Quake III Arena (Dreamcast)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 4.5 stars Outstanding
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 9.4 (4.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Jeff Gerstmann
• Reviewed on: 10/24/2000
• Updated on: 05/17/2006
• Released on: 10/22/2000
• Originally published on GameSpot: Quake III Arena (Dreamcast) Review

When it comes to first-person shooters, no company has been as prolific as the company that popularized the genre, id Software. From Wolfenstein 3D, up through the Doom series, and on through the Quake series, id is widely recognized as the center of the FPS universe. As is usually the case with PC to console first-person shooter ports, id's games weren't represented too well on the consoles. The console gamepad is largely to blame, as it simply doesn't offer the level of control that you get with the standard PC mouse and keyboard combo. So, if you're Sega, and you want to ensure that people will be happy with your upcoming version of Quake III Arena, what do you do? Yes, that's right, Sega already had a keyboard available, and with the release of Quake III, you can now pick up a mouse for your Dreamcast, giving you a significant advantage over gamepad-tethered players. Add to that the DC's innate online abilities, and you're left with a first-person shooter that finally stands up to its PC-based big brother.

While Quake III Arena's focus may be its multiplayer deathmatch component, it does have a single-player mode. When playing alone, you can go up against AI-controlled bots. The bots do their best to act like human players, and on the higher difficulty settings, they put up an excellent fight. Each bot has different characteristics that govern the way it fights. The portly biker chick Lucy tends to duck a lot. Xaero, a Zen master and the final boss of the single-player mode, is a master of the railgun. The single-player mode is a lot like the kind in an arcade fighting game, such as Mortal Kombat. You'll move through several different competitive tiers, each with different arenas and bots. At the end of each tier is a one-on-one showdown, and these fights take place in smaller tournament-style arenas. The Dreamcast release features most of the maps from the PC release, as well as some maps that are exclusive to the Dreamcast. The DC maps are easily as good as most of the original maps, and they work well with the game's four-player limit.

The single-player mode is fun up to a point, but Quake III Arena truly shines in the multiplayer department. The game is simple enough to give it a real "pick up and play" feel. You can play with up to four players in the split-screen mode, but doing so limits you to using the standard DC pad for control, since the mouse and keyboard each take up one controller slot. The multiplayer mode lets you set up a match in any of the game's modes, be it deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, or tournament. But playing the game in the split-screen mode isn't quite as rewarding as playing it online is.

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