I've waited, and waited, and WAITED, since the release of the Closed Beta for the game to finally be in a state where I could recommend it.

Now is that time.
-------------------

For many months from the closed beta to Early Access (and even probably until earlier this year), this game has suffered everything from poor networking, bad balancing, mechanics not functioning properly (tele-rockets to name one), and even for a while framerate being tied to the amount of bandwidth you can send the server (resulting in rubberbanding I haven't seen anywhere else in my life).

Now I think the game is finally in a state where balance is fairly good, framerate is really good(on a RX 480/Ryzen 1600/16gb PC), and the networking is at least decent. I have, however, suffered from being connected to servers that are further away than I would like, resulting in ~120 ping, which can really ruin a game.

The Game:
The game itself is your typical Quake Arena/ Deathmatch shooter. Tightly flowing maps, bunny-hopping, weapon drops, and various item/power-up pickups. If you've played any Quake game, especially 3/Live, then you've played this.

What makes this one different, however is the addition of character abilities.
Included in the game are a line-up of characters from iD/Bethesda properties, characters created from those universes, and just all-new character period, each with their own lore/ backstory.
With this characters are their own unique abilities, kind of in the vein of a hero shooter like Overwatch, Paladins, etc.
These abilities don't act like Ults(Ultimates), however, but as one-of-a-kind weapon each character gets, with a fairly fast cooldown to help distinguish it further from an Ult.

This can range anywhere from B.J. Blazco's ability to Dual-Wield for a short time, to Doom Slayer's ability to activate "Berserk" mode and get powerful, fast melee, to even Sorlaag's ability to vomit poison.

So far the game only has a handful of modes such as Deathmatch, TDM, Sacrifice (pickup dead body items to score), and Insta-gib, along with a ranked 2v2 mode, and a ranked 1v1. There are also custom games too.
You might have noticed I did not mention bots.
That's because this game doesn't have any, and I've not done any research to figure out if it's planned or not.

The Free-2-Play Model:
When this game comes out of EA it will be comepletely free to play. The catch is, that you only get one character, and one character only, only to get more unless you pay for their in-game currency (which is NOT earnable), buy the champion pack to get all characters present and future ($30, not that bad), or to earn "Favor" (the earnable currency) in order to purchase a 24-hour trial of the character of your choosing, which costs around 5000.

Having only BJ and Ranger (BJ from a Humble Bundle), I can say this really isn't that bad. The characters aren't too different enough that if you don't have one, your play is going to suffer. Even Ranger and BJ are incredibly powerful, and I've wrecked up a storm in the 3 hours I've done so far on Steam.

The Favor to rent new character is stupidly easy to get too. Each match gets you ~700+ favor, so you're looking at maybe 7 matches to get a character IF YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY AWFUL. Leveling up garners you ~2,000 favor and there's loads of things that help to get more. If you actually like the game (as in, enough to play at least an hour or two a day) then you can easily make all of that in no time.

There are also lootboxes in this game, which might be where you want to spend your favor instead if you don't care as much about characters. The lootboxes in this game are all strictly cosmetic; each character has about 3-4 seperate outfits they can wear (with unlockable accessories), on top of colored skins, and unlockable weapon models for each weapon type (for example, Quake 1 rocket launcher, DOOM 2 Super-shotgun, Quake 3 Plasma Rifle (for nailgun)).
If you're worried about feeling like a noob with just Ranger (or if you buy one of the $5 character packs they sometimes come out with), just trick him out. Almost all of the cosmetics in this game are super badass.

I think one I hit about 10 hours I'll probably sell-out and get the character pack if the game still holds me.
It's super fun and so easy to get into; I recommend just trying the $5 pack if you're kind of on the edge with whether to get it, or to the very least waiting anywhere between the next 6 months-1 year for the game to finally release as Free-2-Play.

Extra:
Level-design is pretty damn good, the art is awesome (lovecraftian Quake 1 style with dynamic set pieces in the map), the sounds are very high quality, sound DESIGN is really good (as it's very important in a Quake game), and killing is very fun and chunky.

All-in-all, I'd say I like it more than Quake 3 as far as Quake MP goes.
Here's hoping we eventually get a singleplayer Quake reboot.

I've waited, and waited, and WAITED, since the release of the Closed Beta for the game to finally be in a state where I could recommend it. Now is that time. ------------------- For many months from the closed beta to Early Access (and even probably until earlier this year), this game has suffered everything from poor networking, bad balancing, mechanics not functioning properly (tele-rockets to name one), and even for a while framerate being tied to the amount of bandwidth you can send the server (resulting in rubberbanding I haven't seen anywhere else in my life). Now I think the game is finally in a state where balance is fairly good, framerate is really good(on a RX 480/Ryzen 1600/16gb PC), and the networking is at least decent. I have, however, suffered from being connected to servers that are further away than I would like, resulting in ~120 ping, which can really ruin a game. The Game: The game itself is your typical Quake Arena/ Deathmatch shooter. Tightly flowing maps, bunny-hopping, weapon drops, and various item/power-up pickups. If you've played any Quake game, especially 3/Live, then you've played this. What makes this one different, however is the addition of character abilities. Included in the game are a line-up of characters from iD/Bethesda properties, characters created from those universes, and just all-new character period, each with their own lore/ backstory. With this characters are their own unique abilities, kind of in the vein of a hero shooter like Overwatch, Paladins, etc. These abilities don't act like Ults(Ultimates), however, but as one-of-a-kind weapon each character gets, with a fairly fast cooldown to help distinguish it further from an Ult. This can range anywhere from B.J. Blazco's ability to Dual-Wield for a short time, to Doom Slayer's ability to activate "Berserk" mode and get powerful, fast melee, to even Sorlaag's ability to vomit poison. So far the game only has a handful of modes such as Deathmatch, TDM, Sacrifice (pickup dead body items to score), and Insta-gib, along with a ranked 2v2 mode, and a ranked 1v1. There are also custom games too. You might have noticed I did not mention bots. That's because this game doesn't have any, and I've not done any research to figure out if it's planned or not. The Free-2-Play Model: When this game comes out of EA it will be comepletely free to play. The catch is, that you only get one character, and one character only, only to get more unless you pay for their in-game currency (which is NOT earnable), buy the champion pack to get all characters present and future ($30, not that bad), or to earn "Favor" (the earnable currency) in order to purchase a 24-hour trial of the character of your choosing, which costs around 5000. Having only BJ and Ranger (BJ from a Humble Bundle), I can say this really isn't that bad. The characters aren't too different enough that if you don't have one, your play is going to suffer. Even Ranger and BJ are incredibly powerful, and I've wrecked up a storm in the 3 hours I've done so far on Steam. The Favor to rent new character is stupidly easy to get too. Each match gets you ~700+ favor, so you're looking at maybe 7 matches to get a character IF YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY AWFUL. Leveling up garners you ~2,000 favor and there's loads of things that help to get more. If you actually like the game (as in, enough to play at least an hour or two a day) then you can easily make all of that in no time. There are also lootboxes in this game, which might be where you want to spend your favor instead if you don't care as much about characters. The lootboxes in this game are all strictly cosmetic; each character has about 3-4 seperate outfits they can wear (with unlockable accessories), on top of colored skins, and unlockable weapon models for each weapon type (for example, Quake 1 rocket launcher, DOOM 2 Super-shotgun, Quake 3 Plasma Rifle (for nailgun)). If you're worried about feeling like a noob with just Ranger (or if you buy one of the $5 character packs they sometimes come out with), just trick him out. Almost all of the cosmetics in this game are super badass. I think one I hit about 10 hours I'll probably sell-out and get the character pack if the game still holds me. It's super fun and so easy to get into; I recommend just trying the $5 pack if you're kind of on the edge with whether to get it, or to the very least waiting anywhere between the next 6 months-1 year for the game to finally release as Free-2-Play. Extra: Level-design is pretty damn good, the art is awesome (lovecraftian Quake 1 style with dynamic set pieces in the map), the sounds are very high quality, sound DESIGN is really good (as it's very important in a Quake game), and killing is very fun and chunky. All-in-all, I'd say I like it more than Quake 3 as far as Quake MP goes. Here's hoping we eventually get a singleplayer Quake reboot.