Ranking Id's Golden Age

Id software, the beloved pioneers of blowing shit up while rocking out to heavy metal. For decades they've been a leader in the first person shooter market and have become a household icon of the industry. From their attempt to port Super Mario Bros. 3 to DOS to the heavy metal album that is DOOM Eternal; Id has always been pushing gaming forwards in some way whether through technology, gameplay, or artistry. But from 1993 to 1997 Id was at their A game; churning out monster hit after monster hit. So after finally getting through the original Quake duology I decided to rank my favorites from this era that I consider their Golden Age. Some of it may be a hot take and some of it may not, but either way none of these games are bad, so keep that in mind.

Oh, and no Wolfenstein or the expansions for Doom and Quake. Wolfenstein is more of a maze game than what Doom and Quake are and it feels too different to properly rate. Also I feel adding the expansions takes away from the pacing of the original, especially with Final Doom and Thy Flesh Consumed. Oh, and I don't want to play Plutonia.

4. Quake II

It's not exactly controversial to say that Quake II is the end of Id's Golden Age. One of the company head's, John Romero, had left Id before this game was made after a falling out with the cyber-god we know simply as John Carmack. The problem is that Romero always had a certain style with his work and after he left that style left with him and the void left behind kinda shows. Quake II is expertly coded, fast paced, decently designed, has a killer heavy metal album, and has plenty of awesome weapons to wield. But it's nothing more than what you expected an Id shooter to be at the time, which was not the case when the original Quake came out, which I'll get to later. However while this placement isn't a hot take, one thing I disagree with folks on is those who claim Quake II has no style, Quake II has style. Problem is Quake II has Doom's style but they took out the demons and replaced them with techno-organic horrors, which is probably the only part of the game I liked.

Honestly Quake II started blending together into an unremarkable blob of "meh" by the midway point. There's nothing that makes individual enemies stand out with multiple versions of "giant buff man" used and I could not tell the difference for the life of me. I think one used a Chainsaw, another was a tank, and that's all I could tell you was different between enemies that weren't flying foes. Oh except for Iron Maiden's who are half naked women, and they stick out because half naked women. Compounding this issue was that Quake II's environments all blended together, to the point where I kept getting lost, which is an issue I never had with Doom asn. Honestly though, Quake II is still great and if this is the worst then it's all bangers from here.

3. DOOM (1993)

I said it was nothing but bangers and what's more bangin' than Doom, the classic that started it all. From the first guitar riffs of E1M1 you're going non-stop, every level is either something new or the challenge escalating with few dips. The weapons, with the exception of the pistol, are perfect; and circle strafing is perhaps the smoothest and most natural thing I've done in a game. There's nothing quite like kicking down the door and firing enough rockets, bullets, and shells to supply a platoon while simultaneously avoiding fireballs, targeting hit-scanners, and gliding around at Mach 5. There's a heavy metal dance in this game and it's one of the greatest feelings I've ever had in a game once I nailed it.

In my eyes Doom is almost perfect, and then Episode 3 happens and the game loses me. Doom runs out of tricks at this point and the gameplay gets a little tedious as the dev's clearly shrug and hold the baseline from Episode 2 but with worse level design. The escalation of challenge clearly ends at this point and even the game's final boss, the Cyber Mastermind, isn't as hard as the Cyberdemon was. It's a little sad because you get the BFG at this point but not even that can save Episode 3 from being the worst of the original Doom. That said, everything before then is practically a masterpiece so Episode 3's failures are forgiven and easily forgotten. But we should count ourselves lucky I'm not including expansions because Thy Flesh Consumed could have put this game lower than Quake II.

2. Quake

Yeah, Quake is better than Doom, bit of a hot take there but to be fair these two are close enough that their position's could change depending on what day it is. Sure Quake isn't as fast or heavy metal as Doom but the trade off is that it nails a Lovecraftian vibe and has great stop and go gameplay. Quake is slower, more methodical, and there isn't even a heavy metal soundtrack, instead being more ambient pieces that leaves a creeping feeling of dread. Quake truly emphasizes this with it's primary weapon, a grenade launcher perfect for corner bouncing to check if an area is clear. That said the thing that propels this game slightly higher than Doom is that it's one of the first true full 3D FPS' and the game that popularized the idea of 3D FPS'.  Honestly Quake is as important as Super Mario 64 and they came out in the same month, which is kind of insane to think about.

Really the only thing keeping Quake from Number 1 is the quality dip in the last 8th which makes Episode 4 an absolute chore to play. Unlike Doom's drop in quality however, Quake's drop actually does have a new idea, the slime. Fuck the slime. The slime does heavy damage, bounces around, is impossible to hit unless you're in kissing range and explodes on death meaning it'll probably kill you too. It's an enemy so bad that it makes Quake's quality dip more pronounced than Doom's but Doom's last's longer so they're still close to tied. And of course, you probably can guess which game out of Id's golden age I liked the most...

1. DOOM II: Hell on Earth

Yeah, Doom II may not be the most revolutionary game, more of a refinement of Doom than a whole new game. But the refinements made in Doom II propel it above Doom and ensure that this series lives on to this day. It's faster, bloodier, with way more enemies, and a soundtrack that's more than just two riffs away from a Metallica lawsuit. While there is a quality dip in the middle, the game picks up in the home stretch to deliver an ending that will leave you satisfied as you pump the final Rockets into the Icon of Sin's skull (or wall hack and kill John Romero). The new enemies and the new gun, the Super Shotguin, make Doom 1 feel incomplete by comparision and therefore harder to play.

The other thing that makes Doom II a classic is the modding scene, which is excellent and goes oh so farther that one can imagine. Folks made a legit Sonic fangame out of Doom and then made that game into a kart racer and that's the tip of the iceberg. While Quake does have a modding scene it doesn't seem to be as vibrant or well loved as Doom, and Doom II is the preferred game for many of these mods with it's updated weapon sandbox and new enemies. If the mods are any indication, out of all these games, Doom II will truly stand the test of time; adding many hundreds more hours with mods like Project Brutality and Doom Zero just to name a few.

But no matter how you shake it, Id's Golden Age left us with a dearth of excellent shooter's and revolutionized the genre. Absolute classic's that have largely stood the test of time far better than contemporaries did. First Person Shooter's were for a while called Doom clone's for a reason and every game wanted Quake's throne for that same reason. Picking which one I like the most was like picking my favorite kid (except Quake II). If you have a PC you need these games in your collection even if you don't care for shooter's. Sadly the only ones easily available are the Doom games but Quake 1 and II are on Steam and GOG if you're willing to find a good engine (Quakespasm for 1, Yamagi for 2) and get your hands on the OST which is for some reason a separate download.

If you have a different order let me know in the comments and stay tuned for... Half-Life.