QUAKE

The blueprint for 3D shooters has lots to teach in 2021.

- Wes Fenlon

A wizard lives here, supposedly. Either he’s out to lunch, or someone at id Software in 1996 came up with the name for Quake’s E2M5, ‘The Wizard’s Manse’, and decided it was too cool—sorry, too metal—to change, even when the wizard himself never makes an appearance. Forgivable, considering it’s one of the most tightly crafted levels in a game full of them.

I’ve been on a classic first-person shooter tear recently, playing a mix of old-old and designed-to-feel-old shooters like Amid Evil, Dusk, Duke Nukem 3D and Quake. With so many games today designed to keep you playing for a hundred hours, it’s refreshing to pick up a shooter that lets you ice skate uphill at Olympic speeds and tear through a dozen levels in an hour or two. But with Quake, it wasn’t really the speed that pulled me in. Even closing in on 25 years old, Quake still surprisingly feels like a game with a surprising amount of wisdom (though again, no wizards) to offer.

It’s simple wisdom, really, but few shooters have outdone id’s level design even with two decades to study them. Here’s a basic lesson Quake imparts in The Wizard’s Manse: Climbing up a staircase and realizing that you’re now standing on a platform above the room you fought through a few minutes ago is more empowering than any shotgun. It’s a perfect videogame moment, closing the loop on the thought ‘how do I get up there?’ with the sudden satisfaction of doing it without you even realizing it.