Quake III: Arena

Description

The third installment in the Quake series is a departure from the previous games in the series, focusing exclusively on multiplayer arena fighting with no story-driven singleplayer part. This puts the game in direct competition with Epic Games, which did the same thing with the contemporary Unreal Tournament.

During the offline portion of the game, the player takes on the role of a character of their choosing and competes against AI-controlled opponents in a series of one-on-one and team-based tasks. These challenges gradually increase in level of difficulty. The earlier games in the series were noted for their predominance of shades of brown and grey; however, this new installment in the series features colors and an overall design that are significantly brighter than those of the prior games in the series. A gauntlet (melee attacks) and a machine gun serve as the spawn weapons for the player. Other weapons in the player's armory include a shotgun, plasma rifle, lightning gun, rocket launcher, railgun, and BFG. Some of these weapons are new, while others are old but have been revamped. The amount of damage dealt, the amount of time required to reload, and the ability to hit-scan adversaries are only some of the benefits that come with each weapon.

In addition to health bubbles, complete sets of armor and shards of armor, the renowned Quad Damage power-up, ammo, and several specialities such as Mega Health, Haste, Invisibility, a strong Battlesuit, and more can be found across the many arenas. It is well-known for having a high degree of freedom in mobility, just like the other Quake games. Skillful players can quickly navigate different regions of the map by employing techniques such as rocket jumping, strafing, and circle hopping. The game is faster than the previous installment of the series, Quake 2, although it is still slower than the original Quake. Not everything was preserved; for example, the ability to perform a double leap, which was present in earlier titles, was taken out and replaced with a different trick.

The single-player component is merely a distraction for the online multiplayer choices, which include a variety of games such as duel, team deathmatch (TDM), capture the flag (CTF), and others. As was the case with Quake II, the original version of the game, referred to as "vanilla," was eventually modified by the player community to include brand-new tournament features (such as voting, referees, banning, and netcode updates). These additions were made because the game was used in professional Pro Gaming tournaments for almost ten years.

Tin box packaging is the only distinguishing feature between the standard version of Quake III: Arena and the restricted Elite Edition.