Game Review: Quake Live

Quake Live is essentially a web browser based version of now ten year old Quake III: Arena by id Software.  The game play consists entirely of first person shooter (FPS) deathmatch, capture the flag, a team deathmatch type games against other players connected to the same game server via an Internet connection.  Matches can be against as little as one other player, to over a dozen other players simultaneously playing. Technically, Quake Live is still in beta but the game as a whole is finished thus in a fair state to review.

There are 4 key differences to Quake Live and Quake III: Arena:

1. id Software hosts all the servers, no player hosted servers or player created mods or maps
   
2. Servers are skill rated, in an attempt to match the opponents of similar skill levels
3. Comprehensive match statistics are recorded for each player and their matches
   
4. Quake Live is entirely free to download and play
   

 The Quake Live game play is very fast paced. The primary task is shooting and killing other players in different environments (aka maps). There are no distinct character classes like in Team Fortress 2.  Only the difference between the players is the weapon(s) they are using and the physical appearance of their 3D player model.  While you can have many collected weapons in your inventory (shotgun, rocket launcher, grenade launcher, lightning gun, plasma gun just to same a few), you can only fire one weapon at a time.  When you are killed, you will respawn with only the least powerful weapon, a machine gun, and will need to pick up other more powerful weapons placed in various locations in a given map.

This relatively simple game play puts a premium on your first person shooter skills, learning the strategy of each of the dozens of maps and your opponents' tendencies.  This is where the Quake Live skill matching system is key.  You earn a skill rating (1 being the worst to 5 being the best) for each game type.  This is in theory will allow for more competitive and balanced matches and thus more fun.  This skill rating is dynamic and will potentially change as you win or loss matches.

All match statistics can be reviewed by the player.  Kills, deaths, weapon accuracy, wins and loss all can be viewed via the Quake Live website via your own profile page.  Here is my profile as an example.  Even global ratings are compiled and can be compared.  This does add a fun way to compare your skills to others beyond in game match results.  You can also watch other matches via a spectator mode that allows you to view the match from the view point of other players or from a flying 3rd person viewpoint.  This is an excellent way to learn new tricks and tactics.

The game isn't without drawbacks however.  Since the game play is so hard core, the learning curve for new players can be quite unforgiving.  You can set up practice matches against AI opponents but that only goes so far in preparing you for games against experienced players, though it will help.  Another problem is that there usually aren't enough new players to play against.  id Software currently isn't doing enough promotion or advertising to draw in new players.  So generally you are up against people of much better skills, mixed with a few newbies that usually end up as cannon fodder for the better players.

The ten year old graphics and sound are dated compared from to modern FPS games like Unreal Tournament 3.  The character models are quite poor. Luckily the game moves at such a fast pace you really don't have time to dwell on it. The environments are again quite sparse and low detail.  Since the game runs in a web browser (you can and will want to play in full screen mode), the performance is surprisingly poor compared to the standalone Quake III.  Though any gaming PC or relatively new laptop should be able to play at reasonable frame rates.  Though you will need a mouse.  Playing with a track pad or game controller is out of the question.

Unofficial Quake Live Trailer

The verdict

Hits:

• Good weapon balance
• Good map design
• Nice web interface with match statistics
  
• PC, Mac and Linux supported
• Entirely free to play
  

Misses:

• Dated graphics
• No player supported servers or mods
• Not enough new players at the current moment
  
• Surprisingly high system requirements to achieve a desired 60+ frames per second
• Cumbersome advanced game client configuration system
  

Nerdphilia rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars