Oppressive gothic cathedrals, dirty marine bases, and
Lovecraftian horror soar by at over 400 units per second. Gnarled textures and
haggard enemies inhabit each map, constantly reminding the player he is not
welcome within the nightmare. Screeching industrial music loops and assaults
the senses. Noises and grunts give away positions as lighting flickers and hides
the violent adversaries seeking to lower the player's health counter to zero.
The environments of Quake are dissonant. Single player levels are tied together
by a nonsensical story to ground the perfection of FPS gameplay.
Quake is first person shooter freedom. Absent are modern
limits to what the player can do to build up absurd speed: no friction
penalties during jumps, no lowered successive jump heights, no sprint buttons.
Maximum speed is uncapped and acceleration can be gained through a variety of
advanced techniques. Bunny hopping, prestrafing, and wall strafing all allow
the player to accelerate. Air strafing allows the player to have full air control
in order to bob and weave through levels. Ogre's grenades and Vore's purple
homing attacks are no match for players with full mastery Quake's movement. The
grenades lie harmlessly on the ground, detonating on enemies. The Vore's attack
erupts onto walls or can be led back by a bunny hopping player into a Vore
herself for tons of damage.
Regardless of the power that the movement techniques grant
the player, he is not a messiah of mayhem and gibs. The enemy composition, like
DOOM, relies on melee enemies charging the player along with projectile and
hitscan enemies standing back to assault the player. Although unlike DOOM,
enemies have high health as there are usually fewer of them on screen. The true
form of Quake is on Nightmare and it requires maddening levels of
concentration. There are more enemies, they aggro immediately, and they attack twice
as fast. A room full of Ogres and Death Knights will send a flurry of grenades
and sword swings towards the player. Evasion and prediction has to become second
nature in order to avoid taking damage and dropping to the floor.
The player must keep a constant beat on his enemies with the
7 different weapons at his disposal. As the levels progress, the player has
access to better and better weapons, culminating in the rocket launcher and
lightning gun. Rockets have a large area of affect and can deal damage back to
the player if used too closely. They kill most enemies other than the Vore and
Shambler with 2-3 direct hits. The lightning gun is the most powerful weapon in
the game and has the rarest ammo containers. It has limited range, but it is
hit scan and does 30 damage per shot and fires 10 shots a second for an
eviscerating 300 damage per second. A mighty 600 health Shambler will fall in
two seconds from 20 cells when up against the weapon. Alternatively is the
super nail gun which fires 600 rounds a minute at 18 damage per nail. It only
take 34 nails fired over 5 seconds to kill the beast.
Quake's use of health and armor pickups lengthen the tension
of levels. Instead of ducking behind cover to regain his vitality, the player
must dodge attacks and constantly seek out health and item caches. Many
outstanding games have a player constantly experiencing a sense of degradation,
such as in Quake's requirement that the player continually seeks health and
better armor. Levels are long and later on contain many different keys and
switches to get to the end. The player must learn to dodge and aim effectively
in order to maintain health while finding caches of hidden yellow and red
armor, as they absorb 60% and 80% of damage respectively compared to blue
armor's 30%. With low health and armor, the player will scramble to find
anything to abate his suffering and delay perishing which is when the game is
at its most unnerving.
As one nears the end of a level, turning each corner turns
into a potential hazard that may end the player's life and force a restart. Power
ups help the player conquer the levels but require him to act quickly to
capitalize on them. A Mega Health promises the player 100 more health over what
he currently has, ticking down slowly after five seconds of carrying it if his
health goes over 100. Quad Damage is the single most important item for quickly
clearing impossible overpopulated rooms. But it runs on a 30 second timer and
must be used as swiftly as possible in order for the player to maximize its
effects. The penultimate level of the new 5th episode DOPA for Quake contains 3
Shamblers on Nightmare difficulty. Finding Quad Damage and ferociously sprinting
to the end with the lightning gun allows the player to kill each Shambler in
only half a second and finally complete the level.
Everything in the game is frantic, degrading, and
oppressive. There is no regenerating health and no 30 second slices of action
like in Halo. The action is nonstop for all 5 to 10 minutes it takes to finish
a level. Only aiming, movement, and secrets will save a player from certain
death. His heart will thump as he bunny hops, firing rockets at Ogres in
alcoves and lightning at Vores around corners. He will exclaim when happening
upon Quad Damage, knowing he can now conquer hordes of Ogres using only the
quick firing basic shotgun. But after powerups subside and his armor and health
is low, his only solace will be the exit door as Aftermath pounds in his ears.
