Quake 3

Quake 3, from id software, is a first-person shooter dedicated to multiplayer action. If you are unfamiliar with this concept, try to imagine Unreal Tournament without vehicles with the same story as Battlefield 2142; where the only single player mode available exchanges your friends for AI.

It is difficult to review a multiplayer game made so beautifully simple, from 1999. The only way to review this game would be to use a comparison with recent first-person shooters.

First of all, which happens to be my bug bear for most games: Unlocks. The more you play recent games the more accustomed you become to them. Not only this but learning the maps gives you knowledge as an advantage. Given these natural advantages of experience, making game mechanics which offer more would certainly break the game for people new/ late joining. This mechanic is known as unlocks, and is something used massively in today’s games to keep the players engrossed and obsessed with progression; we’ve all played a game counting down the XP or credits until unlocking a weapon or feature we would love to get our hands on. Quake 3 doesn’t have this, your game progression is skill, based on ability. Quake 3 is extremely fair; making ranters, much like myself, laugh each time they get “owned” rather than swear the complicated server ballistic simulation is as flawed as America’s Army 3’s or that a currently unobtainable weapon is Over Powered.

With playing this game over a decade after its release, mentioning the graphics in a review would be bad taste. However, I was shocked to find that I could still see enemies across the room without them appearing to merge into the surroundings like Ayrton Senna around an apex at Monaco, unlike my recent experience with Goldeneye on the N64. Quake 3 is still fully playable without having to sign a new contract with Vision Express, which is great considering the game will fit onto a standard flash drive and will run on pretty much anything.

No unlocks, no noticeable progress and little amount of mechanics: Why play it?

Personally, I would not play this at home. The closest I have been is Unreal Tournament 2004, in a private server against bots, with friends. However, it has been years since I have had so much fun with a first-person shooter playing this in a LAN game. The bare mechanics, no customization beside general appearance, level playing field and no Odd Job makes this game a very fun, easy to play, party game. The best nights are the unplanned nights and these parties beat Mario World, hands down.

Personal use - 3.1 (dated and lack of features)
LAN games - 7.6 (great fun but would get boring quickly)