Quake Arena Arcade Review

By Simon Parkin Published 23 December, 2010

Rocket fool.

Version tested: Xbox 360

Quake III Arena, from which this Xbox Live Arcade port is derived, popularised many of the conventions and much of the terminology of the contemporary first-person shooter: everything from brown corridors to the term 'deathmatch'. And yet, sitting down with id Software's shooter concentrate 11 years after its debut, it's curious just how different a multiplayer experience it offers to its descendants.

That's partly thanks to its sheer speed. Quake Arena Arcade is all about split-second prediction-making. In Black Ops, rounding a corner into the arms of a foe is a game of who can squeeze the trigger first. But here, thanks to the speed at which players move, anticipation is more important than fight-or-flight reaction: firing a rocket ten metres to the left of an opponent who is travelling at breakneck speed in the hope that it will hit the target mid-sprint.

If Modern Warfare and Battlefield are about making opportunities and then taking shots, Quake Arena Arcade is about the science of expectation. It's a machine gun volley of estimation challenges, designed to test your foresight. Here, accuracy is only the second most important skill after twitch prophecy, and as a result, the game offers thrills of a different character to the modern FPS.

The purity of Quake Arena is reflected in its minimalist environments, the designers limiting decorative flourish to steel-riveted door frames and skirting boards imprinted with skulls. There are no props to distract or bespoke animations to interrupt, just a red-cloud sky over a suburb of hell.

1

Launch pads that fire your character into the air play a big role.

These are bare-bones levels designed to churn players around in cyclical fashion, washing machine barrels filled with blood and BFGs. Their geography is drawn in until they are as tight as they can be without becoming cramped.

A mainstay of the professional multiplayer scene, Quake III Arena launched the careers of many of the e-sports thoroughbreds, from Jonathan 'Fatal1ty' Wendel to John 'Zero4' Hill. Again, it's the speed and anticipation the game requires that make it the perfect school for competitive play. Quake Arena Arcade could be seen as a training camp for the blockbuster FPS: spend two days within its confines and you'll emerge a better player, with honed skills that are transferable to other games.

At least, it would be a perfect training camp if anyone were actually playing the game. With leaderboard numbers measured in the low thousands, assembling a full room of 16 players requires not only patience but a sizeable dose of luck. Perhaps it's the dated visuals or the overpopulated genre. Either way, it seems few FPS players are returning to their genre's home for Christmas this year, and the game's community is lacking.

That's a shame, because community is one of the essential ingredients of the Quake Arena experience. While the original PC game did away with the Lovecraftian single-player story of id's first Quake, this XBLA port introduces a fairly sorry campaign for the solitary player. Designed as a series of deathmatch encounters with the various 'personalities' of the Quake world, it's dry and often tiresome.

Quake Arena is at its best in a level stuffed with 16 players, not skulking in the shadows for a one-on-one face-off. So the decision to include so many two-player matches was a poor one, and in the more sizeable levels, inching your way to the requisite 10 kills can be tortuous, even if you are given an hour – yes, an hour – to do so. A score attack layer is added to the single-player campaign, offering points multipliers not only for the number of kills but the manner in which they were achieved, while multiplayer matches are divided into plain and ranked varieties.

2

Halo and Call of Duty players will initially find the lack of grenades (aside from those offered by a grenade launcher) limits tactics.

One area in which Quake Arena Arcade cannot compete with its forebear is servicing the modding community. A great deal of Quake III Arena's ongoing appeal lay in the work of the amateur modders who twisted the game's aesthetic and appeal through their skins and designs. This XBLA release can hardly do the same – a Forge-style map creator is probably to much to hope for in a download game – so the developer seeks to provide value by way of 33 classic maps and a further 12 Xbox 360-exclusive ones.

Despite the number of maps on offer, 1200 Microsoft Points (£10.20 / €14.40) is too high a price for what has become, sadly, a niche title. With the ad-supported Quake Live freely available for people to play in their browsers (and, crucially for many, with mouse control), Quake Arena Arcade needed to bring some hefty extras to the table to justify its price tag. In reality, there are few tangible benefits aside from a weak campaign and Xbox Live's strong online infrastructure.

3

Pad controls are good rather than excellent, aim occasionally jumping when in the air.

The code firing the game is nippy and impressive, with very little lag when you do finally manage to get a 16-player game up and running. But without the support of the community, Quake Arena Arcade is destined to be demoted from a vibrant competitive playpen to something of a museum piece.

These brown corridors, devoid of the kinetic excitement of sprinting avatars, bouncing grenades and shotgun shells, offer little more than an ugly, outdated ghost town. The truth is far more interesting and relevant than that, but unless more people are willing to get involved, those newcomers who do teleport into id's classic will wonder what all the fuss was about.

7 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Simon.

About Simon Parkin

Simon Parkin is an author and journalist on video games. A core contributor to Eurogamer since 2005, he is also a critic and columnist on games for The Guardian.

Read more articles from Simon by visiting the Simon Parkin archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (44) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • super_monty #1 1 year ago

    With everything that's coming out, i will give this a miss.

  • altitude2k #2 1 year ago

    With the right price this could have been huge. Is it too late if they now drop the price? Perhaps.

  • Collymilad #3 1 year ago

    Yeah it's a shame that this has only a few thousand playing it, and it doesn't help that the netcode is completely shagged too.

    If these weren't issues I wouldn't have regretted spending 1200 on it, but as it is I'm fast starting to feel that way.

    Really is unfortunate because this is a brilliant game and as fun as it was when it first came out, but then it's an old school FPS and the 12 year olds won't get into it.

  • SBfistfun #4 1 year ago

    I've only tried the demo, but I think this simply moves to fast to play properly on a pad. I suppose I didnt give it that much time to get used to it, but it was so much better with a mouse.

  • Darren #5 1 year ago

    I'd have preferred a port of the original Quake myself, a game I enjoyed more than Doom.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #6 1 year ago

    Controllers have come a long way and there are quite a lot of FPS games that play very well with a pad as well. Quake is not one of them. The strafe jumping mechanics and the overall speed of the title makes it just impossible to properly play it using a controller.

    This wouldn't be so bad if the playing field was even, ie. everyone was just starting with this, however, this game is old; Probably everyone has already played it and will feel how much worse it is with a pad. It's simply too old and too expensive to be released like this. A shame, because on PC the game is really, really good.

  • CaoSlayer #7 1 year ago

    What the...
    The term Deathmatch was used way before in Doom, a game full of brown corridors by the way... although new games could learn one thing of two from it:

    [link url=http://s-ak.buzzfed.com/static/imagebuzz/terminal01/2010/11/8/14/fps-map-design-then-and-now-10705-1289245688-26.jpg
    ]http://s-ak.buzzfed.com/static/imagebuzz...[/link]
    Edited by CaoSlayer at 23/12/10 @ 19:40

  • tiny_Eggy #8 1 year ago

    Always been more of a UT player.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #9 1 year ago

    I paid a tenner for this in January 2000 (some sort of January sale in Electronics Boutique or something), I don't think I'm going to pay in excess of that for it again today.

  • Demikaze #10 1 year ago

    Also, the original Quake 3 did have a campaign mode...

  • t8yman #11 1 year ago

    I havent played it on xbl, but I have very fond memories of this on the PC - it was my first ever shooter, and the game where I was given my username here. But the price point made me hold off for reviews, and the review seems to confirm my fears. I dont usually join in with the "drop it to £x and I'll buy" brigade, but its exactly the way I feel about this title. 400 points would mean that many would try the game, and possibly fall for it's charms. selling it in the low thousands for this price, or dropping it to pocket money prices (especially considering its free in your browser) and taking a punt on bigger sales seems a no brainer to me. Maybe one for the special offers ms are running over xmas?

  • Roamer #12 1 year ago

    I can't for the life of me understand why there's no split-screen option. Even the Dreamcast version had that. I think developers underestimate the power of couch coop. I seldom play games online, but I play a lot of multiplayer offline - which is, in my opinion, infinitely more fun. And you can smack anyone who tries to trash talk like an american teenager.

  • KDR_11k #13 1 year ago

    I hate how modern FPSes have nothing but hitscan weapons with prediction only coming into play when the netcode sucks and you haveto counter the lag in the game...

  • berelain #14 1 year ago

    The price is just moronic. Why pay for this when you can play Quake Live for free? Or pick up any of the other various iterations of the game for peanuts? Had id put out a lovely HD remake this might have been something really special, but it isn't. By the sounds of it, the campaign doesn't even have the interesting progression mechanics of the PS2 version, which is still (probably) the best console port of the original.

    And no split-screen? What? How on earth can you forget to put that in an FPS these days? Its hardly as if the hardware can't handle it.
    Edited by berelain at 23/12/10 @ 09:29

  • albertofustinoni #15 1 year ago

    Why would anyone in their right mind get this game on a console? Quake3 is old enough that even the crappiest PC should be more than capable to run it at native screen res, max details AND good framerate; also, while playing FPSes on a gamepad is generally a bad idea, doing so with this title in particular is positively heresy.
    It really is sad to play this game now and realize how much worse the genre has gotten over the years, thanks to Halo and its ilk.

  • asphaltcowboy #16 1 year ago

    I love Q3A. For me, it is the very definition of deathmatch. But this is too expensive (no players), badly timed (BFBC2 Vietnam, anyone?) and, despite me being a PC-to-console convert, it's too difficult to play properly on a pad.

    If it had been 800MS, I'd have probably taken a punt if only because I'm a Q3A fanboy...

  • ph101 #17 1 year ago

    Great review, very well written and treating this game with respect it deserves! As others have said, if any game exposes the inherent weakness of playing FPS on pads, this title would.

  • Sharzam #18 1 year ago

    I do have to ask why would anyone buy this on the Xbox when on the PC we have Quake III Live. Which is basicallly the same game but A) mod support (sort of), B) Popular, C) its FREE.

    People cant even use the old excuse of system requirements when live is browser based.

    <a href="http://www.quakelive.com
    ">http://www.quakelive.com
    </a>


    @asphaltcowboy,

    Yes i know technically it doesn't, i meant more along the lines of setups and demands you don't need to go fiddling with txt/ini whatever files for example.
    Edited by Sharzam at 23/12/10 @ 10:32

  • asphaltcowboy #19 1 year ago

    Sharzam, you realise it doesn't actually run in the browser, right?

  • efebayor #20 1 year ago

    Quake 3 is deathmatch par excellence.

    I must admit, when the games are good, I've loved playing this on xbox live.

    It's too steep at 1200 points though and as Sharzam quite rightly pointed out, you can find a superior version to play for free.

  • Windypops #21 1 year ago

    Spot on review.

    I've played it in its original incarnation, and now this version, and it plays excellently on a pad. I've never felt that the pad has hindered me at all. Getting a game online is a MASSIVE BALL-ACHE though.

  • WJF #22 1 year ago

    Aye, I'll add my strangled cries to the chorus bemoaning the price. I almost did a double-take when I saw it - it's just stupid pricing.

    Really wish the publishers would push the average price on live back down to 400-800 again. It's getting ridiculous when you can buy a boxed (new) copy of something from a year or two ago for less than a digital-only version of a 10+ year old game.

  • IronGiant #23 1 year ago

    Will give this a miss, much preferred the original Unreal Tournament.

  • septimus #24 1 year ago

    The price instantly put me off. I have the game on steam and it was about 50p.

  • iago71 #25 1 year ago

    Had 3 on the Dreamcast and also on the PC - Both had the 'campaign' that is mentioned in this review. I played the demo last week and really enjoyed it was quite suprised by the speed of it all. I'd totally forgotten how quick and and barebones it was. Though with BFBC2 + 'Nam upon us I dont think people are really gonna shell out.

  • khaz #26 1 year ago

    I'm aware that the console is the home of the FPS these days but this is one game that really should not be played without a mouse. The first page of the review speaks of twitchathon gaming and frankly a gamepad doesn't do justice to the breakneck gameplay. Even if this version has been tweaked for a console audience.

    There's a reason why FPS games today are a little more tactical and slower. Its because of gamepads.

  • obscured021 #27 1 year ago

    i knew this would not sell well, quake live is free and will run on old hardware so almost every one can play, and the servers are always busy.

  • ZombieJFK #28 1 year ago

    I'm yet to get a game online due to a seemingly unreported problem. 1200 points 7 days ago and I haven't been able to play it properly. No official word from the developers or MS either. Fucking shocking.

  • Windypops #29 1 year ago

    @ZombieJFK Are you getting the "network connection" error? I was getting that too, and found that pressing 'A' frantically every time it happened eventually got me a game. You're right though, it's a piss-poor state of affairs.

  • banjo21 #30 1 year ago

    Very poorly marketed. The master of all fps games out for a week before eg even notice. Great game, should be 400 points. It's all profit. The game broke even 10 years ago so why fek us all over And spoil the game as no one playing at that price.

  • Bartacus #31 1 year ago

    200 points I would buy it, I think better to sell cheaply to everyone rather than expensive to a few.

  • AdamAsunder #32 1 year ago

    The review says it was lagfree? What the hell was I playing then?

  • smelly #33 1 year ago

    Let me get this right... According to the bottom of the review - the game isnt out yet.. and so you're reviewing a game which isnt out yet - and moan that there arent many people playing it online?
    Edited by smelly at 23/12/10 @ 15:37

  • Sunyavadin #34 1 year ago

    UT was always decades ahead of QIII

  • midnight_walker #35 1 year ago

    I remember going to Gamestation first thing in the morning on release day to buy this on PC, and I played the hell out of it. I probably would again, but I'm not a Gold Live member. If it came to PSN I'd pick it up in a heartbeat.

  • ZombieJFK #36 1 year ago

    @Windypops

    That's the one - I can't get it to work with your method though.

  • Zeliard #37 1 year ago

    "Perhaps it's the dated visuals or the overpopulated genre."

    Perhaps it's the attempt to pay to play Quake III on a dual analog gamepad over peer-to-peer when there's already Quake Live out on PC, for free.

    This is one of the most misguided releases ever. You want to play Quake, you do it on the PC or you're not playing Quake.

  • metalangel #38 1 year ago

    Talk about a colossal misfire. Doom was fine, but even if Quake Live didn't exist this would fail at this ridiculous price.

  • NkillerROH #39 1 year ago

    Okay...let me get something off everyone's back's. Quake Live may be free to play, but its not the whole package. The free game only comes with a few maps and features. If you want more maps and whatnot (like hosting your own server and additional game types), you have to pay a subscription fee. You want the rest of the story, here's the link.

    [link url=http://bethblog.com/index.php/2010/08/06/id-introduces-two-quake-live-subcription-packages/
    ]http://bethblog.com/index.php/2010/08/06...[/link]

    As for Quake Arcade itself...my only wish was that more people would play online on it. But no. They'll probably be back to playing Black Ops soon enough. I can deal with the lag and the controller restricitions (plus I like the lack of autoaim), but a multiplayer focused game like this is dependent on a community supporting it.
    Edited by NkillerROH at 23/12/10 @ 22:26

  • TheTingler #40 1 year ago

    ... Or you could just get the original on Steam when it inevitably goes down in price for a daily deal.

  • WJF #41 1 year ago

    ' Quake Live may be free to play, but its not the whole package'

    It's not exactly a crippled package though - it has plenty of maps and servers for people to play on.

    In any case, most people nowadays just want to log on, frag, and be on their way - something that Quake Live offers extremely well. Server hosting etc. is very niche in these times of BIOS overclocking, auto-shutdown motherboards etc. etc.

    *strokes beard*

  • TheGuvernor #42 1 year ago


    Very good review, best one from E.G. in a while.
    For a seminal multiplayer player title.
    Q3A is the one that started me on my dark decent into gaming addiction!
    'The Longest Yard' rail guns only - holy crap, that was awesome!

  • IMD1_Pk #43 1 year ago

    A lower price wouldn't necessarily save it. It never works like that even for arcade games. We just force ourselves to believe it, based on the fact that more people will buy it. Perfect Dark HD cost 800 points since launch. It arguably offered a better singleplayer component and a feature rich multiplayer mode yet it died within the first few months of release online. No one plays it online anymore. The reason is bad matchmaking/custom gaming support.

  • guardiant7 #44 1 year ago

    This game and UT3 are both a ghost town. It's sad, because both are a lot of fun and takes away from the Camping/ "take cover here, wait a bit, take cover there" style gameplay.