Game: Quake
Year (s): 1996
Company: dev. id Spftware
pub. GT Interactive
Engine: id Tech 2
Type: First-Person Shooter
What I Paid: was originally given it. later, it came with a Quake bundle on Steam for dirt cheap (QuakeCon week sale)
Game Time: 1-20 hours (more on this later)
Plot
An invading enemy codenamed, "Quake," is ransacking about. For HP Lovecraft fans, the source of the monsters is none other than Shub-Niggurath, an elder god. The player fights through four planes, collecting runes. Once all have been collected, the way to Shub-Niggurath is open.
During the creation of the game, the development team could not reach a consensus on whether to do a medieval, Heretic-type shooter, or to have another shooter based in the future in space. Cthulu mythos, apparently, is the compromise.
This is the only Quake title (Q3 has no plot) that does not involve the Strogg.
General Comments
This is one of my favorite of the second-generation shooters. Combat can be pretty damn difficult, and there are occasional traps, jumps, and more traps.
Audio
Trent Reznor did the soundtrack, which can only be heard if the game is played with the Quake CD in the drive. In homage, the boxes of ammo for the nailguns feature the NIN logo. Thus continues a relationship started in Doom (there's a secret on level 1 of Thy Flesh Consumed (Ultimate Doom) that reveals the NIN logo) and carried at least through Doom 3, where Trent did some audio work that was later cut.
Combat
Shit, I'm dead! Repeat until finale. Lots of tough enemies in this, and the ammo you find will leave you mostly using the shotguns. Other weapons include the nailguns (Gatling guns), grenade launcher, rocket launcher, and the super powerful lightning gun. One type of enemy explodes on death, and zombies cannot be dispatched except by explosives... otherwise it's straightforward shoot, shoot, shoot. Oh, and dodge. Those fiends will tear you up like a paper bag.
Down-Loadable Content (DLC)
Two expansion "Mission Packs" exist : Scourge of Armagon and Dissolution of Eternity. I have both from Steam. However, this version does not support wide-screen monitors, so the games simply do not launch. This is fixable with some mucking around in the coding. I have not played them.
Final Thoughts
Oh, yeah. Gametime. I guessed 20 hours for the first play through. I've played this so many times that I don't know how long it would take someone new to beat. Of more interest are the speed-runs of this game. I watched one video where a team patched together beating the ENTIRE GAME, on nightmare, in under an hour. Definite abuse of rocket-jumping, but it's fun/insane to watch.
As I touched on briefly, there are sequels, all of which have nothing to do with the original Quake. This is my favorite of the franchise. Because this is so dated, I don't know if others would get as much enjoyment out of it. But hey! It's only ten bucks NOT on sale.
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