Quake

The Good
Graphics. Of course I can't judge this game agains likes of Gears of War, but for that time it was something that absolutely won people's heart, from ghastly corridors to hell's front door. And monsters we're in 3D, not sprites.

Sound. From monster's snores to double-barreled shotgun's sound, it was all in place. Sound is very important in this game, because it adds a little bit to scare factor.

Music. The music fits into game very well and makes you feel the adrenaline.

Multiplayer. It doesn't have the same impact that it had 10 years ago, but MP is still rock solid. Servers are quite lonely, but community is still strong.

The Bad
Single-player and it's story. It's totally dumbed down and everything becomes so repetitive. You just have one objective, finish the level and kill the bad guys. And story is usual "evil tries to demolish mankind".

Textures. Textures are so repetitive, that I wanted to scream. Every level is so earth-like and muddy.

There aren't a lot of bad things about this game, but these few still manage to hurt this game.

The Bottom Line
Game has everything that you need. Superb graphics (at least 10 years ago), scary atmosphere and great sound & music and story (even if it is totally pointless). But SP gradually wears down. At first it's locations are mindblowing and awesome, but after that the textures start to repeat itselves. I was screaming after seeing for the millionth time those same old earth-like textures. There's no variety, almost everything is copy. And objectives are nothing but finish the level and kill baddies. Now, moving to baddies. Actually monsters are quite cool and add spice to the game, from lousy armed men to yeti-like monster. You can see absolutely immediately, that one of the monster designer is Lovecraft fan. And also, the monsters are not sprites but in 3D! That was one of the advancements that iD made.

And the Quake engine is marvellous. With Gouraud shading for moving objects and static lightmap for nonmoving objects. After the source code was released by Carmack in '99, derivative engines came out and these also improved original engine. And of course you can't deny countless maps & mods that came out after the game was released. A lot even surpass original maps and add a lot of variety and exploring. Game's biggest plus is MP. Now it's a little bit aged and servers are often deserted, but I imagine what it was about 10 years ago. It was crowded, people we're thrilled. They chatted, swapped tips and even met each other in real life. Tournaments were held, money won and MP community was growing, growing and growing. That's all thanks to MP, what was those days a big hit. And because of Quake MP's simplicity. You just joined and played, even if you got fragged like hell. Oh well, time to stop bothering you. As I said: The SP is lousy and gradually wears off, but MP is strong. I can see what historical value this game has and what milestone it was, but I still can't blindly shout: Quake owns.