Quake

Happy 30th Quake 1. This is the game that made me definitively a PC gamer. There is something about this unique combo of Lovecraftian/eldritch horror, dark ambient Nine Inch Nails music, fluid and fast movement, and depressing atmosphere that stands the test of time. I still put Trent Reznor's Quake 1 theme as one of the best intros to a game ever. The moment it plays, you're put into a trance. If you know you know. This is the one game I risked a lot of punishment for. In high school, I had network admin privileges and I installed Quake 1 in the back row of the computer lab where "the boys" and I would play deathmatch while our should-be-retired teacher droned on about C++. This was when 56k modems were the norm so playing on super low ping and seeing my friends' reactions in real time was an incredible high. Little did we know that Quake 1 would spawn the beginnings of eSports, multiplayer client-server architecture, WASD, and usher in the era of accelerated graphics cards. I eventually got caught where I vividly remember my teacher saying "Ahem, what is THAT?" and had my privileges revoked. Needless to say I didn't ask that teacher for a letter of recommendation. Perhaps there is a game that you too were willing to risk a lot for and hopefully there is a game that sticks with you for 30+ years like Quake 1 has for me.

Quake is a really fun fast paced FPS, with really great combat, weapons, and the maps are one of the best parts of the game, since it's like Doom, except it's a Lovecraft version of it. Definitely recommend this game.

If this beautiful game wasn't made, there would have no call of duty, no battlefield, no apex legends, no cs2, no half-life or no valorant existed. You don't have to love this game but you will respect it :)

Не ждите современного шутера с режиссурой и кат-сценами. Тут просто выкидывают на уровень, говоря: "Вот дробовик, вот трехстволка, вот телепорт, иди убей Шуб-Ниггурат". Графика - она чуть подтянута, но всё ещё "пиксельный хардкор" 96-го. Если вы не застали ту эпоху, местами интерьеры покажутся очень пустыми и угловатыми. Если вы скучаете по временам, когда игры не сюсюкались с игроком, а просто давали в руки ствол и кидали в мясорубку - берите не думая. [h3] Scourge of Armagon [/h3] Образцовое дополнение для своего времени. Оно не пытается изобрести велосипед, а просто берёт всё лучшее из оригинала и добавляет щепотку безумных, но хороших идей. Новое оружие и враги отлично вписываются в игровой процесс, уровни радуют разнообразием и хитроумными ловушками. Да, некоторые моменты могут раздражать, а уровни порой слишком запутаны. Но если вы фанат классического Quake, то проходить это дополнение одно удовольствие. Это больше, сложнее и местами даже интереснее оригинала. Это всё тот же Quake, только более бодрый и наглый. [h3] Dissolution of Eternity [/h3] Дополнение предлагает два новых эпизода. Они заметно различаются по атмосфере. Первый выполнен в привычном тёмном средневековом стиле. А вот второй резко сворачивает в сторону древних цивилизаций - тут вам и египетские храмы со сфинксами, и греческие мотивы, и даже что-то вроде храмов майя. C одной стороны - свежий воздух после бесконечных серо-бурых замков, с другой - ощущение, что ты играешь в Hexen II, а не в Quake. Уровни стали заметно длиннее, но при этом менее продуманными. Архитектура часто плоская и однообразная. Много тесных коридоров, где враги просто не оставляют пространства для манёвра. Немного переборщили с ловушками. В сочетании с длинными уровнями это приводит к частым и обидным смертям в лаве, после которых приходится переигрывать огромные куски. Дополнение на любителя. Новые боеприпасы веселят, но делают игру слишком лёгкой. Новые враги разнообразят бестиарий, но их расстановка часто бесит. Уровни предлагают смену декораций, но страдают от посредственного дизайна и раздражающих ловушек. Если вы фанат, готовый закрыть глаза на недостатки ради ещё одной порции классического экшена, - проходите, получите своё удовольствие. Если же ждёте уровня Scourge of Armagon или оригинальной игры, лучше поискать качественные пользовательские карты от сообщества. Dissolution of Eternity - достойное, но далеко не идеальное завершение эпопеи. [h3] Dimension of the Past [/h3] По структуре это классический эпизод. Никаких новых монстров, оружия или механик тут нет - только старый добрый Quake в его первозданном виде. Уровни сделаны по современным лекалам: вместо линейных коридоров тут используются кольцевые маршруты, когда вы находите ключ и возвращаетесь к началу через новую дверь, не таскаясь по уже пройденным местам. Это приятно освежает старую формулу. Хороший, но необязательный эпизод для тех, кому мало классического Quake и хочется немного хардкора. Оставляет смешанные чувства и крепкое желание больше никогда не брать в руки топорик против Шамблера. [h3] Dimension of the Machine [/h3] Самый настоящий подарок фанатам и великолепное завершение марафона. Этот эпизод стал не просто данью уважения, а примером того, как можно вдохнуть новую жизнь в легендарную классику. Сюжет здесь традиционно прост: вам нужно собрать пять рун в разных измерениях, чтобы остановить древнее зло. Это лишь повод, чтобы отправиться в путешествие по пяти биомам, каждый из которых представлен двумя огромными уровнями. Но именно в этом и кроется главное достоинство дополнения. Каждый из миров - это не просто набор коридоров, а настоящее, проработанное до мелочей место. Геймплейно это всё тот же Quake, который мы любим: здесь нет нового оружия или врагов. Но MachineGames блестяще переосмыслили дизайн уровней, взяв лучшее из фанатских карт, созданных за два десятилетия. Dimension of the Machine - это не просто ностальгическая прогулка. Это уверенное заявление о том, что у легенд всегда есть что сказать. MachineGames создали эталонный образец того, как нужно работать с классикой: с уважением к истокам, но со свежим взглядом и современными подходами к дизайну.

My first ever homebrew game on PSP way back in the day, finally got to finish it!

An absolute classic, fun as hell, gotta go fast, *the* game that made people want 3D accelerators (the things we call ‘GPUs’ these days), the best Rocket Launcher in any shooter ever, the best soundtrack in any shooter ever, and the technical- and social-genesis of so many other games and so many huge online communities that I wouldn't even know where to begin if I wanted to list them. Neutral review however (not recommended, but not not-recommended) because I don't love this Kex-engine-based remaster that you'll get by buying the game here or on Switch/PS4&5/XBOne. If you really *really* want Steam achievements for Quake and really want to give even more money to the mega-corpo conglomerate of Microsoft-presents-Xbox-presents-Zenimax-presents-Bethesda-presents-id: buy and install this Steam version but then also install “Ironwail” (GitHub andrei-drexler/ironwail) alongside it. Ironwail is a proper Quake source-port, i.e. a directly-modernized version of the code from the 1996 original Quake. This 2021 remaster is a workalike that merely pretends to be Quake despite being completely different under the hood. To ‘install’ Ironwail: ― Go to its GitHub project page. ― Click ‘Releases’ in the right-hand column. ― The newest version will be the one at the top, and you can ignore all of the older lower-numbered versions below it. ― Download only one of the archive files from the newest Release: the one whose name matches your computer's architecture, either ‘Linux’ for SteamOS or ‘win64’ for Windows 10/11. ― Extract anywhere but the Steam folder, and run the EXE; either `ironwail.exe` on Windows or a file plainly called `ironwail` on Linux. ― Select “Add a non-Steam game to my Library” from Steam's ‘Games’ menu and add `ironwail.exe` (just `ironwail` on Linux) if you want to launch it easily from within the Steam UI. In theory I would have zero problem with Quake-remaster being a different engine internally if it actually worked well, but I've found it to be extremely unplayably buggy. It has somehow even gotten worse over time. The newest update crashes immediately at launch on my Intel 11th-gen integrated graphics (Framework Laptop 12) without tweaking the launch options to force D3D11, then it's riddled with glitchy textures and weird incorrect model warping once I do. The previous version ran okay without tweaking but refused to unlock achievements for me for anything after Episode 1 of the base game despite not using cheats, not using map-select console commands, and doing everything else you'll find suggested in threads where other people have the same problem. The remaster is just bad, its usage of a different engine obviously a business decision so they can sell it on the largest number of console platforms with the least amount of investment, and I have no faith in Bethesda/NightDive to ever make it not-bad or to not break it again in the future if they did. Once you have Ironwail set up, run it and it will find and directly load the remaster's game ‘pak’ files (the archive files that contain the actual ‘Quake’ parts of Quake like the maps and models and sounds and music) so you don't have to supply anything else yourself. Ironwail will even present itself to Steam as the remaster's Steam App ID so you get Steam achievement unlocks! Your online status will show you as playing remaster-Quake but you'll actually be playing something much better. As for my review of the game episodes you get here… ― the original game, just ‘Quake’: what is there to say? It's the reason anybody is reading this or still playing this at all. Tortured development cycle, ripped id Software apart at the seams, but *damn* what a game. American McGee's levels (especially episode Ⅲ) are my favorites. Play the NIN soundtrack *loud*! If you played Half-Life first you might be a little shocked when you notice how HL's Headcrabs and standard Zombies are mere re-skins of the two attacks of the Fiends in Quake, leaping and scything respectively, and how Vortigaunts are obviously re-skins of Quake's Shamblers with their long-range lightning attack and short-range clawing attack. Half-Life is excellent, of course, but it stands on the shoulders of this giant! ― Scourge of Armagon: didn't like it at first, because I went straight into it after a playthrough of the base game, so I was still in the mood for gothic NIN stuff and Scourge of Armagon is not that. The new weapons feel very incongruous with the ones from the base game, very QuakeⅡ-ish. I ended up enjoying it, and it does some stuff in the engine that would have been very cool to see in 1996, but far too many of its maps are one of those “Where the ♥♥♥♥ do I go?” kind of games that will have you annoyed and bored running around in circles. ― Dissolution of Eternity: its first episode is the low point of everything here, so many damn pushbuttons and enemies spawned directly in your face. R1M5 was just straight-up bugged and couldn't be finished on my first attempt. In the interest of saying something positive about it: the Phantom Swordsmen are a very cool enemy. Dissolution's second episode is great however; loads of cool Egyptian-themed levels, new mobs like the knight statues that come to life, and actual bosses! The two halves feel like they were made by two completely different teams of people. I'm not going to bother looking up credits to see whether or not that's true lol ― Dimensions of the Past: I beat Dimensions of the Past in one shot on Normal and wow was it hard. Not in a bad way *usually*, but there were a few times I ended up having to use the Axe on Death Knights, which was obnoxious. Very cool level design, like base Quake with the BSP limits removed so everything is bigger and there's more going on at once. ― Dimension of the Machine OTOH was very very well balanced; I loved it. Challenging but very rewarding map design. I loved how many times they had power-ups in areas you would eventually backtrack into, so it's up to you if you want to use them now or later. It solves one of the biggest annoyances in the base game where you'll clear out a room full of enemies and only then discover a Quad Damage or Armor pickup. Great environmental storytelling in a Half-Life-ish kind of way, like when you walk in on a squad of Enforcers trying to fight a Shambler. I love how it solves the no-ammo problem from the last episode by having deathmatch-style ammo spawners in single player. Simple and effective. ― Dawn of the Machine: MachineGames have perfected their Quake level design skills here. Huge levels full of hundreds of monsters each, but never in a way that feels like a slog. They actually managed to make me love backtracking, at the individual-map-level and at the episode-level alike. In any given map there will be a central area that you will keep coming back to after a long trips in some direction followed by unlocking a return door to allow faster travel. The early levels will have doors you can't open at all on your first time through. Very ‘Metroid-vania’ in the best way. I absolutely *love* the way they reward secret-hunting by letting you find permanent (for the duration of the episode) upgrades to your maximum health and maximum ammo of each type, all of which start very limited. In exchange for making you start very limited, they signpost the secrets à la Half-Life (with a pentagram instead of with a lambda) so they're much easier to find than in any other episode. They do all sorts of technical teleportation ‘time-travel’ trickery that would be an annoying gimmick in the hands of a less-skilled team but which are pulled off brilliantly here. Remember that the episodes included here (even the modern ones) are merely the tip of the Quake iceberg! There are, not an exaggeration, *thousands* of maps available for this game, and even plenty of packs curated into longer episodes like the ones here. Once you're done with everything you get here, check out Quake Brutalist Jam and Quake Retrojam!

This game is one of the most influential games in the whole wide world. Awesome soundtrack by Trent Reznor himself from Nine Inch Nails, Awesome combat, Really cool guns, And awesome enemies. All so awesome. ITS AWESOME

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