Thank you Bethesda for sending us a review code for the Champions Pack!

When it comes to first person shooters, both Unreal Tournament and Quake hold a near and dear place in my heart. I’ve played a lot of Quake 2 in my teenage years and more Unreal Tournament in my twenties and thirties. We have introduced our kids to the free Unreal Tournament Pre-Alpha and they are enjoying it so far. In fact, one of my daughters is getting frightfully good at it. When Quake Champions releases its free to play version, I’ll be sure to let my kids know.

Quake Champions is currently available on Steam and through Bethesda for $29.99 and that price will go up once it’s fully released. For the money you get to play it out of beta and with all of the champions unlocked. You’ll also get three reliquaries worth of good loot which allows you to customize champions to make them stand out more. Like many free to play games, there are plenty of micro-transactions and opportunities to spend real money for prettier customizations. By playing matches and earning experience, you can still unlock backpacks, chests, and reliquaries, but it takes longer.

There’s a good amount of variety in the champions and they each have three stats and a unique ability. The stats are armor, health, and speed. There are three female champions and most of them are fast and frail. One of my favorite champions is the unholy paladin, Galena, who has more health and armor than the other ladies. Her ability of leaving crosses that heal allies and hurts enemies is pretty cool too. Fans of ID games like Wolfenstein will recognize BJ Blazkowicz and Doom Slayer from DOOM. The acid spraying Sorlag is another one of my favorite champions to play as. The free to play edition will only offer the Ranger. If you want a lot variety, the champion pack is worth picking up at its discounted price.

The matchmaking process takes close to a minute or so to join a game. I had no trouble getting added into 6-8 player Team Deathmatches. Besides a free for all Deathmatch and a one on one dual mode, there is a Sacrifice game mode. The sacrifice mode is similar to capture the flag except you have to bring the spawned skull to your team’s obelisk.

All of the modes have the coveted quad that spawns every few minutes. Whichever team possesses the quad has a clear advantage with the holder of it doing quad damage. Other item collectibles include ammo, armor shards, health power-ups, and timers to reduce the cooldown time for your champion’s ability. If you see any vases be sure to break them as they may contain a rune that can be used to unlock a champion’s relic armor set.

The gameplay is fast, furious, and most importantly, fun. Despite being on a low ping server, I did experience some lag which caused some stuttering mid-match. Another glitch I experienced was not being able to complete the tutorial the first time around due to a glitch in the gun sampling room. In order to try the next gun out you have to shoot all of the blobs with the previous one. In my case, one of the blobs would not go away no matter how much ammo I used on it. The second time I played through the tutorial I was able to complete it.

In its current state, you have to be online to enjoy this game. There is no single-player campaign with bots to freshen up your skills on. There doesn’t seem to be a local network option either. There is a friend system in this game so maybe finding matches with them is possible. Sadly, I don’t have any friends in game so I can’t say with certainty what it does.

From a moral standpoint, there are some issues worth mentioning. Like all FPS games, there’s violence, but if you don’t shoot first you’ll be on the ground bleeding out. With the various gun types available, there is a fair amount of blood and splatter depending on which ammo is used. Some of the characters use language and hand gestures that I don’t want my kids using. Like most online games, some of the players will have cuss words in their names and won’t hesitate typing out or speaking obscenities in-game. Voice chat can be disabled in the game’s settings.

In the end, Quake Champions is promising and I look forward to seeing more features added, bugs ironed out, and more players to battle against. The champions are fun to learn and customize and I highly recommend picking up the pack if you like various fighting styles. When the free to play version comes out I’m sure there will be plenty of new players to practice on. Like all games with micro-transactions, be mindful not to go overboard on spending. Be sure that any youngsters playing this game don’t have access to buying items and keep an eye on the people they are playing along with online. Last but not least, take into consideration the language and gore before letting youngsters play this game.