Quake Champions (PC) Review

 

Eww, who smeared modern-day Triple-A dookie all over my copy of Quake 3?"

I try not post super negative game reviews, but It is impressive how low bethesda/id software stooped with this one, and also a shame because the game has some nice things going for it design-wise.

Let me start from the begging - Quake is a first person shooter series dating back to the 90s that I've long-adored. The first 3 games in the series all had a very different feel to them, but they were all something I enjoyed quite a bit. The first Quake was a story based fps adventure through a world of Lovecraftian horrors, with simple classic FPS game-play. Get some big guns, blow up some freaky monsters, and find your way to the end of each level. Good stuff. Quake 2 continued with the fun, simple fps game-play but this time with a more sci-fi horror aesthetic and story. Again, very good game. Quake 3 switched up the game-play to be multiplayer-based but also featured bots and a single player "tournament" that players could progress through as well. It mixed the gothic and sci fi themes of the first two games wonderfully to create an awesome aesthetic that seamlessly blended horror/scifi/industrial visuals.

So, getting the impression that Quake Champions was also a multiplayer-based game, I went into the game expecting it to be a nice graphical update on the already solid gameplay of Quake 3. And, it more or less is - but it's also bogged down with a lot of really sleazy and obnoxious trash that AAA companies just love to degrade their own video games with. Unlike with my Sonic Unleashed review, I want to actually get my complaints out of the way first, because intentionally sleazy game design is something I feel deserves calling much more than some poor level design.

As soon as I tried giving the game a go, Quake Champions forced me to make some stupid bethesda account on a website just to even access it's main menu. I also tested if I can get to the main menu without logging or being connected to the internet. I can't. This means that even though I only played the game with bots, I was forced to play with an active internet connection. And remember, this is a FREE game. Why DRM on a free game? Well, probably because they wouldn't me to be able to play without shoveling a bunch of other shit at me. The game contains lootboxes, a "premium currency" that you can of course purchase with real money, an annoying message about some shitty esports thing I don't care about every time I load the game up, and it also pulls that cell-phone game shit were it pressures  you to keep playing the game day after day to get "bonus rewards" - making it feel more like you're being nagged to take care of a daily chore than you are sitting down to relax with a fun video game. The rewards and currency things seem to go towards unlocking skins, decorative items, and new playable characters - which is a wasted potential for something that could have actually provided a fun sense of progression if the game didn't have the option to just buy your way to unlocking all these neat extras. The game is also pretty buggy. When I click one of the buttons on the main menu, it just crashes. When the game tried to get me to play it's tutorial match with bots, it just hung at trying to find a server and never finished loading. I was only ever to play a bot match by using the custom game option. I imagine that some will try to defend all this based on it being "free-to-play" to which I would say "fuck you, a game is either free or not." I would rather pay to own a complete game than be given a "free" bare-bones shit show that constantly hassles me to bleed my wallet dry.

Having all this crap in the game made me want to give it an immediate thumbs-down -and I still do - but, let's also be sure to look at what good the game does. After all, it's possible that the developers had no say in all the AAA shit that was tacked onto the game, and I want to give them credit for their work.

While it plays almost the same as Quake 3, it isn't simply just an HD remaster of the game - it's got plenty of new and unique content. The character models are all nicely detailed, containing a mix of classic Quake characters, new ones, and even some guest appearances in the form of Doom Slayer and B.J. Blazkowicz! Many of the characters speak, though their voice clips eventually got a bit repetitive so I ended up turning them off. The character roster is a lot smaller than Quake 3s, but I feel it makes up for that in that each character has unique abilities - something that made the "mystery champion" game modes a whole lot of fun. Some felt more useful than others, but I'm sure the grappling hook and ghost phasing could be useful for some people's play styles. Looking over the cosmetics that can be unlocked, some of them looked kinda neat, while some of them looked silly and out-of-place for a Quake game - but that whole aspect of the game was a moot point for me because it's all trapped behind a grind/pay wall.

Beyond the characters, there's a nice assortment of weapons, all of which feel pretty good, though I miss the "chunkier" look they had in Quake 3. They've definitely got more of a sci-fi feel in this one, more akin to Unreal Tournaments style than Quake's. And I could say about the same for the game's maps - the new maps are a lot more detailed but didn't feel like they had as much character as the ones in Quake 3, save for a few. Much like the weapons, many of them feel like they've come from an Unreal Tournament game rather than Quake. Aesthetic preferences aside, though, they all still play just fine.

One way this title does improve over Quake 3 is the impressive variety of different game modes to try. The game comes with a whopping 31 different game modes, which I'm pretty sure is more than I've seen in every Quake and Unreal game combined. You've got all your classic deathmatch and capture the flag modes, instagib variables, etc alongside some cool modes like "rip and tear" where everyone dukes it out as a Doom Slayer, or the "mystery champion" modes which were some of my favorites because it let me try out all the fun character abilities without having to grind/purchase my way through unlocking them all.

Lastly, the music is another mixed bag for me. It's well-done, but I found a lot of it to be forgettable, unlike the incredibly badass soundtrack of Quake 3. It uses a dynamic system, kind of like Unreal Tournament 3, so it gets more intense during high-action moments.

(2023 Edit to this bit: I actually started listening to the soundtrack more after I wrote this review and the music really grew on me. The soundtrack is one of my favorite memories of this game, in retrospect.)

In closing, the game actually does have some strengths over Quake 3 in its sheer variety of game modes and fun character abilities, but the whole experience is bogged down by shameless greedy attempts to milk your wallet and ruin your immersion - and some of its visual design choices feel a bit too sleek and clean for a series that has always felt more grimy and gritty. I would definitely just stick with Quake 3.  It's sad to see that id software, a company I used to think very highly off, is just as okay with pushing loot boxes and micro-transactions as so many other awful companies. I really expected better than them after the fantastic Doom 4/2016.  Another sad reminder that corporations are not your friend, and are more than happy to take a decent new entry in the Quake franchise and try to turn it  into a sleazy digital storefront.

(Bonus fun fact to end on a positive note: The character pictured above is Sorlag, a badass lizard gal who attacks by spitting acid and performs magic rituals with the ripped-out entrails of her enemies. More female video game characters like this, please :) )