Right now that everyone knows Half Life kicks ass, I'm going to through a wrench in the works. (Yes, monkey and all) Around just before christmas time, a battle raged to see what would get closest to Half Life and match it for multiplayer mayhem. Unreal Tournament came out with the widely antcipated Quake Arena to follow, and when everyone saw Unreal Tournament, they went "Wow! Quake must be brilliant if it's better than this!!" Trouble was Quake Arena wasn't better. The fact it needed a money hungry voodoo card to run meant Unreal Tournament was the prefered choice. Both games are quite simular but the seems to be that little extra touch to Unreal that makes you want to play it again and again. Quake Arena just doesn't have that. Quake (the original) provided what turned out to be world wide market. Everyone whose played an online game, will say they loved the challenge provided by human counterparts rather than bots.

And that is what was good about Quake. It had a solo mission and then the multiplayer levels.
However Quake Arena's "solo" mission is the same as the multiplayer one - take on other combatants in an Arena. Trouble is, they're as thick as a short plank. Easy to pick off and avoid.

Unreal however, has advanced AI and even setting the enemies inteligence to experienced (Middling low) you'll constantly find yourself having to concentrate harder and harder. They use clever tactics to lure you into trap, snipe, hide, even run away when in danger of being killed.

Also, the weaponry is varied and you'll find that it's not the guy with the rocket launcher whose winning. Each weapon has it own strengths and weaknesses so you'll have to find one that suits you best. The only "Weak" weapons there are, are the pneumatic hammer (Last line of defence) and the Enforcer (Start weapon), but even these can easily take down someone using a plasma rifle or Disruptor gun (And its quite satisfying picking up their weapon afterwards! Well, waste not, want not...) The levels are imagitively detailed and you must adapt to them if you are to succeed. For instance, there is a level with three skyscrapers that are so high up the gravity is weak and you can jump between buildings.

Also the amount of options is staggering. Apart from the usual Deathmatch, capture the flag are games like Intagib (Thing tag with one hit weapons) and many teritory based games which involve holding as much area as you can for as long as you can.

All in all, this is a quite good game although it's no Half Life beater, even in the multiplayer stakes. If you have Half Life already and are looking for something else to spend time on, then this is it.

Good for bringing back the Quake memories and far better than the disappointing Quake Arena.