Quake

(ID, 1996)

This was the most hyped, ballyhooed "upgrade" to a game engine in, perhaps, the complete current history of games. John Carmack promised an upgrade to Doom's classic 3D game engine, which would surpass anything ever seen before. Much like Trip Hawkin's 3DO hardware fiasco in earlier years, fanboys fanned the flames, until rumors went sky high...as did expectations. Depending on how many of these rumors you believed, you were either thrilled or disappointed at the result of all the whoopla, Quake. On the one hand, sound effects were excellent; the best heard at the time. This was also one of the first games made compatible with 3D accelerator cards; you can imagine how popular it was to see smooth, non-blocky graphics for the first time! On the other hand, the SP "story" was ridiculous, as was the final enemy, which resembled an upside-down squid! A similar enemy (in other levels) resembled a flying, glow in the dark snail. Compared to the arachnotrons of Doom, these were pretty silly. For that matter, who could ever forget the dreaded "first weapon" in the game; so weak, it was often cynically nicknamed "The Nerf Axe!" Regardless, the game's inspired many top-notch action games in later years, some of which used the exact same game engine. Therefore, for the game engine, and the genre it inspired, I'd rate it a Deep Impact...obviously. However, for the game itself, I can only give a Large Crater rating; flying glowing snails...?

Game Engine: Deep Impact.

Game Itself : Large Crater.

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