What Do You Think Of The Arsenal In Quake Games?

[A Nobody]

Do you think of them as awesome? Do you love or dislike them? I love Quake 2's weapons. What's your favorite Quake arsenal?

[seed]

Quake 1 by far.

 

Quake 2's was okay for the most part but I didn't like the recoil of some weapons and it generally didn't feel as badass as the original's. Then again, I find the OG Quake a better game in general, apart from maybe a narrative perspective and progression between levels, but that's it. Better weapons, better enemies, cooler locations, more atmosphere.

[ReaperAA]

Quake 1 had the best rocket launcher and grenade launcher in the history of first person shooters. However, I feel that the other weapons in Quake 1 were not that impressive. The shotguns in particular felt underwhelming due to the lack of reload animation and having faster ROF with less damage instead of lower ROF with higher damage. The regular nailgun becomes obsolete when super nailgun is attained. The thunderbolt is very powerful, but it is not on the level of Doom's plasmagun or BFG. The melee weapon (axe) is also pretty much useless.

 

Quake 2 had the best Railgun in the history of first person shooters. The shotguns felt better than those of Quake 1, but still not quite on the level of Doom/Doom2. However, the rocket launcher and grenade launcher feel underwhelming and much inferior to those of Quake 1. The machinegun and the chaingun also feel clunky. And while Quake 2 does have a plasmagun(hyperblaster) and a BFG, they don't feel as great as Doom's counterparts.

 

Quake 3 I feel is the "jack of all, master of none" when it comes to the arsenal. The rocket launcher/grenade launcher in Quake 3 are not better than that of Quake 1 (but still better than Quake 2). The Railgun is not better than that of Quake 2. However, the weapons are overall well balanced and there isn't any underwhelming weapon.

 

I think Quake 3 wins overall.

[Chow Yun Thin]

I second the shotguns in Quake 1 being weaksauce. The Nailgun was pretty cool with its twin reciprocating barrels. I just wish the smoothed fire animation didn't have the muzzle flash fly back and forth between the two. SNG was alright, just not Chaingun-ish. GL had that distinctive bouncing grenade sound. RL was a sniping weapon with exploding shots. Thunderbolt was a good weapon on its own right, but lacked something to make it a superweapon.

 

Blaster pew-pews. Q2 shotgun was decent. Super Shotgun was awesome, unapologetically brutal. Machinegun was alright, but annoying with its recoil. Chaingun shits completely on the classic Doom one. Hand grenades were like throwing deadly egg timers. GL had a nice firing animation but lacked that bounce sound. RL was a lot slower and had a strange fire sound. Hyperblaster was pewepweppepewp with an annoying wind-down. Railgun was vicious with its corkscrew trail. BFG10K was worthy of its name.

 

Gauntlet was alright and it felt good to get a Humiliation award. Machinegun was a good spawn weapon, but the spinning barrel always made me think of the Chaingun. Shotgun was good, but had a softer sound that belies its heavy punch. Lightning Gun was nasty. GL did its job, but looked so unoriginal. Railgun seemed a bit softer compared to its Q2 version, it really needed that corkscrew trail that was added in later. RL felt a lot better than the Q2 version, but had a softer fire sound. Plasma Gun had a very unappealing fire sound, but its projectile hitbox was larger compared to the Hyperblaster. BFG was a rapidfire RL that may have been more practical, but not deserving of the BFG name.

 

I'm gonna give Q3 a slight lead over Q2. Q3 is more balanced with each weapon (outside the BFG impostor) having its own niche but sounds softer. There are a few sounds from the PS2 port that are more my thing.

 

I was surprised to find out the Railgun in QL and QC did 80 damage. Even though I hate getting one-shot by similar weapons, it feels like sacrilege in Quake. Anyone know what players were feeling when that change hit?

 

Also, is it just me or are the gun sounds in QC and Doom '16 much softer when compared to even the Q3 versions? The Q2 Super Shotgun in QC sounded the same but much lower volume, like its balls were cut off. I saw someone playing Doom '16 MP and I was not blown away with how they sounded.

[qdash]

I hate shotgun in all Quake games, but Rocket Launcher in Quake 1/QW is pure masterpiece!

[printz]

Let's see...

 

Quake 1

1. Axe looks cool and barbaric, but understandably it's not strong enough. Can still kill ogres because of their long pain sequences.
2. Shotgun sounds really unsatisfying to use, but maybe that's deliberate. It just sounds "voomph voomph voomph". It may be accurate, but its total damage is less than half of the DB shotgun
3. Double-barreled shotgun is alright, but suffers from the highly scattered fire of SSGs. Still it's damage-efficient at close-to-melee ranges, but you need skill to successfully kill some of the more vicious Quake monsters.
4. Nailgun looks cool and is better than the DB shotgun against thin light monsters (e.g. Scrags).
5. Perforator makes the nailgun nearly obsolete, unless your trigger finger isn't steady. Understandably, it always comes up much later than the nailgun. Usually when you see it you know that shit gets real.
6. Grenade launcher is pretty much everywhere because Ogres love throwing grenades too. Against fat targets, it does less damage on direct impact than the rocket launcher! This means that often you'll have to kill Ogres in 3 shots (usually gibbing them and losing the ammo backpack). When you get the rocket launcher, the GL only remains useful for hitting monsters over the corners.
7. Rocket launcher in Quake 1 may be overpowered, because the rockets move just as fast as the nails! Also, contrary to their trail animation, they are not subjected to any gravity. Best weapon for most monsters; if Ogres are there, they'll also feed it with ammo. Use the Perforator instead against fast melee monsters such as Fiends.
8. Thunderbolt is a super powered Perforator, dealing 30 damage instead of 18. Unfortunately ammo is rare. Best to use against heavy dangerous monsters. Contrary to graphics and some wrong hints, it does NOT pierce through multiple monsters in a line. Only the first one is hit.
9. Scourge of Armagon: proximity grenade launcher: useful as a land mine and to solve some timed shootable switch puzzles. Not as easy to use as the regular GL.
10. Scourge of Armagon: Mjolnir: very satisfying to use but very ammo heavy.
11. Dissolution of Eternity: lava nailgun and perforator: super-powered and noisy variants of the nailguns. Cool.
12. Dissolution of Eternity: cluster grenades and multirockets: again, see the same.
13. Dissolution of Eternity: plasma gun. This reminds me of the BFG from some non-classic DOOMs! Very powerful.

Quake 1, unlike 2, has more focus on heavy deadly monsters who need heavy slow weapons on them.

 

Quake 2

1. Blaster: nice that it's of unlimited ammo -- you'll always have a chance of survival, but may take unpleasantly long.
2. Shotgun: better than the Quake 1 gun, but even less useful once you get the SSG
3. Super Shotgun: pretty similar to the DOOM 2 SSG, maybe a bit faster firing.
4. Machinegun: like the DOOM 2 CG but without the sniping capability and too light for its own good. Still, very useful against distant targets.
5. Chaingun: extremely useful to get rid of imminent threats, but very ammo consuming. Also, a chaingun worthy of its name. DOOM's CG is a mockery (except for its sniping capability).
6. Grenade launcher: I find it nicer to use than the Quake 1 version actually, and love the 3D explosion graphics.
7. Rocket launcher: less overpowered than the Quake 1 RL, makes better sounds.
8. Hyperblaster: pretty much the same as the classic DOOM plasma rifle.
9. Railgun: ultra-powerful uranium bullet sniper rifle.
10. BFG 10k: an upgrade over the DOOM version! But more costly on ammo.
11. Hand grenades: nice to have these when you need them. Probably superseded by the launcher.

Due to a few of the guns and the way the monsters are defined, Quake 2 feels too unoriginal, looking too much like a heavier, slower DOOM 2 to me.

 

Quake 3 Arena

1. Gauntlet: finally a badass melee weapon.
2. Machinegun: underpowered shit. Still dangerous on a skilled player, but damage is way too low.
3. Shotgun: more like a SSG, ineffective at long range.
4. Grenade launcher: I'm skeptical of this one, it fires very slow grenades. At least they do superior damage to rockets and it's always fun to get delayed frags with them.
5. Rocket launcher: this is everywhere in Q3A. Nice all-around weapon here, can do substantial damage, needs respect, but is also fairly easy to evade. Kinda like how we all love DOOM 2 with its balanced projectile-throwing bestiary.
6. Lightning gun: nice coming back from Quake 1 with different graphics. Very rapid fire and much more accurate than the machinegun.
7. Plasma gun: nice all-around projectile spammer. Weaker than the DOOM 2 PG but without the cooldown time. Almost as frequent as the RL. Seems best to use if you spread the fire.
8. Railgun: I believe Q3A did away with the riffling animation in order to save multiplayer bandwidth. Still powerful.
9. BFG 10k: much easier to use due to being a rapid-fire RL, and all the same a highly prized weapon. But I think we're missing something big by not having the quirks of the BFG9000 in Q3A's multiplayer.

Quake 3 Arena's weapons needed to be more balanced because it's mainly a multiplayer showdown game.

 

DOOM 3

1. Fists: more satisfying to use than the torch, but can do less damage.
2. Torch: always deals full damage, unlike the fists, but can take a bit longer to hit.
3. Chainsaw: seems to be extremely powerful but you may need skill to avoid being hit. Some monsters have extremely fast melee attacks. Unlike DOOM 1 and 2, your saw doesn't lock on monsters' meat, so they can easily punch you back.
4. Grabber: seems overpowered with its ability to intercept projectiles and multiply their damage hugely, at no cost for you. However you may need some skill to aim them back to the enemy, during which they have time to corner or take you off guard if you fail.
5. Pistol: weak default weapon, makes unsatisfying sounds (unlike the zombies' pistol which is even weaker!). But it's totally accurate and useful against lone distant monsters.
6. Shotgun: extremely inaccurate (kinda like the old DOOM hitscanner monsters if not worse!) but useful at melee range if you're not shaking with fear.
7. Super shotgun: a decent counterpart. Does double damage and is more accurate (kinda like the DOOM 2 SSG), but it's still easy to fail one-shotting fast monsters, leaving you really exposed to their fire. What's nice is that reloading is part of every shot, so you no longer need to worry about it yourself.
8. Machinegun: nice low-damage accurate rapid-fire attacks, but it takes almost a full magazine to kill any monster. Like the pistol, it has inferior sounds to the counterpart fired by zombies!
9. Chaingun: less accurate (kinda like the old DOOM standard guns) but deals reliably high damage.
10. Grenades: good to kill monsters quickly, but bounces real easily
11. Plasma rifle: nice all-around rapid fire. Deals a bit more damage than CG, is more accurate, but can be evaded easily. Ammo may be more scarce in the end.
12. Rocket launcher: good against heavy monsters but may be overkill against weaker ones; use grenades there. The Cyberdemon rockets make tougher sounds but are slower and weaker! Sacrilege considering that DOOM 1's cyberdemon uses the exact same rockets as player's.
13. BFG9000: awesome against multiple heavy monsters at once. Ammo is extremely scarce. Usually its' best to use more than one ammo unit per shot.
14. Soul cube: incredibly powerful, dealing 1000 damage and healing you. Makes an important tactical element on Nightmare mode where you need to anticipate when to use them.
15. Artifact: again incredibly powerful, you may really have to use it in the middle of the game because ammo will run low. Won't help you as much against the final boss, but you'll need it.

 

I guess id deliberately chose inferior sounds to some of the guns, as well as shitty SG accuracy or the lack of a head-mounted flashlight (which is so damn common-place in the real life), to make you seem less powerful.

Edited February 25, 2020 by printz

[A Nobody]

The shotgun in Quake 1 is more like a rifle. id should have called it the rifle to make the double-barrelled look less like an upgrade and more of its own gun.

[Flesh420]

Every weapon in Quake 1 serves a purpose.  You can see it much better when playing community maps.  I used to hate how each new weapon was an upgrade of the last, but my perception changed when diving in the map community.

 

Same with Q3.  They're all very situational. 

 

Q2 arsenal is meh.

[amackert]

Quake 1 has my favorite arsenal. The only problem I have with it is the axe.. But then again, it's still fun running around with quad damage, combined with invulnerability, chopping away at Shamblers.

 

Every weapon in the game has a use. The standard shotgun lacks the punch of Doom's, but it fires fast and has excellent accuracy. I often use it as a sniper weapon, especially in the later episodes. The super shotgun, while it doesn't feel amazing to use, is your standard workhorse and does well for its purpose. It also fires quickly and so you can take stuff out pretty quickly with it. The nail gun might be made redundant by the super nail gun later on, but it's also good for hitting things in the far distance while conserving ammo (as the manual says, the super nail gun eats ammo like popcorn). The grenade launcher is my favorite out of any game, with extreme versatility. Grenades bounce just the right distance and will go where you want them to quickly. Its fire rate is perfect as well. The rocket launcher is my favorite of any Quake rocket launcher--it hits hard, allows for quick rocket jumping and thanks to either a large hitbox on it or on enemies (I'm guessing the enemies), it's hard to miss. The lightning bolt is excellent as well, especially when paired with quad damage. The sound effect package makes a lot of these weapons feel powerful, the lightning bolt in particular.

 

I wasn't a fan of the arsenal in Quake 2. Things felt militaristic and generic. There was little creativity in comparison to Quake's guns. That said, I understand it wasn't originally meant to be a Quake game, and to be fair there were some interesting things done at the time that few (if any) FPS games did prior, so I let it slide a bit. The recoil on the machine gun was quite novel at the time, for instance, the default blaster had infinite ammo, making running out of ammo on other guns less stressful, and last but not least, the rail gun was a great new addition that later became a staple of the series. The biggest issue for me with Quake II's arsenal is the sound package. Few weapons feel punchy or impactful in the same way as Quake 1's nail guns, grenade/rocket launchers and lightning bolt.

 

Quake 3 had a better balance between Quake 1 and 2 and so it makes for my second favorite Quake arsenal. All the weapons looked pretty cool and didn't feel too generic to use. They were also fast, snappy, and in the case of things like the lightning gun or BFG, they felt alien as well. Quake 3's shotgun is my favorite in the series. Packs a huge punch, sounds good, and shoots fast.

[Skootroot]

I like the Quake 1 weapons but don't really like using them in the OG Quake game because there's no free-look and you need to press 2 keys just to look up and down, I rebound them to "e" for lookup and "q" for look down

[Vermil]

I like the weapons in quake 1 and 2, which all feel and sound pretty good. However, I thought the quake 3 weapons very lacking in both visuals and audio, which I imagine may have been deliberate due to the focus of the game (i.e the elimination of anything that could even slightly distract from tracking other players).`

[Phobus]

I'm not going to go point-by-point or anything... But the Quake grenade launcher has the most memorable sound of any weapon by far. Probably thanks to the grenade spam that the Ogres engaged in.

 

Also, Quake 4, with it's black hole cannon, is awesome. The upgrades on the nailgun were very cool as well.

[HorrorMovieRei]

I'm gonna echo what people said here about every weapon in Quake 1 having a clearly defined niche and that being the reason that I prefer Q1's arsenal.

 

Quake 2's arsenal is alright i guess, though the lack of muzzle flashes really bother me. My two favorite weapons through are the Chaingun, because I love heavy, multi-barreled, slow windup, bullet storm weapons in games. I also love the hand grenades in Quake 2. I love any hand grenade is video games that are orbular in shape, they're adorable!

 

Quake 3's serves it's purpose well I think, in it's deathmatch setting. I never had a problem with any of the guns except for the grenade launcher, that I only find useful if you have very good aim, or by firing blindly in a room and hoping for the best. But I'll keep these minor critiques to myself, as I am terrible at deathmatch, so I don't feel like I have authority to comment further.

 

Quake 4's arsenal I mostly forgot about. I remember the weapons feeling punchy and satisfying though, and the nail gun made an really cool sound.

[A Nobody]

On 2/27/2020 at 2:12 AM, amackert said:

Quake 1 has my favorite arsenal. The only problem I have with it is the axe.. But then again, it's still fun running around with quad damage, combined with invulnerability, chopping away at Shamblers.

 

Every weapon in the game has a use. The standard shotgun lacks the punch of Doom's, but it fires fast and has excellent accuracy. I often use it as a sniper weapon, especially in the later episodes. The super shotgun, while it doesn't feel amazing to use, is your standard workhorse and does well for its purpose. It also fires quickly and so you can take stuff out pretty quickly with it. The nail gun might be made redundant by the super nail gun later on, but it's also good for hitting things in the far distance while conserving ammo (as the manual says, the super nail gun eats ammo like popcorn). The grenade launcher is my favorite out of any game, with extreme versatility. Grenades bounce just the right distance and will go where you want them to quickly. Its fire rate is perfect as well. The rocket launcher is my favorite of any Quake rocket launcher--it hits hard, allows for quick rocket jumping and thanks to either a large hitbox on it or on enemies (I'm guessing the enemies), it's hard to miss. The lightning bolt is excellent as well, especially when paired with quad damage. The sound effect package makes a lot of these weapons feel powerful, the lightning bolt in particular.

 

I wasn't a fan of the arsenal in Quake 2. Things felt militaristic and generic. There was little creativity in comparison to Quake's guns. That said, I understand it wasn't originally meant to be a Quake game, and to be fair there were some interesting things done at the time that few (if any) FPS games did prior, so I let it slide a bit. The recoil on the machine gun was quite novel at the time, for instance, the default blaster had infinite ammo, making running out of ammo on other guns less stressful, and last but not least, the rail gun was a great new addition that later became a staple of the series. The biggest issue for me with Quake II's arsenal is the sound package. Few weapons feel punchy or impactful in the same way as Quake 1's nail guns, grenade/rocket launchers and lightning bolt.

 

Quake 3 had a better balance between Quake 1 and 2 and so it makes for my second favorite Quake arsenal. All the weapons looked pretty cool and didn't feel too generic to use. They were also fast, snappy, and in the case of things like the lightning gun or BFG, they felt alien as well. Quake 3's shotgun is my favorite in the series. Packs a huge punch, sounds good, and shoots fast.

Only a couple of people know that the railgun originated from the original Shadow Warrior, but Quake 2 popularized the weapon.

 

I first played the N64 version of Quake 2 many years ago, so as a result I didn't know about the hand grenades. I found out that they're a weapon in the original game years later. However, I feel that they're a odd addition to the arsenal as there's already the grenade launcher.

[Jello]

4 hours ago, The Strife Commando said:

Only a couple of people know that the railgun originated from the original Shadow Warrior, but Quake 2 popularized the weapon.

 

I first played the N64 version of Quake 2 many years ago, so as a result I didn't know about the hand grenades. I found out that they're a weapon in the original game years later. However, I feel that they're a odd addition to the arsenal as there's already the grenade launcher.

I would say they both took the idea from the 1996 movie "Eraser". Both games use a particle effect very similar to the effect used for the railguns in the movie. Not as fancy of course, but it's clear where both games got their influence.

 

 

Edited February 29, 2020 by Jello

[nname]

On 2/26/2020 at 2:58 AM, Flesh420 said:

Q2 arsenal is meh.

The railgun is excellent though :b