Quake series love-in

strawberry float yeah, Quake loving.

Personally, I do like Quake IV, I thought a few bits were every bit as good as its predecessor - but I don't like it as much as Q2. The Stroggos of the first game felt genuinely foreboding; you were one of a handful of survivors of the first human invasion force to reach the world, the enemy was waiting and the way everyone was crying out in the opening cinematic was just epic. Best game intro ever, by a very long way. The segment beforehand with all of those civilian radio messages indicating the sheer havoc wreaked upon humanity was brilliant as well.



The level variety was brilliant also, ranging from the forbidding Steedium Mines to the Strogg's monolithic anti-air "Big Gun", from the Strogg's Processing Plant to the "Medical" facility filled with the tortured cries of so many broken soldiers. The brilliantly made skyboxes felt very much to me like they greatly opened up the stages (while the PS1 port's purple skies removed a lot of the atmosphere and any sense of scale), bathing them in perpetual twilight and provided excellently imagined surroundings to each stage, while the infra-red between-stage map made me feel like I was actually progressing bit by bit northward toward the enemy capital, Cerberon. It was amazing.

And the music! Sonic Mayhem did a fantastic job on the music for the game. For some stupid reason the version of Q2 included with Q4 doesn't have any music (or didn't in my PC copy), so I still play on PC with the original disc in which provides me with my musical awesome. The expansions to the game were fantastic as well, although Ground Zero's final fight and The Reckoning's final level/map screens were disappointing. Still, brilliant games, worthy additions to the Q2 singleplayer world, and hopefully we'll get a Black Mesa Source equivalent for them someday.

Oh oh and the enemies, jaysus they were fantastic, gorey yes but some imaginatively designed! It is somewhat unfortunate that much of that thought was simply discarded in Q4; why was the Gunner the only good enemy unit? Where were the classic Guard designs? Why was the Gladiator suddenly, just hours after Q2, all metal? Why was the Berzerker no longer able to smash my face in with a MASSIVE pneumatic hammer arm? Where were the Icarus and Flyers? Or the mutants? Where were the PHALANX and ION RIPPER guns (and Guards!)? And where was the Super Tank in all this? And I noticed a distinct lack of Laser guards also. All these enemies and weapons, updated but not to too great an extent, would have been extremely welcome.

strawberry float man, now I wanna go play Q2 again.


5 Things That Would Have Made Quake IV Amazing

1. Not announcing the game's big twist months prior to release. Nice one asshats, completely remove any sense of impact the scene might have had and replace it with mild gorey fascination why don't you. Wankers.

2. Starting the game with another Pod drop with simultaneous Drop Ship landings to spice things up. You can never have too many Pod drops.

3. Instead of becoming a Strogg and then being rescued part way through that process, what should have happened is this:

• You get fully stroggified. In the process you see the Stroggification and "Medical" Centre from your vile instead of the standard way. Along the way you see Rhino Squad bust in where they did before, only you don't get rescued as the controls are inoperable due to, I dunno, lack of maintainence. You glimpse them repeatedly on your journey through the facility. They're not doing very well, but not awful either. You can't tell if they survive.
• Once released from the long Stroggification conveyor, you join a unit of similarly built Tactical Troops (orange guard guys). Everyone still basically has their own personality for now, everyone's terrified but can't control their actions.
• It is announced over the Hive Mind Intercom in that awesome voice that an assault force is being deployed to take the human ship you helped to land. You head out via Strogg Logistical Train (a nod to Q2) to the nearest available station.
• The assault stage involves you fighting former comrades through the LZ and into the ship. As you go you witness Pods being fired off, the intercom informs you all of their destination (you as the player don't know what that place is yet).
• Most of your comrades have now succumbed to the Stroggification, lost their free will but not their awareness.
• The assault falters as another Human ship disgorges its violent cargo and another front opens, on your way to the nearest exit you're trapped under debris and are captured by the humans, who successfully fend off the Strogg for the time being.
• For whatever reason, you have taken a little longer to succumb to the Stroggification than most, and because of this your squadmate Strauss is able to disconnect you from the Nexus.
• Game event line proceeds as normal from here on out. Strogg redouble their efforts and take the ship, you Pod out etcetera.

4. More reverence shown to the old enemy and weapon designs; Phalanx and Ion Ripper included.

5. A graphics engine that doesn't make everyone look plastic.


You know, thinking about it, Q2's Ground Zero expansion did the whole 'become a Strogg' thing long before Ravensoft thought it up. Raven did it so much better though.


I really hope the Strogg War returns in a new singleplayer game at some point, though no doubt it'll be years after the next Doom title.

I wasn't really into the whole Strogg theme used in the Quake series. As some on here may already know the original Quake is my number one favorite game. I just found the themes in the original game to be far more interesting that the biomechanical threat of the Strogg. We had all seen this in Sci-Fi many times before bei it the Cybermen in Doctor Who to the Borg in Star Trek. I always thought it was a bit stale even when Quake 2 came out.

The original Quake was just far more interesting for me, with it's weird fusion of Gothic architecture and technology. The medieval Lovecraft like monsters were fabulous too. The chainsaw weilding, grenade throwing ogres were just so much more interesting for me that any of the Strogg. Not to mention the Fiends, Zombies, Tar Babies, Hell Knights, Vores or the Shamblers.

The single player campaign in Quake II was certainly an improvement over the original though it did lack the ingenious traps and level design of the first game. And finally the soundtrack by Nine Inch Nails is simply fantastic.

I realise that my post is a bit anti Strogg but a lot of people forget the original game in the series since Quake II, Quake IV and Quake Wars are all Strogg based, but as the title of the thread says this post is my original Quake love in. I just would dearly love a full blown sequel to the original Quake world.

Oh and it has one of the best rocket launchers in any FPS game. EVER!

Quake 1 was okay at the time, and has some memorable monsters (Shambleeeeeeeer!!!), but good god it'd be a hellish chore to play today. Such monotonous visuals, boring weapons and poor sound design (as a reviewer put it at the time of its release: "In Doom, shotgun goes BLAM and zombie goes AARGH. In Quake, shotgun goes puf and zombie goes urf"). Plus the final boss is the most anticlimactic thing ever when it comes to beating it.

The first is still my favourite. So many fond memories of Quake deathmatches! The second and third were still awesome though.

Quake 1. That game is FANTASTIC. strawberry float the stupid Stroggs. What other game lets you kill a Great Old One?

Also, there are engine mods that will do a fantastic job of crowbarring some more modern graphic features in there.

Quake 1 was stunning at the time. Amazing looking game compared to all other games out at the time. I so remember getting my 3D-FX card and booting up GLQuake. Damn it was super slick and have transparent water and mirror effects! Quake DM was truly fantastic. Tactical arenas, good weapons and frantic battles. id seriously need to bring Quake to XBLA/PSN. I loved the nasty gothic feel to the levels, which I feel was never the same once Quake 2 and 4 appeared. Sci-fi Strogg crap.

Quake 3 Arena was great for MP fun but that was about it. IMO Quake 4 was a pathetic mess. Single player was boring and MP was average, hence the game not really performing like the other games. Remake Quake or at least take it back to the nasty Gothic masterpiece that is was in the beginning. Plus revamp QuakeWorld and get those 64 player matches running again.

Quake 1 was arguably a mess in it's own way. There was pretty much no consistent design theme... but that's part of why I love it. You never know what you're going to encounter next. The level-designers did a great job of crafting fun areas in pretty much every splintered level.

Quake 3 was the best FPS of it's time, it still holds up now.

TheTurnipKing wrote:Quake 1 was arguably a mess in it's own way. There was pretty much no consistent design theme... but that's part of why I love it. You never know what you're going to encounter next. The level-designers did a great job of crafting fun areas in pretty much every splintered level.

I loved the way it started each chapter as a nice Sci-fi world and when you stepped through the exit, it all turned into gothic darkness. Anyone else think next-gen Fiends and Shamblers would be amazing?

Raide wrote:

TheTurnipKing wrote:Quake 1 was arguably a mess in it's own way. There was pretty much no consistent design theme... but that's part of why I love it. You never know what you're going to encounter next. The level-designers did a great job of crafting fun areas in pretty much every splintered level.

I loved the way it started each chapter as a nice Sci-fi world and when you stepped through the exit, it all turned into gothic darkness. Anyone else think next-gen Fiends and Shamblers would be amazing?

Absolutely. The Shamblers in particular could look fantastic with fur shaders.

Alvin Flummux wrote:5 Things That Would Have Made Quake IV Amazing
5. A graphics engine that doesn't make everyone look plastic.

Or a 360 version that actually had some effort put into it. There is NO - I repeat absolutely NO - reason why the 360 of Quake4 couldn't have been every bit it's PC-version's equal (or better). Instead, we got a rushed, gimped, low-res piece of sh*t port which id should be thoroughly ashamed of. A bit like the needless compromises Nerve made to ET:QW on 360.

But that's id for you: they have a terrible, terrible track-record of quality control when it comes to console ports of their titles, and their post-release support for any of their titles has been non-existent. Quake 4 is great example of that, as is ET:QW - both great candidates for map-packs, both received precisely d*ck-all in terms of DLC on 360.

Nice going, id.

Another vote here for Quake 1. The nailgun

I spent many hours/weeks making maps for it back in the day.

Given that Quake 1 is currently £6 on Steam, perhaps a "Quake 1" Weekend should be organised? We could ramp the difficulty right up and try playing it co-op or something?

Though I will, of course, be installing from my Quake 1 CD.

Speaking of Quake CD's, my addiction got so bad whilst at high school that I actually constantly kept the CD in my school blazer for quick installation on the school pcs. I have no idea were that CD is now though which is a shame.

Ahhh Quake.

I loved Quake on the Saturn, was a really good port all things considered. Played through Quake II on the PSone and 360 (YAY for 0 gamerpoints you fags.) Spent a daft amount of time with Quake III on the PS2, despite horrific load times that made Timesplitters blush. Quake 4 itself though I wasnt too fussed with, was really buggy and crashed a lot. Yay.

i have been busy practising q3a for an upcoming lan party. Quake3s online play is amazing, and still is great fun today. do anyof you still play it?

Cal wrote:

Alvin Flummux wrote:5 Things That Would Have Made Quake IV Amazing
5. A graphics engine that doesn't make everyone look plastic.

Or a 360 version that actually had some effort put into it. There is NO - I repeat absolutely NO - reason why the 360 of Quake4 couldn't have been every bit it's PC-version's equal (or better). Instead, we got a rushed, gimped, low-res piece of sh*t port which id should be thoroughly ashamed of. A bit like the needless compromises Nerve made to ET:QW on 360.

But that's id for you: they have a terrible, terrible track-record of quality control when it comes to console ports of their titles, and their post-release support for any of their titles has been non-existent. Quake 4 is great example of that, as is ET:QW - both great candidates for map-packs, both received precisely d*ck-all in terms of DLC on 360.

Nice going, id.

You do know that Quake 4 wasn't made by id don't you. It was made by Raven software using id tech but all the levels and polish was applied by Raven which is why it's the worst Quake game going.

Oh, and the Dev time was short because it needed to be done for the 360's launch.

StayingDead wrote:Quake 3 was the best FPS of it's time, it still holds up now.

I preferred Unreal Tournament to be honest. I thought the maps were better, the weapons more interesting and the mod support far easier. Q3 was just a bit too fast in places as well.

Anyway an updated version of the original Quake (Hell Q2 as well), in the Doom 3 engine would be phenomenal.
Get it done id.

Yeah, UT > Quake.

I thought Quake 4 was amazing. Just some good old fashioned run and gun violence. They just don't make 'em like that any more.

meh, ut and q3 are pretty similar in my eyes, i cant decide which is more fun, but i have to say for simplicity and pure skill requirement (for speed, accuracy, wank), q3 wins.