Quake 3 Rocket Launcher
Lora Ceasor
The Grenade Launcher, often shortened to "GL", performs as its name implies; the grenades will explode if they hit a target or after a few seconds on the ground. Grenades can be used to Grenade Jump. The Grenade Launcher uses rockets for ammo. Unlike most other guns besides the Rocket Launcher, this gun will never switch automatically when the player runs out of ammo of all other guns.
I'm trying to understand the rocket launcher and how it works. There's things I'm just not getting. I've read the advice of shooting at people's feet, don't just hold down shoot - take your time, shoot where they will be but beyond that I haven't seen much...
I've been playing Quake much, with greater enjoyment than I used to. Compared to Doom, Quake just has really useful weapons. All of them serve a purpose, and none are redundant. I honestly cannot think of any criticism for them. The shotgun, is a pretty decent ranged gun, and good for a basic weapon. Even the Axe has it's use for pressing buttons and finishing off weakened enemies. The nail gun is good for smaller enemies and encounters, the super nail gun is great when facing a Shambler or Vore, the grenade and rocket launcher are both great weapons and tools (rocket jumping), and the Thunderbolt is the ultimate answer to crowds of tougher monsters like Spawn and Vores.
3) All the guns look almost identical. The shotgun barely looks like anything discernible at all. Same with the grenade launcher and rocket launcher. This is not helped by the issue mentioned in point#1.
As far as a comparison between the two arsenals insofar as their purposes and all that, honestly I feel like they're more or less on par. The Quake guns are essentially equivalents to the Doom variants, with the exception of the grenade launcher and the fact that Doom (classic) has no jumping, so no rocket jumping. Barring that though... shotguns more or less do the same things between games, nailgun/ super nailgun are both similar to the chain gun, lightning gun is more or less a plasma gun equivalent, rocket launchers both shoot the same thing...
Quake's rocket launcher is definitely my favorite rocket launcher. it feels powerful, it sounds powerful, the rockets travel fast with a then-cool trail. Doom's rocket launcher is pretty good, but I don't find myself as attached to it. Beyond that I don't really find most of the quake weapons anything super special, but they have nice sounds and get the job done well in their own game.
Really? The rocket launcher feels meaty, but I feel the nail guns, super shotgun, and thunderbolt feel satisfying to use. Guess we just have preferences on how we look at gunplay. Thinking about it now, Doom has good weapons, just some more redundant than Quakes imo (Fist is useless unless berserk, chainsaw is decent until you find a berserk pack, pistol only fares against small enemies and is never used once you grab the chaingun, and Plasma Gun shares BFG ammo, making it a 'take it or leave it' type of weapon).
I like Quake even though I think that it isn't as fun as Doom is. Weapons are a big factor in this. Ultimately they feel underwhelming and uninspired to me. The axe is ok-ish but I have never used it to this day, maybe just for opening secrets. Then there is a single barreled shotgun and double barreled shotgun. I wouldn't have problem with them if they didn't occupy separate weapon slots (unlike Doom where both occupy slot number 3). Nailgun and super nailgun have similar problem - they are in their core the same weapons, just with different damage output and ammo consumption. They could easily make one nailgun with an alternative mode. Once you have SNG, you don't need to use the original NG. I would understand if SNG did a little higher damage output with double the ammo consumption (that way you would need to consider if it is worth it you) but it's exactly 2 nails for single double damage shot. Even the accuracy is the same. The only advantage is it's higher DPS. And than there are grenade and rocket launchers... Both good weapons but again, you could have just rocket launcher with alternative mode that behaves like grenade launcher. There are 8 weapons in total and most of them feel like duplicates of another.
I liked the Lasergun and Lavanails from the expansion packs. Multirockets felt rather overpowered. Plasmagun was cool too, but in my most recent playthroughs something's broken in it, and usually it doesn't fire anything. From the original weapons SNG (not in DM), GL, RL and LG feel useful, everything else not so much. Quad can make the other weapons more useful.
Ammo carrying capacity sucks in Quake, when thinking how much total damage could be done with the weapons/max ammo. Sure you get to immediately carry 100 shells, but one shell does much less damage per shot than in Doom. Only get to carry 200 nails, but in Doom you get to carry 400 bullets. Cells you get to carry 100 or 200, impulse 9 gives 200, but then it resets to 100 if pick up more cells when over 100 (or maybe this behaviour was fixed with a patch, and didn't patch every progs.dat I have). Quake's pretty generous with rockets, Doom too.
Quake 1 had the best rocket launcher and grenade launcher in the history of first person shooters. However, I feel that the other weapons in Quake 1 were not that impressive. The shotguns in particular felt underwhelming due to the lack of reload animation and having faster ROF with less damage instead of lower ROF with higher damage. The regular nailgun becomes obsolete when super nailgun is attained. The thunderbolt is very powerful, but it is not on the level of Doom's plasmagun or BFG. The melee weapon (axe) is also pretty much useless.
Quake 2 had the best Railgun in the history of first person shooters. The shotguns felt better than those of Quake 1, but still not quite on the level of Doom/Doom2. However, the rocket launcher and grenade launcher feel underwhelming and much inferior to those of Quake 1. The machinegun and the chaingun also feel clunky. And while Quake 2 does have a plasmagun(hyperblaster) and a BFG, they don't feel as great as Doom's counterparts.
Quake 3 I feel is the "jack of all, master of none" when it comes to the arsenal. The rocket launcher/grenade launcher in Quake 3 are not better than that of Quake 1 (but still better than Quake 2). The Railgun is not better than that of Quake 2. However, the weapons are overall well balanced and there isn't any underwhelming weapon.
Every weapon in the game has a use. The standard shotgun lacks the punch of Doom's, but it fires fast and has excellent accuracy. I often use it as a sniper weapon, especially in the later episodes. The super shotgun, while it doesn't feel amazing to use, is your standard workhorse and does well for its purpose. It also fires quickly and so you can take stuff out pretty quickly with it. The nail gun might be made redundant by the super nail gun later on, but it's also good for hitting things in the far distance while conserving ammo (as the manual says, the super nail gun eats ammo like popcorn). The grenade launcher is my favorite out of any game, with extreme versatility. Grenades bounce just the right distance and will go where you want them to quickly. Its fire rate is perfect as well. The rocket launcher is my favorite of any Quake rocket launcher--it hits hard, allows for quick rocket jumping and thanks to either a large hitbox on it or on enemies (I'm guessing the enemies), it's hard to miss. The lightning bolt is excellent as well, especially when paired with quad damage. The sound effect package makes a lot of these weapons feel powerful, the lightning bolt in particular.
I wasn't a fan of the arsenal in Quake 2. Things felt militaristic and generic. There was little creativity in comparison to Quake's guns. That said, I understand it wasn't originally meant to be a Quake game, and to be fair there were some interesting things done at the time that few (if any) FPS games did prior, so I let it slide a bit. The recoil on the machine gun was quite novel at the time, for instance, the default blaster had infinite ammo, making running out of ammo on other guns less stressful, and last but not least, the rail gun was a great new addition that later became a staple of the series. The biggest issue for me with Quake II's arsenal is the sound package. Few weapons feel punchy or impactful in the same way as Quake 1's nail guns, grenade/rocket launchers and lightning bolt.
I like the weapons in quake 1 and 2, which all feel and sound pretty good. However, I thought the quake 3 weapons very lacking in both visuals and audio, which I imagine may have been deliberate due to the focus of the game (i.e the elimination of anything that could even slightly distract from tracking other players).`
Quake 3's serves it's purpose well I think, in it's deathmatch setting. I never had a problem with any of the guns except for the grenade launcher, that I only find useful if you have very good aim, or by firing blindly in a room and hoping for the best. But I'll keep these minor critiques to myself, as I am terrible at deathmatch, so I don't feel like I have authority to comment further.
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