Web Review

Quake is far from earth-shattering

By Kimo Koshi
Staff Writer

Despite the high regard in which Quake is held as a single person game it falls woefully and disappointingly short of delivering what it promises.
Instead of being the "new" Doom, Quake (id software--www.idsoftware.com) is in many ways a step down from the old Doom (Doom II, anyway) and is basically just another Doom clone--albeit one made by people pretty adept at the genre.
On paper, Quake is a vastly superior game. Quake's gameplay, lush texture mapping and sound and graphic engine are miles ahead of Doom II's plain-looking walls, pixelated imps and inability to look up or down.
However, you don't create the most sophisticated non-simulation graphic engine just to make some dingy gray castle. Compared to its competition, Quake has singularly repetitive settings, the only variations being a graveyard, a few levels full of bridges and some admittedly innovative underwater areas.
On the other hand, games like Duke Nukem 3D (3D Realms--www.3drealms.com), despite having less sophisticated graphics, have much more entertaining settings. Duke sets up fighting encounters in sewers, theaters, jails, adult book stores--each with a distinctive look and feel--along with many more distinct arenas and more involved underwater areas. Add to this scenes from different movies with the addition of the Plutonium Pack, and the settings--if not the graphics--blow Quake away.
Speaking of the Plutonium Pack, Duke 3D Atomic blows Quake away in the weapons department as well. Quake essentially has five weapons with two different versions of nailguns, shotguns and explosives. Duke Atomic, on the other hand, has twice that, many of which have characteristics radically different from anything found in Quake or other first-person shooters. This adds an aspect of gameplay not found in other games--strategy.
Whereas most games, especially Quake, have "shoot and duck" as their primary strategic value (again, not counting Deathmatch strategies), Duke allows you to trap hallways with trip bombs, mine them with pipe bombs, or just have fun by shrinking even the baddest of the bad into a puddle you can stomp.
Most notably is the area where Quake, instead of shining, actually seems to absorb light--the fun and playability factor. Combined with the horribly redundant levels and weapons, even with quad damage, the overall design of the game lends itself to mind-numbing boredom.
A good first-person game needs gore, uh no, excitement. Doom was a bloodbath. You couldn't clear a room without leaving a dozen dead somethings behind you. Quake, on the other hand, has you plugging away at some poor schmuck who doesn't have the decency to die, and after spending over half an hour to pass a level, you find out you've only fragged 12 baddies, regardless of how many times you had to kill them to do it.
Face it--Quake is a multi-player game, and until the mass revision add-on comes out, it is pretty dull. The reason for this is that it does not have enough variety, excitement or fun--especially compared to Duke Nukem 3D, and even to Doom II in several aspects.
The bottom line is a truism mothers everywhere drill into their children: beauty is only skin--or screen--deep; it's what's inside that counts. Of course, the deficiencies of the game are most worrisome if you're going to play by yourself.
If you're not, go ahead and get Quake. As in so many other endeavors, it's always more fun to play with others.