What made Quake great?

[Infje]

Hello,

My name is Infje, I’m new here. I came to this place to ask you for a bit of your time. I’m working on a study about what made the original Quake so great? If you look around, it still has a dedicated following even though the game is more than 15 years old. That says a lot about the game and it’s fan.

I think the SP part is hard to classify. I remember reading somewhere that the team had creative differences. Which resulted in a game that consists of mixed elements. There was no real story, unless you had read the small introduction in the readme file. But the game itself never really explained anything. Personally, I missed out on the MP since I hadn’t had Internet back then. But we all know it was quite a phenomenon.

For me, Quake was all about the Lovecraftian horror, the traps, the secrets and the underwater passages. Nowadays many shooters only use water as a showcase, but back then, you could swim and explore. I really miss that.

This study is for my personal records. I like to look back on the things I enjoyed and get a better understanding of why it worked and better yet, would it still work now? If you’re willing to share your views, please reply to this thread so I can take them into account.

Thank you,

Infje

[Grim Warlock]

Doom was great because it was the first game with network multiplayer, Quake was great because it brought network multiplayer to the next level. Without those 2 games you wouldn't have games like Halo, CoD or Battlefield.

[gdiddy62]

For me it was definitely the fantasy/horror atmosphere they created. It was always fun to step into that world and it carried over for me into the other Quake games, but none held the magic of the first experience.

[Mindf!3ldzX]

blowing up opponents in real time in a video game = why I still play quake.

Quake = Unicycle
Other FPS = Bicycle

Sure, you might be able to play fairly decent at other FPS games, but it takes real skill to do well in Quake.

[Frenzy]

What makes Quake so great for me is the raw-skill fighting. It's you vs the other guy. Your brain vs his.

[Seven]

Hello Infje,

I have other reasons, why I like Quake:

For me, as a non-multiplayer player, the one and only reason is the theme.
The theme of most of the maps is fantasy:
- you fight in beautiful castles, underearth dungeons
- you fight against fantasy monsters
- the weapons are brutal and simple
- the ambience is fantastic (wall torches, relief windows, lava pools, ...)

That is why I love the second mission pack even more.
And last half of mission pack 1.
The ambience, monsters and weapons are even more fantasy related there.

And that is why I love the other fantasy related shooters:
- Heretic
- Hexen 1 + 2
- Chasm The Rift (second half of it)
- Unreal 1

And that is why I dont like these shooters:
- Doom series
- Rest of Quake series
- All modern shooters (it is always the same theme)


If you look at Func_Msgboard or in Spirits archive you will find many many fantasy themed maps/episodes.

So there must be more people that think same me.
Thank god some of them are very talented mappers.

Just take a look at the recent releases from those fantastic guys:
- JPL
- Necros
- Tronyn
- ...
They are all fantasy related.


Why does the big industries not develop a NEW fantasy related shooter ?
I guess the majority only wants world wars or futuristic ones...

Thats as sad as it is.

[Frenzy]

What made Quake great and what still makes Quake great is that when you load up your client you're in a whole different world, and nothing else matters.

[Infje]

Excellent feedback guys, I really appreciate it.

[Seven]

Hello,

I googel´d for "Infje", and found that he is a member of:



He is working in "marketing department" with subject:
"How shall Quake 5 be like ?"


If you think this story is true, then push the button:


Seven

[grave_digga]

Well Infje, just have a look into this thread:

Click

It describes much what people that are still loving Q1 will expect from Q5. Maybe you'll find there some answers/inspiration.

[R00k]

same post over here on Steam forum... What made Quake great? - Steam Users' Forums

neat-o!

What made Quake so great?
Back then it was new tech that just pushed our hardware to the limits, along with our imagination.
The gameplay was straight forth, and unfortunately I got bored of singleplayer very quickly to be honest.
I played Wolf3D and Doom 1 & 2, previously, maybe I was getting older and was just getting tired of FPS games.
But then I played Tomb Raider afterwards, so maybe I wasnt over the genre completely.
It wasnt until maybe around late 1997 did I remember than you could play Quake online. After that, i was truly hooked.

Quake 5 needs a purpose. A story to complete a goal. Not some hybrid mishmash of Doom meets Quake2.
Which is kinda how Quake felt. We all understand the teleporters to another dimension, but chainsaw carrying ogres?

If Quake5 would be a sort of, prequel to Quake2, like Quake done right, I'd imagine something like going back in time. Rage is post apocalyptic; after the fall of civilization. Quake5 could be around the 2000BC era, but imagine if the Strogg had invaded Earth back then. Quake 2 was when we retaliated on their turf, and Quake 4 was obviously when they came back to Earth.
This could merge the fantasy, medieval theme with the laser toting soldiers. Maybe with the main characters "modern day marines" being sent back in time from present to stop the first invasion....

[Grim Warlock]

I say enough of the Strogg crap, it's getting old and boring.

Maybe with the main characters "modern day marines" being sent back in time from present to stop the first invasion....

Lol, if they did that then the first invasion wouldn't happen in the first place, they wouldn't have been sent back in time and therefore wouldn't be able to stop the invasion.

[grave_digga]

...The gameplay was straight forth, and unfortunately I got bored of singleplayer very quickly to be honest...

Not for me. I still love singleplayer Q1. I never found another game where i was scared to enter a room because of knowing i'll be dead in a few seconds. It really gave me the creeps sometimes. And the atmosphere (especially with the soundtrack on) is absolutely awesome to me. Over the internet i did not play often because i was on 33.6k Modem which gave me a horrible ping. But we played very often DM and CTF on LAN sessions till dawn. I didn't liked Q2 because it played so different from Q1 (game control in DM for example) and Q3 was not that bad but i missed the singleplayer part. Also it was to colourful i think. I altered most textures so it looked then nearly like Q1 from the color side.

[Grim Warlock]

I think Quake 2 had best MP, Quake 3 is too colorful? Lol, most maps I found were always orange, grey or blue tinted.

[smokey]

personally the great thing about quake back in the day was the personal time you put in to just getting the game set up and playing with your own personal config. I remember taking a week once just to get my client to connect to servers, and afterwards the great satisfaction that came with fixing problems and finally being able to play the game i loved. Nowadays you just click 3 buttons and are installed, connected and in-game playing away. This may seem odd but the simplicity of all these new FPS games takes away from their personal value. Quake created its own language....i remember typing in these commands was like learning a new language, with a certain amount of satisfaction and pride coming from being able to understand it. But hey what do i know i only been playin since '96
my previous names:
96-97 (obliverator) < yeah i couldnt spell when i was 10 HAHA cant remember where i played though, just would search "quake servers" on yahoo and type in the i.p. addresses of the servers that were listed

98-03 (SmokeJ) < created clan [PoD] in 98 that went on to UT and other games, my older clanmates in the states actually met up and had a few LANs back in the day at Hitman/Arias's place (i think) played mostly in IHOC(International House of Cheese)servers hosted by Yugo2Heck

04-present (sm0k3y) < i think i have played every mod that has ever been created in quake1, took 3 years off when i met my wife and got married (no kids yet ty god ) and came back....i remember telling TV when he said he wanted to take some time off from the game because in his own words "i spend way too much time on this", that we all come back eventually, we have just invested too much time on figuring this crazy ass game out so thanks to ID (if that really is where this guy works for) for the greatness.

hope this helps the guy that made the original post..i kind of rambled here (smokey, obv. smoked before typing this) buy yeah it was kinda fun to write....i see a post your own quake history post coming up perhaps......(in its own thread )