GameSpy’s Free Agent is your advance recon into the world of free-to-play games. His mission: jump into a free game every week and put in some hours to see how much fun can be had without spending a cent, then try out some paid items to see if they’re worth the asking price. This week, he’s getting a history lesson on both F2P and shooters with id Software’s F2P blast from the past, Quake Live. But will he rocket jump into the fray with greatest of ease, or will his wallet get repeatedly fragged until it ragequits existence?
No Money Down
My first Quake Live match was a bit of a wakeup call. And by “a bit,” I mean “the kind encountered by someone who’s spent the last 30 years in a coma.” I had no idea how much my fast-paced arena FPS muscles had atrophied until I sluggishly meandered right into rocket after rocket in a blistering round of CTF. Honestly, it was pretty embarrassing. Even so, it also etched another none-too-subtle point into my brain: the modern shooter landscape — F2P or not — is pretty much entirely bereft of this sort of thing.
No, I’m not trying to turn this into yet another war of words between old and new-school shooter fans. But iron sharpens iron, and I entered the fray with the equivalent of a blade that’d been honed on a cat scratcher. There is, however, a bright side to my bellyflop: Quake Live is pure Quake to its very core. Live is, after all, a repurposed version of Quake III: Arena, so the speed, iconic weapons, and over-the-top level selection are present and accounted for. Almost all of that stuff is open from the get-go, too. Meanwhile, standard modes — team deathmatch, free-for-all, duel, CTF, and clan arena — round out the package quite nicely. Clan arena especially ended up ensnaring me in a diabolical web of, “Oh, just five more minutes,” with its mix of surprisingly tactical team play and rapid-fire bursts of round-based chaos.
With the exception of some of the more outlandish maps and a few non-traditional modes (Harvester, Freeze Tag, Red Rover, Attack and Defend, Domination, 1-Flag CTF), Live was pretty much my playground from the moment I installed its browser plug-in. In that respect, Quake Live is pretty much the free-to-play dream: near-instant fun for nary a nickel, dime, arm, leg, or firstborn child. I simply signed up, picked my poison from a fairly intuitive match browser, and, after a brief YouTube-style ad, I was fragging away light as a feather — in large part because I wasn’t weighed down by the lingering guilt of some ill-advised purchase.
In that respect, Quake Live’s old-school heritage pairs up well with its shiny new business model. It’s incapable of charging for weapon unlocks, perks, and things of that sort, simply because Quake III was designed long before those things even existed. Somewhat amazingly, it didn’t even ask me to pony up for character skins. I had access to nearly 60 intergalactic gluttons for punishment — from space bikers to eyeball monsters — right off the bat. Really, the only thing that screamed “You are missing out!” was the option to sample a few Domination matches.
Insert Coin
Thanks to the giant, always-present Pro membership ad in the browser’s upper right-hand corner, it wasn’t very hard to sign up. In addition to unlocking a handful of maps and the aforementioned modes, a $4-per-month (nearly $50 annually) Pro subscription granted me the ability to start my own matches instead of simply hopping into the queue for somebody else’s and hoping for the best. The range of customization options at my disposal proved almost intoxicating as well. I became an equal parts loved and feared deity of map managing, forging lopsided weapon stats and even using my vast array of sliders to alter the very forces of friction, just because I could. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such minute attention to detail in an F2P game.
But then the whole system falls apart. See, there aren’t actually any microtransactions in Quake Live; you’re either a subscriber or you aren’t — a have or a have-not. And while countless volumes have been written about power and inequality over the course of human history, Quake Live’s book report is just one game-browser page long. Generally, scrolling through it yields one or two premium/pro mode matches — which, far more often than not, are too underpopulated to actually get a match off the ground. Meanwhile, I tried starting a game of the Live-exclusive Freeze Tag mode, only for my server to get the cold shoulder for 15 minutes until it automatically shut down. The bottom line? There simply aren’t enough premium/pro players to make these things feasible.
Oh, but wait, Quake Live offers the option for Pros to invite five whole standard players to a pro/premium mode or map. Gee, that’s enough for nearly half a game! Thanks so much for that, id.
Free or Flee?
Quake Live is an excellent free experience, nailing the meat-and-potatoes basics of fleet-footed arena-based shooting without walling off anything truly essential. However, if you’d like to broaden your mode horizons and have the option to customize matches to your heart’s content, a $4/month Pro subscription is pretty much your only option. Just be prepared to sigh loudly as potential combatants opt to play yet another round of team deathmatch instead.
Spy Guy says: Far be it from me to complain about a setup where the free version is better than the paid one! Good old-fashioned Quake III may not be the shiniest shooter around, but it remains one of the best. Have you tried it? How do your twitch skills hold up after all these years?
