Video Game / Quake Champions

Quake Champions is a First-Person Shooter and hybrid Arena Shooter/Hero Shooter, and the sixth entry to Quake developed by id Software and Saber Interactive. An Early Access version was released for the PC in 2017 and went free-to-play the following year. In 2022, the game reached what is considered the full version.

Champions is a direct successor of Quake III: Arena and features the classic Arena Shooter style of Quake along with some elements taken from the Hero Shooter genre such as a large number of playable characters with their own abilities (called Champions) and individual stats, up to three passive abilities, and an Ultimate called "Active Ability". Thus, each character plays differently. But the Hero Shooter elements end there, as the rest of the game is pure Arena Shooter: players still need to pick up weapons, armor and powerups to get the upper hand in battle.

The players start with the Gauntlet and another weapon of their choice (either Machinegun, Shotgun, or Nailgun) as their ranged starter. The pickupable weapons of the game are the Super Nailgun, the Rocket Launcher, the Lightning Gun, the Super Shotgun, the Railgun, the Heavy Machinegun and the Tri-Bolt.

Available gamemodes are Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Instagib, a 3-on-3 best-of-five-rounds Tournament mode, Sacrifice and Capture the Flag. Plus, there's an Arcade Mode with several sub-gametypes such as Unholy Trinity^note All characters use the Railgun, Rocket Launcher and Lightning Gun, and abilities are turned off, Hot Rockets^note Everyone uses a special Rocket Launcher which deals 3x damage and does no self-damage on rocket jumping., Mystery Champion^note A random champion is selected upon being fragged or suicide. and Team Instagib^note Instagib, but with teams!.

Also, be sure to check out Quake Champions: Doom Edition, a Doom mod that recreates Quake Champions in said game.

Playable characters

• Returning from Quake III: Arena: Anarki, Doom^note a.k.a. "Doom Slayer", Keel, Ranger, Slash, Sorlag, Visor.
• Newcomers: Athena, B.J. Blazkowicz, Clutch, Death Knight, Eisen, Galena, Nyx, Scalebearer, Strogg & Peeker.

Map list

• Returning from Quake: The Dark Zone.
• Returning from Quake III: Arena: Blood Covenant^note f.k.a. "The Camping Grounds", The Longest Yard^note Also includes a CTF variation.
• Returning from Quake Live: Blood Run, Citadel^note f.k.a. "Stone Keep".
• New maps: Ruins of Sarnath, Burial Chamber, Lockbox, Corrupted Keep, Church of Azathoth, Tempest Shrine, Vale of Pnath, Molten Falls, Awoken, The Tower of Koth, Deep Embrace, Vestibule of Exile, Insomnia, Crucible.

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The game shows examples of:

• Alternate History: Anarki, Slash, and Visor came from the universe where cybernetics and hover technology became widespread in the '90s, which the former has the Soviet Union as one of the countries leading in development before its collapse.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Completing the Lore Codex for any of the Champions awards a "Lore Skin", usually involving how they looked in the past, or something important to them, or just a cool looking skin.
  • Anarki: "Air Blade".
  • Athena: "Coalition".
  • B.J.: "The Legend".
  • Clutch: "Drillbit".
  • Death Knight: "Ashen King".
  • Doom Slayer: "Doom Guy".
  • Eisen: "Space Trucker".
  • Galena: "Acolyte".
  • Keel: "Lance Corporal".
  • Ranger: "Quarterback".
  • Slash: "Siren".
  • Sorlag: "Brood Keeper".
  • Strogg & Peeker: "Tyrant"
  • Visor: "Visor Prime".
• Announcer Chatter: Way more subdued than in Arena and Live. Because there are a lot more awards to announce, this is a good thing.

• Anyone Can Die: A recurring feature for a champion's "Main menu" animations is for them to violently murder another champion. They'll just respawn later, but it's a reminder of the kind of ride you're in for.
  • Sorlag is sometimes seen gnawing on Ranger's severed arm before she addresses the camera.
  • Visor snipes Anarki out of the sky and poses atop the corpse
  • Doom Slayer pummels Sorlag to death in two separate animations.
• Ascended Fridge Horror: The first game ended with the Ranger still in Shub-Niggurath's dimension. Champions reveals that the Ranger has been stuck in the dimension for twenty years and is severely traumatized as a result.
• Battle Couple: Anarki and Slash. Also counts as a Catch-Phrase Spouting Duo.
• Boom, Headshot!: New to Champions is that you get an award for fragging an enemy by shooting to the head with the Railgun or the Machinegun. Fittingly, the award is called "Headshot".
• Bragging Rights Reward: There are several awards obtained in-game and post-game that don't bring any meaningful bonus:
  • "<Weapon> God": Get frags in a match with the same weapon^note 10 for the Gauntlet; 15 for the Heavy Machinegun, Super Shotgun and Super Nailgun; and 20 for the Rocket Launcher, the Lightning Gun and the Railgun..
  • "Airborne": Frag an enemy, who is in the air, with a rocket from the Rocket Launcher.
  • "Assistant": Score 10 assists during a match.
  • "Avatar of Death": Kill 10 enemies with 3 or fewer seconds between each kill.
  • "Capture": Insert a Soul into an Obelisk.
  • "Collateral Damage": Kill 2 enemies with 1 rocket from the Rocket Launcher.
  • "Combo Kill": Kill an enemy using two weapons in quick succession. Only works for Railgun finishers, though.
  • "Damage Dealer": Deal 5000 damage during a match.
  • "Defence": Kill an enemy trying to get a Soul into your Obelisk.
  • "Denied": Kill an enemy while they are using their active ability.
  • "Diehard": Kill an enemy while your health is low.
  • "Double Whammy": Hit two enemies with one Railgun shot.
  • "Dominating": Grab the powerup 3 times in a row without allowing anyone else to touch the powerup between you picking it up.
  • "Excellent": Carried from Arena and Live, kill 2 enemies in 3 seconds or less.
  • "Fighter": Kill 5 enemies with 3 or less seconds between each kill.
  • "First Blood": Get the first kill of a match.
  • "Frenetic": Kill 30 enemies without dying.
  • "From The Grave": Kill an enemy while you are already dead.
  • "God Mode": Kill 20 enemies without dying.
  • "Headshot": Kill an enemy with a headshot using the Railgun or the Machinegun.
  • "Humilliation": Carried from Arena and Live, kill an enemy with the Gauntlet.
  • "Impressive": Carried from Arena and Live, get 2 consecutive hits with the Railgun. Since it only tracks hits with the Railgun, you can hit, die, run around for 8 minutes shooting rockets and stuff, then pick up RG and hit again.
  • "Kamikaze": Kill yourself, but take an enemy with you.
  • "Killing Spree": Kill 5 enemies without dying.
  • "Midair": Kill an enemy in the air with the Rocket Launcher.
  • "Net Master": Deal 1000 damage without dying.
  • "Offence": Kill an enemy guarding an Obelisk.
  • "Party Breaker": Kill Quad or Protection carrier.
  • "Perforated": Telefrag an enemy.
  • "Point Blank": Kill an enemy with the Shotgun or Super Shotgun from point-blank range.
  • "Powerup Massacre": Kill 10 enemies while you have Quad or Protection.
  • "Precise": Make a long-distance kill with a direct rocket hit from the Rocket Launcher.
  • "Rage": Kill 10 enemies without dying.
  • "Revenge": Kill the player who killed you 3 times in a row.
  • "Ring Out": Kill an enemy by knocking them out of the arena (such as into the void).
  • "Showstopper": End an enemy's kill streak.
  • "Stopwatch": Grab a major pickup item just as it spawns.
  • "Tank": Overcharge your health and armor at the same time.
  • "Triple Kill": Kill 3 enemies with 3 or fewer seconds between each kill.
  • "Bronze": Obtain 3rd. place at the end of the match.
  • "FFA Perfect": Win a Deathmatch or
  • "Gold": Obtain 1st. place at the end of the match.
  • "Match Complete": Complete a match.
  • "Match Won": Win a match.
  • "Silver": Obtain 2nd. place at the end of the match.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: Averted for the most part. You can purchase a Champion with Platinum if you're so inclined, but their unique abilities aren't game-changing (made even less game-changing after a patch that heavily nerfed unique abilities) and most player performance boils down to regular FPS skill - you'll have little trouble amassing frags if you're accustomed to III and Live. Everything else purchasable with real money in the game is cosmetic and can be obtained through loot boxes (including the Champions themselves at a rare chance).
• Chainsaw Good: The Gauntlet comes back.
• Character Class System: Every character has passive and active abilities which differentiate them on the battlefield. Like Overwatch, players can also switch between characters when the need arises.
• Cyberpunk: The world that Anarky, Slash, and Visor has the widespread proliferation of cybernetic implants and hover technology, but many of its areas are shown to be gritty and crime-ridden.
• Eye Scream: One of the maps features an area with a big trapped eye. It can (and will) receive weapon damage.
• Freemium: The game is "free to play" on Steam, with a starting champion -Ranger- available to everyone and other champions on a weekly free rotation. Originally, free-to-play players were only able to rent champions for a day using free currency. The system was later changed to a more standardized system, and F2P players became able to obtain Platinum coins to buy champions with. Later updates added loot boxes and battle passes.
• Game-Breaking Bug: The Pot bug. Using Ranger's teleporting ability aimed at specific decorations, you can take unintended shortcuts outside of the map's boundaries... and also fall into an endless void.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Many characters have accessories that could be used on the battlefield as weapons such as knives, chainsaws, blades, and spikes... yet everyone is restricted to just the same stuff as everyone else. Sans their attacks.
• Gatling Good: The Machinegun, Nailgun, Heavy Machinegun and Super Nailgun are all rapid-fire weapons.
• Guest Fighter:
  • William "B.J." Blazkowicz and the Doom Slayer. How they ended up in the Quake universe, short of Rule of Cool, is anybody's guess, at this point.
  • Subverted with Galena, whose outfits (which bear the Serpent Riders insignia) suggest she originated from the universe of the Heretic and Hexen games, even though she hasn't appeared in any of the installments of that series.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Some of Slash's post-respawn voice lines seem to be directed at her opponents, notably "Are we even trying?", "Take it easy, big guy" and "Someone needs a chill pill".
• Lightning Gun: The eponymous weapon.
• Limit Break: All Champions have an active ability, where they unleash their personal power in the match for own/team bonuses or nerfs to the other players, but few of them really qualify for the trope. The Hourglass pickups in the maps reduce the ability cooldown.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Like Arena and Live, the game features characters, weapons and abilities taken from the entire Id universe, alongside other characters created solely for this game.
• More Dakka:
  • The players can choose to start with either the Machinegun or the Nailgun and also can pick up the Heavy Machinegun and the Super Nailgun.
  • B.J.'s Dual Wielding active ability has him pull out a second instance of his currently-held weapon, effectively doubling his rate of fire and damage output.
• Mythology Gag: Too many to the point of having its own page.
• Nostalgia Level: The Summer 2021 update brought a retro version of DM6 (The Dark Zone) from Quake.
• Remixed Level:
  • q3dm6: "The Camping Grounds" from Quake III: Arena makes a return as a remixed version with more playable areas called "Blood Covenant". The tutorial level is also based on this map.
  • Also from III returns "The Longest Yard". This time with an extended platform where the Tri-Bolt can be found.
  • "Citadel" from Quake Live returns as "Stone Keep".
• The Rival: Nyx and Scalebearer to each other. Scalebearer led the Greiss in conquering worlds until they were defeated by Nyx's people. This led to Scalebearer's exile, where he discovered the Orb, the source of the powers of Nyx's people. He stole it, and Nyx was sent after him to retrieve it.
• Rocket Jump: Available by using, well, the Rocket Launcher. Ranger's "Son of a Gun" passive allows him to take 20% less damage from the effect.
• Rock Me, Amadeus!: The Early Access trailer starts with an excerpt of Quake III: Arena's main theme. It also contains excerpts from the Doom (2016) version of "At Doom's Gate".
• Shout-Out: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
• Sniper Rifle: The Railgun.
• Soviet Superscience: The Soviet Union in Slash/Visor/Anarky universe managed to develop cybernetics, but its collapse led to many of its scientists running back-alley facilities for daring youths to obtain illegal implants.
• Stat Overflow: The game has the Stimpack and Megahealth items. Stimpacks add +5 HP, Megahealth adds a degenerating +100 HP, and both items can overheal to a maximum of 200.
• Stylistic Suck:
  • The weapon skins from Quake stay faithful to the game's era, by placing the position of the guns in the bottom centre of the screen, in a game where having the weapons offset to the side is the standard. This also includes the Doom skin(s).
  • Ranger’s “Quakeguy” skin, released during Quake's 25th Anniversary, is a direct port of his original Quake 1 model in all his blocky, low-polygonal glory.
• Swap Fighter: This is Strogg & Peeker's schtick: the Strogg does most of the fighting, and once their ability bar is full and the ability key is pressed, he becomes invisible and the player controls Peeker, a drone with the ability to shoot at its enemies.

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