Available as a free browser-based application, the game starts after registration with a short test of gaming competency where the player indicates his familiarity with the conventions of an FPS by first maneuvering across some simple obstacles before entering a one-on-one battle with a computer-controlled bot called Crash. Fifteen minutes of increasingly challenging play against Crash gives Id’s skill-assessment engine a pretty good idea of your abilities, after which it’s time to play against real opponents, and the game takes off.
Once past Crash (and when the game has finished downloading – browser-based it may be, but it still needs maps, sounds, textures and all the paraphernalia associated with a traditional FPS) you are presented with a choice of playing arenas and game types, all of which feature players at or close to your own skill level. By matching your skills to those of your opponents the system creates, with a reasonable degree of success, balanced and challenging matches without the high levels of frustration often inflicted on novices by games of this type.
Most arenas will be familiar to players of Quake 3 Arena or Team Arena, but there are also several new maps, all of which seem to work well. The weapons and game styles have also been copied from previous games but this largely reflects their earlier success rather than a lack of imagination on the part of the designers; anyone who has played similar FPS games (Unreal Tournament, for example) will quickly feel at home.
Given that this is a free game (funded by in-game advertising) the overall quality is high and it is easy to lose several hours chasing one more frag. The game collates performance information in nauseating detail, allowing players to see their (and anyone else’s) accuracy with each weapon, number of frags and deaths, number of matches won and lost etc. This feeds the inner geek but will make boasting more difficult since complete and accurate information is available to anyone interested in searching it out.
More importantly, this information highlights the extremes of player abilities. My own kill ratio is about 1-2 (kills to deaths) but the best players achieve around 4-1, a humbling eight-fold difference – it’s just as well that skill levels are matched.
So is it worth the effort? There is no expense with a free game so if you like the FPS genre then Quake Live is a no-brainer. The skill-matching engine is a huge advantage over other online games and the simplicity of the interface (weapons have only one fire mode and a “sniper” zoom) and the HUD make it readily accessible for casual gamers.
It’s fast, furious and fun; what more could anyone ask from a free online game?
