10 Reasons Why Quake Is The Hardest FPS Of All Time
8. Sound
Sound is as important in Quake as it is in Counter-Strike. Different sound cues will give you different information. For example, in Quake Live, when you hit an opponent, they will either groan or cry out in pain. Depending on the sound, you will be able to tell if they still have a healthy stack or are low enough to be shotgun-able.
Furthermore, guns such as the railgun and lightning gun make sounds when they are idle and can give away your position to the enemy, which is why you often see Quake players with their gauntlet out when sneaking around the map.
As mentioned before, characters grunt as they strafe jump and footsteps are also very much audible; in a game like Quake where keeping track of your opponent is so important, sometimes stopping and merely listening can give you invaluable knowledge that can help you to control the flow of the match.
Smart players, however, can manipulate sound to their advantage. Pros will purposely damage themselves with a rocket, thereby triggering a sound cue and making their opponent think that they have rocket jumped away only to take them by surprise.
Last but not least, a sound effect is heard when you hit an opponent, which indicates roughly how much damage you have dealt to them. A rocket that explodes on the ground beside them and deals splash damage will emit a different sound to a rocket that hits them square in the face.
As you can see, there is a lot of depth to the sound design of the game that may not be so obvious to a new player.