If you were to pinpoint the beginning of the FPS craze, you'd have to go back to your Doom's and Counterstrike but I argue this title was better at showcasing the future.

Released in 1999, Quake 3 Arena took everything it learned from it's previous games and turned it into a multiplayer deathmatch experience, like any good deathmatch it's all about the weapons, the environment and the gameplay balance which this game achieves well.

It's still required playing at Quakecon

Pros
All the modern FPS tricks came from this game.
More accessible than most modern games of equal genre.
Without this game, the modern FPS would not dominate the market

Cons
Poor colour palette
No story plot.
Has been surpassed by everything that followed it.

Verdict
The problem with being one of the originals is that you won't be remembered when a Halo or Call of Duty comeout. Still a game that holds up today.