To be honest, I mostly enjoy this using codes but I did try playing as far as I could without them. I didn't get very far, I could've said Quake II was much more my thing in comparison. I still do respect this game since it helped getting the genre more notice by people. Sadly it was leading during a period I personally was losing interest in them until more recently.
1. Quake (1996)
Quake has a few things in common with classic Shadow Warrior. Both of them are repetitive FPS games that does uses traps. You have to adapt fast to solutions or you'll die. Quake not might look that great but it did inspired an convention that's still going today. In fact, Team Fortress originated as a Quake mod that was recreating it on Half-Life 1.
Which led to Team Fortress becoming one of the first Valve franchises. Quake also has songs from Nine Inch Nails that works very well. Sometimes, it is more easy to die then getting loss in this game. Some enemies are surprisingly tough that can easily limit your options fast if you aren't careful. There's a few episodes you must play through.
Thankfully you can do them most of them in any order. It is kinda interesting how you activate Nightmare difficulty. Yes there's a couple boss fights as it goes on. The final boss is a rather strange one. You need to teleport as soon as this orb goes inside the final boss to kill him. In other words, there isn't another way of killing him.
But how the hell are you suppose to figure something like this out on your own? There is a good variety of enemies. Clearly this game took some inspiration from H. P. Lovecraft stories. I do love the overall locations in this game. It sorta comes off like Medieval more like during the dark ages period. You can clearly fill Doom & classic Wolfenstein at it's core.
The maps themselves aren't as big as you would think. But there's a lot of complexity within them. Quake does have a great selection of weapons. I am not going to lie, Quake can be difficult to see at times due to how dark in some areas can be. You have to pay close attention to everything within the levels.
For me personally, I do prefer many shooters over this one. I'm not saying I don't like it because I do. It simply isn't Quake II or to some degree Quake III to me. I should mention, Quake only got it's story continued in expansions since Quake II & Quake 3 made it clear that they were their own franchises. Also id Software personally didn't want to continue Quake 1's story.
2. Quake Mission Pack No. 1: Scrouge of Armagon (1997)
Like many expansion packs around this time, a different team made this expansion. Ritual Entertainment who went on to making SiN. This adds three more episodes to play. A new multiplayer as well as a new soundtrack. This also had some features not present in the original game. Unlike the original game, you have to play these episodes in order.
There is three new enemies you will encounter during this. There also three new weapons you get to kill things with. They also introduced three new power ups, now I'm starting to see a pattern. Everything comes in threes lol. There is a slight chance this could've led to Quake II in some way. Yes Quake 1 codes do work in this as well.
This directly follows the conclusion of Quake. It comes off like a sequel like most expansion packs at the time does. Keep in mind, this was nearly the end of so many unofficial expansion packs. You would be surprised how many some of your favorite shooters actually had. This is a great expansion in every sense of the word.
3. Quake Mission Pack No. 2: Dissolution of Eternity (1997)
This expansion pack was made by Rogue Entertainment. For those who doesn't know their work oh man. They later made Quake II Mission Pack: Ground Zero & the N64 port of Quake II. For them, this was the beginning of their involvement in Quake series. This adds two new episodes with a new multiplayer level as well as a new soundtrack.
Obviously this also adds new enemies including bosses. Around eight of them in fact which isn't common among many expansion packs. Either it doesn't add new enemies or variations or it does in place of something else. There is two new power ups you can use during this. Instead of adding new weapons, it adds an alternative functions to several weapons.
I don't know where the fan base stands on the expansions other than the free one. I do know Dissolution of Eternity is very difficult to beat. Yet I felt it was more worth my time than the previous mission pack. Honestly, I do like an challenge. I felt this is one of the better expansion packs I played. Truthfully, the cover art alone is odd enough to get me wanting to try this.
4. Quake: Dimension of the Past (2016)
This short free expansion episode was created by MachineGames. Yes the team that's currently making Doom & Wolfenstein games. This is a very short line up of levels that doesn't add much to the experience. There is no question, this is the weakest among the expansions. Yes I know, they made it for Quake's anniversary that year.
But considering what both mission packs brought to the table. This is absolutely no way in hell I could view this being better than both of them sorry. The levels themselves are alright at best. There isn't a home run here. Honestly, this is simply giving you an excuse to play more Quake 1. I rather have a different enough experience from an expansion pack than something like this.
This isn't just disappointing but at least it isn't as nearly terrible as a select few expansion packs that are garbage. This is essentially the end of Quake 1 time line. I thought for a game that's still inspiring people that it should've gotten something way better than this. Quake 1's worst episode is way better than this too.
Honestly, I do feel bad I simply didn't have the skills or the correct instincts to properly play these. I know this may upset true Quake 1 fans. I will say this, at least I had the balls to come out with this review saying it right in your faces. I am done hiding when I can't exactly play a game I want to review.
To clarify, it isn't about me having trouble getting them to run or hacking which I have no said skill set. Some games are done in ways that I simply can't understand correctly enough to get the job down. Let's put it in another way this isn't Doom at all. In Doom, you will be running around killing anything that moves while you have to slow down often to prevent ambushes or getting trapped.
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