Quake

The father of all fast pace shooters, still a great game if you want to get warmed up. I have not played the multiplayer here, but I would love to try it. Meanwhile the campaign is quite cool, it is a mix of puzzle solving and shooting. Quite interesting indeed, also the new version (?) does look like it is an upgrade to whatever came before. I do recommend playing this masterpiece from 1996 in 2025, if you want to experience the good old days of gaming.

As a Half-lifefaag I've never learnt about telefragging until the last boss fight. 9/10 better than doom

idSoft's best game, my 2nd-favourite shooter ever made, and easily among the best in any case. Arena shooters (or "movement shooters") were midwifed by Quake; this is where Unreal, Ultrakill, Severed Steel, and so many other games first found their footing. The most important change in the Remaster is that it makes Nightmare the unequivocally toughest difficulty—Quake is not the hardest shooter in general, so this is a welcome change as far as I'm concerned. Either way, the original is also included here, so this is without a doubt the best version of the game.

Remaster also includes four mission packs; the original two packs of Scourge of Armagon and Dissolution of Eternity from 1997, along with two new ones: Dimension of the Past and Dimension of the Machines, from 2016 & 2021 respectively. The first two mission packs have clumsier design overall compared with base Quake, often falling into the same confusing, maze-like level design that Quake had already shed from its idSoft predecessors, along with suffering from some enemy spam, obnoxious platforming, etc. Probably the worst part is the music, which is a major step down from Reznor. They're not awful, but the latter two mission packs are significantly better.

These are developed by MachineGames, with whom I have a minor grudge from their treatment of Wolfenstein, but regardless these episodes are genuinely good. DotP plays like a fairly standard homage to Quake, but DotM is a significant alteration of the formula, featuring enormous levels that are downright gorgeous (excepting only Realm of the Stonemasons), and immediately remind one of 2019's Amid Evil. The complex geometry does not always play that nice with Quake's dodging-focused gunplay, but that's a price I'm willing to pay for some of the most beautiful levels ever designed for the game. DotM would alone would be a good reason to play this, and with the mod support it's a no-brainer. Before playing almost any other shooter, there's always a good hundred things more you should do in Quake.

The first great fully 3D first person shooter. I still love this game after all these years.

It's good. The original game works really well, the remaster is excellent, the whole package is chock full of content.

There's nowt I can say about the games themselves that is additive - good fun

It would be good, but it forces you to use the remastered version

Whenever I try to play the Original Quake, it says "Starting Quake", changes screen resolution and then crashes. The Remastered Version isn't bad, it's just that I'd rather be able to play the original

it's quack, what do you expect?

you play fps? you haven't played quack? wtf? download it and learn to rocket jump and bunnyhop you lazy boomer

The Game that stated it all !! God Bless QuakeTF !!

Quake is a good game if you are looking for a big brain fuck, its a good killer game but not mind regressing, it forces you to think to go further.

This game has a very special place in my gaming history. When this game landed in high school, I had to shrink my screen to be able to play at an acceptable frame rate. Fast forward to just after high school, my mate and I jammed death match with bots to death in this game. Then we began exploring mods with crazy weapons; I still remember using Norton Commander to navigate all the folders for ease of unzipping. Then we discovered the first map maker for Quake 1; Quoole. Enter our next obsession in setting up the nastiest deathwatch maps, stuffed with hidden spike pits, crushing walls and ceilings and more. I remember how we were obsessed with comparing bots, with Reaper bots being the clear winner (the coder of those eventually went on to be hired by the likes of Monolith for Unreal DM). When it came on Steam many years ago I got it, but with all the compatibility issues at the time it just wasn't worth the hassle. Fast forward to 2023 and both Q1 and Q2 got serious improvements, including all sorts of goodies like including the best of all the unofficial expansions. This game once again is a part of my life and when I get tired of all the exposition-riddled shooters on the market today, I come back to this for pure, simple fun.

It’s like Mario Kart but there's lovecraftian horrors chasing after you and there's no driving

As a Boomer Shooter & Classic Games Enjoyer My self,
Quake has a Special Place in my heart, If we Didn't Have this We would of not had Half-Life or Even Valve games,
Such a Cool Game

Quake is just as fun in 2025 as it was in the 90's. Some classics age like milk and this is not one of them, Quake is a fine wine. This is a foundational game to the entire FPS genre along with games like Doom and Half Life.

Goes hard, still. New episode is fantastic. Maybe not as iconic as Doom but a lot of fun to play. Arcane Dimensions works.

Had a lot of fun with this, loses steam towards the end and some of the enemies were more annoying than anything (like those fucking blob monsters) but fun nonetheless with some great level design and fucking stellar sound design.

10/10
revolutionary game that's still great today and SO MUCH NINE INCH NAILS BAYBEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Not worth $10. Nostalgia is a large factor in the review scores here so I'll let you in on a secret. Only so many old games hold up. The ones that do weren't 'revolutionary' or 'innovative' they were just good games. Whenever you see those words stay the fuck away from the game and do your own digging to find the gold. Good luck out there and if you really want to see this game just look it up on the internet.

This old school game cannot be beat. I love it more than all of the others including Halo etc. I love the community of players and I love the response that the character has and the effect of the weapons have on characters. I've been playing this since 1997 and I'll play it till 2097. Join me for a game.

я не знаю. Из плюсов что уровни красивые, враги интересные, но игра будто создана для спидранов, и финальный босс очень плох, там и битвы нету. 6/10

A real classic that never dies: it just gets better every time. Then again, someone's got to kill all those fucking Shamblers, be they tormentors from beyond our realm. Also, Rocket Launcher go boom.

The Greatest of all time! Put about 100 hrs into it after i bought it about 4 years ago, played it on repeat for months and then put in another 100 when the remaster dropped lol The tone, look, & sound of the entire thing just hits & having the main game+the expansions all in one thing like what Nightdive eventually did with Quake 2,ROTT, & Doom 1+2 is just awesome. Infinitely replayable too thanks to mods both in the in game mod list & the old & new mods that have been made by the Quake community for years now. In my opinion, Quake 1 is THE perfect First Person Shooter & will always be one of my all time favorites!

Classic! Always fun to revisit a game that changed everything.

I like it! Quake is a fun game. It is hard, though.

Quake is an absolute classic and I'm sure is a great source of inspiration for many of the modern retro "boomer-shooters", however, despite not only this but also me playing Half-Life in the beginning of 2024, I only got around to playing Quake in August 2024 using the Mark V source port, while I did buy the game on Steam, NightDive for some reason decided it would be a great idea to run this 1996 game on Vulkan and my really old computer doesn't even have that, so I could either only downgrade my game a lot for it to run or use Mark V, so Mark V it goes.

Quake is an absolute blast, it feels very much like Doom but I actually prefer this much more over the 1993 Doom title, I'm not sure if it's because I grew up with GoldSrc and old games in general, but Quake still controls really smoothly despite being almost 30 years old.

The ways that Quake takes similar steps to Doom is in the maze-like level layout, arcade-like stats for time; secrets and kills, HUD, etc. This makes the game really fun to play considering how you just pop-in a level, try your best, and get to see your score at the end.

Trent Reznor composed the OST for this game and it's probably one of my favorite videogame soundtracks. Despite being similar to Doom, the only song here that might make you bang your head back-and-forth is the main title theme, the rest is a spooky ambient soundscape with brilliant sound design. I totally recommend you check over Trent Reznor's other works like The Downward Spiral and The Fragile, he's an amazing composer and producer. You can even see his band's logo (Nine Inch Nails) on the boxes for nailgun ammo.

Quake is very smart with the weapon selection, you have eight weapons, most of them sharing ammo types, it really makes you think rapidly on which gun is more appropriate for each situation (besides the axe, that one's pretty useless, it's not even a "last resort" weapon considering how I've never found myself in a situation where my only option was the axe.) The enemy variety is good too, with its H. P. Lovecraftian inspired designs, *most* enemies feel fair to fight and feel like they require skill to master, take the Ogre for example, first time I played Quake I was stunned that an enemy as hard as them would be one of the first enemies introduced, I couldn't figure out how to beat them and almost always lost a ton of health, now I think they're incredibly easy to defeat! Most enemies pretty much include good movement and dodging abilities (even if that includes basically just circlestrafing), people often complain about the Vores but honestly they're pretty easy, just shoot them and find the nearest corner when they fire their homing attack. However, as I said earlier, only *most* of them seem well-balanced/designed, the Fiends are a cool enemy in concept but I don't like the absurd amount of health they take from you, sometimes they manage to take half of your health, I've heard that is a bug in the code but wow it really makes me hate this enemy, the Spawns are also horrible, they were designed late into development so they couldn't be retouched too hard, but I still think they could've at least not have made an enemy that jumps all over your face and blows up (usually in your face also) taking like 80 points of your health, it's not *too* bad if you quicksave and also know exactly where they are placed (and also because they die relatively quickly), but they still should've never been put into the game.

And don't get me started in enemy-placement. It's alright up until Episodes 3-4, Episode 3 ends with a pretty "screw you" approach to enemy placement, right as the level is about to end, they spawn two Fiends, one in front of you and one behind you, just to catch first-players off-guard, worst part? Whenever you die in this game, you have to start the level from the *very* beginning, Episode 4 is even worse, with Spawns being placed often in corners or in completely dark places just for you to not notice them until it's too late, in one instance, they place Fiends in front of you and like 3-4 Spawns *behind* you, it feels like a very cruel joke to do this to the player and it just doesn't seem fair, it's one of the game's aspects that has aged the worst.

Level design is pretty good, as I've said it follows the maze-like structure of Doom, each level is pretty short and they make it pretty obvious of where you have to go/what you have to do, so you don't get lost that often unlike Doom, and it's extremely fun to run around those places while bunnyhopping.

Multiplayer is actually funny enough the aspect of this game I've touched the least, this is because the multiplayer servers in Mark V would just not work, or because the multiplayer that did work was stuck in the Steam version, you also need to make a Bethesda account and I wasn't in the mood to do that so I just didn't play. I did try Deathmatch with bots and it was fun! But I think they truly mastered Deathmatch in Quake III Arena, for me it always felt like the bots could kill me incredibly easy and I could almost never kill the bots, but the deathmatch maps are pretty good too!

Despite the obvious flaws (Episode 4) I can't stress how good and important this game is, it was influential for modding/multiplayer/3D engines in general/the industry/etc. Doom might've been the first step into the rise of the FPS genre, but Quake truly nailed it.

9.5/10

A very nice shooter with a banger soundtrack composed by Nine Inch Nails. Should honestly be in everyone's steam library if it isn't already.

I actually played HROT and Dusk before ever playing this, both of which wear their Quake influence on their sleeves so I thought, Why don't I actually play the OG? So I did and I've definitely missed out. I'll get to 2, 3 and 4 one of these days.

The game your dad played before you were born. Ultimate boomer shooter.

Quake

This game shouldn't require an introduction.

This is a legendary game in the PC realm for 1 huge thing. Real Time 3D graphics. I was there when this game came out, and despite only being 5 or so, I played a LAN deathmatch in a room with a bunch of my father's friends. I remember one of them named Tigger letting me 'frag'him until I won just to appease a 5 year old, and it was a core memory. I still think about that every time I boot this game up and hear the menu scroll sound effects.
Anyways...
You are Ranger. You are tasked with finding Runes (in the base game) to defeat a life form named Shub. After doing so, you have won! Until you realize there are more episodes that were released afterwards that I have yet to play, so I will update this review when I get around to that.
The base game was a step up in the direction of PC game art and graphics. Nowadays, it doesn't look very high tech. Brown on brown on beige on grey was a critique I hel frequently for Xbox 360/PS3 era games, due to everything trying to evoke an earthy realistically lighted feel. Back in Quake, I actually didn't mind. Gaming then was trying to be (sometimes literally) as flashy as possible, both in game and on the box art, to wow the player into spreading the word about how great the game was. As weird as it seems, the brown art direction Quake took was new, on top of the 3D rendering. The weapon lineup, the basic monster archtype, the twisted machined flesh graphical style, secret hunting, key hunting, and mixing FPS with platforming all became cemented as bonafide id tech staples here.
The graphics and sound don't hold up to modern gaming, but modern gaming standards were built on what was done here. If you are a fan of boomer shooters, or a returning rocket jumper, you will %100 like this port's visual style and rendering enhancements over the original. Speaking of, the original game's files are included in this release in case you wanted to play vanilla or modded Quake and its expansions in software rendering. The sound design hasn't received any updates that stuck out to me, but I also never beat episode 1 until I was an adult with my own children to raise.
This version of Quake also includes several officially assoiciated expansions that I have yet to play.

+Pros

+Visual style is kept and widely unaltered.
+Frantic FPS gameplay combined with light platforming.
+Sound track.
+The basis of 3D pc game design.
+The level designs are just long enough to require a bit of back tracking through new areas, which naturally leads to secret hunting.
+Multiplayer works.
+Rockets, shotguns, and nail guns!

~Neutrals

~The visuals and audio are really subjective. The gameplay is primative. The enemy and weapon rosters are basic. This game is literally old school, so I will list those points here, rather than as a con. Some people want simplicity, others want to jump into a PC gaming museum piece, and even some are progression snobs. Just be aware this is a living legend before you play.

-Cons

-No crouching.
-Very dark at most points in the game. This wasn't an issue in the 16-bit CRT monitor days, but 32-bit color LED monitors just don't glow like a CRT did, so much of the design in everything is flat and DARK.
-The lightning gun uses ammo too fast.

7/10 because Quake never swung his sword.

Rift to the past!

A very great and classic game!
It's such a great remaster of the original quake and even better, IT HAS ORIGINAL QUAKE!

Gun go brrr, monsters go ka-pow, guts go splish-splat 10/10

Cool fps game. Not too hard on its normal difficulty, either.

It's one of the OG FPS', and as a first time player I'd say it still holds up.

TL;DR: It's Quake, buy it. This is as close to a perfect FPS as you're gonna get.

Quite possibly one of, if not THE, best FPS's I have ever played. I never grew up playing Quake, as I was born just a year after it's release, but nonetheless I was drawn to the game thanks in part to it's incredible atmosphere and dark fantasy style. Quake still absolutely demolishes damn near every modern FPS I have ever played, and it's combat loop, mechanics, weapons, enemy variety, sound design and masterful soundtrack put it at the top of my list of "games I find myself losing track of time while playing." I've played through everything Quake has to offer on the nightmare difficulty, and have actually moved to playing the game on the fantastic Ironwail sourceport(which I highly recommend as well). But I'll give some brief thoughts on all of Quake's expansions thus far, as I believe they all bring a unique flavor of gameplay to Quake and are worth your time playing.

Scourge of Armagon: A fun romp, it feels like a natural continuation of the base game. It includes a few new weapons and some new enemy types. The real star of the show here are the levels, as they all flow extremely well and are never tedious to play through. The music is also great, and has a much more in-your-face industrial metal soundscape to it.

Dissolution of Eternity: A great time all around, the only level I personally dislike is Elemental Fury 1 but that's just because of the annoying "earthquake" gimmick of the level. Also, whoever decided that Vore's should be turned into a flying enemy is a literal psychopath. The expansion has a unique mechanic of alternate ammo types that are all fun, albeit a tad overpowered, and fit in nicely with some of the heavier hitting enemies that'll show up later. My only gripe with this, is that the alternate rocket and nail ammo types are fairly plentiful and heavily outclass their normal counterparts and can trivialize a lot of combat encounters. But the alternate ammo for the Thunderbolt almost feels as if it's a prototype for the modern BFG design you see in Quake 2 and the modern DOOM games. My favorite aspect of DoE however, is the sheer variety of the locations you'll be fighting and navigating in.

Dimension of the Past: A sheer test of your accuracy and resource management skills, ammo and health are NOT plentiful. Each shot missed, each ammo drop you accidentally pick up when you had more than enough, is punishing. Knowledge of where the secrets are located are VITAL to your survival and success, especially if you wish to go for all kills in a level. This expansion doesn't offer any new enemies or weapons, but it doesn't need to. It's more Quake, and that of in itself is perfect and good enough for me. The levels all flow extremely well, and all combat encounters are intelligently designed, with some fairly devious and malicious traps if you're not ready for them. Fairly difficult for the first timer, but gets more and more fun and satisfying to overcome once you know the levels tricks and where the secrets are located.

Dimension of the Machine: Masterclass in level design and architecture, this is top-shelf Quake. While not as difficult and sadistic as DoPA, there are still plenty of hair raising moments and combat encounters that will get the blood pumping. The levels are also incredibly massive, and while that may be a complaint for some, I love having these massive levels to traverse and dissect. The high monster count, jaw dropping visuals and perfect level design compliments Quake to a T. By far my favorite expansion out of them all.

And if you're still fiending for more Quake, then there is a plethora of fan made content that is of ABSURD quality and production. So much so, that there are actually some mods that I prefer to play over the base game such as Arcane Dimensions and Deathmatch Dimension. A perfect FPS that more than just stands the test of time, it continues to define the genre to this day.

Classic FPS fun with a great, true-to-the-original porting job from Nightdive.

very good game very fun, would come again

Unfortunately, just like the Doom 1+2 remaster, this game suffers from frequent crashes. It also has insufferable mouse delay. This can be partially fixed by adding "+r_rhirenderfamily d3d11" to the additional command line arguments box, but it doesn't prevent it entirely.

I can't recommend it in its current state.

(This is for SP only) The game actually aged surprisingly well. The main campaign is a bit easy, the only expansion I didn't like was the second (something something dissolution of running around in circles). Just be warned the last 2 expansions are a fair bit harder than the base game, but still not too bad imo. Very little lull time in between encounters which is a testament to the really good level design for its time. Even more so as the expansions get more modern...Except for that second one. Way too much backtracking and weapons are so powerful it trivializes the campaign.

This game is amazing love everything about it.

Rather frustrating game to 100%, but while tough, it never felt unfair. Not a game I would revisit, but was a blast to complete

The new addons are great, I highly recommend The Spiritworld

These graphics blew my mind!

Liked how it was similar to the old GLQuake but even better

this somehow feels more like a sequel to doom 1 and 2 than the actual doom 3

Quake was my first dive into retro games, and I've got to say I really enjoyed it. I can totally understand why people were obsessed with this game back in the 90s. It's challenging, yet the controls are extremely easy to understand. The puzzle aspect of the levels - especially in the first episode - I really enjoyed. You really need to keep thinking about where you were, where you were going, how to get back.

This is one of those games were I feel like it's allowed to say: 'Back in the day, it was all better'. Yes, the graphics are not what we are used to today, but the combat, the gameplay is amazing. I ragequit a couple times, only to find myself thinking the next day: I really want to finish that map. That is what makes Quake so appealing. I really enjoyed it. For now, I beat Shub-Niggurath. Perhaps I will return someday to play the DLCs. Thanks to my uni professor, for recommending it.

This game is a classic first person shooter with great problem solving requirements.

A truly fun FPS about stopping unholy forces and the people assisting them from trying to take over our home (I am unclear if it's Earth or this dimension but it's certainly one of them) with the use of a variety of guns.

This is one of the first, if not the first, game to to be in a truly 3D environment. It's also among the first to have music-music in a game, the soundtrack of which is made by Nine Inch Nails (with plenty of atmosphere segments). This game is also the reason we have games like Half Life and Team Fortress today, because of it's engine.
This game has flashing lights, but they can be changed in the settings. It also mutes when you alt-tab.
You have multiple different campaigns on offer, and while they CAN be played in any order, I recommend playing in the order that is displayed, as they will only get harder and harder the further down you go, regardless of the difficulty you choose. You can also play the campaigns with other people, though if you're achievement hunting, you must go in alone.
Speaking of achievements, there seems to be something a bit wonky going on with some of them, as at least for me a few did not pop even though I fulfilled their requirements.
As for multiplayer, the modes I personally played were capture the flag and a free-for-all death match with some friends, and both were fun, but very under populated, and very much meant for more people than we had. If you can get a group of 6 or more people together though, I highly recommend giving it a try.
ALSO, if you have any plans to stream this game to Twitch or Youtube, it would be wise to mute the game's music, as it will get your vod muted.

Now go, and save us from the evil forces of Quake!

I first played this in 2018 and it holds up remarkably well.

Cons:
-It's sometimes hard to tell if water is poisonous or not or if lava is blood.
-A Bethesda.net account is required for online multiplayer and add-ons.

Pros:
+Everything else.

The gameplay is responsive and fun, the music is fitting, the level design is amazing, the weapons feels great, dying to enemies is never frustrating, and the aesthetics are so charming that I wish more games looked like this so thank the modders for the endless add-ons available. This is the best first person shooter that I've played. It's better than Half-Life, Doom, and, as difficult as it is to say, Turok 1 and Unreal.

Frankly, the genre peaked here.

Quake is a historical game and one of the progenitors of the modern first person shooter. It still feels great to play, and the Nightdive remaster feels perfectly authentic, although I'm not an OG Quake player like some other reviewers. For me, the pick-up-and-play quality of this newer version is beautiful.

I'm not finished with the included campaigns but there is so much meat on the bone for the price of $10 US that I have an easy time recommending this version. The original Quake campaign is a little dry and samey for its length, but Scourge of Armagon and Dissolution of Eternity fill in when it comes to gameplay variety. I'm sure the newer campaigns made by the Nightdive folks will be on the same level once I get around to playing them. As if that's not enough, there are a lot of mods and user-created levels to delve into if you just can't get your fill of the Quake gameplay formula.

Favorite bits: epic quad damage killing sprees, rocket jumps, the Scourge of Armagon campaign, navigating bizarre 3D landscapes of yesteryear, fantastic OSTs all around

Could have been better: the original Quake campaign is too big for its roster of weapons and enemies, Quake's aesthetic isn't going to be for everyone

This remaster is frustrating. The mandatory intros and sensitivity warnings are extremely annoying. Having to search for a fix shouldn't be necessary. Okay, show it the first time the player runs Quake, but not every single time. And give the player the option to disable it in settings.

Then you have the awful Bethesda login which is a major nuisance as well.

You start a single-player game, and immediately notice the poor audio for the shotgun that has been butchered.

How is this possibly? I honestly find it incredibly disrespectful toward the masterpiece Quake is.

To new users: Download Quakespasm or FTE for the single-player campaign and make sure the CD audio works.
Since this is the only Quake release on Steam, I'll recommend it, but this is poorly executed.

The engine this port uses is not good. Movement and aiming feels horrible. Buy it for the files you need and use quakespasm, ironwail, or vkquake.