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| | Publisher: Activision  Genre: Action | | | Min OS X: Not Supported CPU: G3 RAM: 64 MB 2x CD-ROM |
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But as mentioned above, the single-player aspect of Quake 3 was not the focal point of the game’s development — much of id’s energies were directed towards creating a fantastic online multiplayer experience. And that experience is where Quake 3 really shines. The network code which underwent so much public scrutiny during Quake 3’s development has turned out to be some of the best in the industry; even players who have only a lowly 28.8 kilobit modem can still have great amounts of fun playing on the Internet. Of course, the better a player’s connection, the better that player will likely do; but for the bandwidth-challenged, Quake 3 should be the online game of choice. As far as game play itself goes, Quake 3 is absolutely phenomenal. Unlike Quakes 1 and 2, which were dominated by whichever player got a hold of the rocket launcher or railgun respectively, Quake 3’s weapons are much more balanced in power. While both the rocket launcher and railgun are powerful, so-called "support" weapons such as the shotgun and plasma gun pack much more "oomph" than their counterparts from the earlier id games where they made their premiere appearances. The BFG (Big… uh… Freaking Gun), of course, dominates any map on which it is placed, but has very limited ammunition supplies to keep those who would abuse its power in check. Player movement is smooth and crisp, and the jumping and acceleration pads featured on many levels provide a level of excitement straight out of jumping between skyscrapers from The Matrix. The sounds from the game are also quite appropriate to the fierceness of game play, especially if the player has a good speaker system with a powerful subwoofer. Perhaps the reason that the multiplayer mode of the game never quite loses its appeal is because of the feeling one gets from playing against real humans. The joy of fragging one’s own boss, roommate, ex-significant other, or even some anonymous person from another country on the Internet keeps the game interesting and fun. The huge range of skills of players on the wide open Internet is quite vast, ensuring that everyone from newbie to professional gamer will be able to find an apt opponent. And by now, most everyone who has heard of Quake 3 has heard of its graphics technologies: curved arch-ways and corridors, reflective surfaces, and fantastic lighting effects. Well, if a player has the computing power to show off those features, then great! However, they all take their own serious tolls on the graphics cards and processors of today’s machines, making Quake 3 a game which can only be fully enjoyed on a high-end G3 or G4 with a powerful graphics card. If a player has such a computer though, the game looks incredible. Id, it appears, have taken a purposefully cartoony approach to Quake 3’s textures, but that may be in response to growing accusations of photorealistic, gory graphics being responsible for school shootings. Nevertheless, the game is quite easy on the eyes. Although many are quick to negatively judge the frequent use of brown and red textures, or the gothic-meets-techno architectural style of id’s map designers, it must be said that even though the themes have been used before, they are what id is truly good at. Id’s artists and level architects know how to properly use restraint in spectacle and color, creating intricate gloomy masterpieces of the arenas. The level of expertise of id’s map designers extends to another area as well: that of playability. While a few of the levels do indeed fall into the "gimmicky" category, most of them are excellent for their intended purpose, be it one-on-one game play, free-for-all, capture-the-flag, or team deathmatch. Item placement and architecture go a long way towards upping the level of strategy needed to win a match between veteran players, and the maps included with Quake 3 are no disappointment. Although just playing through them a few times may give the player little sense of how to "run" a particular level, with time and practice will come the skills and strategy, and the true appreciation of Quake 3’s maps. Support for third-party "mods" has kept the life span of Quakes 1 and 2 very long, and Quake 3 appears to be no exception to this rule. Web sites on the net are constantly popping up, displaying hordes of new levels, player models and game types. Unfortunately, many of the tools that are used to create these mods are not available for Macintoshes. Given time, however, many of them will likely be ported to the platform or have a counterpart program developed by an enterprising coder. Quake 3 is at heart, as many critics are quick to point out, a very simple game, which really brings nothing incredibly new to the action or first-person-shooter genres. However, it is a simple game done very well. Id took a huge gamble trying to accomplish something so pure of essence as Quake 3, and thankfully accomplished their goals. Frag away! Pros • Tons of fun; easy to learn but time-consuming to master.
• Absolutely incredible visuals.
• Network-playable even on a modem.Cons • Single player game rather uninteresting.
• Having a really bad net connection means having to play the single player game.
• Very high system requirements.
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