Not content to put out just two of the most influential games in history with Wolfenstein and Doom, id went all-in with their first foray into true 3D- and knocked it out of the park.
Quake feels like a more restrained companion piece to Doom's confident carnage. The combat here is slower and more methodical- Ranger isn't the human bullet Doomguy is so you have to play more carefully. Enemies do more damage- Shamblers, Fiends and Spawn are significantly more dangerous than your average demon, and they're a lot tankier. Quake is definitely the tougher of the two, even with health kits and ammo everywhere I found myself dying more than I would in Doom. It's not as much of a showcase of the player's power, but the harder difficulty means that even small encounters can feel like a huge triumph once you kill the last monster. Quake is full of those little moments of satisfaction.
Quake is also a lot less flashy and showy than Doom, which leaves the player focusing on the technical marvel for the time- it was released not even 3 years after Doom, which was already groundbreaking for the time, and feels like it belongs to an entirely different generation of gaming.
The lighting is dark and foreboding instead of bright and visceral, the music is ominous industrial groans (by fucking Nine-Inch Nails, how cool is that?) instead of roaring guitars and banging drums. Your enemies are deep browns instead of saturated reds, greens and white and even their blood is murky and oxidised instead of bright crimson. The most powerful gun is simply called the Thunderbolt instead of the Big Fucking Gun. The final boss is a puzzle, not a beef wall. The halls you stalk are brown and grey brick, not fleshy corridors. It's almost understated in its approach- apart from the fact you're still blowing ghouls into paste. But even then, it's not as loud and bloody as in Doom.
Despite all of these comparisons to Doom, Quake stands firmly on its own merits, and the contrasts to its sister game only serve to strengthen it. It's a landmark in game design and graphical fidelity, and that's not even mentioning its shadow looming large over pretty much every multiplayer shooter since its release. It's aged surprisingly well.
Quake feels like a more restrained companion piece to Doom's confident carnage. The combat here is slower and more methodical- Ranger isn't the human bullet Doomguy is so you have to play more carefully. Enemies do more damage- Shamblers, Fiends and Spawn are significantly more dangerous than your average demon, and they're a lot tankier. Quake is definitely the tougher of the two, even with health kits and ammo everywhere I found myself dying more than I would in Doom. It's not as much of a showcase of the player's power, but the harder difficulty means that even small encounters can feel like a huge triumph once you kill the last monster. Quake is full of those little moments of satisfaction.
Quake is also a lot less flashy and showy than Doom, which leaves the player focusing on the technical marvel for the time- it was released not even 3 years after Doom, which was already groundbreaking for the time, and feels like it belongs to an entirely different generation of gaming.
The lighting is dark and foreboding instead of bright and visceral, the music is ominous industrial groans (by fucking Nine-Inch Nails, how cool is that?) instead of roaring guitars and banging drums. Your enemies are deep browns instead of saturated reds, greens and white and even their blood is murky and oxidised instead of bright crimson. The most powerful gun is simply called the Thunderbolt instead of the Big Fucking Gun. The final boss is a puzzle, not a beef wall. The halls you stalk are brown and grey brick, not fleshy corridors. It's almost understated in its approach- apart from the fact you're still blowing ghouls into paste. But even then, it's not as loud and bloody as in Doom.
Despite all of these comparisons to Doom, Quake stands firmly on its own merits, and the contrasts to its sister game only serve to strengthen it. It's a landmark in game design and graphical fidelity, and that's not even mentioning its shadow looming large over pretty much every multiplayer shooter since its release. It's aged surprisingly well.