When I first tried id Software’s Quake back in 1996, I just couldn’t get into it.
This was both surprising and disheartening as I was enamored with id Software’s previous creation, Doom. That game was brilliant on every level (pun very much intended), with satisfying combat, finely crafted worlds, and a raft of iconic enemies. And, once I learned to read, I even found myself captivated by the Doom’s paper-thin story, which began in the included user manual and continued as walls of texts that appeared at the end of each of the game’s three (later four with the release of The Ultimate Doom) episodes.
As a fan of Doom, Quake should have instantly resonated with me. It was developed by mostly the same people who had created Doom, and Quake’s core gameplay loop was virtually identical to Doom’s.
On paper, Quake should have represented more of what I’d loved about Doom, but with some unique twists and built with more sophisticated technology. And, had I invested the time to really play through Quake after getting over my initial negative impressions, it is almost certain that I would have enjoyed it.
However, the differences were so stark that it would take years before I’d seriously give it another try.
Doom’s levels were an eclectic mix of colorful and vibrant environments, while Quake’s maps seemed homogenous, with brown walls, brown floors, and brown ceilings. Doom featured catchy MIDI tunes looping in the background, amping up the player in her or his struggle to defeat an iconic cast of monsters and demons. Quake, on the other hand, opted for an ambient and moody sountrack that just blended into the background as bland, low-polygon-count bad guys tried to tear the player apart.
Rather than be impressed with Quake’s full 3D graphics engine, which represented nothing short of a technological breakthrough at the time, I wasn’t even convinced back in 1996 that Quake represented a visual step up from Doom. I genuinely prefered the more detailed 2D sprites of Doom to the blocky, three-dimensional beasts of Quake. (And, I’ll admit it, I still do.)
Several years after I first tried Quake, however, I gave it another chance, playing it from start to finish. It wasn’t easy, especially as I always push myself to play id Software games on at least “hard” difficulty, if not “nightmare.” And, navigating the surprisingly complex three-dimensional labyrinths of Quake certainly put my spatial reasoning skills to the test. Nevertheless, making it through the entirety of Quake for the first time was an unforgettable experience, and with each playthrough, my appreciation for the game has only grown.
To start, Quake’s combat is intensely satisfying. The weapon selection is well balanced; every weapon has its place and it’s up to the player to choose the right tool for the job. And, while the monsters do look blocky, they are quite interesting to fight. Not only does each monster have its own strengths and weaknesses, forcing the player to craft strategies to effectively deal with each one, but the game’s designers did a phenomenal job of balancing the “mix” of monsters to create varied and exciting combat scenarios.
Quake’s level design is also much more elaborate than what was possible in earlier psuedo-3D games like Doom. As I grew older, I came to really appreciate the gameplay possibilities that full 3D environments could offer. One level of Quake — a secret level, called “Ziggurat Vertigo”— dramatically reduces the gravity in the environment. Disorienting at first, it was extremely satisfying to fight monsters in a low-gravity scenario and navigate my way to the exit.
Quake also did a fantastic job with its secret areas — there are many truly clever little secrets sprinkled across its levels. I’m proud that I’ve found a lot of them, including all of the secret levels in the base game’s four episodes, but there are still some that elude me to this day. Every time I replay the game, I try to find at least one secret that I had previously missed.
And, finally, I eventually grew to fall in love with Quake’s visual style. I still prefer Doom’s — but, to be fair, I think everything about the original Doom is perfect — but I have grown to appreciate the craftsmanship that went into Quake’s artwork. The textures are raw and gritty, making each of the environments feel “worn in” and truly a place where unsettling monsters live. The levels are also lit effectively, seving to instill a sense of dread and despair without the cop out of trying to make things scary by simply turning off the lights altogether.
There’s a lot more that I could say about Quake as well as the other games in the series (and, hopefully, those will be topics for future discussion), but for now I’ll finish this short post with the following: Happy 25th Anniversary, Quake! I’ve spent countless hours playing the game and look forward to replaying it soon.
—Ashraf