  "Do you feel lucky, punk? Do ya?" I always knew Blorff the Strogg would have been a better cowboy than Clint Eastwood. |
There will always be a place for ultra-violent, moody, dark, shoot-em-up games for every video game generation, this much I know.
And the first to appear in the next generation of consoles is Quake 4 for the Xbox 360, which is a direct port of the already-released PC version of the same name.
Surprisingly, this is one of the more fun games on the 360. Even more surprising is that its single player mode trumps the online portion, despite the Quake franchise’s popular arena-type multiplayer games on the PC.
In Quake 4, developed together by id Software and Raven Software and published by Activision, you play the role of Marine Matthew Kane (as always, he seems to be an excellent soldier but completely mute). An alien race known as the Strogg is attempting to gather humans to be made into more Strogg and it’s up to you and your fellow soldiers to launch an assault on the evil alien race and stop them for good.
Though this latest Quake is made by id, the same company that developed the Doom titles, it sets itself apart from Doom by making it more action-oriented. Yes, the two series share several similarities. Quake 4 uses Doom 3 technology (the two games look very similar though the Quake version is more polished, thanks in no small part to it having more power to run on with the Xbox 360, as opposed to Doom 3 on the original Xbox). In addition, both games utilize ultra-powerful weapons, both love to go for the big scares and both love to revel in a whole lot of gore.
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But Quake 4 trumps Doom 3 in every way. The weapons in Quake are so much better - I”ll pick the Dark Matter Gun over Doom 3’s BFG any day of the week, and though Doom 3 has a few scares, the ‘walk-into-a-dark-room-and-a-monster-jumps-out-from-a-dark-corner’ thing is done to death in it. In Quake 4, some of the scenarios are truly chilling. For instance, at one point in the game you’re caught by the Strogg and are being harvested into one of them (that isn’t a spoiler folks – they tell you that in the instruction manual!). You see yourself in first-person mode, tied down and going down a conveyer belt. Disturbingly, you know exactly what’s about to happen to you because you see a human in front of you having everything done to him that’s about to be done to you in graphic detail – legs sawed off, chest cut open, your brain being fried by a needle – all while you’re still awake.
In addition, the huge bosses in Quake 4 are something to behold. Here’s a hint: any time you walk into a large room, expect to see something big to appear. The bosses are awesome, and make the game even more disturbing in their own way, not just because of what they are, but who they are (play the game and you’ll see what I mean).
The game actually falters most when it falls too much into the Doom 3 pattern of running through dark corridors with strobe lights a-flashin’. The best parts of the game are when you’re outside, commanding huge vehicles and taking on massive robots. It really feels like a top-notch sci-fi movie, and the whole time, you’re the one who’s running the show. This is how these games should always be.
The online portion is pure Quake as well – and that’s mostly a good thing. You can choose from deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, arena capture the flag, and tournament. These games are all frag fests where a whole lot of killing goes on. The arenas are small and you move very quickly. There’s not a lot of thinking involved – it’s shoot first, think later. The problem with the online portion is getting games started. Once you choose a game type, you first have to wait for the minimum number of players to join, then you have to wait for about two minutes for other players to join (there’s no way to speed this time up). Then, you have to wait for the game to load, which slows things down considerably as well. Once you do start actually playing, it’s a blast, but it just takes a while to go from game to game. Your best bet is to join a group and stick with them (you can go from one game to another with the same group, a la Halo 2, which is a great addition to the online portion).
Though Quake 4 does have its problems, overall it’s actually a surprisingly solid game for the 360. It’s a great title that could have been superb, but considering it has a fantastic single player campaign, a mostly-solid multiplayer mode, and a Quake 2 bonus disc, this one is worth the money. So go ahead – pick up some huge guns and kill some aliens. It’s been done plenty of times before, but sometimes, it can still be a guilty little pleasure.
WHAM! Rating: |
8.3 out of 10 |
ESRB Rating: |
M (Mature 17+) |
Official Web Site: |
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