory and provocative imagery, and an uncanny music score by Nine Inch Nails makes the dark setting palpable. Even the sound effects, as blunt and choppy as they seem, are distinctive and add a hard edge to the experience.
What's most admirable about the game is how far it advanced the technology. This is one of the first (if not THE first) game where literally everything is rendered three-dimensionally--not just the rooms and objects, but also the enemies, weapons, ammunition, power-ups, and projectiles. The 3D advancements also extend to the level designs, which make ample use of the technology to layer passages, bridges, elevators, platforms, and more on top of each other vertically. You can even plunge into water or acid and swim through certain areas. All of this may be taken for granted today, but in the 90s this was all cutting-edge stuff.
All that being said, the game always had a certain clunkiness I found a little garish. Not that the game was ever meant to look pretty, but the limitations it shows have not aged well. Most enemies are blocky, chunky things that become obscured in clouds of large red and gray particles. Textures, though detailed and appropriately grim, are a bit of an eyesore with how blocky they are. Even more disappointing are its limitations with how many enemies and guns you actually have. You spend 32 levels fighting the same 13 enemy types--of those, there are a few less commonly seen, leaving the zombies, knights, soldiers, ogres, scrags, and fiends as your primary focus for most of the game. I rather wish the four different worlds had four different kinds of models. Of the weapons you use, it's the shotgun (in two different forms), nail gun (in two different forms), and explosives (in two different forms) you use most of the time. The lightning gun is a really rad weapon, but it comes up rarely and it burns through ammo so fast. So when you spend level after level shooting the same baddies with the same old shotgun over and over again, it becomes rather mundane. There are two major boss fights in the game, but they're both easily dispatched with unorthodox techniques (Chthon is easily taken out by hitting some switches and lightning rods do the rest--I don't even know why that would affect a lava monster, but whatevs. Quake is taken out via telefrag).
I also wish more thought was put into the story, but the story we're given is just thin connective tissue to tie up four different areas developed by four different teams. Each area is given a slightly different flavor and approach, ranging from medieval architecture to more otherworldly designs. Many levels stand out in interesting ways, and there are some interesting mechanics put into the way elevators, teleporters, and platforms work to keep the player guessing. Secrets are always rewarding. Some challenges and puzzles are fascinating. This is a game where the experience of the levels come first, and combined with the ambience, it is a fair standout.
It is clear that id had limitations, causing them to slap the game together with less nuance in scripting a story, and more focus on technical qualities and the gameplay experience. I wish certain things had more variance, but the way it pushes 3D technology is an admirable milestone in gaming technology. The game is worth a playthrough or two for the quality of its worlds, although it was only a small taste of better things to spawn from its innovative engine. More serious gamers will probably find more to love through Quake's multiplayer options (which were rather new and impressive for its time) and its numerous mods.
I have to add, I love the Quake logo.
7/10
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