03-06-2004, 12:32 AM
"It's just like XXX but with better graphics"... To an extent it's true, but to an extent it's actually a falsehood resulting from the short amount of play a reviewer would do. I pulled out Quake the other day, and I came to a surprising realization: the most striking improvements in FPS since Quake (well, at least since GLQuake) are not graphics. I kept ducking behind cover to reload my weapon, only to realize there was no extended reloading to be done. And the "ducking" couldn't be done in a literal sense since Quake had no crouching, crawling, prone stance, etc. Stealth? Non-existant as a single player theme back then. Sniper rifles? Not until conversions like TF introduced them into multiplayer action. Squad-based tactics in team play? Even with the conversions, very limited and poorly implemented. AI? Not very impressive in single player. Story line? You must be joking. Weapon physics? Very limited.
Quake is still very fun. It is fast-paced, intense, skill-demanding to the extreme, fun. The shortcomings I noticed will not keep me from playing it again in the near future. And some games that are far more refined are boring by comparison. But in the better games of today, the themes from games of the 80s are refined in ways that allow very interesting additions to the gameplay. Wolfenstein 3D was once an extremely fun game, but that one-dimensional gameplay seems like a frustrating joke to me after playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
That Doom 3 will raise the bar for graphics and sound quality is nearly a certainty. Whether it will bring anything else to the table remains to be seen. If not, there are always plenty of games in the bargain bin that may be more worthwhile.
Quake is still very fun. It is fast-paced, intense, skill-demanding to the extreme, fun. The shortcomings I noticed will not keep me from playing it again in the near future. And some games that are far more refined are boring by comparison. But in the better games of today, the themes from games of the 80s are refined in ways that allow very interesting additions to the gameplay. Wolfenstein 3D was once an extremely fun game, but that one-dimensional gameplay seems like a frustrating joke to me after playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
That Doom 3 will raise the bar for graphics and sound quality is nearly a certainty. Whether it will bring anything else to the table remains to be seen. If not, there are always plenty of games in the bargain bin that may be more worthwhile.