Quake

Steam Keys: Quake Champions at Quakecon

It’s now official that the original franchise that put the FPS genre on the map is joining the fray of the budding FPS e-sports scene with Quake Champions. It’s invariably a revival of its arena shooter franchise with the twist of the growing popularity of being a team-based shooters like Overwatch and Team Fortress 2.

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Despite the hype of hardcore Quake fans, Quake champions had a relatively odd reaction when it was showcased in Quakecon 2016. At this point, it’s clear that the developers have to work on a few more things for its marketing before they can assume Steam keys will fly off virtual shelves upon its release in, presumably, late 2017 or early 2018.

Steam Keys E-Sports: Street Fighter Meets Quake

The first thing Tim Willits, creative director of the game, presented was that it wasn’t at all going to change from how diehards know the franchase. High-speed, technical combat with rocket jumping and all the complications that put Quake on the map were still in the game. With a showcase of the classic weaponry in a new engine and era, the audience simply lapped up everything that was thrown at them – that is, until the developers showcased the heroes usable in-game.

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Similar to Mobas like League of Legends and Dota or like other class-based shooters like Overwatch, Quake Champions has its, well, champions do unique things like blinking, acrobatics, flying, and a ton of other stuff that set them apart from other champions, giving them distinct advantages over others. While that sounds great for the common gamer, it wasn’t too well received by the truly diehard Quake fans.

The devs, id Software, hoped that this would be a bit more welcomed by their target audience as they see the champion element of the game more as a supplementary element than anything else, setting itself apart from the likes of Mobas and other team-based shooters by having more focus on individual skill rather than the rock-paper-scissors element these other games have for their class mechanics.

id Software knows exactly that there’s this spot for their classic, high-speed, arena-style game in the industry. However, their biggest fear is ending up making Quake 3 once more, but only with improved visuals. This is the sole reason as to why they want the champions element within the game. But the reaction to it is absolutely mixed at best and quite hostile at worst. There are already tons of comments on the internet that Quake Champions should either have the option to turn off the champion uniqueness and possibly be just as moddable as the previous Quake games. Granted, id Software believes that there is more depth in strategy this way, but they may be forgetting what Quake is famous for: Pure skill.
“Street Fighter Meets Quake,” is what id Software thinks of Quake Champions. It is in the sense that everybody has natural moves like heavy kicks, heavy punches, light kicks and etc., but each character has a certain tinge of uniqueness that sets them apart from one another. However, at the end of the day, no matter what sort of special moves you have, it is always the normal moves (in Quake’s case, normal shooting) is what is going to win you the match. As much as that kind of makes sense, what team-based shooter ISN’T about the shooting? It’s a pretty generic description of what they’re going for, to be completely honest.
There’s going to be a lot more kinks for them to work on if they’re going to want this to be accepted by their loyal fanbase, let alone the casual fanbase that is more likely to get the game e-sports status than any other demographic. I’m feeling quite optimistic about Quake Champions and that it can safely enter the major stage of e-sports, but id Software has a lot of work to do before those Steam keys sell.