1997 has had no short of exponential genre growth that we likely haven't seen since, as you'd expect RavenSoftware would not disappoint with their 1997 release Hexen II . I mentioned playing Redneck Rampage how the FPS genre had evolved to cater to more niche and even comedic taste, Blood and Shadow Warrior proved the true and tried legacy of DOOM and Duke had plenty of room to grow while releasing along aside more experimental and fresh takes on the genre like Golden Eye and Turok. The wide breadth of experiences available in the FPS genre has no disappointment neither in history or my reliving of it however Hexen II would extend the boundaries of the genre more than any other shooter to date. Ravensoftware started with Heretic's fantasy driven take on id Software's new genre and expanded the fantasy ideals with more heavy handed RPG design elements in Hexen and Hexen II. Sharing much with the first game those same design principals and mechanics are taken to extremes. At times it feels more what the modern age would liken to a Action RPG game. With lots of hack n' slash action, a gigantic maze of large winding levels covered in secrets and obscure objectives. Like of all of Ravensoftware's games to this point the game is drenched in arcane weaponry, enemies and task. RavenSoftware's unique identity comes through in Hexen II better than any game they have made before.
The elephant in the room with Hexen II is its use of id Tech 2 previously I've only got to enjoy in Quake which came out late 1996. RavenSoftware stands among the genre's best in art design. With Hexen looking incredible on the id Tech 1 engine. Naturally I , like my 1997 FPS self would have been , was very excited to see not just the return of the incredible tech but see it in the hands of a studio with incredible art direction. Hexen II does not disappoint in this regard. Its by far the most technologically impressive game I've played for this blog. Looking leaps and bounds better than Turok or Golden eye. Characters and environmental details pop with incredible geometry and textures. Levels are massive comparatively to its contemporaries and unlike GoldenEye or Turok suffers not distant fog masking the level. Colored moving textures, light beautiful torches along dark cold hallways or an arcane black Smith's forge. Beautiful statues and structures adorn the game along with trees and foliage. Its easily one of the best looking games of it's day FPS or not. Missing the jank and limitations of the FPS engines since the dawn of Polygonal rendering. The use of all this tech only executes as beautifully as it does thanks to RavenSoftware's art direction. The game brilliantly and cleverly works around its restrictions and to its strengths. It's hard to look back at the first game. Limited movement, animations, and sprites for spells. This is an astronomical jump similar to the jump we saw with Quake over DOOM II. As of this point in the blog Hexen II is the best looking FPS game on this blog. The atmosphere and style of RavenSoftware and what they achieve in Hexen II is iconic.
Hexen II doubles down and refines the elements of Hexen. Many of the weapons and spells return. Though the team could have targeted Hexen II as Hexen 3D they went the extra mile in making sure the way you make use of the items is more engaging and needed. Melee combat is much better. Hit detection largely works the same but feels much more responsive and satisfying with a war hammer in true 3D. Bolts and spell projectiles now have actual 3D elements that fly around the level. The speed is much the same as the first game but like Quake the strafing and jumping in enemy engagements is transformative with a true 3D game. The splattering of enemies with blunt weapons, slicing with swords and beautiful wild spells is pretty spectacular to see. The real kicker.....many structures...most... are destructible. Hitting away with a hammer or spell may destroy an object. This blew me away. I couldn't believe it. A 1997 id Tech 2 game. Like I said with Duke Nukem 3D, physics, destructible areas and the like all create a strong sense of presence and feed back to the players existence in the game world.The visceral effect is tremendous over the first Hexen doubtlessly adding more to the cultural shock value around video games in 1997. While I've never been put off by most gore I can see how the visual feedback of these games is a big jump along with everything else in short amount of time. Being a fantasy violent FPS I would have loved the combat and visual feedback. RavenSoft keeps with the more generic host of enemies they have had before but later in the game there are some more memorable ones. These enemies never move much out of the established enemy encounters of Hexen. Honestly while its mostly improvements and polishing the combat and mechanics of Hexen II grabbed me much more than Ravensoftware's previous attempts.
While more conservative in combat and enemy chan ges with Hexen II the team was much more liberal in its use of RPG game elements. The studio that pioneered it must have known Hexen had essentially started the creating of a sub genre. While this is an FPS focused blog to accomplish the context I want for these games its important to also remember other games coming out at similar times. 1997 would also see the release of the legendary Elder Scrolls II; Dagger Fall. While a completely different genre and type of game RPGs where booming and RavenSoftware had already dabbled in genre blending with the previous entries. Hexen being bold about it. While classes, stats, starting weapons and ammo stay about the same in the sequel I applaud Hexen II 's use of its own tech to accomplish what the first game couldn't. RavenSoftware focused on creating a very dense 3D world the player would have to traverse multiple times and find many secrets and oddities including a fantastic catapult. While its not open world in the same degree as Daggerfall is the loading screens are few and far between and the implementation in what is essentially a hub area is something I haven't played anything on this blog. Quest are essentially your win conditions with equivalent key cards often being long convoluted processes to get a hold of specif items or processes. It is here that I think historical context makes a very important perspective shift. While its massive intricate maps are beautiful and fun to explore I found myself almost entirely lost the entire time. To complete on thing usually turns into a long list of prerequisites making you travel between loading screens and explore for random switches that may effect the map in another loaded level. The biggest growing pain I see this type of game going through is how to accurately inform and visually lead the player to objectives and create a clear picture in the players mind of what they must be looking for and finding. Hexen II does this mostly in occasional text reading off of signs or pop up text bubbles. One almost needs notepad open to help keep track of it all. I feel this is something the FPS genre hasn't really had to do much of and its not a surprise to see RavenSoftware struggle in coming up with solutions.
Duke and the like full of secrets and even destructible environments, however the linear nature of what the player had to do and the play space made these things very easy to find with minimal information needing to be conveyed or visually represented. Another reason RavenSoftware may not have tried all too hard to focus on these missing elements. See in 1997 when playing games the internet was in its infancy. My friends and I used to constantly get stuck in games and go talk at school where mythical rumors to actual helpful knowledge about these experiences would be shared. Guidebooks where also my best friend. If I had been playing a shooter like this back in 1997 I likely would have had several school conversations and a guide book at home. Yes I used a guide in 2020. Its not so much as poor design on Hexen II's part as much as it is a product of its time and the way gamers conversed and found secrets in games was very, very different. I will say though despite that excuse Hexen II can be a bit egregious if your not careful about keeping up with what your supposed to be doing in game. After a couple weeks off returning to this game I found my self completely lost. With very little hope of fiding my way again short of rereading the whole guide and wondering why I was in the wrong place and in what step of "Y" I was in trying to get "X". It is a very difficult game but not for the reasons I'm used to seeing on this blog.Letting my modern persona take over briefly to say that the real beginnings of incorporating RPG elements into shooters that we are used to now started with RavenSoft its a pleasure to see.
RavenSoftware continually blows me away in this blog. A studio I had only dabbled in has cemented themselves as one of the era's best studios. The combat and flow of Hexen II is not satisfying or the main draw like Quake or Blood. But having savage fantasy FPS combat in id Tech 2 is fun all the same. Raven has without a doubt created the vast majority of great looking games in this blog. The studio's relationship and ability to add their own high quality art bar is to be revered. Sadly during this play through I did ultimately get lost one to many times and largely lost interest. If I had been more mature in 1997 and playing this game however It would have been sublime and a huge hit with me. I love every note this game hits and with time, friends and a good guide its a timeless fantastic game that can still easily be enjoyed today. As I enter the later stages of 1997 and the dawning 3D era its incredibly refreshing and exciting to play a id Tech 2 powered game. The engine is on a whole other level than its contemporaries almost a year later. I've had a blast playing all these games up to this point though some more than others. However getting to experience the genre transform is so exciting and these polygon driven FPS games are really breathing new life into the genre and hobby just like 1997.
Shadow Warrior would be the third jewel in a heavy crown for 3D Realms. After creating the incredible Duke Nukem 3D and working heavily on Blood they had already cemented themselves as a top tier design studio in the mid 90's FPS genre. Going toe to toe with id Software , perhaps not in technology or speed but with heir own more methodical flow and equally gross carnage yet slower and chunkier in feel. Duke Nukem 3D and Blood are easily two of my favorite games on this list and two of the best shooters I've ever played. It's actually pretty easy to put myself in the shoes of my 1997 blog persona. 3D Realms' content being a wonderful and overdue discovery I owe to this blog. A more mature 1997 me that was heavily invested in FPS games would have been incredibly excited for Shadow Warrior. Monolith and 3D Realm's collaborative Blood would have blown me away as I wrote about. Duke Nukem 3D still an all time favorite. Shadow Warrior doesn't quite deliver on the hype for me but it does stand as a testament to the 3D Realms formula in one of their most polished and satisfying games.
The looming shadow of Quake seems to get larger as the year goes on. With id's contemporaries quickly catching up in polygon rendering new games still not meeting that bar are not living up to a growing presentation standard. Blood easily stands toe and toe with Quake when it comes to quality game design. Build Engine is still plenty capable of delivering an excellent experience but with Turok and consoles pushing into 3D it almost feels like these titles fall behind. Make no mistake the engine delivers and 3D Realms' familiarity with it shows. Shadow Warrior is easily the best looking Build Engine game to date. I feel 3D Realms really pushed the engine to its limit while the artist knew some incredible tricks in creating environments. Despite not using polygons the game gives a great presentation of 3D space second only to polygon rendered games. A magic carpet ride over lava rivers and above rocks was one of the high lights. However the heights of Japanese mountains and the gloom of caves, eastern houses and even an industrial warehouse all look great. The games enemies look identifiable and blow into chunks though a bit less than Blood. The physics and interactivity of Build Engine is still highly enjoyable but there's nothing really new here that wasn't in Duke regarding interactivity or physics having the novelty fade.
In terms of game play the game follows Duke 3D very closely in pacing and engagement principals. Shadow Warrior however differs in the enemies and weapons used refining this formula to a polish I find wasn't in Duke while not ramping up the carnage to Blood levels. Shadow Warrior doesn't just rely on enemy type to weapon type matching but also in how you want to proceed through a room. This is all too often choke points like it was in Duke 3D. The grenade launcher and ability to blast around corners comes in particularly handy. These choke points can often encourage you to go back and find more health and ammo, well placed or rewarded through the other parts of the level. A brilliant design feature I loved from Duke though it is heavily relied on feels more organic in this title. While few enemy types really stood out to me other than serving various forms of damage some weapons really stand out. Chopping enemies with the sword is gory and fun.
Using the severed head of an enemy with your finger poking in the back of it to torch enemies or using a beating heart in your hand the game has some memorable and great weapons. While most weapons have an alt fire and the inventory system is stuffed with caltrops, gas grenades, flash bangs etc. I rarely found myself using these items. These systems almost feel needless. Over all the game play loop feels tighter or more refined than Duke along with the basic level layouts. Seeing your master's fortress self destruct with a nuke and his naked anime girls is a sight to behold along with various other cheeky 3D realms level design and events.The game even occasionally lets you use a vehicle to wreck shit. My favorite was the tank and after Golden Eye I'm really loving the innovation of armed moving vehicles your character switches to. It essentially changes the players body in space and speed while dealing damage that is rewarding in short burst. The game's east meets west carnage is unique and fun.
Shadow Warrior's Lo Wang is the Asian stereotype badass you play. He like Duke or Caleb set the tone for the games humor and attitude. Armed with dual Uzi's , a Katana or a rocket launcher the next Lo Wang takes on the western Asian stereotypes and action movies. Naked anime girls populate the world at times and try to shoot you if you stare at them too long in the bath house. Comments from Wang may not make me laugh like Duke as much but 3D Realms humor is there. The constant chatter from Lo Wang after enemies turn into bits or nukes go off is again straight from some 90's comedy skit. 3D Realms both in design and tone had set their identity as a studio and games apart with its own flavor of 90's edge. Build Engine's DNA has proved to be a bright a colorful tree.
Shadow Warrior does so much right but sadly most of it is dulled by the fact other games, particularly those 3D Realms themselves have been involved with have had all these same strong points. At this point I feel like I'm starting to write the same blog over and over despite playing a reasonably unique and fun game. Shadow Warrior is a blast, its a fun shooter and I'd loved playing in 1997 however it does largely feel like retread ground. Lo Wang largely does what Duke does but it just doesn't stick with me the same way. Blood had incredible gun play and a horror art direction that really made it stand out. Build Engine is showing its age after releases like Turok and Golden Eye being fresh in memory. At this point in 1997 the maturity of the FPS genre has inherit limitations set in. A well designed and well playing game like Shadow Warrior two years ago would have been a monumental standout. The growing pains of the genre are lessening and more and more good games are being made. Progressing onward through 1997 Shadow Warrior falls into the newly created good but not good enough category.
Before I can talk about Rare's innovative entry into the FPS genre I have to first talk about the two trending themes I'm observing through 1997. The most obvious of these themes from a glance are real time polygon rendered visuals. Quake changed the gaming world and what people wanted particularly from first person shooters, a well established genre for years by this point. Its not hard to see why it was so exciting going through history. There can be beautiful sprite work from Monolith or Ravensoft but Quake and Turok looked the part of being the technical achievement they where. Stunning game play areas, space and mechanics just not possible before. It was indeed a new canvas. Goldeneye takes this trend and combines it with a strong take on the second theme, variation in the genre. Each blog entry I keep saying more and more how these games are trying new things and making cool new experiences. Redneck Rampage is just funny, Blood is mechanically amazing, Turok uses polygon powered environments for platforming, Quake has incredible movement. Each of these games does something drastically different and builds a game around it. by the mid part of 1997 the FPS genre was starting to see the formation of sub genres. With Goldeneye 64, Rare's innovative take is to create a stealth based, spy thriller, first person shooter. Like Star Wars: Dark Forces we see a popular movie franchise coming to the FPS genre. While Dark Forces heavily took the id pallet, Rare would not have that luxury as Bond couldn't Turok his way through as a stealthy spy on his way to sabotage the enemy. Goldeneye 64 drastically plays different than any other shooter on this list. I was blown away with how much different it felt and plays. Creating that spy experience in first person is so fun and exciting after countless games of a super charged action hero wading in blood. So many first that I just haven't seen in games in this blog until now. This incredible like sneaking up behind an enemy to chop them in the back of the neck with your hand and have them fall out. Or sniping an enemy a far with a silenced sniper rifle. Destroying alarms to stop enemy reinforcements or using a silenced pistol to not alert more enemy's is a completely new dynamic for the genre and would go on the inspire entire sub genres of the FPS perspective that we take for granted today. In 1997 and in the context of this blog I would have been floored at doing these things. I think experience would have startled me second only to Quake in terms of shock value and being something new.
Equally stunning are the visuals. In many ways I think its a better looking game than Quake. I feel like in the early 90's despite staying 2D things like Heretic looked notably better than DOOM II, Duke better than that and so on. This happened fairly quickly. However its taken until mid 1997 for me to feel like I'm seeing a better game visually than Quake. There are concessions the game makes in its design to be able to push better looking elements but the game is stunning all the same. In one mission its a sunset in a snow covered area as Bond infiltrates a bunker. Its beautiful and as of 1997 one of the best looking moments I've seen in a FPS. Textures and light colors and lights all come together to make what is a very good looking game artistically. I feel like Rare's art team really new what they where doing in how to use what they had effective but also pleasing to the eye. The stunning aspect of realtime polygon rendering comes across in how life like these environments are. I feel like this is the first game where I'm playing in a real area. While Blood had somewhat normal looking buildings along with Duke, Goldeneye feels like real world areas in space and structure. Its a huge visual wow factor after the more video game look of environments in shooters so far. I would have been constantly replaying levels in this game to see the varied and beautiful 3D environments. Goldeneye takes Bond to plenty of places even a great looking jungle and boat level. The game is gorgeous, keeping the trend of how impressive the N64 as a home console was at this point. Aside from Quake nothing on PC using polygons in the genre has been on my blog. Gaming platforms for the FPS genre had significantly expanded as Goldeneye proves the console can handle its own with polygon driven FPS. Having the Star Wars property in Dark Forces is what I feel like helped make that game special. Seeing Rare try to catch the magic of James Bond in Goldeneye 64 is impressive. The games' drastic and unique design choices all lend themselves to the Bond illusion. This blows me away as no game has really made me feel like an actual big screen character. Duke being a parody doesn't have the authentic and smooth feel of being Bond. The game plays more like an arcade on rails linear shooter than it does a typical FPS game I've grown accustomed to on this list. Bond can walk freely in 3D space. These environments as mentioned earlier are beautifully rendered and immersive but because of the realistic approach don't always lend themselves to pleasant environmental navigation. Boxes and objects meant to be cover to duck under similar to on rails shooters cover system can often be ran into or backed into without the player meaning to. Its a farcry from the excellent movement and flow allowed by the level design in Quake or Blood. The games shooting is the most fun when your standing or ducking and free moving the aim of your weapon. Enemies fly back in super realistic motion captured animations, computers and objects explode with fragments flying everywhere. Its a jaw dropping action movie like experience. However when moving faster to cover or strafing around several enemies the auto aim is only serviceable and much the experience is flattened. This is how most of the game feels with those better parts just mentioned being drip fed through certain choke points and enemy encounter areas. This would really bum me out as its the weakest playing part of the game but what winds up happening is the stealth moments and kills become entertaining and fun to pull off. Sneaking up with a silence pistol or a melee attack is new and awesome for a game on this list. Sniping over large areas has a bad ass feel in it no game has made yet. Goldeneye reminds me of DOOM II where all these ideas are new and awesome but very rough around the edges as environmental movement and encounters rough around the edges. Bond's villains all lend themselves to their arcade inspirations providing cheap cannon fodder and little variation. This also means there's little weapon variation. Often your start weapon is different depending on the level. A silenced pistol, smg or sniper and the enemy weapon pick up is always the same AK. These weapons all animate but after just finishing Blood which came out right before Goldeneye I miss a tactical and varied arsenal. Goldeneyes stealth focused limited weaponry and enemy types feels simplified and dumbed down in comparison.
Keeping inline with its immersive James Bond experience Goldeneye has a much slower pace than any other shooter on this list. The walk speed and level design along with a regenerating health system similar to again arcade shooters lends itself to a slower more "cinematic" experience. This would have been really incredible in 1997 and the true accomplishment of what makes this game remarkable in my opinion. The slower pace ties in well to the linear gunplay sections that are meant for more spectacle than testing your battle dance skills. Using the super impressive graphics Bond encounters friendly non playable characters and even in some moments has them follow him in escape. Its these moments that show us just what else FPS games can be beyond the id Software DNA embedded in every game of the genre until now. As impressive as it is how much of a badass spy you feel shooting through Goldeneye that doesn't mean that these new ideas are better ideas. Its not in my top five playing games on this list despite its innovations and there range of successful implementation in gameplay. The shooting is very repetitive and outright boring compared to Quake or Blood. Even games like Redneck Rampage are better shooters because of the movement in levels and the shooting mechanics in my opinion are just way more interesting and rewarding. The hyper real levels look cool and are real immersive until you can't move in them like you'd want even if it would be less realistic. The game does a lot to lay the foundations of many elements in FPS games we enjoy today. The stealth focused shooter now exist in this point in the blog and its and interesting sub genre to see emerge despite being very immature in Goldeneye. The techno/band spy thriller soundtrack is a great way to make the game feel like a Bond game. One thing I do considering Goldeye better at than most games on this blog is the sound track. Easily one of my favorites.Rare's innovative immersive touches go onto the menu system Bond pulls up on his watch, the cool gadgets and tools to accomplish multiple objectives in a given level. Early on you get to take control of a tank and that linear design and mass destruction is a great way to change the pacing in level design.
I love being able to know where these fans are coming from by playing this blog. Rare has a cult following and after playing Goldeneye 64 I can understand why. They pulled off an innovative and fresh FPS experience.that did better than any game before it at bringing a movie over to the new medium. The game is visual stunner with great art direction. I'm real glad it was on my list for this blog as it's been great and is great to take a break from some of the more tested and popular shooting conventions. However Goldeneye 64 failed to ever really let me fall in love with it. In the context of this blog and 1997 I think I would have been wow'ed and think its a good game as I do now. But It doesn't hold a candle to Blood or Quake in my opinion and I'd personally rather play Turok if we are talking N64 games. I think Goldeneye 64 is an important proof of concept for many good ideas while falling short of the better FPS experiences 1997 and years prior have to offer.
The dawning of the new 3D era has brought among many new design challenges and possible directions I hadn't seen in this blog until Quake. However the older Duke Nukem and DOOM inspired generation of FPS games wasn't done yet. Redneck Rampage was decent and more importantly funny. But just a year ago in blog time 3D Realms blew me away with Duke 3D. The level of interactivity, movement, vertical space in the level design fundamentally changed or at least challenged all conventional FPS design. Despite all that Duke did I still can't help feel there was more left on the table. Quake seemed to jump ahead and in many ways that's good but what had been presented before was never really perfected or replicated with design choices of say Turok or Quake. It's at this point Monolith enters the scene and creates what is easily among the top games on this list. Blood is phenomenal. It's every design aspiration we've seen in shooters pre full 3D perfected. It features some of ,if not the best in certain cases, level design of any game on this list. Quake included. It's spooky horror movie theme and look make the presentation my favorite of any game yet on this blog. Caleb's sadistic and slightly humorous goth personality charms me in a different yet just as effective way as Duke did. The combat loop involves one of my favorite weapon arsenals with my favorite enemies in a shooter so far. By summer 1997 Monolith had created an instant classic while proving that perfectly crafted and atmospheric game play could always find room at the top despite the dawning of the polygon era. Blood thrives on the ultra video game violence of the 1990's. With companies like id Software being blamed for acts of real world violence, Blood throws itself right into the cliche to great effect. Blood earns its name sake with just as much if not more than Quake. Blood literally fountains and sprays out of the undead and their demonic comrades, zombie heads can be kicked around to great effect, monks can be set on fire and watch as their flesh melts away. I'm sure playing this in 1997 would have shocked with its imagery. Blood's levels and tone is derived from era horror movies. The Hotel from the Shinning is one of the most impressive levels I've ever seen designed in an FPS game so far on this blog. Rising from the grave to find Crow references, and plenty more. Caleb is pale with red eyes and in some impressive for the time pre-rendered CGI cut scenes he as a cult leader is betrayed by the demon he and his lover worships. If Quake and the NIN contribution embraced 90's alternative edge Blood lived and breathed it. The enemy designs are fun and well thought out video game enemy pulled form the Living Dead or Buffy. The soundtrack with children occasionally singing rhymes or loose horror ambience could be played at a Halloween party. My favorite track a sick take on carnival music in one of my favorite levels, a haunted carnival.Caleb offers sadistic commentary taking pleasure in gore and making the occasional joke. The atmosphere Monolith created is the best I've played in an FPS on this list. I adore it.
Blood's many aspects are all extremely well executed. The excellent and fun environments are brought to life by Monolith's outstanding level design. The only studio to challenge them would be id at this time and even then I'm not sure who wins. The game starts out in a creepy and beautiful cemetery and quickly has you on a train ride through the apocalyptic hellscape of Blood's reality. Gargoyles and ghost fly at you, zombies and zealots. All with differentiating attacks and usually some variation particularly the monks. The enemy encounters take more from Duke than they do id created games. Blood's enemy's though remain largely unique and interesting in multiple ways not seen before. The arsenal in which they are gored with really ties into how you fight them and they react. Its very violent but rewarding. The player can literally stab a voodoo doll to gore and turn to dust enemies....its sadistic and I love it. Caleb makes sure he has plenty in common with
the player.
The flame thrower is a spray can and lighter, the machine gun a Tommy gun, the shotgun is DOOM II levels of good, the throw-able dynamite straight from Duke and a napalm launcher in place of a traditional rocket launcher. These weapons, ammo and enemy encounters are designed around the way the level flows in a near perfect way. While some levels like the haunted carnival, train ride, garden maze or hotel straight blew me away more than any levels in any other games on this list. Hallways and vertical spaces are all used to the extreme much more so than any other Build Engine game so far. The ambition in creating real world places or life like areas while making them fun and fast to blow your way through is impressive. The secrets are taken to another level as well a great example being the Hotel with its many secret passages and movable book shelves. I have to say Blood stands toe to toe with Quake when it comes to how fun and fresh combat and level traversal can be. Monolith using a technically outdated but more than capable engine are on an equal but different footing of genre leading level design, shooting and enemy encounters.
Despite not using polygon rendering Build Engine by the middle of 1997 still held up extremely well and while the design of a game like Blood must have been pushing it to the limits, the engine is plenty capable of wowing me and delivering some of the most ambitious designs seen in a shooter yet (97). The design direction 3D realms took by having interactivity and physics be so much of the simulated environment is a choice I wish every game took. The amount it adds to the player experience cant be understated and I'm happy to say Blood embraces this just as much. Destructible environments give way to supplies and secret areas. Gore bounces around in meat chunks when disposing of enemies or in the case of ghost their eyes pop out of their skull. Flesh burst and burns off of creatures with fantastically animated and detailed sprites. Blood is probably the second best looking game behind Quake on this list in my opinion. It's easily the best looking Build Engine game I've seen and far beyond what id Tech 1 was not so long ago offering in games like Hexen. The texture and color work are fantastic and while the lighting distance has limitations not seen in polygon rendered games the cohesive art style and more inherit artistic freedom of sprite use give way to a very great looking game. It really brings to life my favorite levels in a game. I think Monolith stands beside RavenSoftware when it comes to delivering excellent art in the FPS genre at this time.
While the game is good in some levels it can be brutally hard .After playing so many games from this era I've found myself not struggling as much but Blood has changed that for the worse again. I found supplies laid out pretty well but not to the near perfect balance Duke Nukem 3D did. I do more frequently in Blood find myself in some near impossible situations no matter how much I've explored the level before hand. Though it's hard to complain much about the game. It really is limited by its older design take while at the same time achieving greatness because it perfected those design choices. The movement and mobility may not be as good as Quake but is much better than anything else. The arsenal while not wholly original is largely fresh and always fun. The way enemy's react and attack is very predefined and varies only between a small set of things but the strength in this is Monolith has balanced all these dependent variables near perfectly when it comes to how player driven interaction is. I remember in my blog about DOOM II and the games following how movement in 3D space was challenging both because of tech but also because of content creators figuring how just what the right way of doing something was. Blood feels like a genre culmination of that. Monolith has obviously learned plenty of the lessons involved in the FPS genre growing pains while not being afraid to be inspired by the kind of things something like id Tech 2 allow. Like other games on this blog Blood and largely the Build Engine family of games have been unplayed for me.
However the unifying interactivity and immersive sandbox they tend to provide the player hit a note that makes me particularly fond of them. I think I would have been that edgey nerd in 1997 talking about how Duke and Blood did great, amazing things that Quake didn't. I'm sure I would have regarded id as the top tier studio and they certainly where even considering that now, but I do think my fondness of the Build Engine and the overall immersive sim design choices would carry beyond time. I would have seen Blood in 1997 as further maturing of the genre because of the way it showed how effective different approaches to the FPS genre could be. Blood is easily one of the best games I've played for this blog. I have no doubt in 1997 I would have been floored by how good it was even if I was still eating up polygon rendered Quake. Monolith executed a near perfectly designed game. Blood honestly deserves every bit the same recognition Quake, DOOM or Duke get for being a well designed and timeless game.
The gore and look of the game along with a fantastic sound track further cements the fact that the FPS genre no longer solely belonged to id or their tech. Variety and alternate ideas had not just been expressed but now strongly and forever taken root into what was now a full expanded genre of video games not beholden to the design principals of one or two titles. Blood is one of the best shooters I've ever played, for this blog or otherwise. It will forever be a favorite I return to especially on Halloween. This blog gives great insight and I keep finding treasures I never played or properly appreciated before. Blood is a testament to this. Monolith in 1997 made a classic.While not bringing anything ground breakingly innovative it still pushed the bar of quality and excellence to new heights. So much ambition in the horror movie inspired areas to the enemy encounters and gameplay mechanics made Blood some of the best FPS fun I've ever had bar none.
The end of April 1997 would see the FPS mechanics of video games fully realized into a broad and varied genre. Xatrix Entertainment's Redneck Rampage couldn't have existed before this moment and though it's no where near among the best shooters on this list Redneck Rampage shows a comical and creatively free side of the genre only timidly explored up to this point. Growing up in WNC it hits a personal comedic note with me. It's the first game since Duke Nukem 3D that I would laugh out loud at the comedy in a game. Build Engine is another thing Redneck Rampage has in common with Duke 3D, proving that while proper 3D had the video game industry on fire from PC to console, Build Engine was no slouch in the experiences it could create.
Redneck Rampage takes a lot from one of my favorite games on this list Duke Nukem 3D. The player character is very much his own character. You play as Leonard chasing his lost simple friend Bubba around and later fighting off aliens. Its very much a Mice and Men style relationship but with much more probable inbreeding. Leonard has plenty of one liners after taking damage, finding secrets, unlocking doors or his favorite thing shooting up other rednecks. The enemies aren't short on banter and I particularly love the skinny grunt characters voice and lines. It reminds me of a personal friend's bit that often mocks the daily redneck tendencies we have to endure. The game starts you off in some hazy southern fields that look pretty dated by the standards of more recent games on this list. Finding barns and wandering in and out of multistory houses however reminds me of Build Engine's better qualities. Its not something I even saw in Turok and honestly even Quake is still behind in this regard. I had a dog chasing me had him follow me in a room then close the doors on him and it worked! All while Leonard is going around saying he's "on you like stink on shit" or hollering every time I open the menu to save the game. Your fighting giant overhaul fat rednecks, skinny creepy ones saying "Im gunna git ya" , throwing dynamite to blow them into chunks, the large shotgun wielding redneck sometimes reduced to two turkey legs standing on their own. All this while pigs are screaming and chickens running around...all can blow up and the pigs particularly get hostile. Redneck Rampage has characters and character as a whole in its presentation. It would fit right along side some mid 90's MTV bit. This is a game that couldn't have existed before and certainly not now a real 1997 time piece.
The game mechanics itself are pretty poor and in the health system's case quickly make the game a slog to play through. As many laughs as I've had with the game this is one of my least played games on the blog list. While I often try to get at lest 2/3rd the way through and often finish these games after a couple hours I was burnt out here. Leonard drinks beer and whiskey for his health a pretty funny way of doing health packs and health pick ups are found with pork rinds...its pretty funny for me. Problem is he gets drunk quickly using health packs and soon enough you literally can't walk in a straight line. Its funny until you need to actually play the game and the effect can last minutes or longer. The game's enemies are basic affair for the genre at this time not breaking from the id influence all too much but stripped down even more. The shotgun is straight from DOOM II but somehow a little worse. The pistol is a lot of fun, throwing dynamite sticks is straight from Duke 3D but the way the fuse is lit and the time to throw makes it worse than the pipe bombs and I could only use them in larger spaces no the corner hallways I'd gotten used too. Finding keys through the level is actually pretty fun being straight out of Duke's playbook. Build Engine's ability to allow horizontal and vertical 3D areas of play is fantastic to see even if they are always lacking in terms of actual design quality. These flaws actually make the game pretty challenging and I played it less than the "hurt me plenty" I typically keep for these games. It's not what I would call a bad game and especially given the context of the time it was released and the other games I've played on this blog. I feel like I would have probably found it rather average but the comedic effect and setting of the game would have made it special enough to really enjoy for some time. One of the strengths of doing this blog is it allows me understand why people remember these games fondly even if they are not the most well designed or playing games of the time.
Redneck Rampage embodies the width of the FPS genre in 1997. Quake gave us crazy fast, very much id styled adrenaline, Turok let us explore with first person 3D platforming and dinosaurs with lasers, Duke saved the ladies with destructible environments and tons of simulation. Redneck Rampage allows this southern parody to be a fully realized game. It hearkens back to an emerging industry where being different and adventurous where encouraged often sucessful. I'd say it works. This game is remembered for the experience it brought not the perfected gameplay mechanics. It's just fun sometimes and often times not so much however I had plenty of laughs along the way. At this point in the blog its also worth noting Redneck Rampage along with the last several games from Duke on have really driven home just how much of an explosion FPS games had from spring 1996-1997. All kinds of differing design approaches, characters, settings are a far cry from the "DOOM Clones" that populated the earlier parts of this list. Not to diminish the influence of id. It's remarkable this blog started in 1994 and in every game id's inspiration is felt still in every title to varying and different degrees. I commend Xatrix Entertainment having the humor focused ambition they created Redneck Rampage with.
DOOM 64 represents and interesting development in the handling of a first person shooter franchise. id Software allow Midway games to produce a game with the DOOM IP. Studio's often change hands with IPs today but this was a fairly uncommon thing in the gaming industry of 1997 even more so for first person shooters. The creative results of such an approach gives DOOM 64 its own interesting atmosphere and feel while being visually striking. These departure from some of the core tenants of DOOM took me a long time to get adjusted to but I started to learn to love what had been accomplished here. DOOM 64 is a slower more environmental focused dungeon crawler of a shooter leveraging the power of the N64 it may have shortcomings as a DOOM game but is a solid horror, exploration driven shooter.
Despite not being fully 3D like Quake or the N64's own Turok, DOOM 64 is one of the best looking games I've played on this list and holds up well in art and visual retro appeal even today. I think in the context of 1997 as a gamer just getting done with Turok weeks before on my new console, I'd been impressed but not over joyed due to the visual quality shadow of Quake. Indeed the core of many flaws in DOOM 64 is the fact the id formula was so perfected mechanically and then brought to life in such incredible graphics detail with Quake that DOOM 64 was never going to wow anyone. I will say given the visual sacrifices Turok had to make with its fog and performance DOOM 64 seems like an almost better use of the hardware. It renders fantastic high quality sprites than look significantly better than anything in DOOM II. Monsters and guns look much, much better and the environment is rendered largely with 3D polygons. The general art direction that ties it all together brings out the best of mid 90's grunge and sci fi horror. Dynamic lighting is finally able to be used to great effect in level design and atmosphere where as DOOM II just couldn't ever pull it off. While the soundtrack lacks the run and gun metal themes of the first two games 64's moody atmosphere and ambiance almost feels like a quick and cheap Quake impression. It doesn't really suit DOOM but DOOM 64's much slower pacing often makes the art and sound of the game really come together for a unique atmosphere.
Video games have an identity stamped on them by their creators. It's easy to tell DOOM 64 is not made by id. In fact due to the name of the game and Midway's attempt at forging their own path I was disappointed in DOOM 64 for awhile. 64 focusing on the 3D environment moving with more doors and platforms changing as you flip various switches, glide over ledges, grab of course key cards and any other manner of environmental navigation. It's a lot more frequently used in the level design of the game than DOOM II and it's no where near as intuitive or built into a high paced flow like Turok does so well. I was often left standing still or retracing my steps several times to figure out how to get to the next area only to have the next fun enemy encounter be brief and I be left exploring again. It's a farcry from the nonstop thrill ride that is Quake's formula and environmental navigation. Its interesting to see just how early 3D environmental design was in 1997 as we have 3 very different approaches in a matter of months. However after my expectations where adjusted and I started enjoying DOOM 64 for the exploration driven shooter it is the flaws while not remedied where more tolerable. It wasn't until levels 7/8 that I started having a real love for some of the design approaches in this game. Combat arena's are filled with less variety and suffer for it, as well as much less free horizontal space to maneuver. It attempts at times smaller areas akin to what Quake uses but without all of Quake's quality of life improvements for such settings. The results are that I felt very constricted in movement as the player and it easily took away even the great feeling of moving around DOOM II had. The absolute carnage DOOM 64 unleashes is my favorite in the franchise up until this point ('97). The way the weapons animate and so do the monsters is a thing of beauty. The great visuals I've mentioned play right into a much more visceral and bloody affair than the past DOOM games. The chainsaw has two blades and is always up for use. A fantastic game play move and its fucking badass to use. The sound design of weapons and monsters is far better than DOOM II. Guns just have so much more of a punch and tactile feel to them as you rip and tear through demonic forces. 64 isn't afraid to experiment with new guns like the Unmaker which adds a pretty unique and fun BFG replacement for the game. I guess the BFG is sole property of id. The monsters all behave exactly the same and some dont appear that did appear in DOOM II. This makes the overall combat arena more stale and less interesting more quickly. DOOM II never really became uninteresting but the flow of DOOM 64's started to ware pretty thin for me about a third of the way through the game. The pacing issues of course go hand and hand with the level design issues I mentioned earlier. Making for these brutal and fun session of shooting more rare and savory than I'd like. DOOM should be glutenous on the blood lust. DOOM 64 does have moments that flirt with this though. Getting the mingun for the first time or in many small rooms often for instance was one of my favorite moments.
DOOM 64 exist as a very interesting product. Use of the most popular shooter IP in the world for a console exclusive by Midway Games. It feels different and has it's own unique flavor of the DOOM formula. I enjoyed it a lot for some of these reasons. The visual approach of the game and the combat and sound are huge upgrades. The ambiance and the exploration can be enjoyable or a pain depending on the level. Though I had much more fun with Turok's exploration approach. In a post Quake world DOOM 64 just doesn't cut it. It's no where close to the height achieved by Quake and id Software at the end of 1996. However this 1997 console exclusive would have brought DOOM to many homes for the first time and is a very solid and enjoyable dark shooter. I've been spoiled Duke, Quake and Turok in this blog. It's interesting to see how much of 1997's rapid progress is in DOOM 64. Not just the business side but the desing. Everything from the use of sprites and polygons to the exploration of mechanics in 3D space and puzzle solving. There is a lot here to be appreciated as both a good game and a time piece.
By the end of 1996 the FPS genre was expanding rapidly. Playing through this games has really struck home how incredible this time must have been as a gamer then. The genre had for years been known as "DOOM Clones" and after playing these landmark titles from 94 to now March 97 I can understand why there was this stigma for so long. But games like Duke Nukem 3D and Quake proved even id's formula could drastically change and still be a first person shooter. Themes, enemies, weapons, interactivity drastically changing how each title played. Duke and Quake where the explosions that would set off a dozen other beautiful packages of chaos. Turok exist because the genre had now expanded to accommodate it. Iguana Entertainment would create a project as unique as any shooter before it, applying their own technological strategy all while trying to be fresh on every level and often succeeding. Turok is also special for the platform it launched on. This is the first console game I've played for this blog. A landmark bridge for a genre that largely had been PC exclusive to now the console market. N64 would prove its grit at making experiences technologically on par with PC FPS games and deliver a classic exclusive. I played Nightdive Studios' excellent PC remaster with settings designed to replicate N64.
Having never played Turok or anything from Iguana Entertainment I found this game an extremely pleasant surprise. A theme of this blog discovering gems I missed due to being too young at the time. N64 however was my first video game experience and piece of gaming hardware I owned. Seeing Turok really brought a lot of nostalgia and memories of being in awe of what that little box could do. I can imagine any mature gamer of 97' would have been floored by Turok's visuals. After all this is just roughly 4 months after Quake blew the world away with tis 3D visuals. Its apparent to me playing games for this blog. I quickly became accustomed to the retro look and jank of sprites and super limited game play but playing Quake felt like I wasn't even working on this blog anymore and had skipped a decade. Turok evokes this feeling just as much. Its a beautiful for the time 3D game that heavily uses the tech to create massive layered levels. Full of secrets, required items, pick ups, platforming, Turok's level design and layouts are possibly the most complex in the genre for 97'. The sense of discovery and exploration while constantly engaging in fast paced FPS game play is a truly special and wondrous thing Turok brings to the genre.
The shooting in Turok is a blast though weaker than Duke Nukem 3D or the divine feeling of running and gunning in Quake. I do love the speed and weapons. The bow is a fantastic one and just so much fun to shoot especially with Tek arrows that explode. An automatic shotgun with exploding ammo also another favorite. At this point it feel like awhile since I've played a game that solely copied DOOM's arsenal. Sure the influence is there to varying degrees but while there are many basic items Turok's arsenal is fun and unique as much as Quake or Duke's. The torrent of 3D blood when knifing enemies or occasional explosion throwing them is pretty satisfying. It's actually a very violent game as much as any other mature shooter of the day. Running around at that speed in 3D space is something Iguana nailed, its fun and for the most part I even enjoyed the platforming. It's not Romero designed meat grinders but movement does feel really good and second only to Quake .
Turok's environments and enemy's are pretty unique for the games I've
played on this list. You start as a Native American man who has to
collect keys to unlock portals to levels. Its straight ripped from id's
design philosophy and the portals right after Quake's similar use of 3D
level selection. However once you load the first level things change. A
vibrant jungle filled with water, trees and bushes. Sure its nothing
compared now but its a lot more than I saw in Quake. The color pallet is
fun and refreshing along with the hazy look of the air around you. It
fits the fact raptors run around here with tribal looking people. Also
armed guards some with guns and lasers? I mentioned how disjointed Quake
felt thematically and Turok honestly is a far worse offender in this
regard. While temples and jungles fit, it has plenty of industrial
elements. The game hits this hard with the first real boss fight having
him trying to run you over with a Hummer. Its cool. I like it though not
as much as Quake's Lovecraftian atmosphere.
Its the levels and sense of discovery that make Turok special though in a way its peers are not. These levels are massive. By far the biggest I've played in a shooter for this blog. While Duke experimented a lot in this direction Iguana Entertainment armed with a true 3D engine take this to another level that would inspire games like Farcry and Halo. The game keeps fast pace with respawning enemies. A design decision I soon started to loose love and ammo for. Turok shoots his way through vertically stacked levels webbed with horizontal caves and lagoons to dive into. The game has incredibly complex map design its no surprise some of Iguana Entertainment would go on to make Metroid Prime some years later. They can be confusing though and frustrating to explore with enemy respawn placement. I at one time found myself with nothing but my knife trying to get collectables. The games platforming and completion time requirements to not run into spawning enemies is very harsh. Towards the end of the third level I for instance found myself loosing more lives than I got trying to get collectables that add up to more lives. Boss battles drain these extra lives as well. The checkpoint system would pioneer modern gaming's approach with visible placed save markers once you walked through them. They are few and far between however and don't make up properly for a lack of quicksave. Hard save stations akin to platformers of the era are found but spread thin. I have to give Iguana Entertainment credit for this ambition though and pulling off so well what no one had done to this degree. The sense of curious exploration and accomplishment is bar none in a shooter of this time. Having that curiosity and furious combat driving you around a 3D level is really awesome and still fun today in 97' this must have been a blast. Levels are severely limited by some of the games technical shortcomings though. Particularly the awful fog that worked as a early LOD of sorts. Focusing the rendering on what was close meant you could only see for a very short distance in front of you. Much of these massive levels where invisible to the player having enemies appear out of thin air and activate rather close. This also meant they didn't really chase you far. Its terrible and I wonder if id ever considered it with Quake.
Turok continues the late 90's break neck pace of real time
rendering advancements all the same. While Quake gave us a fully 3D realized world on
PC ending 1996, by March of the next year we saw a substantial quality
jump of 3D graphics with new hardware like the N64. Iguana Entertainment's engine has the ability to blend various animations
together and give characters the sense they have a skeletal frame. It's
absolutely crazy to see after fighting the stiff and jerky animated
enemies of Quake. Turok's raptors leap and snap at you realistically,
enemies legs and feet shift weight according to how they are running at
you. While enemies rarely blow up they do have the best death animations
of any shooter on this blog yet! Moving and crawling on the ground as
3D blood sprays and splatters across the environment. Its very violent
in its own right even without being reduced to small giblets. Again even
the blood we see Iguana Entertainment experimenting with the uses of a
3D game engine. Having the blood squirt and splatter on the environment
in 3D is something to see. Water in Turok has a 3D surface with saves in
it alternating. By 1997 standards this would have been one of a kind
and outstanding. Quake's swirling lagoons looked great for the day but
this was , like the blood, an interesting and visually awesome way of
using 3D rendering. Speaking of 3D objects Turok's has much denser
models than Quake overall. The guns are more rounded and significantly
more detailed. The games vicious dinosaurs look incredible compared to
the things I've seen in games on this list before now. All the small
extra details ID Tech 2 just doesn't display as of yet. The game looks
better in most ways except for the fact it only renders a very short
distance. As I mentioned earlier while the game atmospherically lays swirling textures of haze
in the game it has the signature N64 fog effect hiding things in the mid to far distance. This makes it disorienting at times due to the inability to see very much of your
surroundings. Even smaller stages can't be seen from start to finish and
this gives the game a very artificial limit on flow as enemy encounters
have to wait for the fog to lift before being activated. It severely
limits the game's visuals and ability to use its level design and enemy
encounters to the fullest. This fog helps reduce the load of what the
N64 has to render. Turok's impressive visuals suddenly become a little more
understandable once playing around this fog. I did however have a moment of awe as a tree blew apart and fell down due to my explosive shot gun. Its not real physics but it looks incredible for 1997 , ten years before Crysis would make its mark cutting down trees. Despite the fog all these factors I
mentioned go into creating the games unique visual identity. It easily
stands alongside Quake as one of the best looking games on this blog as
of 1997.
Iguana Entertainment's Turok represents a growth milestone for the FPS genre. Like Duke and Quake before it here you have a wild spin on the FPS formula laying to rest the term DOOM Clone. Turok is a bunch of game design problems solved differently than before along with various technological priorities. It doesn't always make for a better game but it makes for a fun and exciting game. This was my first time playing Turok and it stands as one of my favorite games on this list. It shows the genre was getting quality at various levels and takes on design. 3D gaming had such a profound impact on how these games played. Turok and Quake are special. Rough around the edges and primitive but fantastic to see experience.Turok is also important as it proved badass FPS games could exist on a new powerful console like the N64.
Throughout this blog you have read me mention the canvas for games that is technology. The 1990's is one of the most innovative and impressive decades in human history when it comes to technological advancement. Last year, 1996, we saw this advancement mirrored in our new entertainment medium made possible by this tech. The much faster CPUs availablePrin in the last 18 months had allowed crazy levels of interaction with Duke Nukem 3D and a fully 3D and textured world like Quake. Quake being the prime example of the type of game that just simply couldn't exist before. This was reinforced when the OpenGL version of the game shipped allowing video card acceleration. Cards like the Voodoo1 from 3DFX could assist the CPU in a way that provided much higher resolutions, texture filtering to clear up the textures and much faster performance. Nvidia would soon in 1997 release the Riva 128 and its GPU concept allowing a dedicated processor for real time rendering to handle even more task through bespoke hardware.
Computer hardware had been evolving and as a side effect monumental computing task could be done at home and make interactive experiences like video games. However by 1997 we see computer hardware splitting off and specifically evolving for real time 3D rendering. Quake was the very tip of a very large ice berg. Voodoo, Nvidia and with ATi coming back strong later in 97 the markets leaders where shaping the gaming industry. But so was Sony and Nintendo. Sony new to gaming hardware and Nintendo the returning king of game platforms for the late 80's and early 90's. This will be the first year you finally see me incorporate console games into this list. With console's like the PS1 and N64 using slightly scaled down workstation equivalent CPUs and custom primitive GPUs. Both consoles would deliver incredibly high end hardware comparatively to high end PC hardware. These where monster machines built around 3D graphics. The trade offs and features set would be different between them and 3D rendering was very much the wild west still. In its infancy along with the solutions to all of 3D's problems both technically and in consideration of game design.
Technology was certainly changing the world. 1997 was making economics and daily life radically different that how it all worked at the start of the decade. The Dot Com boom was in full swing in the United States. Silicon Valley at its center. It was still a very different world from today but the seeds of modern technology was growing fast. 1997 even more so than 1996 would show exponential progress in the world of video games especially first person shooters. 1997 would be one of the best years in the genre's history.
- Classic movies many of us grew up with: Titanic, Jurassic Park, and Men in Black would all three come out this year.
- Princess Diana died in a car crash.
-Shows like King of the Hill and South Park debuted this year.
-Spice Girls was the most popular Pop group in the world.
-Min. Wage was $5.15 an hour.
-Wifi 802.11 was introduced to the world.
- World Population was 5.8 Billion people.
id software may have been absent from this journey for awhile now but no game on this list has escaped the legacy of DOOM. Romero, Carmack, Willits and the rest of id had crafted a genre that was rapidly growing financially,expanding with creativity and budding technology. Video games as a whole by 1996 was a well oiled, money making tech industry by then bringing extreme competition as we see with Duke Nukem 3D. Within the context of the time its remarkable id had lightning strike twice. Quake fundamentally changes what we could experience and imagine with not just FPS games but video games as a medium. Quake also holds the test of time. By all present day standards the shooting and level design are still lofty design goals. Quake is the first time in this blog where I can easily tell a fundamental rebirth of the genre.
Quake brought a world to video games unlike anything before. Shooting and chopping your way through rusty, grimy sci-fi hallways and arenas. Wading through thick, gray moats to literally storm from the bottom up a massive castle of interwoven platforms and hallways. Mystic Lovecraftian dark hallways lit up with magic and lava. All tied together by a ghostly soundtrack from 90's icon Trent Reznor. The slow high pitched string tunes, moaning, foreboding bass and occasional ripping of industrial sounds for the main track take you on an emotional and atmospheric roller coaster that makes the varied horror filled world of Quake unique and timeless. The immersion is further built upon with incredible physics simulation for the time. Bodies blow into meat chunks that bounced around the environment. A decapitated head may blow off and land at your feet looking up at you. Blood splatters in three dimensions. The amount of brutal carnage this throws at the player makes even DOOM look kid friendly. It's clear id was very much intent on keeping their controversy intact, even relishing it. The breakneck speed of games like Duke Nukem or id's own DOOM was turned up a notch. It allows the player to literally blow through enemies and fly around the level as the gore I mentioned rains down like grotesque confetti. Quake is one of the best feeling shooters of all time and without hyperbole no game on this blog so far can begin to compare. Romero and company return with genre leading level design. Allowing plenty of ways to bounced around in horizontal and vertical space, make and gain ground with interwoven platform and hallways along the outside of arenas.
Because of Quake's incredible speed its not uncommon for the game to vertically stack and cross long hallways to blow through and move vertically throughout. I mentioned with DOOM II how the movement system only worked cause of fantastic level design accommodating it. Quake does this along with the gunplay in a way that only could be done from a talented and now veteran studio like id Software. It all comes together and stuns me even today. In the context of 1996 and this blog Quake would redefine my expectations and believed limitations of not just first person shooters but games. Where even Duke Nukem 3D struggles from uneven parts at times Quake feels like a skilled blacksmith made it. Quake is shocking in terms of how special and unique the atmosphere is. Its hard to describe the shift from all the games on this blog and then Quake. I don't think we see anything like that in modern games or have in maybe over a decade if not longer.
The weapons in Quake follow what at this point isn't DOOM as much as it
is id's DNA. Almost all FPS games I've played in this blog, bar 3D Realms and Star wars, try to steal this so it certainly was an
industry staple by 1996. Like Duke Nukem 3D though Quake really changes
it up. The movement system in Quake , along with its level design,
makes it incredibly fluid to play even today. The weapons play just as
much a part of this and add to the games most important character,
violence. Instead of DOOM Guy's fist you get an axe to chop enemies up with, after enough hits they will explode into meat chunks flying around the room. The nail gun or as it should be called NIN gun. Uses Nine Inch Nails ammo and looks the part. Dual barrels firing on even and odd turns held together with a metal plate. The nails fly through the air in three dimensions as well. This gun is probably my favorite. Another gun to use the NIN ammo is a rotating three barrel nail gun that fires slower but does more damage. The game loves to let you play with explosives. Its a trend I saw in Duke Nukem 3D and love seeing id's take on it. Rockets are plenty and essential to making the game so brutal. Also rocket jumping becomes a thing and getting thrown around the level because of shock force and doing the same to an enemy is just too much fun. The grande launcher is a blast allowing you to kill enemies around corners or arch and pop them with a direct blow. Quake's arsenal is timeless fun and I think in 1996 it would have thrilled me. The enemies in Quake would drastically change from DOOM II and use the id Tech 2 engine to make combatants not possible before. The grunt doesn't try to hide his function at all and functions very similar to Pig Cops in Duke his sci-fi borg like look could be something out of DOOM. The Death Knight however delivers a very new enemy type to the FPS genre. Fast, hulking, and badass he will either slay you with a powerful melee attack or send out a spread of fire balls. He's my third favorite enemy in the game. Scrags fly and float but are much more nimble than say the Octobrain or Caco Demon, they also shoot poison darts that are very fast requiring lots of strafing. Enforcers again are just beefed up grunts but layering them in with multiple other hostile characters create for a good flow and they are important to the game. The Orge is my second favorite character dragging a chainsaw arm and grenade launcher around. The grenades physically bounce around the world and its pretty incredible to see after playing the other games on this blog. Shambler makes it to my favorite as a Lovecraftian nightmare that strikes you with lightning and is much faster than your comfortable with. Fantastic and very much sums up the vibe of Quake. Vore serves similar to the baron of hell from DOOM II but in true Quake fashion is a spider monster with horrible bloody teeth and smile. Quake like Duke Nukem has the most unique enemies from this blog so far and its real nice to see by 1996 the creative design of enemy encounters was branching out as well as becoming more contextually aware.
All these design choices I talk about aren't without fault. I bring up Duke a lot because I think 3D Realms made many of the right choices when it came to interactivity and grounding the player in a reactive environment. Being able to push those pool balls or blow apart environments must have been pretty incredible in 1996. It also made the game feel like it respected the players interactive intentions and presence by reacting to it in so many ways. Make no mistake. I love that part of Quake's atmosphere are these dead, foreboding, filled with ambient places. But they feel lifeless in an artificial way compared to Duke Nukem 3D. It feels like a step backward after 6 months and the otherwise massive leap elsewhere. Also Quake feels very disjointed. I love the variation in the environments and being able to select difficulty and levels through 3D space was novel at the time I'm sure. However none of it fits what so ever together or seems barely intentionally together. After having such consistency in games like Heretic, Dark Forces, or Duke not having that makes it feel rather off the entire time even if the atmosphere is great.
All this is only possible because of idTech 2. A game engine is the essential canvas for a game. As with DOOM II in order to exist in the form it does new tech had to be made. Quake was one of the first true 3D video games. It was the first true 3D shooter. Using polygons and mapping textures to them idTech 2 was the forefront of real time rendering and would lay the fundamental foundations of what we largely still use today. It makes me wonder if any piece of video game software has ever been as important. All this ambiance and terrible blood lust is only possible because idTech 2 took FPS rendering not just to the next level but several orders of magnitude above anything on this blog before it. The jump here is astronomical and hard to describe. In 1996 this would change everyone's perception about what was possible. The gore, the weapons, the physics, the incredibly immersive visuals. Whatever Quake lacked in interactivity it made up for with that. Jon Carmack is genius of our time with idTech 2 certainly being one of his hallmark achievements. This blog continues to get more and more enjoyable. I've played Quake 1 plenty before it came time to replay it with conextual lenses for this blog. Its great to be able to look back at industry moments or years and playing games leading up them really just gives you an appreciation for it in a way reading never will. I played Duke Nukem 3D and wrote on and on about how great and innovative it was. Duke did in fact blow me away in the context of this blog. I meant what I said about it by far being the impressive thing since DOOM II. However Quake is light years beyond even that. Its by far the best and most impressive thing I've played for this blog. The entire genre owes its modern life blood to Quake. We see its influence in everything from modern rendering to design. id innovated and problem solved where no one had even had to approach the same problems before. Quake may be a bit off and disjointed but the rest of it is a perfect symphony of its parts backed by what was tech from the future. It was a very real phenomenon in 1996. A summary of that year in technology and innovation distilled into the worlds new medium video games. Quake is the best game on this list by a landslide as of writing. Forever one of my favorite games.
