Between its dark and gritty aesthetic, its Trent Reznor soundtrack and its intimate relationship with the pop-culturization of the Internet, there may not be a more distinctively 90's game than Quake. There may also not be a more influential one, and while that can be readily debated, the one thing you can't debate is that Quake is everywhere.

It's really hard to find other games that have had such a profound effect on gaming as not only a hobby but an art form. This was where having that fancy extra dimension really started to make sense. The shareware version of Quake dropped one day before the original Japanese release of Super Mario 64. Nearly a quarter of a century later, both of these games not only continue to be The Guy To Wanna Be for their respective genres, but also serve as platforms upon which speedrunners and other sick, twisted individuals can demonstrate their digital wizardry. That's before mentioning Quake's hand in popularizing speedrunning and the online deathmatch. And of course, there's all of the other classic titles directly inspired by it or based off of it, such as the OG Team Fortress and Half-Life itself (with GoldSRC being a modified version of the Quake engine). While I didn't grow up with Quake, I've been feeling its influence my whole life.

It's especially remarkable because Quake is a far cry from the original vision its creators had for it, designed first as a more fantastical and RPG-ish third person action game. The title stemmed from the player's key weapon, a mighty and magical hammer that could blow away foes with the sheer force of its swings. The name Quake ended up being a terrifically apt title regardless of this departure, not only for the way it shook up the industry, but also the way its troubled development fragmented id Software. How many success stories like Quake do you know of that effectively killed the company they spawned from? It's also another great example of how taking the "safest" path arguably led to the greatest returns. While it might be interesting to see what would have happened if Quake had stayed true to its earliest concepts, I'd be deeply concerned as to what the rest of the gaming landscape would look like in the absence of Quake as you and I know it.

And, y'know, it's still pretty fun to play. So there's that.

If quad damage were real I'd use it to cook a chicken with one slap.

Jumped right into this one and been wanting to play more of the older FPS games since I never were into them when I was younger. I wanted to jump into this before I played the 2017 PREY to get the full experience. The little details were so damn cool and definitely ahead of its time with its portal-esque approach to certain areas and its take on when you die you can fight back for your life in the realm of the ancients. Some stuff I was very shocked to see in terms of violence as well. The story was not too crazy, but was really fun and addictive with getting the different weapons and reminded me a lot of DOOM 3 with the lighting and gameplay style. Definitely liked this way more though (I'm not a DOOM 3 hater I swear!). Tommy was a pretty cool main character for the time and his dialogue at sometimes caught me off guard and was killing me like killing one of the crazy people and telling them "sorry bro, its better this way" lmao. I'm glad I dove into this one and helped me get out of the nongaming rut I have been in the past few weeks. Check it out if you wanna play more of the older FPS and this is certainly underrated in my opinion. Even checked out the Prey 2 E3 trailer and gameplay! Can't wait to check out that one right guys?!

Decided to finally replay this game again after a handful of years

Even if there should've been more variety in the dungeon design and enemy encounters, if you ask me I still think the gameplay here is a notch more engaging than most other turn-based games. You do have to try and conserve PP, numerous items are genuinely useful, and most enemies can kill you quick so you have to be a bit careful (and a bit is a lot more than most turn-based games). I do think the bosses should be much harder though. I destroyed them this time around; I really don't remember them having this few HP/defenses. Some of the outlaws from sidequests tend to be more tricky to take down than the main story bosses.

This is also another game where I'd glad the main story isn't too long. I think the pacing is near perfect. There weren't as much sidequest days you need to go through as I remember. For both sidequests and main story you can get away with not exploring most rooms of most dungeons. Which may mean exploration in this game isn't that encouraged but I'll take it if it means a less tedious, boring experience of going through the shallow dungeons I find in most turn based games. Something about the fast paced dungeon crawling of the Mystery Dungeon franchise is honestly appealing to me.

I just wanted to throw some of my thoughts on the gameplay out there. I still of course love the story and presentation as much as ever (blush + smile with closed eyes emoji)

It is a miracle that I got to finish this brilliant game, and now people can stop bullying me because I haven't played it before.

My rating criteria for this game are games released in 2010 and prior. 
I had so many technical difficulties. Even by the standards of that time, this game has so many bugs that softlock you, tons of crashes, and buggy graphics settings. Also, controls got bugged, and I couldn't press the ESC key at all. I had to Alt-Tab every time to pause the game. These technical problems made me finish the game in a week, in about 25 sessions.

However, the story was intriguing, and the horror elements were used in such an amazing way that I got scared of my own shadow multiple times. The library part was made because they hate us players and they want us to have a heart attack. Plus. I liked the funny Ulman jokes.

Oh, the ending was also crazy! Here is footage of me during the ending!

Never looking back. The SSS are my family 😭





P.S. Rixy Mixy is my pookie wookie