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StarMax 4000/200 with Techworks Power3Dfx card |
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Reviewed by: Marty Dodge
MacQuake is the much antiucipated conversion of the 2+ year old PC game. Was it worth the wait? Well, sort of. It has many annoying features, like the fact that you cannot play Death-match on Ethernet (Appletalk) LAN, and the fact that there is little variation in the in the gameplay. Kill everything...that's about it.
Quake was and always will be primarily a multiplayer game, Deathmatches are what made its name. Anyone with half a brain in his head will admit that the solo levels are nothing special. The graphics are impressive but they get boring after a while. The baddies are very linear and it seems more time was spent on the walls than on the creatures. It is true however that there are thousands of solo/net levels kicking around the net that can provide with hours and hours of pleasure after you complete the game for the first and last time. Also cheats abound all over the net.
I would have liked to be able to wax poetic about the multiplayer aspects of MacQuake, alas I cannot because it will not function on an Appletalk LAN There is talk that there will be a patch to fix this problem but we shall have to wait and see. Why MacSoft decided to release MacQuake without giving the game the ability to play over Appletalk is beyond me. MacQuake dedicated web sites and newsgroups are reeling with complaints about the multiplayer MacQuake.
There is a recent update that has corrected several game faults and has gone some way to allow to much trumpted multiplayer function via the internet. By the time the multiplayer function of MacQuake is released, there will probably be quite a few MacQuake clans and ladders set up on the web. There are several very good sites already dedicated to MacQuake, most of which allow players to hook up over the internet. With any luck QuakeWorld will be ported to the Mac sometime soon, until then Mac owners will remain second-class cititzens in the Quake world.
The weapons in MacQuake are standard and are nothing special. The monsters suppose to be the stuff of nightmares are not that worrying. It will be interesting to see how they appear on my newly acquired Power3D card. There are some useful features like the ability to save on the fly, anywhere you want and (~) key which allows you to type all kind of cheats and skips in. In the game there are also Quad damage, protection & extra health power-ups to find and pick in addtion to all the weapons, ammo, armour, and health kicking around which is standard in all games of this type.
Hopefully Quake II will come out for the Mac sooner or later. Until then you will have to be happy with some of the excellent ID approved scenarios like Malice, a few Mac freindly expansion packs and the forthcoming scenario based on the X-Men comic world. You will have to pay extra for them thought.
Is MacQuake worth the hype? No. Although, Quake for all its bad points is a damn good engine, just check out Malice. Like Duke3D, Quake would have been impressive a year ago, for me it is a case of too little too late. What really annoys me, is that if I had MacQuake by itself I would not rate it at all, since Malice arrived I look at it in a whole new light.