Shack Chat: What is your favorite Quake map of all time?

QuakeCon 2024 is going down this weekend, as an outlet that began as a Quake website, it feels only right to theme this week’s Shack Chat around the iconic first-person shooter franchise. Specifically, we’re sharing our favorite places to do battle throughout the Quake series.

Question: What is your favorite Quake map of all time?

DM6 - Ozzie Mejia, Senior Quake Observer

I feel like this answer will come up a lot, but I'm going to note right here that I haven't played a lot of Quake. I grew up on Counter-Strike and in the filthy console peasant world playing Goldeneye 64. With that said, I have some fond memories of playing Quake with the Shacknews staff, and the map that stood out was DM6. It didn't take me too long to find places to camp out with the grenade launcher.

DM3: The Abandoned Base - TJ Denzer, Senior Crate Jumper

DM3 is widely considered one of the most terrific maps ever for competition and I have to agree. It’s a fantastic design full of interesting nooks and crannies, from the warehouse room where you can jump over the top of crates or sneak around in the maze-like corridors they create, to the long stretch of bridge between waters that makes for a rocket launcher death zone. The balance of power-ups and weapons also makes it immensely fun to explore and figure out your optimized pathing. This map is a blast and some of the best fragging of my life has happened there.

DM6 - Asif Khan, CEO/EIC/EIEIO

A long, long time ago before I was completely washed as a PC FPS player, I was quite good at Quake and my favorite level was DM6. While I am complete and utter dog water these days, I still look back fondly on this map. In fact, the Final Boss Battle at QuakeCon 2018 truly stands out as a moment in my Quake-playing career… Yup.

DM4: The Bad Place - Bill Lavoy, M16 Main

I still remember The Bad Place from playing Quake with the Shacknews staff, and the map definitely lived up to its name for me. I don’t think I did particularly well, but I recall having a blast on this chaotic map. Teleporting all over the place, absolute mayhem in the central room. It may be called The Bad Place, but it’s a good map.

Fragging Yard - Sam Chandler, Stroggification Expert

I know a lot of people snub their noses at Quake 4. They are wrong to do this. The campaign was excellent and actually had a messed up story that fit perfectly within the 2000s era that it released. It also had a pretty decent multiplayer! Sure, it’s not as popular as the earlier titles, but it was still gritty and gory, with some great maps.

One map in particular stands out from the rest: Fragging Yard. It’s your classic, tight map with an open middle area, perfect for fraggin’ players that are foolish enough to linger in the middle. The elevated sniper nests on the side add a bit more verticality to the whole thing, forcing you to either push a player or secure it yourself for some good sightlines.

Ranger - David L. Craddock, knows how to pronounce “giblets” (and isn’t happy about it)

Most people would list one of the made-for-gibbing deathmatch levels (aka Quake DM1, DM2, etc.) but when I want to challenge friends and strangers, I wage war on the Introduction map. Think about it: It’s got everything you need. You’ve got access to most if not all of the weapons, including (and especially) the rocket launcher for sweet rocket jumps; you’ve got places to lie in wait as well as open areas to slug it out toe to toe; and there are invaluable power-ups if you know where to hunt for them.

Introduction: Serving Quake deathmatches since 1996.

And speaking of rocket jumps, read our definitive history of the Quake trilogy exclusively on Shacknews!

DM4: The Bad Place - Donovan Erskine, Best FPS player on the Shack Staff

I love a map with lava. A hazard that will relentlessly punish me for not paying attention to my surroundings. Conversely, I get to laugh at other players as they fall to their deaths. We've played DM4 a fair amount of times here at Shacknews and it's always one of my favorites. 

Those are our favorite Quake maps, but what about you? We know there are plenty of Quake fans in our community, so sound off in the Chatty!

Shack Staff

Shack Staff stories are a collective effort with multiple staff members contributing. Many of our lists often involve entires from several editors, and our weekly Shack Chat is something we all contribute to as a group.