There comes a time in any highly successful development team's career where they find themselves in something of a loop. Even when their endeavor was more successful than Dai Katana, ID Software found themselves growing exhausted with the concept of First Person Shooters, Space Marines and guns. After Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Doom 2, Quake, Quake 2 and Doom 3, they were burned out when they finally came to 1999's Quake 3. While this may represent a lowpoint in the Doomverse behind the scenes and can't really be regarded as their best work in many regards, Quake 3 Arena still has its place in the Doomverse.
The game is broken down into a much simpler gameplay type. Instead of any story or background, you're here to fight people in an arena. In your first fight, your one instruction is "Hunt Crash to win this arena." Now, off you go. That's how it is for the rest of the game. You fight from one to around six opponents in death matches and you kill them with various weapons you've seen in both Doom and Quake iterations.
Many people were not happy with the idea of a mundane arena shooter and wanted this to be a more linear level shooter. While the graphics and the gameplay were keened and fast as ever, people wanted more of fighting minions in long levels while going toward boss battles. Still, for what it had, it concentrated on the movement and the weapons most of all. The BFG 10,000 is fashioned into a more coherent and precise weapon so that it's not over powered, but still packs a hell of a punch. Many prefer the rocket launcher or the plasma gun, but there was also the absence of the nail gun or the super nail gun. While some iterations and mods have corrected this, the vanilla game never featured one. Still, the grenade launcher and the super shotgun more than make up for this. Even if it isn't called the super shotgun, it's still double barreled and powerful.
The characters have a little something to offer. Some of them have interesting backstory and obviously there are some with more prevelence in the universe. Ranger and Bitterman are from Quake 1 and 2 and it's cool to see them face off against those from the universe. Other than that, though, there are just some fighters with interesting occupations. No, I'm not just talking about how Minx is a porn star. Yes, that is real, she even has A.I. that talks during the matches with very strange references to how her boobs are fake and things of that nature.
The real problem with this game beyond that is there really isn't much else to talk about. The levels look great and it was one of the best arena fighters for LAN parties, but it was also quite bare bones when it came to anything else. Even with Doom and Doom II, you got the red text after the episodes that told you about some of the lore and what happened. With Quake 3, there is none of that at all. You fight against the main badguy, Xero, but there's no real details other than he is a tactical shooter because he's on the level with the rail gun battles. He's never mentioned or has had any real effect on the Doom community. You get to play as Doomguy (strangely only named "Doom") as well as Phobos and Crash. If lore is correct, then Crash is Doomguy's trainer. This is a little strange because she is the first and weakest opponent you face in the entire game.
This game may not be the pennacle of death matching, let alone first person shooters, but it is a very fun time to have when you want to pick something up and play it. It's very easy to learn and you can get good with some of the more powerful weapons and powerups. Just imagine how many of your friends you can mow down with a quad damage! Such a thing has ended friendships. Kill with care and remember that it's either you or them. Virtua Strafe Shoot!
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