Quake Live Review

Id software has taken it's Quake 3 engine, and transformed it into a web based game. You'll have to go to www.quakelive.com and sign up. It is still in beta, but it looks like they've added support for in game advertisements which will keep it free after it is released.

After you sign up, you'll have to download the browser plugin but it is automated and not difficult at all. Once that is installed you'll be presented with a list of games that are being played at the moment inside your browser. To enter one of the games to play yourself, you'll have to simply click on it.

You will immediately recognize the game as being Quake 3 Arena, which is essentially what it is. Arguably you could say that this game is over 10 years old. There is one big difference between Quake 3 and Quake Live. Quake Live keeps track of your stats and lets you rank against the other players.

This ranking system and statistics tracker goes very in depth. It keeps track of how many bullets you shoot for instance, and the accuracy with which you hit enemies. Along with the statistics, it also keeps track of special achievements that you earn while playing the game. In one example, if you shoot someone with a rocket while you are in the air, you'll get an achievement. If you capture 3 flags during a capture the flag game, you'll get an achievement. There are a lot of achievements you can get.

One other thing that is good about Quake Live is that it lets you run through an obstacle course and depending how well you do it will give you a personal expertise rating. Then when you are choosing a game to play, it will try to rank you with players of the same type of rating. The idea is to keep hardcore players from mingling with new players who are still learning. The only problem with this system is that you can choose which level you want to play and some of the higher skilled players sometimes come to the new player areas.

This game is very good if you've only got a limited amount of time to play. All you have to do is jump in, fight, then get out. While it is the same thing as Quake 3, it will appeal to the die hard Quake fans such as myself. If you never got into Quake but thought it was pretty neat this is your chance to test drive it out for free. If first person shooters do not appeal to you, you probably won't like Quake Live.