Quake 64
Nintendo 64
In my teenage years I was a big fan of first person shooters. The only problem is that there was not a huge variety of them that I could play on home consoles. I had a few games, most notably Alien Trilogy for the Sega Saturn and Goldeneye 007 for the Nintendo 64. Our family also had a very low-end PC that was able to (barely) run a few games like Spear of Destiny and Corridor 6. Those games were fun, but I wanted more. Having played Doom at a friend’s house while on vacation, I knew exactly how excellent a game it was. When I started reading reviews of a game called Quake (which was essentially Doom with different enemies and 3D graphics) I knew that I needed to play that game. A big problem, however: it was only available on PC.
About a year or a year and a half later I was ecstatic to learn that the game was being ported to the Nintendo 64. I read the reviews and the PC version of the game had gotten near-perfect scores across the board. While some were saying that the N64 version wasn’t as good because of graphical and control differences, I didn’t care. I wanted Quake and I wanted it right then and there! So I scraped together my hard earned allowance money and went out and got this game.
Quake did not disappoint. Having never played the PC version of the game, I thought it handled fine. I thought the graphics looked really good. The game was long, challenging, and I had a legitimately fun time as I played it. My one complaint was that I was a little let down by the multiplayer mode. Since I had had such a great time playing Goldeneye with friends and family, I was hoping to replicate that experience here. But that didn’t happen. I played a few two-player matches with my stepbrother Kyle one night, but that was it. I never touched the game’s multiplayer again.
This was around 1998 or 1999. I played the game from beginning to end a handful of times and I got pretty darn good at it. However, the same thing happened to Quake that inevitably happens with every game I buy. New games came along. It got shelved. It got forgotten about. I remember picking it up and giving it another go around 2008 or 2009, but that was the first time I had played it in probably 10 years. It didn’t get played again for almost another 10 years when I picked it up in June of 2018. I had just finished playing BioShock and I'd been a little disappointed by the combat in that game. I had been in the mood for a good first person shooter, but I wanted something a little more high stakes and intense... and with a lot more mindless shooting and destruction. So I decided to go out and play Quake 64 again.
I want to start off by saying that the game has aged well. I honestly can't believe that this version has been out for nearly 20 years now. While it is true that the graphics don't match anything coming out by today's standards, I still think it looks really nice. It is hard to put what is in my head down into words. But the setting of the game, even though it is gloomy and dark, feels very rich and beautiful in its own way. I love the game's color scheme and the design of each stage. I love the low rumble you hear in the background, the game's faint but unsettling musical score. The makers of the game did a sensational job at creating such an involving atmosphere for you, the player. It is very easy to get lost in the world of Quake.
If you have never heard of Quake, let me fill you in on how the game plays out. There is a little bit of a story line here, but it is nothing too important. Humans have opened up a portal that leads to some kind of a demonic world filled with horrifying Lovecraftian creatures. Of course it is your job to go in and eliminate the enemy threat. There are four, like, figurines or something that you have to collect before you can proceed to the end of the game and take out the game's final big bad boss: Shub-Niggurath. Defeat him and you win the game. Pretty straightforward, huh?
This is a first person shooter and the number one game I can compare it to is Doom. It was made by the same people. There are similarities in the story line and there are similarities in the gameplay too. But this game was always for me much, much better than Doom. I think it has a lot to do with the game's atmosphere. This is a little creepy but I have always felt more "at home" in the world of Quake than I did Doom. Plus the game is a lot more technologically advanced than Doom. The graphics are better. Everything is 3D. I like the enemies, the weapons, and the puzzles much more than anything from that other game. Obviously this game came out well after Doom, so it isn't a fair comparison. But if anyone ever asks me if I am more of a Doom guy or more of a Quake guy, I am team Quake all the way. Although I must say I don't give a shit about any of the multiplayer stuff that Quake has been famous for in recent years. Give me single player or don't give me the game at all.
When the game begins you start out with your default weapon, the single-barreled shotgun. You also carry around an axe in case you run out of ammo. That shouldn't be happening to you too much, though. Along the way you will collect a double-barreled shotgun, which packs a huge punch when you are attacking your enemy at point black range, a nail gun, a rocket launcher, a grenade launcher, a laser gun, and more. As you progress in the game you move from a science facility that looks like it was built by humans to deep into the heart of the haunting medieval world of Quake.
Enemies include humanoid characters with assault weapons, ogrish brutes that come at you with grenade launchers and chainsaws (seriously, these guys will fuck you up all game long), zombies that can be dispatched with explosive weapons, knights, giant spider things that shoot heat seeking missiles at you (fuck these guys), giant shamblers that either shoot you with electricity or beat you with their massive fists, flying scrags, and fiends (REALLY fuck these guys!). Fiends were my most hated enemy because they are hard to hit with how they are jumping around so much. And they take a lot of hits to kill. And they deal out a lot of damage. And their movements are hard to predict and defend against. They can kill you in one freaking attack. Seriously: instant panic attack whenever I would encounter one of these guys. I'd hold the fire button down like a maniac and weave like a drunkard around the screen trying to keep that thing in front of me. I don't mess around with things that can kill you in one hit. Huh-uh.
There is a jump feature in this game, which I am pretty sure Doom didn't have (I haven't played it in ages, so I may be wrong). You can use this move to explore strange new worlds and seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where - yeah you know where I am going with this. There is a lot to explore in the world of Quake. Not only is the jump feature helpful to have in this game, it is essential. This is another reason why I really dig the world of Quake. While this is commonplace in games nowadays, it was groundbreaking for its time. You jump from platform to platform. You go up stairs. You ride platforms around. Enemies can be above and below you and you can look up and down to find them and shoot them. You even swim in this game. Most shooting games were FLAT before. The world of Quake was already immersing enough as it was. But when you added an unparallelled sense of depth and exploration to the game, it really put it over the top. I am still impressed now, so you can bet your patootie this game impressed me back in 1998.
You can save your game after each level, but only if you have a Nintendo 64 memory card, AKA the Controller Pak. Otherwise you have to write down a pretty long and tedious password after you complete each stage. This is unfortunately the route I had to take. I have several memory packs but for some reason none of them would work with this game. I don't know if they just won't work here or if they won't work with other games either. My Rumble Pak didn't work either, so it could be a controller thing. Or the game is messed up. Or all of my accessories have gone to shit. All I know is that it sucked because a few times I SWEAR I wrote down the password correctly but then when I would turn off the game and come back to it later the password wouldn't work. I had to look up generic level codes online and pick up where I left off. I wasn't about to go back and play old levels again. Especially because without a memory card you can't save mid-level, so you have to start each level from the beginning again when you die. That meant that I had to beat each and every stage in one go without dying or I would have to restart it from the beginning. It was quite the challenge.
Despite the memory card and password difficulties, I had a terrific time with this game. I just recently finished playing BioShock, and I can truly say with all honesty that this game was much more enjoyable to me than BioShock. The gameplay is flawless. Your character is easy to control. It's so easy to swap back and forth between different weapons. It is fun to learn which weapons are good to use against which type of enemy and what type of approach you needed to take when you would encounter different types of enemy in battle. It is a lot of mindless shooting, but there is a lot of strategy involved as well. Other reasons the game rocks: The atmosphere of the game is disturbing but beautiful at the same time. The levels are brilliantly designed. The graphics and the music are still really good considering the game's age. The game isn't bogged down by a story line that requires any kind of deep thought whatsoever. You just go out and have a good time!
And that is Quake's main selling point for me: it is simply really fun to play! I loved the exploration aspect. I loved the variety of enemies I would encounter, and the strategic steps I would have to take to ensure my survival in battle. It is a thrill to make it through a particularly tough level, especially when you have to beat it on one life. Some of these levels are very long and challenging. At first I breezed through the early stages of the game, but once I hit the second act things started to get difficult. I welcomed the challenge. The game is incredibly addicting and kept me coming back each time I would die. I just had to beat the level! Each time I would play I'd learn a little more, so I would keep at it. Then I'd tell myself I would stop after each level, but when that time would come I would keep on playing. I couldn't help it: the game is just that addicting! It is definitely one of those "just one more level and I will stop" kind of games.
Reading this, you can probably tell that I really like this game. I can't lie. I liked the game a lot when I was a teenager, but I think I like and appreciate it even more now as an adult. Not only does it bring back a lot of memories, but it also stands on its own two feet as a really fun, really addicting game. Off the top of my head I am hard pressed to name a first person shooter that I like more than this. As far as single player goes, I would take this over Goldeneye any day of the week. Doom, Duke Nukem, BioShock, Wolfenstein, Alien Trilogy? That's a no for them all! Does that mean Quake is my favorite first person shooter ever? I don't know. Maybe I am forgetting something. Maybe I am suffering from recent game bias. But I can tell you one thing: Quake may not be a perfect game, but I would put it right up there as one of the best in the genre that I have ever played. If you are a fan of the genre and have never played this game, that is something you need to fix immediately.
Overall:
A
Note: I can't wait to play Quake II for the Nintendo 64. I played it back when it first came out, when I rented it and beat it on one weekend. That is the only time I have ever played it. A few years ago I found the game at a used game store. Before I played it, I wanted to play the first Quake again before moving on to the sequel. Hopefully now that the original game is officially in the books I'll be playing this in the next year or two.
If you liked my review of Quake, please check out some of the other reviews I've written:
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