Meet The Bad Guys
of Quake

by Irwin Fletcher

Let's Get Ready to Rumble!

From doggies to monkeys to giant abominable snowmen, Quake has many various, entertaining enemies. Quake is one of the first 3D shooters to have fully rendered polygonal enemies. Add a complex AI and you've got a real fight on your hands. The baddies listed here are but a brief sampling of the creatures you can encounter throughout the game. All of these enemies are roughly in order of appearance

This attractive character is your generic goon; not very smart, but he does carry a big gun. Every single level contains more and more of these bad boys. Weapons like the nail gun take care of these wimps in a matter of seconds. They do have a tough hide to the lesser weapons, though. They can take a shotgun blast to the stomach, fall over, and still stand up at take more punishment.




The next enemy you'll meet on the first level are the rabid dogs. This cute doggie is one case where his bite is worse then his bark. They'll come out of nowhere and charge straight at you. They're quick and agile, so you have to take careful aim. Make sure to take out this puppy before he gets close enough to take you out.




Another enemy you'll encounter quickly is the murderous chain saw maniac. If you get too close and he hits you with his chain saw, you can kiss your but goodbye. Then again, don't think you'll be safe at a distance either. This scary fellow has one hand free which he uses to lob grenades at you. They take a lot of punishment, too. you've got to be really skilled to take out this enemy without a scratch. Then again, he's only the tip of the iceberg.




This enemy appears to be a cross between The Maxx and some sort of deranged primate. These jumpy guys will hop around the screen, getting closer and closer, until they rip your throat out. Their claws are sharp and do a lot of damage. Best approach to these guys is to run backwards as you shoot, you don't want to get too close.




Yet another one of The Maxx's children appears to be the abominable snowman. This guy is like an oversized version of the monkey, and a lot meaner. He can not only come at you an crush you beneath his giant limbs of death, but also shoot a lightning bolt from what appears to be his chest(I hope it's not lower). This guy takes a licking and keeps on ticking, so watch out. If you dare try to play in nightmare mode, you may encounter three or four of these guys together on the later levels.




This devil is one evil character that you would not like to meet in a dark alley. He is the final boss of the first scenario of Quake. Really huge and scary, this guy will throw fireballs that kill you in one hit. It doesn't .help that he is both impervious to weapons and as big as a house. The only way to beat this guy is to get up to the second level of his little fortress, lower the two rods on either side of him, then step on the platform that electrocutes him to kingdom come. My only question with this enemy is, why, if you are almost invincible, would you keep, in your layer, the one thing that can destroy you. Achilles never walked around with a sign pointing to his ankle! It makes no sense. Oh well, food for thought. . .




Next in line is our little parade of evil are the slimes. This character may just be the weirdest of them all. It took us five minutes just to figure out what the heck it was. All this amorphous little guy does is jump at you in the hopes of giving you a head butt. He's quick and hard to spot, so be on the lookout for this character. Seems like the folks at iD must have thought he would be an easy character to make, so they just threw him in.




When you first see the knight, you think he is just another skeleton(not listed). Unfortunately, you're wrong. This bad boy make the skeletons look like girl scouts. Meaner, faster, and stronger, the knight is a hard guy to encounter. Instead of fighting dragons and saving damsels in distress, all this medieval character wants to do is chop off your head. Chivalry is as dead as a doornail.




The final character that we will show you appears to be result of human-spider gene splicing. Truly a freak of nature, the spider will throw fireballs at you non-stop. If you think you can just avoid them, I'm sorry to say that you are mistaken. This model of fireball is heat seeking. Bummer, huh? Facing one spider is hard, but facing two or three is darn near impossible. If only you had some Raid. . .




Well folks, that is but a brief listing of some of the enemies that you can encounter in Quake. Some of the other creatures include ghosts(that look like snakes), skeletons, and zombies. Ghosts look cool, but are rather easy to destroy. They walk through wall and shoot what seems to be tracer rounds. When they die, they do a hilarious plummet into the ground, face first. The skeletons are just a weaker form of the knight. The zombies throw pieces of themselves at you, accompanied by a lovely squishing noise. Zombies can only be destroyed by explosive weapons(grenade and rocket launcher), making them a tough opponent when you're out of ammo. Never fear gentle reader, there are many more enemies then this, so strap on your nail gun and leave your BFG behind, it's party time.

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