An enemy codenamed Quake uses slipgates to insert death squads inside your military base. You are the only survivor of your Operation Counterstrike. You enter the slipgate used by Quake's killers and venture to his world.
Quake uses the new Quake Engine, a quantum leap in game engines. Levels in the game are now in true 3D, allowing much more complex and entertaining levels to be created. Back in Doom, z-axis is actually non-existent and each level always flattens to a plane; or in short, it was not possible to have "room above room". In Quake, everything is defined via xyz- coordinates. A room is nothing more than the space confined by walls, ceiling and floor, each of which is just a rectangular cuboid. Monsters and weapons are also 3D objects — if you had watched carefully, they were only sprites (one-sided pictures) in Doom. Sprites rotate with you so that you always see the only side of it. Now monsters are texture-mapped 3D objects. The only remaining sprites are the explosions, air bubbles and the sky. Unfortunately, the sky is most ugly thing you would ever see in any game. Even worse than Doom. So try not to look up when you are in open areas.
Quake also allows looking up and down, jumping, and swimming under water, introducing a lot of new fun. Doom players will miss the map. It is no longer available in Quake Engine games. As a result, it is much easier to get lost in the dark corridors. With a real 3D level, it is next to impossible to draw maps real time. Even if it can be drawn, it is not easy to read afterall.
Quake levels have lots of traps and secrets: falling ceilings, flying nails, collapsing floors, secret doors, lifts, motion detectors... Very entertaining for Doom players, but for Hexen players, they are just rudimentary.
WinQuake is a native Win32 version of Quake that can take advantage of DirectX and VESA modes when present.
glQuake is the OpenGL version of Quake taking advantage of 3D hardware. Most 3D graphics cards also need a (mini-)OpenGL driver for glQuake to run it.
Quake ranked 5th in the GameSpy's Top 50 Games of All Time (Aug 2001), and enter the GameSpy Hall of Fame!
Developer and Publisher: id Software
Game review available at Adrenaline Vault
Home page on id Software
Shareware version v1.08 (episode 1 only) available at Home Page above and 3D Gamers
glQuake v0.97 available at Gamers.Org
Quake FAQ (including cheat and secret list) available at Gamers.Org
Quake II addresses the one big weakness of Doom and Quake: falling apart. Like Doom, you keep on playing level after level in Quake aimlessly. Quake II has a coherent story for once.
In Quake II, id followed a different story line. Instead of a continuation of the Quake story, it is a futuristic militaristic storyline. You are on the terminal battle of an ongoing war not only to repell aliens invaders but to destroy their ability to make war of any kind. The battle takes place on the alien homeworld Stroggos. Those pesky Stroggs shoot down your fightercraft, causing it to plummet into hostile territory. Levels are designed to be played in a logical, sequential progression. You have to fight your way through military installations, lower the defenses of the alien military complex, and shut down their war machine. Only then can Earth launch an air assault.
The major advance in the Quake II Engine, compared to the Quake Engine, lies not in the content but in the graphics. Quake II uses many of the new features available to the 3D accelarators via OpenGL, producing much better graphics than before.
Finally, DOS is no longer supported. Windows 95 finally earned the status of the gaming platform. Quake II uses OpenGL (so there is no longer any separate glQuake II to download), although software rendering is still supported. However, it would be dead slow without a 3D card, unless you are running a very fast CPU or at low resolutions.
Developer and Publisher: id Software
Game review available at Adrenaline Vault
Home page on id Software
Demo available at id Software
Quake II FAQ (including cheat and secret list) available at PlanetQuake
Secret list available at Adrenaline Vault
Cheats available at Adrenaline Vault
Quake III Arena should be coming out soon. And it captialise on the most popular aspect of Quake II: internet play.
This time a single player is no longer available, and Deathmatch would be the only option in QIIIA. If you do not want a big phone bill from your ISP, you can run the BotMatch option where bots would DeathMatch against you.
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