Yes, this is the highly original (hey, it worked for all the Doom sequels!) storyline behind Quake, the highly hyped super-game from the Wizards at id. But does it work? Well, first of all, as soon as I got this game, I must admit that I waited until my smoldering carcass had been put to rest quite a few times before I even checked for a story line. Does that say something for priorities? In other words, most of the people that play this game don't worry about words, as long as there is a warm shotgun and enough shells to introduce myself to the zombies around the corner.

Vad är så speciellt med Quake?

What makes Quake so cool? Lots of stuff. First of all, it is the first game I have seen that can boast to be "truly 3D." In other words, you can now look, swim, and jump in any direction that you can imagine. Levels are much bigger, with several levels of rooms above one another, and bridges are now truly bridges that you can go both under and over, something that you could not have in Doom or any of its sequels.

In addition, monsters are now no longer sprites, or flat images. In Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, or any of the other pretenders, all items and creatures were represented by simple pictures that were prerendered, kind of like that cut-out picture of President Reagan that you posed with on your middle school field trip. Typically, sprites limit the range of action that characters and monsters can perform, because an image has to be created for each frame of animation from a variety of angles.

The weaknesses of a sprite system can often be seen when a game allows true-3D movement. In Duke, if you look at a manhole cover from the side, it looks just like it does when you are standing on top of it. In other words, it looks like it is standing on its side. In Quake, every monster and almost every item is represented by a framework of polygons covered with textures, rather like a blocky doll that has been painted to look pretty. This means that when you get hit by the rocket launcher, the guy that popped you sees your arms flailing as you fly across the room. This refinement allows for some incredible (and often funny) scenes of guys staggering back against the wall when hit, or bouncing around like rag dolls when propelled by a rocket.

In addition Quake contains another revolutionary factor - 16 player TCP/IP multiplayer gaming. This means that you can play Quake across the Internet! Although performance varies by server, I have had some incredible net games with 12 or more players, and you can join or quit at any time in the game, unlike Doom. In addition, local games are easy to set up, and players just join the server by picking its name from the list of available games.

The wizards at id Software know what they are doing, and the things that they did well, they did very well. They made this game to be the king of deathmatch, and it has enough merit to deserve that title. In fact, ever since I got Quake, I haven't hardly played my old games. Sorry Duke.


Grafiken:
While the default settings for this game are at low resolution, after downloading and installing SciTech's Display Doctor 5.3, I was able to play comfortably at 800x600 resolution on a P133 with 16 MB of RAM. For those that have real muscle under the hood, you can get well above that, but I had a hard time doing so without bringing the game to a jerky halt.

As far as character graphics go, I must say that the nicest thing about the graphics was the little things. The way the hallway is illuminated by a rocket as it streaks on its merry way. The flash of a grenade or rocket going off. The eerie glow of another player when he has picked up Quad Damage or Invincibility powerups, followed by my collapsing to the floor from massive (high velocity) lead poisoning. These are a few of my favorite things.

Quite simply, Quake has some elements that are subtle but amazing. There are no wet footprints or such as in Duke Nukem 3D, but Quake adds the type of effects that add atmosphere without being obtrusive. For instance, when you are underwater, your vision gets somewhat wavy and discolored. In addition, it has the best dynamic lighting I have ever seen in a game. When it comes down to potential, this game has plenty.

Unfortunately, however, there are a few parts of the game that seem exactly that - potentially good, but not stellar. Monsters and wall textures, while nice from a distance, are pixellated at close range, particularly in the knights. In addition, although each of the 4 episodes maintains its own individual graphical theme and setting, I found that by the end of an episode, I was hoping for more colors and variation in the levels, something that even Doom and definitely Dark Forces did somewhat better.

Monster:
Some of the monsters are spooky, but others are truly frightening. Simple soldiers and rotfish are mere cannon fodder, but when the first fiend leaps out of the shadows towards you, hooked arms tearing at your throat, believe me - you'll be scared.

In Quake, id Software provides a pretty good range of enemies, the more ferocious of which are very difficult to keep off of your face with any weapon. Each of the bigger monsters has its own fear factor. Ogres throw grenades at a distance and swing a massive chainsaw at close range. Shamblers shoot lightning (really!) until you get close enough, at which point they will bring their massive arms down crushing down on your head. Spawn are amorphous slime creatures that bounce around the walls until they land on you, and when you finally kill them, they explode, usually taking a good part of you with them. When it comes to variety, Quake's got it.

However, one thing Quake has too much of is enemy weaknesses. Once you get over the initial shock, many of the monsters can be defeated through simple evasion tactics. Larger monsters often stop when they cannot get through a door, making themselves good targets as long as you keep moving. Each monster has its own weaknesses, and in some cases, they are just too big. One of the worst is the Vore, which is a mean-looking spider-human creature that shoots homing missles! Sounds pretty scary, huh? Well it is, until you get used to it. Although its scream and look may be fearsome, with a little practice, they are a very minimal threat. In fact, I think that I have been killed by them less that any other creature, and they are supposed to be one of the most ferocious ones!

What Quake does lack in quality, however, it makes up in quantity. Where several of one monster would not be too bad if taken properly, when several types of enemies attack together, you often find yourself switching weapons like a metronome and firing while running backwards until your back is to the wall. Playing Quake, I recalled the old SNL Deep Thoughts quote about the most dangerous creature in the world: "Some say it's a shark. Some say it's an elephant. I tell them, it's a shark, riding on the back of an elephant, just trampling and eating everything in its way." (paraphrased)

This game was made for Deathmatch. Although I found the single-player game entertaining, I felt that the real value of the game is in its multiplayer aspects. Not only is there a wonderful amount of customization that can be done, but the levels and weapons are well configured for DM. In the heat of battle, you start to forget AI, graphics, and interfaces, and you revert to your basic survival instincts - kill or be killed. This game has (by far) the best Deathmatching that I have ever seen in a game of its type, so any flaws in the AI were soon forgotten.

Configuration:
You name it, you've got it. Quake provides two ways to customize your gaming experience, the menu and the command line. While most superficial changes can be performed from the game menu, the drop-down command prompt allows the user to do just about anything. You can enter cheat codes, redefine keys or sequences thereof, run scripts, and a variety of other actions. Although the hands-on customization that is usually done at the command prompt may be undesirable to some, I felt that it gave me a very good hands-on interface to all game settings and I hope that this kind of 'option' is provided in future games.


Sammanfattning:
Quake is fun. Quake is cool. Quake is the best game of its type I have ever seen. Quake won't let me sleep at night. However, Quake could be better. As I played it, I couldn't help but think, 'Wow, imagine what this place will look like when they are done!' With all of it's gee-whiz features and kick-butt style, Quake is still, in my opinion, a work in progress. Quake is more than the Doom III that some people have labeled it to be. However, it is also not the leap ahead that Doom was to Castle Wolfenstein. It just promises that there will be such a leap.

Quake provides a wide array of features and capabilities, and if id decides to give its next game (tentatively called "Quake II") the kind of polish that can be seen in Dark Forces, it will be that quantum leap ahead of doom. However, I cannot rate it as "truly revolutionary," simply "very cool." And if there are any Quake junkies out there wanting to make me take that last comment back, you're gonna have to reinforce it with some hot lead. I give Quake a 91, because while it deserves a permanent place on my shelf, it is just not quite the breathtaking powerhouse that we were promised. While the many features (internet multiplay, good configuration, true 3-D, etc.) make it an instant classic, I see better stuff coming down the pipeline. Just you wait and see.

Systemkrav:
486 dx2/66 krävs, men jag skulle rekommendera en Pentium100.                                          8MB ramminne helst 16MB