I’ll say it up front: Quake is the highest-placed first-person shooter on my list. And I know what you’re thinking. Of all the FPS games in all the world, why did I have to pick Quake? What does this dinosaur of a game have to offer that more refined, recent examples of the genre don’t?
The answer, for me, is uncomplicated fun. Since the halcyon days of Quake, when even being able to jump in a first-person shooter was a novel innovation, developers have sought to evolve the genre through the addition of what I can only term ’stuff’. Stuff like recoil on your gun, the need to stop firing and reload, missions and objectives, squad-based wrangling and, worst of all, the concept of stamina. While these features combine to give the player a more complete gaming experience, they’re not what I would call fun.
And fun is what Quake provides, in pure unadulterated form. Not for id Software the trappings of plot and storyline; no, Quake’s single-player mode threw you into a quasi-medieval, semi-futuristic landscape of zombies, ogres, gargantuan alien creatures and knights, all fiendish in their own way and none of them fitting any kind of theme, beyond “these guys are trying to kill you, kill them first”. Similarly, the deathmatch mode has no storm-the-base, free-the-hostages mission nonsense – just frag everyone in sight before they blow your face off.
Quake’s enduring appeal is part of what keeps it in the top ten, from its active open-source community who are still beavering away on the engine – with impressive results – to the numerous developers who have paid homage, such as Valve with their Deathmatch Classic mod for Half-Life. If you haven’t had much fun in a shooter for a while, give Quake another chance. You’ll be laughing as you rip some sap a new one with your quad rocket within minutes.
