The first thing you might notice about Quake's visuals is that everything is constructed out of textured polygons, eschewing the sprites of Doom and Wolfenstein. This is a massive game changer, not only in terms of visual fidelity but also in terms of level layout. The biggest change from the static blocks of Wolfenstein 3D and the winding corridors of Doom is the added verticality that the Quake engine allows. For the first time towering structures and massive chasms were a reality, with no technical trickery needed to achieve them. From sprawling military compounds packed with high-tech machinery to dank underground caverns with abyssal water pools, and even eldritch dimensions with Gothic architecture, Quake had it all.
The visuals weren't the only revolution Quake brought to the table either. Oh no, there was also the audio to contend with. Masterfully wrought by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, the soundtrack for Quake is nothing short of a masterpiece. Using Redbook Audio CD tracks rather than the MIDI sequences of yore, Quake has one of the best sounding scores of the era. From grinding industrial metal to eerie pulsating ambiance, Quake has an extremely diverse soundscape. The ambient sounds, monster noises and weapon effects are all top notch as well. Quite amusingly, the ammunition crates for the nailgun featured the logo for Reznor's band, Nine Inch Nails.
That brings us to the arsenal of Quake. Instad of the genre-standard pistol, you start with a shotgun, and an axe for when you run out of shells. Along the way you can find a double-barreled shotgun, a nailgun and super nailgun, a genre-staple rocket launcher, a grenade launcher, and an utterly electrifying lightning gun. Each weapon had it's time and place to really shine, and they are balanced very well, nothing feels overkill or underpowered. The rocket launcher also has a hidden function, if you sacrifice a bit of health in the process, you can use the explosion to jump extremely high, a manueuver that the genre would christen Rocket Jumping. Rocket Jumping really helped with finding the secrets of Quake's massive and diverse world.
Another thing that Quake did differently from the norm was its control scheme. You could play with the arrow keys like in older FPS games, but it also introduced the now standard WASD with mouselook control scheme, and that added the helpful ability to actually aim at your foes. for extra accuracy a crosshair is also available. Modern gamers may scoff at this, having taken these things for granted, but at the time these features were absolutely groundbreaking. These precise were a boon to fans of Quake's multiplayer. Previous games such as Doom required a separate client for online matchmaking, but Quake came with TCP/IP and LAN support right out of the box. Players were free to use their connection of choice to frag their foes remotely, and a robust suite of multiplayer options sweetened the deal.
Quake also shipped with support for the wildly popular 3DFX Voodoo accelerator cards, with it's own dedicated client called GLQuake. Using the glide API, 3DFX accelerator owners were able to obtain higher fidelity graphics and a much smoother framerate compared to the default software rendering. This made the Lovecraftian worlds feel that much more alive, and drew players in that much more. A humble Voodoo 1 with 4mb of ram could run the game perfectly at 640x480, and with later models such as the Voodoo3 2000 you could reach dizzying heights of 1024x768, all while retaining wonderfully smooth framerates.
Quake was by far one of the most influential games of the 90s, both revolutionizing the FPS genre, and putting the final nail in the coffin of mere Doom clones. Even in this day and age the quality of the game holds up, and a plethora of sourceports and mods keep the game feeling fresh, with absolute replayability. With two official mission packs and mods, total conversions, and multiplayer shenanigans out the wazoo, there's more fun here than you can shake a Dimensional Shambler at. So whether you're a newcomer to the series, or a grizzled Slipgate veteran, it's time to sharpen your axe and strap on your armor. There's always something new to do in Quake!
