Requirements: PowerPC with at least 16MB RAM, color monitor and
CD-ROM drive.
 
Overview
Quake is a first-person shooter with only two objectives; staying alive by killing enemies before they kill you, and getting out of the place that you're in. There are no puzzles or plots as in the Marathon series or Duke Nukem 3D. Quake is pure unmitigated killing, and as such, it's more fun to play it with other people, either cooperatively or in a death match.
Multi-player Gameplay
Quake is a very simple game. This has both good and bad points. It's good because there's nothing to clutter the main objective of killing everything in sight, and it's bad because there's nothing to clutter the main objective of killing everything in sight. Fortunately, there are two other ways of playing Quake; Cooperative or Deathmatch, over a local-area network or the Internet.
Cooperative
Cooperative play is when two or more people work together to finish a level. Erik J. Barzeski and I played the first level together, and it was a lot of fun. It was easier to finish a level with another person helping. A neat benefit of cooperative play is that as long as one person is alive, the game continues. In other words, when one person dies the level doesn't reset. I recommend cooperative gameplay to everyone, especially for beginners in first-person shooters.
Deathmatch
Deathmatch is when two or more people try to kill each other. Quake allows teams, and it can even be arranged so that people on the same team can't hurt each other. The person hosting the game can select any of the available levels to play. Deathmatch is very different from regular play, and tactics have been developed especially for it. For a site that describes and organizes some of the best tips, go to http://www.weenie.com/quake/.
Graphics
The whole mood of Quake is that of a Gothic medieval castle complete with moats, torches and knights. The portion of a screenshot below is an example of what you'll experience when you play Quake.
 I found the graphics to be
of a high quality, with no
jagged pixels even when
very close to an object.
However, when someone
gets shot or when there's
an explosion, they're
drawn as a bunch of small
squares. As you can see in
the picture to the right, the
blood of the Knight is
drawn as red blocks. This
isn't as realistic as it could
be, and contrasts with the
realism found elsewhere
in Quake.
There's also a similarity in the levels that does get dull after awhile. There isn't a lot of diversity in the graphics, so you'll see a similar pattern throughout the game. The picture above is a good representation. The graphics aren't bad, just extremely repetitive.
Music / Sound Effects
Quake has an ambience unlike many other first-person shooters, and the music is a major reason why. Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails created both the sound effects and music, and the end result combines perfectly with the gameplay. It's hard to describe, but Quake induces a tension in me akin to fear whenever I play it. It's similar to the effects used in horror movies to warn the audience of impending doom. Everyone remembers the Jaws theme and how they felt when they heard it. This is the same kind of feeling that I get whenever I play Quake.
The sounds the enemies make and the ambient sounds are realistic. They get louder as you approach the source of the noise and quieter as you move away. If you have stereo speakers or headphones, the sounds are in stereo. That means that if an ogre is to your left, you will hear him growling from the left speaker.
Performance
I tested Quake on a PowerMac 7300/200 with 32 MB of RAM doubled to 64 MB with Ram Doubler 2. I experienced no slowdowns, even when there were many enemies on the screen and all features were turned on.
There are ways to improve the performance if you have a low-end PowerMac. It is possible to "skip lines" or double pixels to speed up a slow processor. I have also found that quitting the Finder and launching Quake (via a simple AppleScript) speeds up the gameplay. I tested Quake on a variety of processors, and I don't recommend playing it on anything slower than a 120MHz 603e.
Overall Impression
Quake is a lot of fun to play in multiplayer games. Although it lacks complexity in single player games, it is still enjoyable and a good way to spend the time (i.e. practicing for multiplayer games!). I recommend Quake to anyone who enjoys first-person shooters would enjoy getting together with friends for an enjoyable evening of killing.
