5/5 ★ – Rig2Big's review of Quake.

The first person shooter refined to such aesthetic potency, that perhaps has never been quite matched. Lovecraftian cosmic horror, really something summoned by the occult, upon a gothic, almost brutalist fantasy world. Among the most compelling settings within video game entertainment, period. id Software seemlessly leaped from the 2.5D medium, bringing forth a true to form 3D experience, with a gameplay consistency even greater than that of classic Doom. The level-design is less sprawling, despite there being multiple floors, and the enemies have a much more extensive variety of abilities. Rarely did I ever feel lost, and not once did I have to look up a map to complete a level. However, “Shub-Niggurath” is easily one of the most anti-climactic final bosses in the history of video games. Even if you compare it to the Borderlands Lovecraft-esque final boss (which I LIKED, but everyone else seemed to universally hate), it at least had the courtesy of actually putting up a FIGHT at the end of however many waves of enemies. Quake just throws a few Shamblers and Vores at you (which are the only two monsters in the game that you must camp in order to not get your shit destroyed), and then calls it a day. Concluding what is otherwise a genuine masterpiece of the 90s FPS with a gameplay mechanic that is entirely gimmicky, so much so that it wasn’t even used a single time in any of the preceding levels. I didn’t play “Dimension of the Past” nor “Dimension of the Machine,” but I DID play “Scourge of Armagon” and “Dissolution of Eternity,” and even the final bosses in those expansions were underwhelming at best. But the most amazing part… is that I don’t really care. As much as a game like Quake should’ve benefited from a final boss that’s as mechanically complex as it is conceptually inspired, it’s just so ahead of the curve in terms of everything else, I seriously can’t even make myself give a shit.