Ranking all mainline Quake entries by review score

When Wolfenstein 3D came out in 1992, it started a gaming revolution by showing what was possible in three-dimensional development. Then we got Doom just a year later, and the world has never been the same since. However, we mustn’t forget id Software’s 1995 gloomy shooter Quake, which had just as much of an impact on the FPS genre as its predecessors.

Of course, many of us haven’t forgotten the gothic-cum-sci-fi series at all. That was just a flimsy pretext to lead you into what follows. With hopes that a Quake 6 could be on the horizon, it’s time to look at all the mainline entries, listing them in order of what people thought of them when they released. Sounds fun, yeah?

As always, here are a few sidenotes:

1. I’ll be attempting to use PC review scores where possible, but there will be one exception.
2. I’ll only be talking about the main games themselves; so, not the expansion packs.
3. The list won’t encompass Nightdive Studios’ remasters, but I may save room at the end for a quick shoutout.

With that, let’s rank all the Quake games based on their review scores.

Quake Champions (73%)

Off to a bad start with this one, as there doesn’t appear to be an aggregate score from critics for the PC version. That is to say, the only version of the game. However, this IGN entry has it down as a 7.3 from user ratings. All 16 of them. As such, that’ll have to do. If we convert it into a percentage score, then 73% would put it at the bottom of the list. Right. That’s the admin out the way.

Quake Champions was originally released to Early Access in 2017, becoming free-to-play in 2018. It’s essentially an arena shooter – not unlike one of the many you’ve probably played – but very much taking cues from Quake 3: Arena. You know how games like this go. Run around, go “h’up” a lot, shoot at others until they die. I did actually play this when it first came out, and I remember it being a heap load of fun. Shame it doesn’t get a lot of love in mainstream gaming these days. Or maybe it does and I’m so out of the loop, I’ve become a triangle. What does that mean? No idea.

Quake 4 (81%)

Hot off the heels of 2004’s Doom 3, id launched the fourth Quake entry, perhaps one of the darkest games in the series. Using the former’s engine, the latter was definitely leaning towards that grisly marine aesthetic that was becoming popular at the start of the new millennium. If you remember nothing about it, there’s at least the infamous Stroggification scene, where you watch from a first-person perspective as your character gets gruesomely transformed into a half-biological, half-mechanical Strogg creature.

I played this briefly not long after it came out. Personally, it wasn’t for me. I could see what they were going for, but it seemed a far cry from the classic games that I remember playing. I appreciate game studios were interested in deeper narratives and more serious stories, but it felt weird seeing it in the Quake univese. I can’t explain why. But what do I know? Metacritic shows a score of 81% and Steam has it down as Very Positive.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (84%)

Yep, no. I can hear it. Hold your horses for a gosh-darn second before you go diving to the comments section to tell me that Enemy Territory isn’t technically a mainline Quake game. I’m aware that it’s more of a spin-off. However, according to the Wikipedia entry, it’s set in the same universe as the second and fourth installments, and it’s also considered a prequel. Therefore, I would still say it’s a canonical part of Quake. Yes, despite the fact that it was developed by Splash Damage of Brink fame instead of id Software. Again, I’m aware. Okay, we good?

Although I’m a long-time Quake fan, this is one I have no experience with, I’m afraid. We’re very much into online multiplayer territory at this point. The year was 2007, and we were starting to see more people gaming over the interblag. With Halo 3 having come out just days before Enemy Territory and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare just around the corner, it seemed the studio very much wanted a slice of that online action. Not for me, but a PC aggregate score of 84% meant it obviously paid off.

Quake 2 (87%)

Quake 2 dropped in 1997, and it was perhaps not what people were expecting. John Romero – whose influence helped shape the first game as well as the early Doom installments – had left id Software, and the studio went through a few changes. The first being that the second game in the Quake series was a massive departure from its predecessor. For starters, it was more sci-fi than gothic horror. However, the action was still there, but things like the Nailgun and the moody Trent Reznor soundtrack were no longer present.

But that doesn’t detract from Quake 2 being an excellent game. Yeah, the murky brown FPS look eventually became a cliché, but, for me at least, Q2 represented the next step in the genre’s evolution. I absolutely love this game! I don’t care that it’s a meat-headed, generic action shooter involving space marines on alien worlds. It’s a fast-paced experience with some interesting set pieces and memorable enemies (who can forget the Tank Commander?). Much like Enemy Territory, Metacritic doesn’t show a PC score, so I pulled it from the Wikipedia aggregate instead.

Quake 3: Arena (93%)

Do you write it out like Quake 3 or Quake III? No matter. I consider this part of the golden age of the series. Casting my mind back to 1999, I recall playing this game absolutely to death. The fact that it was an arena shooter with enemy bots for those who didn’t want to play online was very appealing to me. The internet was still in its infancy back then, and I just didn’t have a steady enough connection to be able to pew-pew-pew with others in deathmatch glory. Bots were my friends, and that is probably the saddest sentence I’ve ever written.

Anyway, I admit having cheated a little here. Remember earlier when I said about using PC scores except in one instance? This is said instance. See, while Wikipedia shows a score of 84% on PC, Metacritic gives the Dreamcast port a mighty 93%. I know I should stick with my original rule, but the difference between the two scores is worthy of note in this case. I only ever played it on PC and I found it to be hugely enthralling, so you can imagine playing a 9% better version of it. No, I’m not just making excuses so I can put Quake 3 higher on the list. How dare you!

Quake (94%)

The original Quake from 1996 is not only considered the absolute best in the whole series, it’s arguably one of the greatest first-person shooters in gaming history. What made it such a hit was it not only used advanced development techniques for the era (including full real-time 3D rendering), it was also a huge proponent of the early deathmatch scene. True that Doom may have popularized it, but it was Quake that leaned heavily into it as online multiplayer started to become more popular.

I’ve played this countless times over the decades, as well as the host of custom maps you can get for it. It is, without hyperbole, a timeless classic, and for good reason, too. It’s a fast, intense, uninterrupted FPS experience, all wrapped up in a brooding and gothic aesthetic with creatures to match, which actually renders the game slightly scary when you first play through it. With a Metacritic score of 94%, it’s typically held up as a shining beacon of what a game could be back in the 1990s. It was also proof that id Software were capable of making huge strides in the industry.

Honorable mentions

Of course, I couldn’t just leave it there. While Quake‘s future is not certain at this stage, the series remains in the limelight. As such, I think it’s only right to give a shoutout to a couple of games that didn’t make it onto this list, but are worthy of praise:

Nightdive Studios remasters

We know that Nightdive Studios is responsible for some well-received remasters of late. For instance, we got their modern take on Quake back in 2021, and then Quake 2 in 2023. Both of which have not touched what made the originals such great games, but they have tweaked them with a visual spit polish and some quality-of-life improvements.

In short: we get to play classic Quake again, but on modern machines. Nightdive has done right by the source material, and these releases probably are the best way to experience the OGs in this day and age.

Quake 2 on Nintendo 64

It’s common for games to get ports to other systems, but they are typically just copy-and-paste jobs, perhaps with a bit of tinkering to make it more suitable for the platform it’s being played on. Not so with Quake 2.

See, when it was ported to the Nintendo 64, it wasn’t just a case of taking the PC version and condensing it down to a cartridge-based console that wasn’t known for first-person shooters. Instead, “Q2N64” was its own thing. It had its own levels and missions, and even newly added real-time lighting effects, according to this IGN review. Sure, it was shorter than its PC equivalent, but it did what it could with the limited capacity of the Nintendo machine. That alone is not an easy feat for an FPS.