Does quake 1 and 2 give any significant context for the story of quake 4?

[Red Cooter]

I want to play quake 4, but I feel like I may need to play 1 and 2 to better understand the context of quake 4's story. I tried playing 1 and 2 today, but I can't bear playing through them. I know quake 3 is irrelevant because I played it quite a few times back in its day and I know it barely has any story.

Would I miss anything important if I skipped the first two games and went ahead and played quake 4?

[Peking Duckman]

Nope. All of the Quake games are light on plot. Quake 1 is set in a different continuity where you jump through portals and fight Lovecraftian creatures. Quake 2 is the prequel to Quake 4 and involves space marines invading a planet inhabited by cyborgs, the Strogg. Quake 4 is set in the aftermath of Quake 2.

[Red Cooter]

So Quake 2 may be worth playing through, first.

[Sp4zzmatica]

Originally posted by Red Cooter:

So Quake 2 may be worth playing through, first.

Pretty much, yeah.

[Dhalamar]

The Quake games are kind of weird.

There's the original Quake which is it's own thing set in a more fantasy style setting and closely resembles Doom as far as gameplay.

Then there's Quake 2 which is a completely different game with the Quake name attached to it to help it sell.

Then there's Quake 3 Arena which is more along the lines or the orignal Quake, then there's Quake 4 that's a direct followup to Quake 2. lol

[Red Cooter]

I decided to play through Quake 1, since I discovered it has a patch that makes it playable. I'll play through the rest chronologically.

[LiokyWarrior]

quake ii>quake iv>quake>quake et>quake iii>quake live>quake champions

[Red Cooter]

I played through them all now. I must say that I didn't enjoy them as much as I enjoyed the doom franchise.

[Dhalamar]

Originally posted by stay 4ever Gaming:

Originally posted by Dhalamar:

The Quake games are kind of weird.

There's the original Quake which is it's own thing set in a more fantasy style setting and closely resembles Doom as far as gameplay.

Then there's Quake 2 which is a completely different game with the Quake name attached to it to help it sell.

Then there's Quake 3 Arena which is more along the lines or the orignal Quake, then there's Quake 4 that's a direct followup to Quake 2. lol

going by the different characters and the intro I always saw arena as it takes people from the ID multiverse(mostly quake but some doom and a fair few only seen in arena) so there for ties quake 1 and 2 as happening in two separate quake universes that do exist in parallel

Maybe they shoved that in for Q3A in hindsight. Maybe. But Quake 2 was originally meant to be an entirely new IP... it was just named Quake "2" to help it sell. That's why there's the completely different setting entirely, ditching the fantasy and going sci-fi and whatnot, and why it's immesenly more story driven.

Quake 3, for me, more resembles the original Quake by being much faster paced and much more arcadey in it's feel. That and the almost total lack of a story. There is one, but there's largely just one thing you've gotta do: go in and ♥♥♥♥ everything up. hehe

[PancakeWizard]

Play Quake 2 first, using the Quake 2 XP graphics engine mod. That's the ony one that comes before Quake 4 (which is a direct sequel).

[ImperiusDamian]

Quake 2 is the greatest game ever made in the history of the world. The End.

[Xautos]

Spoilers below:

Quake 2 sets it off, the Strogg are on the verge attacking Earth in some war the humans and Strogg have been fighting, the Human forces launch an all out attack on the strogg captial, one marine is in the center of it; Bitterman. Bitterman travels through a whole network of strogg infrastructure and stroggified humans all to assassinate the Makron on it's capital ship in orbit of the planet, meanwhile the Strogg are still fighting the human forces, it seems they were not defeated.

Quake 4 picks up from after Bitterman defeats the first Makron as the Human forces look to sack the entire planet. You now play as Kane, a new member of an elite squad sent to the planet in a new invasion, from there it's one disaster after another until a new Makron appears, Kane is subjected to the stroggification process after being captured by their leader, but the neurochip isn't active, so the strogg have no control over him (but in a passive way the chip helps decode the strogg language). This assimilation is also the slip up the human forces were looking for as Kane is sent in to the Nexus core to destroy the controller for all strogg forces, planet wide.

The whole invasion really hit the fan for the Human forces judging by how hard the Strogg are fighting on Stroggos, even when they are defeated.

Even with that Makron and Nexus taken care of, the job is not finished.

[matrixmod]

I like the whole alien species idea invading the earth and we invade theirs. Im no that old gamer so I couldnt understand why this series has to be a twitch shooter. I love Q4, Quake Wars ideas. I want more singleplayer Quake.

[sere]

Originally posted by imperiusdamian:

Quake 2 is the greatest game ever made in the history of the world. The End.

You are forgetting Quake 1.

[Xautos]

Originally posted by sere:

Originally posted by imperiusdamian:

Quake 2 is the greatest game ever made in the history of the world. The End.

You are forgetting Quake 1.

the first real 3d game i ever played was quake demo, watching the demo reel of this space marine shooting nails from this dual barrelled weapon and narrowly avoiding being hit by a flying bit of stone and almost being crushed by spiked walls. one of the first memories i ever had of a 3d game when i was young.

i play it these days and it doesn't hold a candle to more primitive 3d games like blood or doom. when quake 2 came me and my kid brother played quake 2 coop quite a bit, the whole thing was an adventure.