Quake

Description

An enemy with the codename ''Quake'', which is believed to come from another dimension, is using teleporter gates to invade Earth. The player takes the role of a nameless soldier who arrives at his base only to find out Quake has overrun it and killed everyone. Somewhere in the base there must be a teleporter to Quake's realm. The mission is clear: take the fight to the enemy, overcoming countless hordes of monsters, and exact revenge.

id Software's followup to Doom and Doom II, "Quake" is a first-person shooter. Its main technological innovation is the use of a true 3D engine - the levels themselves as well as the enemies are polygonal. This not only allows for more natural level designs and character animations, but also for more realistic lighting and the inclusion of simulated physics that have an effect on gameplay: grenades can bounce off walls and around corners, for example.

In single-player mode, gameplay consists mainly of proceeding through the levels (spread over four distinct episodes) in search of an exit, killing everything that moves. Interaction with the game world is reduced to a minimum: since there is no use key, buttons are pressed by running into or shooting at them. As in id's earlier games, many secrets are waiting to be discovered, including a few hidden levels.

Unlike Doom's rather straightforward design that couples futuristic environments with demonic imagery, the theme of Quake's levels, enemies and weapons is not so easily pinpointed. While each episode begins in a futuristic military base (with a technological 'slipgate' as the level exit), later levels take place in environments inspired by medieval fantasy and gothic horror (castles, dungeons and caverns) and the player passes through magical portals to advance. In a departure from Doom's colorful environments, all Quake levels are dominated by earth colors.

The enemies conform to the mishmash of designs: there are human opponents armed with shotguns and energy weapons in the early levels, while the later levels include medieval knights, ghosts, zombies, ogres (armed with grenade launchers and chainsaws) and some more unearthly beasts. The player's weapons, while relatively modern, all have a low-tech feel. Besides a (bloodstained) axe, there are shotguns, nailguns, rocket and grenade launchers and the Thunderbolt, which discharges electrical energy.

Quake was one of the first games playable natively over the Internet in addition to LANs. The single-player levels can be played cooperatively, but the game is most famous for its deathmatch mode. One-on-one duels, team play and free-for-all competition are possible. The emphasis is on fast reaction and skillful maneuvering through the levels. All of the single-player maps can be used as arenas, but the game also comes with six maps especially designed for deathmatch.

Alternate Titles

• "雷神之锤" -- Chinese title (simplified)
• "Quake Mobile" -- Wireless title
• "Quake 64" -- Nintendo 64 title

Part of the Following Groups

• 3D Engine: Quake
• BPjS / BPjM indexed games
• Games with Dopefish
• H. P. Lovecraft games
• Quake series

Merchant Title Platform Price   Quake 64 N64 Nintendo 64 $2.24   Quake SEGA Saturn $18.45   QUAKE DOS $1.97   Quake     Please select your country: United States Argentina Australia Austria Belgium Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Canada Chile China Colombia Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Ireland Israel Italy Japan Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Malaysia Malta Mexico The Netherlands New Zealand Norway Philippines Poland Portugal Romania Russia Saudi Arabia Serbia Singapore Slovakia Slovenia South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom Uruguay Other Worldwide Not an American user?

User Reviews

The next step in the FPS evolutionary process	DOS	Silverblade (1430)
It's not a Doom-killer, but its QUAKE	DOS	Steve . (129)
A gritty, mud-hued shooter with terrifying monsters	DOS	Chris Wright (92)
Sleepless hours, messy room, tired eyes and 100 bottles of Coca-Cola. This describes the Quake player in 1996. And I can see why.	Windows	Donatello (89)
The FPS proliferation begins...	DOS	Narf! (130)
3D engine for sale! 3D engine for sale! (oh yeah, there's a game here too)	DOS	Maw (827)
Not quite what it was supposed to be	DOS	Late (95)
Great engine!! Great multiplayer code!!... Game? What game???	DOS	Zovni (9138)
Best deathmatch, hands down	DOS	D Michael (221)
I'm Quaking In My Boots...	DOS	MasterMegid (864)

The Press Says

PC Games	DOS	Oct, 1996	A	100
High Score	DOS	Aug, 1996	5 out of 5	100
PC Zone	Windows	Aug 13, 2001	9.6 out of 10	96
Mega Score	Windows	Feb, 1997	96 out of 100	96
CU Amiga	Amiga	Jun, 1998	95 out of 100	95
AmigaInfo	Amiga	Mar, 1999	95 out of 100	95
Amiga Format	Amiga	Jun, 1998	94 out of 100	94
Gamezilla	Windows	Feb 05, 2001	91 out of 100	91
Kingdom of Desire	DOS	May 28, 2007	8 out of 10	80
GameSpot	Nintendo 64	Feb 18, 1998	6.9 out of 10	69

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
What music?	12	x0n1c64 (14) Jun 12, 2008

Trivia

In addition to being one of the first full 3D games (with only polygons but no bitmaps) Quake was the first FPS to introduce realistic lighting and shadows.

Of course, this came at a price. Quake has taken a lot of flak because it's all dull brown and grey. This was necessary because it was the only way to get the lighting to work properly. Since each surface needs a wide variety of reserved colors for displaying darkened/brightened portions of the surface, the game was limited to just a few colors and all their respective shades.