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I second the shotguns in Quake 1 being weaksauce. However, the weapons are overall well balanced and there isn't any underwhelming weapon. The Railgun is not better than that of Quake 2. The rocket launcher/grenade launcher in Quake 3 are not better than that of Quake 1 (but still better than Quake 2). Quake 3 I feel is the "jack of all, master of none" when it comes to the arsenal. And while Quake 2 does have a plasmagun(hyperblaster) and a BFG, they don't feel as great as Doom's counterparts. The machinegun and the chaingun also feel clunky. However, the rocket launcher and grenade launcher feel underwhelming and much inferior to those of Quake 1. The shotguns felt better than those of Quake 1, but still not quite on the level of Doom/Doom2. Quake 2 had the best Railgun in the history of first person shooters. The melee weapon (axe) is also pretty much useless.
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The thunderbolt is very powerful, but it is not on the level of Doom's plasmagun or BFG. The regular nailgun becomes obsolete when super nailgun is attained. The shotguns in particular felt underwhelming due to the lack of reload animation and having faster ROF with less damage instead of lower ROF with higher damage. However, I feel that the other weapons in Quake 1 were not that impressive. Quake 1 had the best rocket launcher and grenade launcher in the history of first person shooters.
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