Quake 2
Despite the advances being made by Quake moviemakers, with the release of Quake 2 in December 1997, the field took an unexpected step backward. Reviews of the films found on such sites Planetquake's Cineplex and Psyk's Popcorn Jungle rank many of the first movies to use the Quake 2 engine as "Less than stellar," or "Unwatchable." Characterized by reviewers as "mostly efforts by a rather unpleasant gutterpunk in Canada," and a group of 12 year-olds in Finland, these films lacked the narrative ingenuity and production quality of films made with Quake's previous engine. Two exceptions were Essobie's "Quake 2 Late Nite with Toxy!" (August 1998) and Donnovan's expressionistic "Cirrus Life I" and "Cirrus Life II" (September, October 1998, respectively).
Quake 2 movies struggled with mediocrity for several months, until Overman of Zarathustra Studios released "Father Frags Best" (January, 1999), a hilarious and sardonic parody of a 1950s television sitcom. "Father Frags Best" was arguably the first big Quake 2 movie hit, raising the standard of Quake 2 moviemaking to a new level. Then, almost out of nowhere, Strange Company came out of hiding and released "Eschaton: Nightfall." "Nightfall" took everyone by storm: it pushed the Quake 2 engine to its limits, showcasing both impressive level design and character modeling. From a technical standpoint, the film's innovation rested in the ability of the models to physically interact with one another. "Nightfall," like "Father Frags Best," demonstrated to the community at large that Quake 2 moviemaking did, indeed, have a bright future. This future has recently been rejuvenated with the creation of "Anachronox," a film developed using the Quake 2-based Anachronox engine. Developed by Jake Hughes and Tom Hall of Ion Storm, the team used game footage along with in-game cut-scenes to convert the game to a feature length film. This marriage of gameplay with cut-scenes marks another moment in the evolution of the genre.
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