User blog:Vorknkx/Quake - expectations vs. reality

One of the interesting aspects of the time before the internet was that you could not really get information about a game in advance. So when you got something new, you never knew what it would be like, and your imagination would create some pretty weird expectations.

When I played Quake for the first time in 1998 (or 1999, not quite sure), I began with lots of ideas and expectations that were very different from the actual game. As I played and made progress, these ideas died one by one... but I still remember them.

1. I thought the entire game was in the IdBase theme and was not at all aware that there'd be medieval and gothic levels and/or monsters (I didn't read the manual until about a year later, heh heh). Being curious and excited, I looked at the first levels of all 4 episodes and this was probably the reason for this expectation - an entire game of military/industrial installations.

(Ironically, my first expectation for Quake 2 was that it would follow Q1's pattern of military bases and medieval/gothic levels, whereas the reality is that it is made up entirely by military/industrial installations)

2. I had a really wrong idea about old Shub-Niggurath. First of all, I thought Shubby was a guy! Second, I imagined him as some kind of beefed-up Enforcer with some cool high-tech armor suit. I even thought he'd be armed with an axe or some giant hammer (the similarity with the early concepts for the hammer-wielding hero of Timequake is purely coincidental). At some point I finally figured out Shubby was a "she" (my English was not so good back then and I often misunderstood the intermission texts). But I still thought she would be humanoid in appearance. Wrong again - ummm, what is this big things with tentacles? What are you??? What are you?!? Is that a tornado chasing me?!?

(Ooops, just imitating Deathstalker's Heretic playthrough here, heh heh)

3. After beating Episode 1, I expected that every Episode would have its own boss creature defeated in some unique way (like Chthon). It was disappointing.

4. At first I thought zombies were completely indestructible. I found out accidentally that they could be permanently blown up.

5. At first I thought the Shambler was a boss enemy, and that there is only one of them in the game.

6. Last but not least - I expected monsters to be killed when they enter lava, or drown when they are underwater. This was not implemented until Quake 2, where there are actually situations where you can easily dispatch an enemy by dipping it into lava. I have also tested and confirmed that Q2 enemies will take damage and drown underwater. Too bad this doesn't work in Q1 - imagine all the fun possibilities.