You'll realize how far the Online FPS genre has fallen in its pursuit of the lowest common denominator when you play this 20 year old game and it shows you things you've never seen before, game types you've never heard of, and speed that will humble you.

Playing Quake, you begin to see that modern online shooters have leveling systems and gear grinds because most players are already experts when they play their first game. The grind is a way to keep people playing when they have no other reason to play. Quake doesn't need the grind because the progression happens with you instead of your gear: You need to actually practice to get better at this game. And that is a lot more fun than grinding to unlock the next gun in some gear tree.

The only online shooter that doesn't let you make excuses. If you die, it's because the other guy was better. He wasn't using OP weapons or perks, he wasn't camping the same cheesy spot half the game, he wasn't 20 levels higher than you. He controlled the map better, watched the timer for important pickups more closely, strafed better, or aimed better. He was just ♥♥♥♥ing better, and Quake gives you no choice but to suck it up and learn what not to do.

Recommended.

Older gamers that didn't know Quake was still played today, rejoice.
Younger gamers that may want to try their hands at something difficult yet fun, welcome. We need you blood; come and quench our thirst. Well, actually, the way Quake Live is made, chances are new players will get to play between themselves and mid-skilled players mostly so I guess I'll have to wait for you to escalate the skill cliff. But please do so!

So what is Quake Live? Some might say this is a Free To Play version of Quake 3 Arena. There is some truth to that and this is how QL was identified since its inception yet there is more to it. Q3A had mods, QL tries to incorporate them into the main game instead. Q3A had a large community running plenty of servers, QL has servers ran exclusively by id software with the option for subscribers to spawn their own customized using this infrastructure. Q3A had a one time payment, QL generates its revenues through a subscription system. It's worth noting that despite being Free To Play, QL is not Pay To Win (and it's a shame that both expressions have almost become synonymous today).

You might still wonder why you should play QL if you have Q3A. Well the main argument is kinda lame but I'm afraid it is true nonetheless : QL is overwhelmingly more populated than any other Quake at the moment. But there are reasons for that! For starters, it's easy to get into. You press the "install" button, you start the game, you create your account then you click on "Play Now" and you're set. You won't be told you don't have the right mod installed or you lack a specific version of a map. It's easy (but you can still spend some time tweaking your config if you want to). The same argument can be made about the default gameplay itself and this is where things get somewhat controversial. Purists say the recent changes made to make the game more welcoming to newcomers are a travesty. While I agree that the new default settings are inferior for us experienced players, I'm still open to the idea that new players will have it easier and have more fun that way. You can be sure I will still be there in the servers running the classic settings, waiting for the courageous survivors who defied the default ruleset and want some more. In any case, QL is still very unforgiving, given your opponents catch on your mistakes. The best thing we can hope for is a larger playerbase which will allow tighter skillmatching and a better experience overall for everyone.

For those who don't know Quake 3 Arena or Quake in general, the above paragraph is probably kinda meaningless. Let me list some important aspects of Q3A/QL which make it a good game :
- Fast paced. Well, I guess if you like taking it slow and camping in bushes with your sniper riffle in other games it's cool for you, but you're missing out on something!
- Simple rules. Anybody can understand the objectives very fast. You know you have to kill more than you die in a duel. It's nothing hard to conceptualize.
- Diversity in the weapons. Yep. It's not all a thousand variations of machine-guns, handguns and rifles. Unreal Tournament is arguably superior to Quake in this field but it's still worth noting.
- Vertical gameplay. It may sound kinda stupid but this axis is a lot more in the typical map design of an Arena Shooter like Quake and it's a lot more fun this way.
- Great movement system. Easy to use (WASD), hard to master (and it's so satisfying to fly around the map at high speed).
- Gameplay depth. This one doesn't necessarily apply to every gametype but it is the most important point in my opinion. The game is old yet there's still room to improve for EVERY player. If you think Quake is all about shooting down enemies without thinking, you couldn't be more wrong. Sure, aim is part of the game, but you need to deal twice as much damage as your enemy if he has twice your health/armor because he controls the map better...

tl;dr It's a good game and with the recent changes everybody should be able to get some kills and fun. Let's just hope you can have fun without winning every match, because we can't all be winners and chances are against newbies in that field.

it's Quake! The king of arena FPS!

Truly free to play, no pay2win, a lot of maps and modes.
And a friendly community.

What more you could ask for?

Stop reading and start playing!

At least it won't steal all your money with virtual hats.

Over the past 6 years I've spent more time playing QL than any other game which comes out to an absurd amount of hours in-game. I'll do my best to summarize the experience and why you should definitely consider getting into it.

A few things you should know before you get into Quake:

1) This game is the most difficult FPS you will ever play. The core mechanics are easy to understand and it's simple enough to grab a weapon and start shooting so the mantra "easy to learn, hard to master" applies, however, The skill ceiling is so high that no matter how many years you pour into it, you'll never hit it. This quality makes Quake very daunting for core FPS audiences. Many of the pro tricks take months of practice in order to pull off at just an elementary level.

2) Even if you're really good, You're going to lose. A lot. Quake doesn't have an artificially level playing field like most modern games. Quick deaths and large spread fire hitscan weapons do not exist in the same fashion as Battlefield, COD, or just about any modern FPS series. If you are worse than the player you're up against you are going to lose. People who want undeserved wins or prefer the casual experience aren't going to feel comfortable in Quake Live. The people that play have stuck with it with aggressive loyalty because they have the mind-set of someone who enjoys learning something no matter how hard it is. You play because you can appreciate the skill that it takes to be good. In this way, losing in Quake is actually fun, in so far that you can appreciate the player's skill that you lost to.

3) Even with the recent modernization update, the game lacks certain casual nicities that gamers have become accustomed to. A list of some mechanics QL is missing: Regenerating Health, Headshots, Ridiculous amounts of Ammo, Instant kills, Standing still to limit weapon spread, Low speed cap on player movement, Stamina, Loss of velocity while jumping. These mechanics have become coliquially synonymous with the "tactical" FPS. You'll find that the removal of these features actually promotes tactics a lot more than what you get from the Counter Strike or COD formula.

What is Quake about?

Item timing, Physics exploitation, Map control, Accuracy, Situational awareness, Reading your opponents, Setting traps, and Rockets everywhere.

Who will enjoy Quake Live?

Gamers that are okay with losing and can respect the reasons that they lost. Gamers that find it enjoyable to learn how the physics engine in their game works and how to take advantage of it. Gamers that don't like frags being handed to them because of a lucky shot.

If you spend the time to get familiar with Quake you'll find that it's the most rewarding experience there is in the FPS genre. When you first pull off the Bridge to Rail jump in Campgrounds you'll shriek with delight. When you win your first duel you'll giddily tell people who could care less about games about it. The better you get the more accomplished you feel and there is no end to how good of a player you can be. The pros are bested all the time by some new blood with ungodly talent and dedication.

If you put in the hours you'll also find one of the most loyal and dedicated communities that there are in gaming. There's sure to be an influx of typical gamer culture trolls in the first few weeks but the people that have stuck it out with Quake, I'm sure you'll find, are some of the most level-headed and respectful people out there.

GLHF.

An excellent game. I played it when i was young and now it's got even better with the Steam release. Quake is the pure example of how a real FPS should be. Simple without all the **** like skins, OP weapons regenerating health.. but this makes the game so good and addictive.

Time passes, but Quake is forever

Quake Live is the most balanced iteration of what everybody refers too as "Quake 3 Arena". It's worth playing for free and if you like it, you can Subscribe to gain access to launch your own server in a specific location. These servers allow you to choose the gametype, maps and other misc settings such as timelimit, fraglimit, movement options and join password. Subscribers also receive extended stats, additional spectator features and the ability to create and join clans.

Alongside the Steam release, loadouts were introduced into certain public gametypes to help cosey in new players. Quite simply, you can choose a primary and secondary weapon that you spawn with (rather than just the machine gun) and continue to play as you would before... picking up every other weapon, health and armor on the map whilst killing your opponent. Loadouts are fine to an extent, however the problem currently is that there's no easy transition for the new player into the Quake Live many competitive players want you to learn (there are some other differences such as weapon respawn times too). This is a non issue for Duel as the public gametype is the competitive gametype, it has remained unchanged. However for TDM or CTF you must have one player launch a gameserver via Subscription and enable the "Legacy Settings". This is a potential barrier as it requires free-to-play players be invited to such servers if they haven't yet subscribed. But please don't let this deter you as it's not a brick wall, easily overcome given the low cost per year if addicted. For new players to the franchise it should not matter, you'll find the grass can be greener and find your way into the competitive community and such servers in due time anyway.

I played QL competitively under the TDM and CTF gametypes from 2009 to late 2011. I also competed for Team UK in numerous Nations Cups during this time. I may not play as much as i used too now but it's definitely worth picking up if you're new or returning to the franchise. It may miss some features present in the Quake III Arena modification CPMA (such as Clientside LAN Support and Multi POV Spectator), but it comes with ease of access and everything mentioned above. Tournament organisations can also contact the development team to obtain dedicated LAN servers for their offline events, this hasn't been an issue for ESL, DreamHack and others in the past.

Quake Live is an extremely rewarding game on any skill level and is by far the best Arena Shooter on the market as of 2014. It's not perfect, but it does exactly what it says on the tin. With how easy it is to jump in and out of game you'll always find yourself going back. I could not recommend this game enough!

Welcome to hell, kids.

No aim down sight, no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ "+50 enemy killed", no weapon camo, no slow moving, no weapon attachments, no camping, no YOLOSWAG420 quickscope, no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ health regeneration, no killstreaks, no noob friendly ♥♥♥♥, no hitscan weapons (except machinegun and shotgun, but those are ♥♥♥♥ anyway), no perks, no wallrun, no OP ♥♥♥♥, no titans, no vehicles, basically nothing in modern millitary shooter. If you're expecting a CoD or BF or Titanfall or any other ♥♥♥♥ like that, don't waste your time on this masterpiece.

So what is Quake all about ? Fast moving, strafe jumping, run-n-jump-n-gun, frag as much as possible, collect weapons and use them wisely, progression (no, not ♥♥♥♥♥♥ level mechanic, you progress from a noob to a pro) and proving your skill.

As a fan of Unreal Tournament 2004, I had a hard time getting into Quake Live, because obviously this game is not for noobs. I got fragged a lot, but that's okay, because at least I wasn't killed by a mother♥♥♥♥ing AC130 or a stupid chopper.

Although loadout and "hold space to keep jumping" made me roll my eyes (because only noobs can't press space repeatedly to jump), Quake Live is still ton of fun and enjoyable. If you're confident about your FPS skill, give Quake Live a try. It's fast, it feels satisfied, it runs great, it aged well and it's Quake-tastic.

Run for your life, kill for your pride. Your choice.

GAME OF THE YEAR 1999
GAME OF THE YEAR 2000
GAME OF THE YEAR 2001
GAME OF THE YEAR 2002
GAME OF THE YEAR 2003
GAME OF THE YEAR 2004
GAME OF THE YEAR 2005
GAME OF THE YEAR 2006
GAME OF THE YEAR 2007
GAME OF THE YEAR 2008
GAME OF THE YEAR 2009
GAME OF THE YEAR 2010
GAME OF THE YEAR 2011
GAME OF THE YEAR 2012
GAME OF THE YEAR 2013
GAME OF THE YEAR 2014
GAME OF THE YEAR ∞

Bethesda saved a company that practically invented proper game, developed the best free to play model ever seen, took the best game of affermentioned company and created heaven. Thank you Bethesda.

Proper FPS gaming has returned.

The new casual mode (timers, loadouts) is optional.
If you don't like it you can join a classic server.
No, you don't need to pay to use a classic server.

Everything that you read stating so is simply bull and QQ.

Carry on, it's still Quake.

This is what fps games try to be.

Because this is one of my favorite games of all time and this has single handedly started my childhood gaming, it's hard to say this game is entirely bad. I have grown up on games like Doom, Duke Nukem, Blood, and Quake and Quake Live is the definition of "Blast from the past." Online First Person Shooters will NEVER reach this level of originality and awesomeness. Quake has really set the bar high when it comes to online FPS games, and even to this day I feel that Quake can NOT be matched by any other online shooter. It's fast paced, skill based, heart raced, and nothing beats the haste! (I will never rhyme that bad in my life again.) But, I digress. Quake is a game that actually takes your brain to play. Not like Call of Duty where there is a marker on your screen telling you "Bad guy here, shoot him in the face... You got him! Way to go, here is a rank, a badge, a gun, an upgrade, and for $14.99, you can make your gun look like a snow-dog! That's a cocaine covered turd! And also, I forgot to mention, since you love this game, I bet you can't wait for next year to play the same ♥♥♥♥ing game again with a different title! We're just as excited! By the way, nice job on killing that bad guy rookie... ENEMY UAV IN MY COCKHOLE!!" No... That's the stuff in modern FPS that is redundent and is considered a desperate call for money. Quake, gives you the option of being a pro member. Pro members get certain perks in-game and are allowed to create matches and what not, but if you don't buy pro membership, you can still play most of the fun and exciting things that made Quake the game it is today! (Which honestly I must say Quake has made a turn for the worse and I will explain why right here.) Although not all gamemodes are affected by this change, Quake as implemented a Load out system for a few of it's game types. This is a MAJOR WTF moment... How could they do something this ridiculous? They made it Call of Quake! I know, I know... It's not EVERY gamemode and I should keep it cool, but seriously, the fact that they even decided to do something like that is beyond me. It's like a serial killer saying that he will kill his wife, son, daughter, and dog, but only kills the wife. He didn't kill everyone else, but the fact that he did that ♥♥♥♥ and even thought of doing it more was what landed him in jail and turned him into a major ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥! Again, I digress. The update was added to make noobs feel better and give them more of a fighting chance. To me, that's BS! The pros who are already good are now going to be able to slaughter the noobs from spawn to time limit even easier! It's not helping the noobs, it's catering to the CoD ♥♥♥♥♥s. Let the CoD kids, be CoD kids. I don't want an 8 year old kid coming into the game and writing #noscope for everytime he gets a rail kill... Or complain about how I'm lag switching and that my mom is tossed around like a joint at a Cheech and Chong concert, that ♥♥♥♥ needs to remain on CoD.

Now, as for a final verdict: As I have said before, Quake is one of my all-time favorite games, so it's hard to say that it's bad to the point of no return, which it really isn't! It's just some little things that made the game "eww." OH and another thing, I liked the old announcer better. This new fruit cake isn't scary and threatening like the old one. This new guy sounds like he has something stuck in his butt hole and he's trying to remove it by squeezing his ♥♥♥ cheeks. I don't feel like a bad ♥♥♥ when I win anymore, because I have Richard Simmons telling me "Blue Team Wins..." Instead of Liam Neeson with a bad cold telling me "You Lose..." So I'm not motivated as much anymore. So, the rating I give to Quake Live is a 8/10. The microtransactions are minimum compared to modern FPS, and some things like the announcer and Loadout stuff needs to go. Other than that, the game is solid, fun, heart racing, fast-pased and enjoyable for noobs and pros alike. (Not if they are in the same game of course.)

one of the best f2p titles on the steam platform that wasnt previously (isnt p2w in the slightest); and one of ID's best releases

The king of FPS

this game is better than you

Quake is not just a fun game, or an addiction.. its religion!


- Best F2P-Model ever, no pay-to-win, just every month a changing selection of free maps.
- Recent changes made it alot easier for beginners.

10/10 best Arena-FPS ever!

This game used to be great. I played Quake 3 competitively for many years and I considered it the greatest of all time multiplayer FPS. Quake Live kept the same formula and even made it even better in some ways. That is until recently. Just before launching on Steam, QL did a "major gameplay update", in which the game now has loadouts for all of its modes except for Duel. For some game modes it works, for others not so much. Let's take Free For All for example.

You used to start with just machinegun, which is a weak weapon that requires precision aiming to be effective. Most of the time it is going to be totally inferior to any other weapon depending on distance. This means you have to run away from enemies and find more powerful weapons on the map, and learn to use whichever weapons you do have to your advantage. So if you run into a weapon that isn't so easy to use, say Plasma Gun, you're forced to learn how to use it more effectively because there isn't another weapon around for you to fight with. This teaches players to be better overall and makes the game a lot more fun and more dynamic. On occasions where you can't run away and you need to use MG, your only hope is to have some damn good aim and good dodging skills. Once you've gotten yourself geared up, armored up, and powered up, you gotta keep what is known as map control, by timing items and preventing others from getting them.

Now that you can just spawn with Rocket Launcher, Lightning Gun, Railgun, or Heavy Machinegun (which imo is overpowered as it does about as much dmg as LG but has unlimited range), you basically have newbies running around spamming powerful weapons without a care in the world. It gets boring REALLY fast, and I can only stand to play one game of this anymore before I have to quit for months at a time. The skill factor is gone, and thus the fun factor is gone.

The game has lost its competitive edge over other FPS games. I'd almost rather play CoD, but I don't fancy a game where you can kill other players just by looking at them for a split second.

Another thing, QL wasn't at this years DreamHack, I wonder why. All I have to say is it's a shame they've decided to try to cater to the masses, and in the process lose the one thing that made them special.

Edit: I want to address some comments that say "loadouts are optional". Yes, you can play on classic servers, but there's so few of them depending on the game mode. Whenever I look at FFA, there's usually only public servers. That's where people are playing. So it's more accurate to say classic is optional, and it usually isn't an option.

And to those saying the game isn't pay to win, doesn't have gear grinds, leveling, etc. I agree, it is still Quake in that regard. But loadouts isn't far off. Getting weapons and outmanuevering your opponent with skill is what Quake was all about. Humiliating someone with gauntlet when you ran out of ammo, killing someone with MG when they have RL because you can dodge and aim and they can't. That's Quake. That gave it depth and character. Now it's just a boring spamfest.