Review: Quake III for Sega
Nov. 13, 2000 -- Some games are meant to be interactive experiences, technology upping the notch of the user’s problem solving skills and powers of perception. These games invariably use words like “explore” and “uncover” in their descriptions.
Others exist for one sole reason: carnage.
Quake III Arena by id Software — makers of the classic Doom — falls into the latter category. “Frag Everything That Isn’t You,” the manual advises no earlier than page 3, using the colorful Quake gamer’s term for kill.
Yes, this game is definitely for mature audiences only. What would you expect of a company that features a “shopping maul” on its Web site?
The Cult of Quake
A first-person shooter with a loyal cult following, the cult of Quake is large and loyal. Some swear it’s the greatest game ever.
Early versions of the game — Quake and Quake II — were first-person shooters, intense, realistic and, above all, deliciously gruesome. But in addition to blood and guts, Quake and Quake II followed the tradition of the action-adventure genre: problem-solving skills were required, along with a quick trigger, to navigate the increasingly complex levels and defeat the nasty aliens.
But Quake III Arena for Sega Dreamcast is, as the title would suggest, an arena game — a deathmatch. You vs. computer-controlled opponents or, better still, you vs. real-world friends, enemies and 13-year-old kids you’ve never met who will, guaranteed, whip your butt.
But as an arena game, all sense of plot is gone completely. So too are some of the very elements that make earlier versions of the game so compelling: mystery and fear. Mystery, as in trying to unlock the secrets of each level, all the while killing the bizarre alien fiends. And fear, as in wondering — at 4 in the morning with the lights out and headphones on — just what is waiting for you around the next bend.
Deathmatch has none of this. We know who the characters are. In some cases, we know who — or what — is controlling them. Before long, we know every nook and cranny of each level. Now, it’s pure adrenaline, spirit of competition and the joy of slaughter.
Some of the levels, in particular the early levels, are a tad on the unimaginative side. If you’ve played this kind of game before, there’s a vague sense of déjà vu. Then again, one of the earliest levels features a giant tongue emerging from a wall. Players can climb up inside the tongue, waiting for the opponent to pass by. Fragging a foe this way allows one to say he “licked” his enemy.
And, despite the simplicity of some of the levels, it looks great and plays smooth. The computer-controlled opponents are swift and crafty, even on the relatively easy levels, and a split-screen allows Dreamcast users in the same room to play each other on a single TV, with virtually no loss of game speed (try that on your PC).
Some Dreamcast Firsts
The game also allows those of us who graduated from the PC version to use the new Sega keyboard and mouse, or the standard Dreamcast joystick. Some third-party attachments and gadgets may also be used, such as the Panther DC controller, a cool combat-oriented controller that combines a joy stick-style peripheral with a roller ball.
Quake III Arena is the first shooting game of its kind for Dreamcast, allowing users to dial in to the newly established SegaNet (NFL2K was the first game to take advantage of the network). As of this writing, Dreamcast players are able to play each other on SegaNet. Soon, PC Quakers will be able to download the Sega game maps, allowing for cross-platform deathmatches.
But it won’t be first for long: Unreal Tournament is scheduled to come out later this month. As good as the Quake games are, some of us find the Unreal series infinitely more compelling.
And I’ll frag anyone who says otherwise.
Edward Mazza, ABCNEWS.com’s overnight producer, insists to the copy editors that “frag” is a word.