But as long-time Quake fans will attest, a coherent storyline has never been one of the series’ strengths. Modernizing the game would present a golden opportunity for the developers to craft a plot worthy of the game’s legendarily fast-placed gameplay and dread-soaked atmosphere, and to unify the multiple confusing story strands.
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The Muddled Plot(s) of the Quake Franchise
Quake was released in 1996 and, following the world-dominating success of the developer’s Doom games, was one of the planet’s most anticipated titles. Quake featured lightning-fast gameplay as well as a cutting-edge 3D engine, and crafting these genre-defining experiences had taken their toll on the development team. Cracking at the seams due to in-house feuds and exhausted from the pressure of living up to the title’s hype, the game’s mooted medieval fantasy setting was crunched together with a Doom-style science fiction story at the last minute to create a baffling combination of military gunplay and eldritch horror.
This late decision proved to be a huge success, with players praising the game’s bizarre environments and unique atmosphere. Trent Reznor’s masterful soundtrack also helped to somehow knit together the game’s gothic castles, creepy caves and military installations, and this unique mash-up perhaps explains the enduring popularity of the franchise’s first title.
However, for the 1997 sequel, Id Software knew it had to raise its narrative game and give players more reason to battle its foul denizens than ‘erm, some demons came through a bunch of slipgates, or something’. Quake II, made available for free as part of last year’s annual ‘QuakeCon’ fan celebration of the series, completely dispensed with the previous title’s wafer-thin story, and instead put players in control of the lone survivor of a pre-emptive attack on a hostile alien planet entitled Stroggos. Its inhabitants, the Strogg civilization, utilized cybernetic soldiers that further explored the biomechanical horror elements hinted at by the original Quake’s chainsaw-grafted ogres.
Originally, Quake II was such a departure from its predecessor that Id Software entertained multiple new IP titles including ‘Wor’, ‘Load’, and ‘Strogg’. In the end, however, the gameplay was felt to be too similar to the developer’s previous blockbuster to justify the change, and Quake II was christened.
Future franchise releases veered even further away from these roots. Quake III Arena, also recently made freely available as part of the QuakeCon annual festival, was an entirely multiplayer game, capitalizing upon the huge success and popularity of the Quake multiplayer deathmatch scene. It dispensed altogether with a story and simply informed players that high-ranking warriors would be transformed into “spineless mush” inside the titular Arena.
Quake 4, meanwhile, returned to the setting of Quake II to once again pit solo players against the cyborg abominations of the Strogg, including a sequence where the protagonist is subjected to a long and gruesome cutscene where he is ‘Stroggified’, with biomechanical components forcibly replacing his human anatomy. This process unwittingly leads to the creation of an augmented human soldier capable of defeating the Strogg commander, known as the Makron.
The fifth series entry, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, revisited the multiplayer approach, this time offering team-based, asymmetrical battles with each side utilizing human or Strogg technology. The most recent series offering, 2017’s Quake Champions, was similarly multiplayer focused.
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How a Quake Reboot Could Fix the Series’ Story
A franchise reboot certainly faces a challenge in trying to incorporate all of these disparate elements. However, a great opportunity exists to integrate the eldritch horror and Strogg storylines. The recent release of Quake Remastered has proved that fans still enjoy the unique setting and sinister feel of the original title. Its brand-new Machine-Games-helmed episode, “Dimension Of The Machine”, also utilized modern environmental storytelling techniques to better interweave the game’s science fiction components with its medieval fantasy horror aspects.
Comprising five mini-episodes, each with two levels, the expansion features such maps as “Nazard Terminal” and “Too Deep, Too Greedy”. These depict a spaceship full of imprisoned monstrosities and a mining facility on a remote planet that has unwittingly unearthed arcane horrors. This template could be adopted for a series reboot to present a Strogg civilization whose pursuit of power and energy for its cybernetic military forces causes it to stumble upon an ancient evil it cannot control.
Consumed by greed and insatiable in their thirst for new technologies, the Strogg would undoubtedly not hesitate to explore and excavate any mysterious, buried power source. The game could feature a new location, perhaps a planet or asteroid far from the Strogg’s home world, whose subterranean treasures have attracted the biomechanical villains’ attention.
This approach would even allow the game’s developers to hide the reveal of its revamped Lovecraftian bestiary until the midgame, very much like how Bloodborne disguised its true cosmic horror inspirations until players had made sufficient progress. Unleashing an army of long-dormant fiends, shamblers, and vores upon the unsuspecting Strogg military would make for a hugely exciting, and satisfying, plot twist.
Encompassing Quake’s celebrated multiplayer elements without sacrificing an immersive story would also not be impossible. Perhaps the three factions – humans, Strogg, and Shub-Niggurath’s ancient monster menagerie – could form the basis of the team battles, with titanic struggles between nominated champions deciding the fates of worlds.
Whichever approach it adopts, a Quake reboot would almost guarantee massive sales for developer Id Software. Like the Strogg’s approach to marrying flesh and machine, longtime series fans hope the developer finds a way to better integrate the multiple storylines of its venerable franchise.
Quake is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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