Why Quake Zero will own your ass
I have high expectations for Quake Zero. With all the hype now around games like BioShock and the upcoming games like Rage and Haze, I find myself most excited about this stripped down, free version of Quake Arena.
For those not in the know, Quake Zero is essentially Quake III Arena stripped down to its bare essentials and released for free. Why would I be so excited about this? It all has to do with my favorite FPS of all time: Q3Test.
Q3Test was a public beta test of Quake III Arena, released one platform at a time, starting with Mac OS. That’s right, I had way more fun with the beta test of Quake III than I did with Quake III itself. Why?
First, it was totally pure in concept. John Carmack has said that Quake III Arena is his favorite id game because it was the purest FPS they had created. The beta test, in my opinion, was even more pure. It didn’t have the bells and whistles the retail version had. It only had one character model for the longest time (with Sarge to follow later, bringing the grand total up to 2.) So in the end of Q3Test, you had three choices. Red robot, Blue robot, Sarge. That’s it. A few of the weapons were absent (lightning gun, grenade launcher, BFG10K) and it only had two maps. The effect that this had is that it broke the game down to its most abstract. Another example is the “clunk” sound that played when you shot another player. Totally unrealistic- it’s an almost comic sound. Yet, it was distinctive and it let you know you were hitting your opponent. Between that, the blaring onscreen messages stating who you fragged, and the base art assets, allowed the gameplay to shine in its purest form.
The other reason was the community, although part of the credit goes to the cable service out here. When Q3Test came out, everyone in Las Vegas who had a cable modem was considered to be on the same LAN, and could play with each other at ridiculously low ping. I mean, around 10 ms. It was rare for a LAN game to drop, or even play less than flawlessly. This resulted in a small community forming of Mac OS users in Las Vegas who all had cable modems. I played regularly with many familiar faces (ok, names) and we had our stomping grounds in the form of a dedicated game that ran 24 hours a day.
I have high expectations for Quake Zero because it is the one game that would bring those concepts to the forefront. First, it’s a stripped down version of Quake III Arena. Carmack was surprised to learn that many tournament players of Quake III turn the graphics settings all the way down to a butt-ugly flat shaded mess, because it allowed the game to run faster and also made it easier to tell the various-shades-of-brown players apart from their various-shades-of-brown surroundings. Quake Zero will embrace that- and as a result will be able to run on any system at high framerates. This is a key feature that all FPS’s seem to ignore- the latest FPS is constantly pushing the envelope of technology, and showing off the latest graphics innovations. This, however, is to the detriment of framerate on older computers, and consequently, the gameplay. (In games that require the twitch that the FPS demands, framerate = gameplay.)
Second, it is centered around the web. From what we know, you will be able to join games via a web interface, which will launch the actual FPS app. That, combined with many spectator features, and (hopefully) a system to add and meet up with friends, will foster a strong community.
Carmack himself doesn’t know whether Quake Zero will be a success or not- he’s in it just for the learning experience, as always. But I like this about id lately- they’re eschewing the guaranteed sequel hits and venturing out into new territory. Rage is a brand new IP and Quake Zero is a brand new business model. But if they can pull off another Q3Test, I’m convinced it will own everyone’s asses.
So bad graphics and unrealistic death sounds are what makes this game “pure”? You really lost me.
No, it’s the gameplay. Quake 3 focused purely on the gameplay elements of the FPS, and it’s the best example of a competitive FPS that I can think of. Moreso than Halo. The experience was so good that Quake 4 multiplayer is essentially unchanged from 3 (even though the single player campaign had all new controls & physics!)
The bad graphics and unrealistic sounds aren’t what make the game pure, it’s the other way around. Because the gameplay is pure, people CAN play it with graphics turned all the way down, and with the constant clunkclunkclunk, and it’s still one of the best FPS games out there. As I said, many people who play it competitively do exactly that, because it strips out anything that would take away from the experience, like realistic graphics that lower framerate, or color schemes chosen by art direction that look nice for awhile but only end up camouflaging their opponents.
The best games for competition aren’t always the latest and greatest. Quake 3 is the FPS king, just like Street Fighter 2 Turbo is still the king in fighting competitions, just like Starcraft is the king in RTS competitions. All examples of gameplay standing the test of time.