The first Quake game is a timeless classic that went on to achieve a legacy that spans dimensions, it was considered one of the best games of the 1990s, and a groundbreaker for the FPS genre. Even Valve took lots of inspiration from Quake for Half-Life, and the GoldSrc engine shared some code with the OG Quake engine.

And since it did break ground and managed to establish itself as one of the definitive games of its era, it's still remembered even to this day, in fact it's so much remembered that Bethesda didn't shy away from releasing a remaster, which combines the original game with its two official expansion packs, Scourge of Armagon and Dissolution of Eternity, plus two brand-new expansions, Dimension of the Past and Dimension of the Machine. The remaster largely retained the original atmosphere of the game, while simultaneously remastering the weapon and player models, upscaling textures, improving bugs and making the game actually playable on modern machines without any hassle.

Quake is a fast-paced first-person shooter, combining elements of horror and action to create an experience unlike any other. The game is divided into two "themes": idBase and Medieval. idBase is the theme and set of textures used in the first levels of each episode (which are 4 in total), that gives a futuristic and hi-tech industrial vibe, akin to a facility or laboratory. As the player progresses they travel towards the world of Quake, where one encounters the Medieval theme, consisting of textures that remind of the middle ages, castles, churches and gives an overwhelming gothic vibe in overall.

The enemies that the player comes across are also directly influenced by the themes, as in the first levels they're usually soldiers and possessed dogs, while in the later levels they mostly look as if they came straight from hell.

The level design is clever, it requires thinking and strategy and there are many, many secrets that the player can find, which usually reward with weapons, items, and at times even lead to secret levels. The enemies are, with the exception of the ones in the beginning levels, rather strong and hard to beat and require lots of techniques and weapon usage in order to take down. Ammo conservation is important and even though it's not scarce, one may still not want to waste all of it as it may end up with leaving the player with only the axe.

The new content is also rather impressive, tons of work went into the new expansion packs and especially the Dimension of the Machine, which is both rather long and it bases itself mostly on new textures, which makes it look as if it's a game from at least the middle 00s.

Quake is a nearly perfect game, with its flaws being so minimal that they're often being overlooked, and for good reason, because it's one of the very few games of that era that actually achieved near-perfection, and with the new remaster, it's certainly been proven that it aged like fine wine.

Score:

The first Quake game is a timeless classic that went on to achieve a legacy that spans dimensions, it was considered one of the best games of the 1990s, and a groundbreaker for the FPS genre. Even Valve took lots of inspiration from Quake for Half-Life, and the GoldSrc engine shared some code with the OG Quake engine. And since it did break ground and managed to establish itself as one of the definitive games of its era, it's still remembered even to this day, in fact it's so much remembered that Bethesda didn't shy away from releasing a remaster, which combines the original game with its two official expansion packs, Scourge of Armagon and Dissolution of Eternity, plus two brand-new expansions, Dimension of the Past and Dimension of the Machine. The remaster largely retained the original atmosphere of the game, while simultaneously remastering the weapon and player models, upscaling textures, improving bugs and making the game actually playable on modern machines without any hassle. Quake is a fast-paced first-person shooter, combining elements of horror and action to create an experience unlike any other. The game is divided into two "themes": idBase and Medieval. idBase is the theme and set of textures used in the first levels of each episode (which are 4 in total), that gives a futuristic and hi-tech industrial vibe, akin to a facility or laboratory. As the player progresses they travel towards the world of Quake, where one encounters the Medieval theme, consisting of textures that remind of the middle ages, castles, churches and gives an overwhelming gothic vibe in overall. The enemies that the player comes across are also directly influenced by the themes, as in the first levels they're usually soldiers and possessed dogs, while in the later levels they mostly look as if they came straight from hell. The level design is clever, it requires thinking and strategy and there are many, many secrets that the player can find, which usually reward with weapons, items, and at times even lead to secret levels. The enemies are, with the exception of the ones in the beginning levels, rather strong and hard to beat and require lots of techniques and weapon usage in order to take down. Ammo conservation is important and even though it's not scarce, one may still not want to waste all of it as it may end up with leaving the player with only the axe. The new content is also rather impressive, tons of work went into the new expansion packs and especially the Dimension of the Machine, which is both rather long and it bases itself mostly on new textures, which makes it look as if it's a game from at least the middle 00s. Quake is a nearly perfect game, with its flaws being so minimal that they're often being overlooked, and for good reason, because it's one of the very few games of that era that actually achieved near-perfection, and with the new remaster, it's certainly been proven that it aged like fine wine. Score: [h1]9.5/10[/h1]