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Quake1 is the ultimest best game EVER, despite its old graphics, period!
I keep playing this gem years after years, since what, 20 years!? All the rest sucks in comparison. Quake nowadays is not Quake in 1996. Playing community content is not the same thing as playing what id Software released.
I usually play the first half of episode 1 sometimes, as well as the first map of the other episodes, but I doubt anyone regularly plays the full game anymore. Saying "best game EVER", "all the rest sucks" is easy when comparing community content in Quake against the base content of other old games. Without the community content, there are better games out there. I fully agree. I was implicitely talking about Quake1 as it is today and about all the great maps that were done for it. Quake1 kept evolving, year after year, and this is why no other game can compares.
I actually play the original episodes quite often as a quick stress free romp. Whenever I download a new custom map the perfectionist in me demands me to fully evaluate everything the map has to offer, so I can give it a fair and useful review here and/or Quaddicted.
Sometimes I enjoy the reviewing part but often, when I just want to unwind with some Quake without having to think and contribute, I play an episode or two, sometimes even blitz through the whole game. "WHAT MADE SOME RETRO GAMES GREAT WERE THE POSITIVE QUALITIES OF THOSE GAMES (directness, simplicitiy, player controls, imagination, themes, atmosphere, action, violence, creativity), NOT UNAVOIDABLE TECHNICAL LIMITS THAT GOT IN THE WAY OF THOSE QUALITIES."
The bit after the "NOT" got us more of the bit before the "NOT" You could only go so far with the glowy cumgoggle stuff, which due to limited options limited the manpower worth throwing at it, which left more resources to focus on what would differentiate and sell the game: "gamefeel" And for atmosphere etc the limits are nothing to talented artists, as demonstrated by golden oldies that hold up perfectly well today in that department, even though they lack cumgoggle filters. A retro-styled shooter should, on the basis, have similar design elements from 90's shooters before Half Life, even if the graphics are high-end.
On the topic of low-poly graphics, I agree there's a big misunderstanding amongst the makers of those retro-styled FPSes. While it was indeed at the time because of technical limitations, I believe low-poly graphics can still be used to do pretty things, but not the Dusk kind. What the minimum threshold should be IMO is Quake 2 as far as polycount go. Characters and monsters have curves, and some details (which is then reinforced by texture work). Anything below that looks like papercraft. As for environment? I believe the best custom Quake maps in the past few years has elevated the standart, and is something that should be followed if a retro-FPS is made. Unreal 1 and Tournament should also be a good inspiration for what to achieve in that regard. No particular game deserves to be held up as the aesthetic "template" for retro-shooters. It's more about aesthetic consistency. I think it's just as fine to aim for a Classic Doom look, as it is a Quake 3 look. The number of goons you can rope into helping you make this thing is also going to dictate the level of detail you can afford to make in a realistic time.
It's about making all the elements fit in with each other. Wolf3D environments mixed in with 10,000 polygon character models is, as the kids say, "retarded". I'm a big fan of low poly art, I think its a genuine artistic challenge that often results in a brilliant aesthetic if done well. Polycount's low poly threads were filled with fantastic work (image hosting is shaky and most images are lost now) and you have games like Devil Daggers that pull it off and look fantastic.
However lots of retro throwbacks just don't look good. Part of that is that they don't match any specific era or tech but the biggest problem is that they're just not artistically well done. Prodeus has a strange aesthetic but the models rendered as sprites is pretty cool as far as tech gimmicks go. However the lighting and shading makes everything hard to see, it kind of turns everything into a speckled mess with all of the specular highlights everywhere. The particles are also excessive and obscure so much. It kind of kills the biggest strength of sprites, that is visual clarity Also why on god's earth is it doing the 'bloody screen, so real' garbage? I thought we got over that years ago. "It looks like the work of a single amateur indie developer done in his spare time (of which I would respect a lot more), but instead it is made by a team of paid people working full-time?"
I'm pretty sure that it was only a couple of devs, mostly Dave Oshry, that made the game. "I keep playing this gem years after years, since what, 20 years!? All the rest sucks in comparison."
"Quake1 kept evolving, year after year, and this is why no other game can compares." Well the same can be said for several other older games I could name, Doom and Thief among my favorites right up there with Quake. Honestly this is why old PC games that are relatively easy to modify/make new content for is my favorite type of game. There's just a practically endless stream of new stuff that ends up pushing the game aesthetically and technically beyond what it is out of the box, and you can also get people who deeply understand the game mechanics who will keep pushing the skill ceiling higher and higher, or just people doing their own oddball thing. You can probably see more of the latter two facets in Doom (just because it's a bigger scene), but it's still found in Quake and I love it. Even people doing more "average" maps show their own personality. Honestly at this point I almost feel like any action game that can't be modified in this way (or that can, but happens to be prohibitively time-consuming or difficult to do so) is just wasted potential. Blackroom.
Remember that one? Romero's comeback shooter that failed to meet its kickstarter target but supposedly carried on development. Radio silence now though.... looks great overall. Real nice consistent aesthetic, genuinely feels like a 90s shooter. Some fun environments too, in particular i'm big fan of the trees. Texture work is great. It's like Unreal meets Quake!
If I was going to nitpick, I don't love that zombie enemy, or the box art. I think the latter looks a bit generic and not amazingly executed. Although generic 90s shooter might be the vibe you were going for! I also find the name hard to remember, although i'm aware this is not constructive feedback at this late stage! I have no doubt that the level design in Wrath will be awesome! Congratulations, guys! =D
But i'm also excited about the new enemies and the weapons =D I'm feeling like a teenager again, waiting for a quake missionpack I'm already in love <3 IS THIS THE SAVIOUR OF MODERN RETRO??
Most probably. A) It has actual levels made by actual people who have also made actual levels in the past. For an actual game (quake). B) Visually, it looks aesthetically harmonious, appealing, and actually like a 90s (ish) shooter! Bugger me. Those two points already put it in front of the pack, and although I haven't seen enough of the gameplay to pass judgement on that, I certainly haven't seen anything obviously bad about the gameplay. (PS: weapon sounds are too loud tho) Here is 11 minutes of gameplay:
https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/03/07/11-minutes-of-wrath-aeon-of-ruin-gameplay oh, man... i don't know about the other maps, but this one have that horror/Blood feeling that i love so much <3 And we can dismember zombis (like in Chasm), and kill them with the double-shotgun \o/ Also the weapon's sound design is perfect. I REALLY hyped for this one keep in mind: it's all early stuff and the level is a demo of sorts for journalists and such ;)
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