Quake Remastered (PC) Review

I know Doom fans will take exception to me saying that Quake is the king of boomer shooters, but one or the other, I think both can have that title together.

To my own shame, I recently came to the realization that I have never actually sat down and played through the original Quake despite owning both the PC and Saturn versions of the game for just under fifteen years of my life. I first encountered Quake on the N64 of all things, not owning a PC growing up, I was left to PC hand-me-down console ports of PC games. I rented Quake 64 for a weekend, and I'm pretty sure I cheated to beat the game. Three dollars, for three days of rental, I didn't have time to waste with pesky things like playing through the entire game.

If you could sum up the coolest time to be a gamer (that exciting jump from the 2D era to the 3D era) since the advent of gaming with just one game, sorry Nintendo fanboys, it's not super Mario 64, it's Quake. Not that Doom, Mario, and all the other early 3D titles didn't play their part, but, without exaggeration, I could credit Quake for being THAT GAME that shaped gaming into what it is today more than any other early 3D game.

For my first official playthrough, I used the recently released Quake Remastered, which birngs the game to the Kex Engine, and updates the graphics, allowing for up to 4K, and also includes the expansion packs to the game, which I have never played, and a new expansion by Machinehead games called Dimension of the Machine.

Quake is a deep mixture of well designed levels, fast paced movement and gameplay, and beefy weapons that hit hard to take down the hodge podge of enemies the game throws your way. As you delve deeper into each episode, you are presented with more, stronger weapons to take on the more, stronger enemies.

A plethora of enemies to dispatch, complete freedom of movement, and extensively designed levels, this is why we love old shooters. Story, no story, the fast, frenetic gameplay in these shooters compels you forward better than any storyline ever could.

Retro shooters showcase substance over style, gameplay over fluff, and level design over the same tired story designs. These games were born in a time where developers took chances, and gameplay and design took precedent, and in the brave new world of fully 3D gaming, having only their previous work on Doom to go off of when id made this game, Quake, is rightfully the seen as the king of all boomer shooters.

I'm not really going in depth with this review as even younger gamers know about Quake, but I will say this, as far as remasters go, I fully recommend this Quake Remaster to PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and soon to be Series X, and PS5 owners. It's cheap, updates the visuals, comes with the expansions, and even has cross-platform online play so PC gamers can smash console gamers who only have controllers.

As for the online play with the remaster, it doesn't appear to be actual Quake Online, but a new online which features the cross platform play. This is a good thing for newbies, like me, actually. You see, my one quake online experience came via a source port, and the game ended up being a 1 v 1 game, and not only did I get unmercifully murdered, I got murdered by a guy who knew exactly where I was going to spawn next. Die, re-spawn just to die, then re-spawn just to die, he was always there with the lightning gun.

I've put may hours into Quake II online, and am a painfully mediocre player at best, but Quake 1's online deathmatch has always been an intimidating prospect for me. I am more likely to jump onto Quake II's online, terrifying Rail gun and all. I'm not sure why the original's death-matches seem more intimidating to me than Quake II, or even Quake III's are, but they just always have been.

Perhaps I should just get over it, grab a source port, and take my licking like a man, but having a seperated online experience for the remaster is a good idea to me, and not just because I am so bad at this game that I still lose using keyboard and mouse verses controllers, but because it separates newcomers from players who have been playing this game online for 25 years....unless they grab a copy of the remaster that is. Which they should, honestly.

#QuakeRemastered #Quake1996 #Quake