My Entries
Quake 1 is not that good - Game Review
Now as of writing I have just finished Quake 1 and beat the final boss Shub-Niggurath. Since I have beaten the game I want to now give a review. The game is not that good, Besides the fact that yes it was a technical marvel and was great for the time, it nowadays is just another game that I beat just to say that I have. [Please note that this game was beaten on medium difficulty and this review is my own opinion]. I wanna split this review into sections starting with weapon pool.
The weapon pool is not bad, but there are some problems. My first big problem is that some weapons are just not good. The Basic Shotgun that you get at the beginning of the game is not good at all, its only good for the first chapter and that's basically it, because later you get the Double Barrel Shotgun which does way more damage at the expense of another round being used after every shot, but it's still better than the single barrel because it shoots more pellets so really at no point would you really ever need to use the single barrel anymore even if the spread is worse, your not shooting something far away, you are shooting something close to your face. Another weapon that I want to talk about is the Grenade Launcher, this weapon has killed me more times than enemies have. The layout of the maps constantly puts you inside of these little corridors with so many turns with enemies right around the corner. So what happens is you keep turning corners and finding enemies and you aim and shoot at them but you keep damaging yourself because the grenade detonates on the enemy and the splash damage hurts you too. This has probably happened on every single map. The Grenade Launcher is probably one of the best weapons in the game because of the massive damage it does to enemies, which is why I always had it out. Another problem isn't with a certain gun but there really is no long range weapons which normally wouldn't be a problem because the areas are condensed but sometimes in a fight and the enemy is sorta far there is just no weapons that work well for long range because the AI constantly is moving around and by the time the projectile weapon reaches them they already ran out of the way. Granted this could have been a gameplay thing and not an issue but it was annoying to need to kill an enemy far away but couldn't, especially at the final level (which I will get to later).
I will now be talking about level design. The level design is very nice and every level looks unique, but it also has its problems. The levels are just kinda meh, because most of the encounters are just you going into a room reaching a certain point and suddenly the walls which look normal come down and enemies are behind it. That just gets so boring because it feels like a surprise attack but happens so often that it's not. Another thing is just enemies spawning right behind you, I vividly remember in chapter 2 a monster spawning right behind me in a small room as I look back from a dropdown, that just feels cheap. Another thing is that ammo pickups are very scattered, some levels give you abundant ammo, I don't think I ran out of ammo at all during my playthrough, but the final boss dont give much at all, I constantly ran out of ammo just trying to get up to the teleporter. I’m gonna talk about the final level for a bit because I don't have anywhere else to put it. The final level was by far the hardest, which makes sense, but it wasn't hard as in I got outplayed or I was playing wrong, but the level was just unforgiving when it came to ammo, leaving me constantly ending up with my melee which does fuck all. On your way to the boss, bullshit spikes just come out of nowhere, zero indication on why they are there but they are. The level is not very well lit and leaves a section in the dark which guess what! There was a spike there and that just ended that run, RELOAD SAVE. This next part contains spoilers for the final boss but I gotta talk about it. How in the world were you supposed to know that you could telefrag the final boss, I could not find anywhere in the game where that happened besides that one moment. The first time I actually got to the boss was when I ran out of ammo making me attack it with the crappy melee weapon. It took so long I had to pause and look up how to defeat it because it felt like I was doing zero damage. I think the devs knew this because they put a platform to get back onto the path to the teleporter. For most of the levels in the game the textures of ground and walls just look like mush. It’s really bad at the end of chapter 1 in the goth areas because it's just dark green and yellow EVERYWHERE. Early chapter 2 and late chapter 3 look the best because most areas look visually distinct and I can easily find my way around instead of confusing myself with “Ok so this similar green/yellow corridor is the same as the one I just left. Where am I?”. Chapter 4 has a mix of the two which makes it easier to tell where I am but that just leads me to my next problem I got with the game.
As I stated in level design, the game art style just doesn't make a lot of sense and doesn't really know what it wants to be. I was not a fan of the way they tried to incorporate art styles, because at one point you are in this fantasy-like castle and the next level you're in this sci-fi techy room with computers on the wall. The best way I can explain this is on the first level with you in a tech building then after entering the slipgate and beating that level you are in a medieval area that looks nothing like the previous level. I get that the slipgates are meant as a way of transportation, but I couldn't find anything relating to time travel so it's kinda weird that they would have both sci-fi tech and medieval lands at the same time. I feel like it would have made more sense to have sci-fi areas in one chapter and medieval in another and swap between them for whatever chapter. I noticed more tech related levels in chapter 3 than all others.
Some smaller talking points are related to the monsters you fight. For one the Spawns are the worst monsters, just downright unfair, they move quickly making them a hard target to hit, it felt like the hits that did connect did not damage them at all. The fact that they blow up and deal explosive damage is so stupid because they lunge at you, so when you hit and kill them they take away all your health from splash damage. The Vore only sucks because the projectiles they shoot are targeting you and won't go away until they hit something and blow up. I think that's kinda stupid, like I should be able to shoot the projectile and have it blow up away from me, that also comes into play in the corridors because you don't have a lot of room to maneuver and have it hit something.
That's basically all I have to say about the game, it's ok. I don't really wanna play the expansions and I don't really care about the steam achievements that you can get. I feel glad and accomplished that I beat the game, not because it was an epic and the gameplay was good, it was because I no longer have to play it anymore. I am excited to play and beat Quake 2 because I heard it's better, I will be writing a review for Quake 2… too.
The weapon pool is not bad, but there are some problems. My first big problem is that some weapons are just not good. The Basic Shotgun that you get at the beginning of the game is not good at all, its only good for the first chapter and that's basically it, because later you get the Double Barrel Shotgun which does way more damage at the expense of another round being used after every shot, but it's still better than the single barrel because it shoots more pellets so really at no point would you really ever need to use the single barrel anymore even if the spread is worse, your not shooting something far away, you are shooting something close to your face. Another weapon that I want to talk about is the Grenade Launcher, this weapon has killed me more times than enemies have. The layout of the maps constantly puts you inside of these little corridors with so many turns with enemies right around the corner. So what happens is you keep turning corners and finding enemies and you aim and shoot at them but you keep damaging yourself because the grenade detonates on the enemy and the splash damage hurts you too. This has probably happened on every single map. The Grenade Launcher is probably one of the best weapons in the game because of the massive damage it does to enemies, which is why I always had it out. Another problem isn't with a certain gun but there really is no long range weapons which normally wouldn't be a problem because the areas are condensed but sometimes in a fight and the enemy is sorta far there is just no weapons that work well for long range because the AI constantly is moving around and by the time the projectile weapon reaches them they already ran out of the way. Granted this could have been a gameplay thing and not an issue but it was annoying to need to kill an enemy far away but couldn't, especially at the final level (which I will get to later).
I will now be talking about level design. The level design is very nice and every level looks unique, but it also has its problems. The levels are just kinda meh, because most of the encounters are just you going into a room reaching a certain point and suddenly the walls which look normal come down and enemies are behind it. That just gets so boring because it feels like a surprise attack but happens so often that it's not. Another thing is just enemies spawning right behind you, I vividly remember in chapter 2 a monster spawning right behind me in a small room as I look back from a dropdown, that just feels cheap. Another thing is that ammo pickups are very scattered, some levels give you abundant ammo, I don't think I ran out of ammo at all during my playthrough, but the final boss dont give much at all, I constantly ran out of ammo just trying to get up to the teleporter. I’m gonna talk about the final level for a bit because I don't have anywhere else to put it. The final level was by far the hardest, which makes sense, but it wasn't hard as in I got outplayed or I was playing wrong, but the level was just unforgiving when it came to ammo, leaving me constantly ending up with my melee which does fuck all. On your way to the boss, bullshit spikes just come out of nowhere, zero indication on why they are there but they are. The level is not very well lit and leaves a section in the dark which guess what! There was a spike there and that just ended that run, RELOAD SAVE. This next part contains spoilers for the final boss but I gotta talk about it. How in the world were you supposed to know that you could telefrag the final boss, I could not find anywhere in the game where that happened besides that one moment. The first time I actually got to the boss was when I ran out of ammo making me attack it with the crappy melee weapon. It took so long I had to pause and look up how to defeat it because it felt like I was doing zero damage. I think the devs knew this because they put a platform to get back onto the path to the teleporter. For most of the levels in the game the textures of ground and walls just look like mush. It’s really bad at the end of chapter 1 in the goth areas because it's just dark green and yellow EVERYWHERE. Early chapter 2 and late chapter 3 look the best because most areas look visually distinct and I can easily find my way around instead of confusing myself with “Ok so this similar green/yellow corridor is the same as the one I just left. Where am I?”. Chapter 4 has a mix of the two which makes it easier to tell where I am but that just leads me to my next problem I got with the game.
As I stated in level design, the game art style just doesn't make a lot of sense and doesn't really know what it wants to be. I was not a fan of the way they tried to incorporate art styles, because at one point you are in this fantasy-like castle and the next level you're in this sci-fi techy room with computers on the wall. The best way I can explain this is on the first level with you in a tech building then after entering the slipgate and beating that level you are in a medieval area that looks nothing like the previous level. I get that the slipgates are meant as a way of transportation, but I couldn't find anything relating to time travel so it's kinda weird that they would have both sci-fi tech and medieval lands at the same time. I feel like it would have made more sense to have sci-fi areas in one chapter and medieval in another and swap between them for whatever chapter. I noticed more tech related levels in chapter 3 than all others.
Some smaller talking points are related to the monsters you fight. For one the Spawns are the worst monsters, just downright unfair, they move quickly making them a hard target to hit, it felt like the hits that did connect did not damage them at all. The fact that they blow up and deal explosive damage is so stupid because they lunge at you, so when you hit and kill them they take away all your health from splash damage. The Vore only sucks because the projectiles they shoot are targeting you and won't go away until they hit something and blow up. I think that's kinda stupid, like I should be able to shoot the projectile and have it blow up away from me, that also comes into play in the corridors because you don't have a lot of room to maneuver and have it hit something.
That's basically all I have to say about the game, it's ok. I don't really wanna play the expansions and I don't really care about the steam achievements that you can get. I feel glad and accomplished that I beat the game, not because it was an epic and the gameplay was good, it was because I no longer have to play it anymore. I am excited to play and beat Quake 2 because I heard it's better, I will be writing a review for Quake 2… too.