Sat, November 19, 2005

Along with all of the other improvements, the developers of 'Quake 4' have found an innovative way to perform electro-shock therapy.

Think back to June 1996 and what you were doing. If you are a First Person Shooter (FPS) fan, then chances are you were trying to install the new Quake demo. If this brings back fond memories, just remember how you felt when you tried out the GLQuake beta on your 3DFx Voodoo 3D accelerator the following year. Skip forward to 2005 and we are once again playing Quake, but this time it is the fourth instalment in the storied franchise.

Raven Software, a long time licensee of ID Software’s graphics engines actually created Quake 4, not ID Software, as you would have expected. Raven has an outstanding track record for using ID’s engines to create great games that usually showcases what their technology can really do. In the case of Quake 4, Raven has used the fairly new Doom 3 graphics engine. As you would expect the graphics are superb and the environments are detailed and complex. The environment has lots of moving machinery and the Strogg base actually looks like it is in use. Weapon effects are interesting and there is a good use of audio quest to warn you of impending enemy attacks. The Doom 3 engine is stable and fast and anyone who has a system that could handle Doom3 will have no problem running Quake 4.

Character visual design is top notch, but there are so few variations in enemies and NPCs that you often feel that you are talking to an army of clone marines. Voice acting for the NPC marines is generally very good and not campy or over the top. One of the cool things about the dialogue is that the other squads and engineers all have something to say to you when you meet up with them. All of the dialogue is scripted but it gives the NPCs a little bit of personality in an otherwise straightforward FPS. There are some vehicle sequences and weapons upgrades thrown in but they are far too infrequent to make a huge impact on overall game play.

The straight forward nature of Quake 4 brings up the main problem with this game, but only if you are relatively new to the genre. The Quake franchise has always been known for the technology it introduces and an amazing multiplayer experience. Quake 4 follows this formula exactly and that is its major weakness. For any old time FPS players there is a real feeling of nostalgia when playing Quake 4. All your favourite weapons are back like the nail and rail guns and you have to use different weapons on different enemies in order to be successful. It really has the look and feel of the earlier Quake games and it brings back all the memories of wasted time and poor grades that went along with our Quake addictions.

The evil cyber demon chicks say...check out more screenshots from 'Quake 4' in our Screenshot Gallery or else.

Unfortunately, if you weren’t lucky enough to be around in those early days all the nostalgia in the world isn’t going to make this game any more enjoyable for you. For the more recent gamer Quake 4 doesn’t offer any of the modern bells and whistles of modern games like one shot one kill weapons and game play elements like stealth and vehicles. Even multiplayer, for those not familiar with the Quake franchise, will be disappointing. It is actually a lot of fun if you miss the days of smaller, un-campable deathmatch maps and the frenetic madness of rockets and railguns flying everywhere. Multiplayer is probably the one thing that will keep this game on your hard drive long after you have finished the singleplayer game. The quake 4 SDK has recently been released and we should start to see all sorts of new multiplayer maps start to flood the net.

Despite the linear nature of Quake 4 there is still fun to be had in the game. The singleplayer story is decent and the loose story about you as a young marine named Matthew Kane is at least interesting though not at all groundbreaking. The multiplayer, if you are not familiar with the Quake model, is worth giving a try. It tends to be very fast-paced and you need to learn skills like rocket jumping and take the time to memorize power up locations. While not the amazing experience we were all expecting, Quake 4 is a worth successor to the Quake franchise and overall an enjoyable gaming experience.

WHAM! Rating: 7.5 out of 10 ESRB Rating: M 17+ (Mature) Official Web Site: Quake 4