Ultimate Quake

Quake feels almost alien. It throws you into a grim mix of military bases, medieval castles, crypts and lovecraftian worlds with barely any story getting in the way of the shooting. The campaign is built around exploration, secrets, switches and brutally fast combat and the fully 3D environments make movement and verticality a huge part of surviving. The arsenal is fantastic while the monsters have a nasty memorable personality of their own. What really sells it tho is the atmosphere: dark lighting, strange architecture, creepy sound design and a haunting soundtrack make the whole thing feel immersive and kinda uncomfortable in a good way.

Quake II is a very different beast and that's probably its biggest strength and weakness at the same time. Instead of the weird gothic nightmare of the first game, you're a marine fighting the Strogg on their industrial homeworld with a much more straightforward military sci-fi campaign built around objectives, missions and interconnected areas. The shooting feels excellent, the weapons are chunky and satisfying, enemy reactions are more detailed and the improved engine was a technical achievement for its time. The campaign also gives you more of an actual sense of progression with objectives, secrets and areas that connect together, but the backtracking and repetitive corridors will get old. The Strogg are cool enemies but the brown and gray visual palette is an acquired taste and the later levels are noticeably weaker than the opening hours.

Quake III: Arena is basically id Software saying «Forget the campaign, we're here to frag ». It turns Quake into a focused arena shooter where speed, aim, movement, map control and knowing exactly when to grab a weapon or power up are everything. There ain't really a traditional story and the single player progression is essentially a series of multiplayer matches against bots, which can be useful for learning the game but won't satisfy anyone looking for another Quake adventure. The combat is more polished here: weapons feel balanced, movement is fast, the arenas are carefully designed and the bots are surprisingly capable opponents. Matches can shift from tense one on one hunting to chaos once the arena fills up. Visually, seems its curved architecture, colorful characters, lighting and effects pushed PC hardware hard at the time and the industrial soundtrack fits the violence perfectly. The downside is pretty obvious: once deathmatch stops being fun for you, there's not much left.

Download

The slipgate has opened, and something on the other side is waiting. Choose your destination and prepare to descend into the darkness. Target that download button below and take the sealed .RAR file. Once you have it, tear it open and place both folders directly into the root of your SD card. When the ritual is complete, open FBI and install the .CIA forwarders. After that, the machinery will begin to stir. Now, descend.