QuakeCon 2016 is underway, and the trailers are flying fast and, inevitably, furious. We've already seen Prey, the new Doom DLC, and now it's time to point your trembling eyeballs at the debut Quake Champions gameplay trailer.
It's been a long time since I played Quake 3: Arena, but this sure looks to me to be a very similar sort of experience: Fast, high-flying, and boasting a slightly-silly lineup of gun-toting weirdos.
“We’re focusing on pure Quake gameplay,” id Software's Tim Willits said during the QuakeCon presentation. To Willits, the core components of a Quake game are: player movement and speed, rocket jumps, and no weapon loadouts. The lack of weapon loadouts in particular got Willits animated. “If you want a gun, you go pick it up!” he shouted. “You time the pick-up right, or you kill an opponent and take it. That’s how you get a gun in a Quake game!”
Speed and rocket jumps make an appearance as well. The footage shows a player bunny hopping and rocket jumping around the stone walkways of a cathedral, and it's, well, extremely fast.
In addition to different class skills, some classes will be faster than others. “The classes only add value to gameplay,” Willits said. The team started with a really great Quake game, he says, and then added depth and nuance with character classes. For team matches, character selection is also meant to add a layer of strategy.
Quake Champions is expected to begin closed beta testing sometime next year. That's still a good distance away, but you can sign up for future updates at quake.com.
Additional reporting by Ian Birnbaum.
