The first thing that inevitably jumps on the eye is the technical side of the production, significantly improved by my last encounter with Quake Champions .
The title was generally “cleaned” with a better definition, updated textures, slightly refined graphics effects, but above all a definitive frame rate. Considering the acreage of production at the time of the last test, it was almost understandable to expect slowdowns due to lags and / or technical problems of various nature, but luckily the title travels like a train, as it is right for a shooter arena old school made of speed and feline reflections.
Even latency problems have almost disappeared as well as servers that have become enormously more stable (though a couple of times I happened to have been beaten out, sometimes on their own and sometimes with the whole group of players) .
So I repeat it a few months ago as today: Quake Champions in its purest essence is what nostalgics of the shooters once sought.
The shootings are fast and furious, they die constantly (but really so), the maps are built on an inspired level design and, once again, tremendously old school. Each arena is divided between tunnels, jump pads and teleporters, alternating narrow corridors and tremendously small crossings, where rocket launchers and shotgun dominate, to larger areas where well-targeted players can shoot with precision weapons. In its essence, therefore, Quake Championsyou can already consider it ready to be consumed by the hungry voraci of bullets and violence.
Also because a few weeks ago, QuakeCon played a full-fledged tournament where, among others, our Stermy was also the protagonist with a remarkable performance. But the perplexities are not few, and involve what’s new in production, as well as its trademark: the champions.
Soldiers, Marine and Warriors Just last week, idSoftware Tim Willits talked about the introduction of Bethesda world charactersinside
Quake Champions , including
Skyrim’s dragonborn
. Now, regardless of the feasibility or not, the future of production is clear and is traveling over the wake of Overwatch , that is, a series of samples added over time to inflate the Quake Champions slaughterhouse row .
The problem arises from the inevitable unbalance in terms of performance from one hero to the other. From the last test it has changed a lot, and there are no major differences but despite the work of idSoftware, it is still clear how some heroes will be stacked before others.
In general, faster heroes are extremely effective, especially when combined with weapons with a high degree of fire.
It is not surprising, then, that there is a “Classic Mode” mode, in which all characters are identical and skills do not count. A game mode that, we bet on my proverbial and symbolic euro, will be the most played in the long run. In a title like Quake Champions the ability to be faster than others, disappearing from sight for a few seconds, being able to swing fast in the 45 ° corners are far more realistic than others and, I fear, can distort the dry experience which has made Quake the cult that has always been.
In this regard, I had the chance to try the two new entries: Blazkowicz and Doom Slayer. The protagonist of the last Wolfenstein comes to the wheel with a passive ability to regenerate part of the vital energy once away from the shootout, while the ultimate ability doubled the firepower by literally extracting a second weapon identical to the one that he is holding up; the violent hero of Doom, on the other hand, has the ability to make a double jump, and to enter berserker mode, with which inflict devastating damage to bare hands.
Of the two characters Blazkowicz has the most interesting setup for a shooter; Doom Slayer’s definitive ability seemed ineffective in most cases (why banging in a shooter at the bottom?), while double jumping is definitely a great strength, especially for some maps.
