Shame About The Multiplayer...
Anyone who remembers Quake 3 Arena back when it was released in 1999 knew it for one particular reason: multiplayer. Quake 3 thrived on the network based capabilities of computers of the time and anyone familiar with the Sega Dreamcast would've told you that the ability to play anyone in the world on Quake 3 played a large part to its success. So it is a wonder how Bullfrog were able to maintain a quantitative level of Quake 3 Arena's enjoyment with its semi-remake in the form of Quake 3 Revolution.
This new edition of Id's famous shooter features a revamped campaign mode, a compiled series of maps, weapons and game modes (including those from the Team Arena expansion pack) and four player splitscreen play complete with AI controlled bots. Since the online play is obviously lacking, there is much more cumbrous accentuation into the single player modes of Quake 3.
Revolution's campaign mode plays like the original Arena in that levels are spread out by tiers and you eventually progress to opponents of the highest skill. Instead of deciding who you want to play as at will though you're given a specific list of characters each with their own specific stats as to how much health/ammo/armour they can have, how much damage they can deal, etc.
Eventually as you win levels your stats and appearance is updated to present the progression of your character in the arenas of the Vadrigar, Quake 3's end boss. The missions are also different too with one flag handicap CTF games, elimination matches and endurance rounds making up the numbers in Quake III Revolution's campaign.
The changes are a merriment on the whole but they literally serve the same purpose in preparing you for the multiplayer fields to demonstrate your hard earned skills from practice. To an extent, this is still possible through the four player splitscreen as well but only provided you can facilitate four controllers, a multitap and a gang of friends willing to play with you. Although four people obviously aren't great numbers, the levels can be filled equally with CPU controlled bots in true Timesplitters diction.
All the same modes can be played in four player splitscreen and it can also serve as a singleplayer free mode for extra practice when your friends aren't around. Quake's gameplay core is a tense, reflex dependent FPS. There are dozens of mouth-watering guns like the sharpshooter's railgun, the spray frenzy plasma rifle and Id's good 'ole up shotgun, but there are also loads more ways to die.
With Quake 3 Revolution if each death isn't satisfying in the bloody sense then chances are you have the gore lock on as everything explodes into a bloody pulp and it is part of the reason why the game is so bizarrely entertaining. Combine this with a fantastic industrial soundtrack by Frontline Assembly and Sonic Mayhem and the atmosphere is set, especially with the high quality coloured lighting effects, fog and gothic designs Id developed in the first place.
While the visuals pound out at sixty frame per second during most of play, it suffers from some drastic slowdown on occasion which carries the gameplay down along with. Also the controls for Quake 3 are appalling thanks to a lack of auto-aim and imprecise camera movement, baffling considering everything else in Quake 3 Revolution is optimised properly for Playstation 2. Strangely there is no keyboard or mouse support either to use instead. Yet, in consideration, these are minor blemishes to an otherwise solid product.
Ofcourse had you played any other version of Quake 3, you might be left disenchanted by the indecent neglect of the online moods and while this technically isn't Bullfrog's fault it does make Quake 3 alot less fun to play standalone. It is clear Bullfrog have had a stab at fixing this delicate issue however they haven't done enough. The controls are frivolous, the frame-rate so-so and the load times are nugatory based on how long it actually takes to load each level!
The campaign is still short and repetitive much like it was on Dreamcast and without the online play to support it there is a wonder how long you'll keep playing even if the four player splitscreen modes are solid otherwise. But with that said, Quake 3 Revolution is still an unalloyed release, but only due to how richly polished its gameplay concepts and presentation are, and only just.