Quake Champions

Quake Champions is the 5th mainline installment in the Quake series and it tries to honour its legacy by providing fans of every game a champion that will suit their playstyle. It mostly succeeds at this and is very enjoyable both, on a casual level as well as competing on a high skill bracket.
Some regions might suffer from the low playerbase, but generally in North America and Europe it's not hard to find matches. Additionally, the community is doing its best to provide players with ample opportunities of getting to play some games.

Contrary to popular belief, it's far from a clone of other games that try to merge the character based action with first person shooters. Quake Champions at its core is a absolutely still a Quake game.
Weapons are still universal across all champions and the base movement mechanics are very much like they were in vanilla Quake 3. Some champions receive additional movement mechanics which are mostly derived from the previous Quake games, like Anarki and Sorlag have air control, like you would see in the CPMA mod and even less well-represented mechanics like the power-slide from Quake 4 is present for Slash and Strogg.
How well this concept is executed is still up for debate within the community, but generally I believe the game succeeds and should by no means be viewed as "yet another hero shooter".

Because of this, just like in all other Quake games, the learning curve is immense. Even seasoned FPS players will find themselves fumbling across the keyboard as they try to find the most optimal weapon choice in mere milliseconds. The movement mechanics are poorly explained and have a surprising amount of nuance to them.

As a free-to-play game, the business model is surprisingly fair. You don't start with all champions, which doesn't necessarily mean a player is at a disadvantage, as Ranger, the protagonist of the original Quake, comes free for all players and is a great all-around character. Additionally, there are always 2 champions on a weekly rotation, which you are able to play for free. As you gain the in-game currency, you can unlock them permanently (and I suggest you do save up your shards specifically for this purpose, if you are just starting out). All of this can of course be accelerated with real money purchases.
The rest of the monetization comes from weapon and champion skins, which do not provide any factual gameplay difference. All of these can be even unlocked with the in-game currency, which admittedly does require some time investment.

Quake Champions, one of the most exhilarating games of its genre to exist, combining strategic movement/gunplay with well designed arenas. Sadly, this game and the genre itself is mostly dead with low player-count, and not to mention if you're a newcomer, prepare to struggle until you break past the skill ceiling to make a difference in a match. But if you do, there's lots of fun to be had.

I'm not even good and it's fun. Everyone just says gg and then on to the next one. It'd be good if you were here, there needs to be more of you here.

PLEASE make a new Quake Arena. Quake is the BOSS game and this is just embarrassing. Just get the old ID guys back and make another arena shooter to RULE them all.
Quake should take its rightful place as the ultimate E-Sports game.
Here is a few tips:
-No micro transactions
-Ability to create own servers
-No consoles
Just do it FFS.
PS This game could be great, it is still actually excellent but no one is playing it.

For all the downsides of the poorly optimized and closed off engine, and with the main development studio having left years ago, it's surprising that it still gets updates even though it can't possibly turn a profit. You'd think they would've shut it down before it left Early Access, and maybe they'll do that soon enough still, who knows. For what it's worth, it's a competent Arena FPS that looks pretty and is satisfying to play, provided the servers don't act up. If they ever make a new one, I hope it can stand on its own legs rather than being a live service, so that people can host their own servers and make custom maps and mods again. Then again we'd just end up with 32-player all weapons FFA on Aerowalk so maybe there's something to limiting player choice after all.

This game is by far the most relevant and closest experience to that original arena shooter feel. The art style stands out as still being very nice to look at even today. While admittedly at launch the champions aspect felt "no skill" in a game with so much control the balancing now makes it feel like an added spice to the gameplay now. So give the game a go even today if you want a fresh pvp experience.

Quake Champions is the latest installment in the beloved Quake franchise. After spending many hours in the beta, I’m happy to report that Quake Champions lives up to its promise of being a fast-paced, high-octane arena shooter full of fun and intense combat. The game features a wide variety of champions with varied weapons, abilities and playstyles, allowing you to customize your playstyle however you want. The game is simply beautiful, with detailed graphics and decadently crafted maps. It also has plenty of options for customizing your loadouts, a great selection of game modes and a hefty amount of rewards to keep players invested in the game. The servers are stable and the matchmaking is spot-on, making it easy to jump into a game at any given time. The only downside I’ve experienced is the presence of some balance issues, however these have been addressed in the latest patches. All in all, Quake Champions is a great shooter that caters to both new and old Quake fans alike. Highly recommended.