Published by
Developed by
Released

Platforms
MobyRank MobyScore
Macintosh
...
3.5
Dreamcast
87
3.4
Windows
87
3.9

Description

The third game in the Quake series is a departure from the previous games, focusing exclusively on multiplayer arena fighting with no story-driven singleplayer part - directly competing with Epic Games that did the same with the contemporary Unreal Tournament.

The offline part takes the player through a number of one-on-one and team-based challenges against AI-controlled opponents, slowly ranking upwards in difficulty, as the character of the player's choosing. Compared to the previous titles, the colours and general design of the game are much brighter and it shakes off the dominant shades of brown and grey the previous titles in the series were known for. The player's arsenal consists of new and familiar, but redesigned weapons, including a gauntlet (melee attacks) and a machine gun as the spawn weapons, a shotgun, plasma gun, lightning gun, rocket launcher, railgun and BFG. Each weapon has specific advantages, ranging from the amount of damage to reloading times and the ability to hit-scan opponents.

The different arenas are also filled with health bubbles, complete sets of armour and armour shards, the well-known Quad Damage power-up, ammunition, and specials such as Mega Health, Haste, Invisibility, a powerful Battlesuit, and more. As with the other Quake games, it is known for its freedom in movement. Advanced players using techniques such as rocket jumping, strafing and circle jumping to quickly get around areas. The game offers more speed than Quake 2, but it is not as fast as the original Quake. Not everything was kept - the double jumping from the previous titles was removed for instance, but replaced with new tricks.

The singleplayer part only serves as a diversion for the online multiplayer options, with modes such as duel, team deathmatch (TDM), capture the flag (CTF) and more. As with Quake II, the vanilla version of the game was eventually heavily tweaked by the players' community with all-new tournament features (including voting, referees, banning, netcode updates), as it was used in professional Pro Gaming tournaments for almost ten years.

Alternate Titles

  • "雷神之锤III:竞技场" -- Chinese title (simplified)
  • "Quake 3" -- Informal title
  • "Q3A" -- Abbreviated title
  • "Q3" -- Abbreviated name

Part of the Following Groups


Merchant Title      
ebay.com
Quake III: Arena    
amazon.com
Quake III: Arena    
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User Reviews

Awesome deathmatch redeems this meatless meal Windows Maw (828)
The most balanced online FPS game to date. Windows Steve . (75)
Fried blood Windows Ashley Pomeroy (227)
Frankly, disappointing Macintosh Lawrence Matthews (111)
A worthy successor to the original Quake fragfest Windows Silverblade (1428)
Still Neat Windows Kartanym Bronze Star Contributing Member (9944)
Fragfest galore Windows MadCat (56)
A great multiplayer game, but if you're not a multiplayer fan stay away. Windows Tomer Gabel Bronze Star Contributing Member (4480)
One hell-raising experience Dreamcast Lee Redfern (20)
THE MOST MINDLESS GAME EVER CREATED!!! Windows Dragoon (94)

The Press Says

Jeuxvideo.com Windows Dec 15, 1999 19 out of 20 95
Svenska PC Gamer Windows Jan, 2000 95 out of 100 95
Power Unlimited Windows Feb, 2000 9 out of 10 90
Jeuxvideo.com Dreamcast Dec 04, 2000 18 out of 20 90
WomenGamers.com Windows Dec 20, 1999 9 out of 10 90
PC Gameplay (Benelux) Windows Jan, 2000 86 out of 100 86
Gamezilla Dreamcast Dec 14, 2000 85 out of 100 85
Game Critics Windows Jan 26, 2000 8.5 out of 10 85
Power Unlimited Dreamcast Jan, 2001 8.5 out of 10 85
Absolute Games (AG.ru) Windows Dec 10, 1999 80 out of 100 80

Forums

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Trivia

The Linux release of Quake III can be converted for use with Windows. An instruction sheet with the Linux release says that this can be accomplished by...

1. Simply downloading the Windows point release from http://www.quake3arena.com/

2. Copy the pak0.pk3 file from the CD's baseq3 directory into the baseq3 directory of your Quake III installation.

Why would you want to do this? Perhaps because some mall software stores have been unloading tin box editions of the Linux release for as low as $8 US.


This entry was contributed by Corn Popper (66128), Adam Baratz (1364) and DarkTalon (137)
 

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