Скорошни рецензии на Sgt. Pepper

Gauntlet is a mediocre return to an epic franchise, with mindless gameplay, brain dead AI and cheap enemy tactics - the game is more frustrating then fun. The game is seemingly this deep almost 'Diablo-esque' return with the grimdark aesthetic and re-design to everything. Instead, it's shocking short and a bore to play through. It's "dear god I'm about to fall asleep" mindless.

Look, Gauntlet is one of those franchises with prestige - a lot of people find nostalgia in this series, and I do too. More so for the old one, the first actually. Some played Legends, I did as well and while those games are much older they still seem to have a mystique and charm to them that this game just doesn't. It feels and looks like a cheap cash-in, and the design is evident as this as well. The game offers a myriad of classes, and their embarassingly simple. Skills seem to boil down to 'kill everything on the screen' and the leveling up basically boils down to getting set skills - it's not a skill 'tree' more like a skill 'road'. It has no exits, you can't change course at all.

And it's short to boot. I was able to bumble my way through it with a friend in just 3 hours, and I'm sure we could've boiled that down to 2 had we not died in spots.
So on top of having no depth, being short as hell, and dead simple - it's expensive. It's $20. This game is downright insulting too with it's dead simple saturday morning cartoon plot, and the inclusion of an infinite mode just shows this games cracks even more. This isn't a game, this is a sleep aid.

Heavy Bullets is a trippy, nerve-wracking and abrassive rouge-likes I've ever played. Everything about the aesthetic, to the difficulty, to the sound design and graphics are abrassive while being unique and really pleasing to look at and experience. It's a feast for the senses as it is for the mechanics.

Heavy Bullets is the rougelike experience distilled to solid but simple mechanics and an equally simple premise. You're tasked with resetting the mainframe controlling the security systems of ... wherever in the hell you are, whilst dodging death and polygonial creature alike.
There's one essence of permanency and that's in the money - you gain money from fragging monsters or contending with any of the rogue turrets or anything else you encounter in the maze - you can bank this for future attempts. There's also items like Life Insurance and Last will that'll perserve your items for the next run. It's very sparse on items but thwat's their serves their purposes well and keeps the loot pool from feeling overcrowded - a problem I find with many other games of this type.

A big factor of games like this is also the difficulty, as of writing I haven't been able to conquer the maze but Iv'e gotten consistant at staying alive and banking money and buying suitable upgrades at around 4 hours of play-time so far, with my practice backing me up I haven't found many areas where the game was unfair. It's balanced as hell on top of it.

The biggest detractor I can see is the high price point, at $10 the game still amounts to 8 levels in total and I've seen speedruns totaling out to mere minutes. It's absolutely a game recommended for those vested in the genre, or those willing to pick it up on sale - of which I had. Totally recommended under the circumstance of a sale, hell - I'd recommend it if your just looking for something new at all.

Breach and Clear, whilst 'looking' like a deep and tactical close quarters type of game - it's in fact a very bland, medicore mobile title.
It sure walks and talks and looks like it could very well be the ArmA \ XCOM crossover you never knew you wanted, but quite frankly, you don't want this anyway.

First thing I'll recognize is the presentation. As already stated, it looks like mobile Rainbow Six, but in reality it plays like a very slow and incredibly easy tap-a-thon before long. Tactics invole line of sight and nothing more. The Skills System is incredibly simple and stats seemingly don't impact the preformance of my units at all. Phases can be re-loaded and play out nearly identically, giving the game little depth. You can move, shoot, use equipment, or put someone in Overwatch to look over a hallway. You can stack behind cover but it's a dice roll based on if you'll take damage, weather your behind steel grating, concrete or wood.

Any opposition involved emploies very little actual strategy, and seemingly stand in hallways or open in cover to get tagged by your teammates or you. Weapons are varied on the surface but again - they dont' REALLY impact the game all that much. Things go from 'so easy I'm actually going to fall asleep' to 'so easy I may actually go and re-organize my desk' in very little time.

It's a mobile game, plain and simple - and while on those grounds I see a game that could make even the shortest bus rides a bit less painful but nothing more. I don't see a reason at all I'd wanna pay even more on the same machine that can play Rainbow Six: Siege and ArmA. This game is meant to be played while takin a dump, nothing more.

Star Control is the best 'not Star Trek' game of all time. While your not helming the Enterprise and exploring vast galaxies for the Federation, you're doing much of the same - with all the heart, pulp and quirkyness you'd come to expect from a game of a game like Star Control.
While their arent any Ur-Quan or Spathi to speak of - the Scryve and Tywom did the jobs just as well, and that's the biggest sticking point about Origins - it's an excellent follow up. While it's not a 'tried and true' game or a follow up to SC2 it's good on it's own merits and I'm going to touch on it as such. So no, I'm not touching on the lawsuit, cause I'm not gonna pretend to understand copyright law and that doesn't even impact the game anyway, it's irrelvent.
The point being - WHILE this game ISN'T Star Control "3" it's a DAMN fine game, and more then worthy of it's title and prestige. I had no prior experience playing anything Stardock had made. I'm aware of Sins of a Solar Empire and GalCiv, but when I saw them taking the helm for Star Control I had to see what would happen.
It's a lot like watching a promising band do covers of songs you know, but you don't know their own material - that was me. I'd never played a Stardock game until now, and the level of polish and quality on display is insane.

The game does retread a lot of similar ground (by necessity) with an introduction tasking you with helming the greatest ship ever made by the Human race to investigate some alien happenings on the nearby Moon of Triton, and from there the avenues open and the galaxy blooms. While it isn't an open world (galaxy rather) "explore-em-up" like No Mans Sky or a grand strategy game like GalCiv or a 4x like Civ - it's very much something all it's own.
Saying that - if you're expecting a large sprawling grand space strategy game on pair with other Stardock offerings, you're going to be dissapointed. Given it's unique nature, their aren't many games to emulate it's style, other than itself (and it's 'ancestors' like Starflight).

Star Control Origins is a pulpy, quirky, and memorable as it's predecessors. It falls through the cracks of normal conventions - it's not really an RPG but it kinda is? I guess?
It's neither really an Action game and I wouldn't call it an Adventure game or a Strategy game. It is truly unique.
It's very much like playing an episode of Star Trek, with all the Ship stand-off fights and 'Away Missions' you'd expect.

And with recent hot fixes, the game has gotten better and will get better given the rate of things. At time of writing the RUs have been balanced to where you can complete the game without ONCE landing on a planet (other tham for Quests or various plot points) just by hunting down other ships. This was the biggest negative sticking point against it, and even so, I never found them to be that much of a pain anyway but it is worth mentioning.
The second after that is the tedium, given that critiscm, there IS a kernal of truth. But I thought the gameplay was solid enough, and the options varied enough to keep me from feeling bored.
Sick of tossing Red Shirts to the wind to collect those Glueballs? go kill some drones or blow up some Scryve. Sick of kicking the crap out of the Scryve? do some Quests. Now with the RU balancing, you're never forced into doing anything and the pace is much better.
This by exention helps you collect upgrades and fill out a Fleet much faster. This was my sole sticking point against the game, and while I never found it to be TOO much of a shot to the foot - I found myself getting stuck and running out of fuel more often than not, or running around without an escort.
Now, I've got an entire armada of fighters to stand up against the Scryve and more RUs then I can toss a Conc Rock at.

All in all, to those seeking out a quirky and memorable space adventure you're gonna find a ton to like in Star Control. It's funny, it can be dark and it can be weird and memorable all at the same time.
It's very much a 'modern classic' and wears it's influence on it's sleeve.
And most of all - it's a very worthy successor. I eagerly await to see what else is in store for Star Control Origins.

As far as the ideas and philopshies Stanley Parable brings to the table are very clear cut and bring a lot of food for thought, I can't recommend it as a game.
There's just too little actual gameplay to this. The idea presented is to 'break' from the game's preset destinations and disobey the Narrator - at least it's heavily implied by the otherwise genuinely good writing, excellent narration and signposting. Again, that'd be fine if their wasn't so little 'game' on offer here.
I absolutely see the merit in 'walking simulators, by most standards I'd guess my favorite game of all time - Myst - would be catagorized as such. I also realize that Myst is a love it or hate it type of game, and I understand the duality of the two. I love Myst, I didn't really dig Stanley Parable.

As the name implies, you are a man - a man named Stanley. Stanley's a hard worker and doesn't do much else other than mash keys on a keyboard all day (huh. Meta.) until he's told to stop.
One day, the orders stopped and Stanely froze, unsure. After unsurely milling over what to do, Stanley leaves his office to find that it's entirely deserted and thus the game begins.
The story is reactive and more specifically the narrator. This guy has chops, no doubt. To boot, the game is genuinely written well. It's witty, it's quick and dry just like I dig it.
The various endings all present ideas related the games central themes on display. It's linear and 'railroady' by necessity. It's a very 'rigid' experience, but it's also a very smart experience. Everything is placed and made with a lot of care and attention, and in those regards the Stanely Parable absolutly excels.

The problem for me personally is that it's length and price and lack of worthwhile gameplay. There aren't any puzzles, there isn't even any challenge as failure is dictated with an ending as well. There's no hazards to avoid or anything to do other than maybe push a button or react to what the narrator is doing.
Or standing in a closet, which I will admit, made me laugh.

I don't hate this game, oh not at all! I love that it's a deconstruction of not only modern games or modern storytelling but you could apply this to a lot of things like the idea of free-will.
I just wish It wasn't $16 for 2 hours of what you could also distill into a YouTube video.
I get that's the point, but in the end I still spent $16 for 2 hours. Sale? maybe. Full price? hell no. And even then you have to really know that this is a very light game.
Oh and a bunch of meme achievements.

Doom is one of if not THE most legendary games in existance. Flat out. It's got a thriving mod scene and community even today, and that's impressive as hell for a game that's two decades old.
Doom never had much in the way of official expansions other than Master Levels.
Now, the red thumb may engrage you but allow me to explain.

Doom kick's ass.
These levels? suck ass.

There are no new enemies, or weapons or anything of the sort - just a set of new levels for Doom 2. No more. No less. Some of the maps have a loose narrative surronding them, and these are the stand outs given that the authors put a lot more time into them given that a fan level (or set of fan levels) has any story at all. The Dr. Sleep levels are the best of the whole pack, with Titan Manor and Titan being good editions to that. Paradox reminds me of a Doom 2 Earth level and is designed very much in the same style - not just aesthetics. Attack and Caynon feel like Final Doom and Doom 2 leftovers and are just too bland and unintersting to comment on much further.
That's literally all the pack has going for it. 8 out of the 21 maps I'd consider playing at all, and the rest are downright amatuerish. These are loaded with monsters, keys are hidden INSIDE secrets and the design is stuck on a rollercoaster. One minute you're getting hounded by Arch-Viles in a tiny hallway the next you're running across a barren field doing nothing other than waiting for slow elevators and punching the air.

Master Levels is amaturerish, gimmicky and most importantly just flat out badly designed for the most part. The real stand-outs do deserve praise, and are worth playing on their own.
Not to mention it uses an ancient old frontend in DOSBox - and getting it to work with a modern source port like gzDoom is needlessly annoying.
For the most part, that's how I'd rate Master Levels. Needlessly annoying.

Day of the Tentacle is one of the most downright ingeninesly designed adventure games I'd ever played. It also helps that the art-style is unique and a pleasure to look at - even now, with all the characters having really singular and distinct designs, and idiosyncratic personalities. I'd say that - personally - I find this to be the best LucasArts adventure title. Up against Monkey Island, Full Throttle, The Dig, Loom and Indiana Jones - I honestly think Day of the Tentacle is one of the best, if not THE best.

The game is a sequel (kinda) to Maniac Mansion, and follows the out-of-the-ordinary adventures of one the original characters - Bernard, alongside his two allies Laverne and Hoagie. Bernard is a dork - almost to the degree of a cartoon, as Hoagie is in his slow dimwitted response to the world around him and Laverne's unnervingly hyper-analytical and just downright creepy nature.
The game opens outisde Dr. Edisons Hotel\House abomination with Pruple and Green Tentacle outside an out-flow pipe with Purple debating on drinking the run off.. for.. some reason.
The run off mutates him and gives him arms - thus inspiring him to run-off to conquer the world.
The kicker is, he can.
Later that day (I assume) a letter arrives from Green at the Apartment of whom our Heroes share and details the events, and brings to light Dr. Ed's intention to kill both Tentacles Bernard springs into action and declares his intent to retrun as the others relunctently join.
After you arrive - you split up and begin the adventure proper.
I'm not going to delve too deeply into the story - as that's pretty much 95% of the game.

All I'm going to say is - it only gets better from there. The dry and Hanna Barbara inspired structure and pacing the writing - not to mention the 'pacing' of the jokes' is all enough to keep ya wanting to play.
The game's best strength is it's writing - the dry humor is excellent and the overacted cartoony stuff is kept in pace and is executed perfectly, never getting grating or outstaying it's welcome when it leans on the heavy or the cartoon side of things. It keeps a good balance.

The puzzle design leads behind the writing in the fact that it RUNS with the time travel plot as you sift items from one character to another to progress, and how things will change between each 'Day' or time period to reflect past or future actions. Not only is it just good design to keep things consistant, it's also good signposting for how to progress. The game isn't cheap on hints and the Remastered options allow you to use one - or switch it off if you wanna play old school.
The actual puzzles the first time around definetly made me stop and look over my notes but was nothing TOO difficult, with that being said I really do recommend you play without the hint system, as the actual hint's themselves are too much like a walkthrough in how blatently they tell you how to progress. Theres no moon logic at play here. Theres really not any pixel hunting either, which is - again a plus.

The actual 'Remaster' is servicable, but I don't really dig the 'smooth' look to everything. Nothing really has definition and everything looks 'blobby' and flat, one of the first things I swapped was the visuals. I feel the game's artstyle is actually hampered by the way this game looks - as opposed to Full Throttle where things were totally redrawn in greater fidelity. Here it looks like a filter, it looks cheap. The music and sound revamps are servicable enough but I opted for the classic music and sound setup as well. The new interface is also servicable but the verb menu is still more than adaquete. I felt as though the newer interface was more intended for the PS4\Vita versions of the game, but still, it's an option for those that want it (which I'm not knocking, I'm glad that it's an option to swap the features around - that's a total plus from me).

The game hasn't lost it's shine, it's funny, it's fun and it's memorable all on top of that. Totally, absolutely recommended - even at it's original price.

Quake is one of the most important games to the advancement of PC gaming during the 90s - to the point that many modern games owe their success to it. In fact, quite a few games came from the advancements in response to Quakes new technology - it being one of the first actually legitamate 3D games.
The first thing you're going to notice as many did back in the day, is just how GOOD this game looks, even now and yes even without a port - the game still looks fantastic in regular DOSBox too - but like many other iD Software titles this obviously isn't optimal. I'll get this out of the way now, yes - the game is missing the music, and yes it is fixable.
Yes, the game runs in a horrid config on DOSBox, and yes you can get a Source Port to fix BOTH those problems. If you already know what you're getting into - you can stop here, you're good to go.

Now for those that are playing Quake for the first time - this is regular iD Software fare. You get a smattering of weapons, play as a barrel chested Action Hero and get to frag unholy abominations with all sorts of kickass weapons. Like in line with it's bloody linage - you start with a weak starting Shotgun instead of a Pistol but it functions similarly. It's a fallback weapon in nature, alongside the Axe or Hatchet. Eventually you'll find a Double Barreled Shotgun, a Nailgun replacing the standard Minigun and Plasma Gun from Doom - all to a single super weapon, the Thunderbolt which - as it's name implies - fire's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ lightning.
How kickass is that?
Following the Doom formula you're set loose to blast Lovecraftian beasts following an experiment gone wrong involving portal technology - typical stuff. Setting foot through the slipgate you emerge in a world between worlds, a place between places and a generally pretty bad place. The objective obviously being to find the source of the freaks and put it down.
The premise isn't the draw here, but is just to keep some context in line with everything. The main draw is - of course, the gameplay and (at the time) graphics and (now, still) sound.

Quake is a wonderfully atmospheric game to play, and works well with the fast and frantic gameplay, as you skip around hellish Castles, blasting Knights born of dark magic and turning Zombies into pasta. You've got you're fair share of puzzles to solve, traps to navigate and keys to hunt for - it's still at it's core a game by iD and thus - is Doom-like in nature. But It's got such a great overall feel, and look and sound. It is absolutely miles beyond what Doom was - in all the right ways.
The sound and music is composed by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails - and what a grimy dirty matchmade in paradise. He also voiced the protagonist (voiced being a loose definition) and of course did the incredible music.
The metallic clangs, screams of agony, pangs of steel and whsipers of the damned are all amazingly immersive even today.
This game's sound design ALONE makes the hair on my next stand on end.
The music is another world entirely - from the first opening demo with the theme blasting on my speakers it was like looking into the future. The fuzz screeching into distance and that distorted Guitar riffing, the synths screaming out some kind of warning - it's all just sublime. The music is such an important asset, and really makes the game feel downright incomplete without it Even now, you GET what made people WANT Quake.

And that's all without touching on the multiplayer which was just as fast and frantic as the single-player was, and spawned hundreds of carrers in the industry and created entire new games based on the mods that this game spawned. Every gun has eb and flow, the maps are all built like demolition derby tracks with flow and very little stoppage - no doors or elevators, which is a detail I noticed about the game's maps and is just another thing I can't help but appreciate is the speed and frantic pace of the game - which is still unmatched in either Single Player or Multiplayer.

What can I say that hasn't been - it's one of the most important games ever created and it spawned tons of others in the process and advanced PC gaming as a whole YEARS. And ya know what? It's pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fun. It's really damn fun and that's all you honestly need. Totally, absolutely 100% recommended.

Fallout 4 is without a doubt the most disappointing game I've ever played. A game series built on the idea of giving you a world that pushed back when you shoved, not only that but 'how' you shoved and how much of an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you were\weren't.
Fallout 4 gives you a role to play, and lets you act out a role in what essentially is a 'movie world' that is - the game will play the same overtime and the outcomes are generally singular and static.
So what role are you given? Instead of Vault Dweller from the get go you play as a either a retired Army vet if you choose a dude, or a Lawyer if you pick a dudette, and this is the first thing that pissed me off. Instead of me filling out the character sheet - which was a LITERAL thing you did in Fallout New Vegas ("medical history" whatever) I'm given a character to play as which already strikes against a core pillar of Fallout's design. Not like it matters cause it's all to give lore and context to your character.

Regardless of who you pick, at some point during the introduction all hell breaks loose and the bombs start dropping, right after a convenient visit from a Vault-Tec associate. You and you're wife (or husband) sprint to the nearest Vault for refuge, and as we all know the Vault's are anything BUT just shelter and soon after your arrival are cyrogenically frozen for 200 years. During your time in the fridge you witness you're kid kidnapped and your wife (or husband) shot in the head. After the Vault's systems begin to fail you are released from your icy prison and set out to find your kid. I will admit, if it's anything Bethesda does really well it's opening chapters and Fallout 4's opening is pretty damn good, all things considered. The premise is setup and executed very well, and all the voice acting is pretty top notch - and that's not just here. For as awful as some of the characters are written, they're acted pretty damn admirably. Except the main character.
A good hallmark of an RPG is being able to easily implant yourself as your character, hence the name sake. While I like this in concept, the material for your character is written so poorly and following it's design ethos (singular and static) so strictly that it just reminds me how little choice I had in making my character.

After escaping the confines of the Vault you backtrack to the now 200 year old ruins of your old Neighborhood where you begin your search. After some more tutorial nonsense Codsworth points you in the direction of Concord - and this is where the game shows all of it's tricks. This game shows you everything it has to show within the first hour. Before arriving at the town you find Dogmeat, and the game runs you through it's companion system, which is largely untouched from the previous games although now anyone in your party gains total immortality (sans a few story-bits where it is possible to totally lose someone) and cannot be totally killed in combat. They are instead put into a 'down but not out' state which I hate. This is a Fallout game, where choices have consequences and the world is ruthless. If we get rushed by Raiders and a party member get's torn in half and I don't save for 8 hours then that's my fault.
Except you can't lose companions totally, they can be won back "Sims" style and join your party again, infinitely. Karma has no effect, cause Karma is missing entirely, which also means you can never be an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ either, which sucks cause that was some of the most fun in Fallout was being a total ♥♥♥♥ to people. So so far you can't be punished for being a bad actor, cause you're not even getting the choice in the first place.

By the time you get to Concord you're gonna notice that for the few Radroaches you've killed so far the combat in the game feels better than previous entries. It's much more visceral and doesn't have this loose, bulky or unconnected feeling. I always felt like the combat in New Vegas or Fallout 3 felt like playing an Oblivion 'gun mod'. I always felt like guns were staves or bows that "teleported" bullets under my crosshair, not to mention Melee weapons felt like using nerf bats, but thankfully they feel like actual weapons here. Once you're in Concord proper and begin wasting Raiders with Dogmeat, it starts to feel a bit like a proper Fallout game. I'll admit, by this point I was having a fair bit of fun.
After you clear the Museum of Freedom and meet Preston and his crew of Minutemen he tasks you with helping him out further, and unlike a Fallout game where you could decline and leave to strike it out on your own you're tasked with heading topside to the Roof to nab some Power-Armor from a crashed Vertibird to help dispose of a Deathclaw.
It's less than an hour in the game and you're already giving me an item that in the previous games required a Perk or was locked behind a Level restriction, not to mention a Minigun - and Miniguns in this game are some of the best, so much so after I got it I never stopped using it, but the Armor?
The Armor is insane - in a lot of ways. First off the good ways; it feels amazing to use and walk around in. You are just this lumbering tank of lead, you take no fall-damage and you get this badass voice modulator to boot - it just ticks all the boxes for me.
Okay, now the bad ways; this is what is normally end game loot in previous games given to you within the first hour and there are no downsides to not using Power Armor - and Fusion Cells can be picked from any multitude of places and altered to nearly never run out via a Perk.
After getting acclimated to your new Armor and spouting off the first Arnie one-liner that pops into your head the Deathclaw emerges from the Sewers - only to probably bug out or be tanked to death by you in the most unsatisfying gunfight in a game. After you deal with the giant lizard balloon animal, you return to Preston to mash through more forced dialogue to get pushed through the next quest in this little tutorial sequence and that's the Settlement building.

Now, granted, I've seen people do some kickass things in the Settlement builder. I've seen lots of really ♥♥♥♥♥♥' kickass things - but on the base level, the Settlements add nothing to the game and can be largely ignored as only a few quests require you to use them - in some cheap attempt to get you to properly use the tools no doubt. To put it simply - it's Minecraft by way of the Far Cry Level Editor.
Not the new ones, I mean like the old FC Editor on the Original Xbox. It's JANK, and the amount of items on offer are limited and really push you to furnish things with your own items, but see, I never did that cause the items I'd grab I'd immediately 'melt' down for junk to keep building Wasteland McMansions to keep filling with the same combinations of bed, chest and dresser - so they can be ignored by the fact the Settlement stat's do such a ♥♥♥♥ job of telling you what to do and how to improve conditions. Not to mention most of the areas on offer to build in will result in Settlements that Newton would probably take issue with. Suffice to say, I barely used the Settlement building.
Weapon and Armor modding got a bit of an overhaul and I personally loved throwing Bayonets on my Rifles or extra leather pouches on my jacket or throwing a Chain-wrap on my Baseball Bat - you can do all sorts, it's pretty awesome.

After you get done doing errands for Preston and his band of complaining NPCs you essentially are shown all that you'll see during the game. This loop of explore, scavange, fight, return is ALL the game consists of. This game cares so little about giving you choice or letting you act as your own character that it's downright linear. It has about as much character progression or as in line of an RPG game as Gears of War is for tactical shooting.
I can't honestly recommend Fallout 4 to anyone, under any real circumstance. For all the good it does do, it absolutely falls flat where it NEEDED to count.

Quake Champions is a game I was absolutely preparing to dislike and ignore, much in the same vain of Rainbow Six: Siege. And like time again - I'm impressed with the approach in some areas and absolutely flabbergasted and insulted in others, and totally lost as to what the future may hold for this game and who - if anybody - will stay around to play it. This is easily one of the hardest games I've ever recommended, much less critqued.

I saw the reveal at E3 and was shocked, a new Quake game? In (at the time) 2016?
Then I saw the inclusion of abilities and Hero mechanics and was absolutely slain and my interest was deadened. Although for some reason I had applied to join during the closed beta and have stuck with the game sense, given it's nature I want to support all the good in the game I can, and that's where I'll start.

For starters - the much touted abilities (sans a few notable exceptions - you know who I'm talking about) are not on the level of Overwatch's "press Q to win" design ethos. Visor MAY get wallhacks via his ability, but that won't mean anything if your aim is bad, or you expose yourself to someone with full stack and is just in the zone.
Nyx MAY go totally invisible and out of sight - but that won't matter if the guy playing her set's up in an area where she can get bullied by Rockets and the Lightning Gun cause she only has 100\75 stack (stack being a term for your total Health and Armor). The abilities feel like augmentations of a similar playstyle as opposed to the way they work in Overwatch or other hero shooters were the abilities take precdence over actual gunplay. That leads into my second point, the gunplay is still manically fun to play with - every gun has an eb and flow and a purpose, and the way Duels play it with it's patented method of mind-games and close combo-ed rounds. It may not totally equal Live or Q3A but it's damn close, as close as you're gonna get in a game in 2018.
Having an ability that helps you works as opposed to DOES the work FOR you. You still need to earn your keep.
That still doesn't discredit the fact that characters are seriously painful to fight against, and equally as unfun to play as such as Sorlag, Keel or BJ.
But it's pretty easy to see who is crutching and who is clutching - it just takes time. It doesn't discredit that there has to be some serious work on some characters.
A good team will more often then not, stomp an opposing team via smart placement, smart fighting and constantly denying the enemy weapons and stack and cooldown pick-ups, BUT, you're still going to get matched up against broken abilities and just need to bare it. The balance is 'only just' but not perfect in terms of Hero abilities, in a game with a large roster this may be fine, but in Quake it causes more headaches and divides amongst the community then any discussion due to the very nature of some of these players straight up muddying the established ruleset.
Passives on the other hand can set apart a character and really file out a playstyle. Ranger takes less self damage and really plays best as mobile as possible due to his unlimited speed cap and pretty 'middle of the road' stack. Stack is also different in the fact that no one players is on equal footing anymore and follow an almost weight-class system. Lighter characters have less armor or health to collect - or start with - and heavier characters move slower and can get pretty buff. Some will cry foul (I know I did), but for team-based modes it's gonna require a lot more thoughtful assessment of who is a target and who can be ignored and taken out later. I feel the numbers game doesn't differ SO much that it's a flat out slug (at least when Keel isn't around or when BJ isn't turning people into toast or Scalebearer isn't stomping on your head in an elevator).

Weapons feel as satisfying as ever given that all the main-lines (sans the Grenade Launcher now replaced with - in my opinion - the woefully inferior Tri-bolt) have returned with a few extras in the furn of a Super Shotgun acting as an upgrade to the regular Shotgun, and the Sniper Nailgun acting the same as the Heavy Machine Gun does as well, all replacing the orginals with harder hitting slower versions of the mainstays.
The Rocket Launcher, Railgun and Lightning Gun (at least when BJ isn't toasting you with it akimbo style) all return but the BFG and Plasma Gun (as an actual weapon, it returns as a skin) are absent for some reason. These are your main tools of trade in Quake - and are all amazingly fun to use and feel like seriously punishing dealers of death, espiecally the Rocket Launcher. Nothing beats a good Rocket Launcher.
Nothing.
As an extention of the gameplay, how are the maps? Well, their good. Pretty damn good - really fantastic in fact. They all follow a similar design to Live's maps or what you'd expect from an Arena FPS. No dead-ends, no delays in movement and almost following a 'race track' design which fits perfectly for this playstyle.
My only issue is that there is so few of them, along with gamemodes. TDM is fun and all, and I love Duels but - where's CTF? or Freeze Tag?

Now, what did I not like?
Well, beyond the characters themselves being annoying to fight against, many of them are cliche and annoying in a personal sense. Anarki is the culmination of MTV execs trying to come up with an 'anti-establishment punk' archetype through the scope of the 90s in 2018, and Slash is on the same bar. BJ screams like a stuck pig when he's shot, and his imitator doing his VA isn't that great. It doesn't sound like BJ, it sounds like some random programmer which it probably is. Strogg and Peaker don't look or act like Strogg would, they act like Borderlands characters if their trailer is any indication. Keel has some really out of place lines and he is overacted to the point of hilarity and Ranger is so woeful that I wish I could mute him like Doomguy is.

The Netcode is also pretty pitiful, I already touched on bots ruining the game for some in differing ways but it's starting to effect my time beyond simple connection issues. I've played more 3v3 or 2v2 or totally out of balance games then I had sat for 10+ minutes waiting BEFORE bots got added IN THE FIRST place.
Another thing I can't stand is HOW much it costs via the free currency to get a single Champion. As of writing I have 33 hours played on Steam and have only unlocked ONE character - Doom Slayer. The game's login system is pretty generous though with Premium Currency being dispenced as of the 7th day logging in.
Optimization is also pretty whack. I have a 1050 and a Ryzen 5, not killer by any stretch but at LOW I should not be getting this much micro-stutter and freezing. It's still playable mind you, but, man it loves to lock up for seemingly no reason.

Despite ALL that, do I recommend Quake Champions? Yeah, I do. A lot of issues still abound, and a lot of Quake diehards find a lot to scoff at and either share similar complaints or outright ignore it, but, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't having some of the most honest fun in a shooter - much less an Arena FPS.