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Quake 4 Review
October 25, 2005 Jakub Wojnarowicz

Summary: Quake 4 is the long-awaited sequel to both Quake III: Arena and the older Quake II. It continues the Quake II storyline while - supposedly - delivering more and better multiplayer. Does it succeed? Read on, Quakefan! Oh, and don't forget to check out 92 sizzling hot screenshots.


ForewordPage:: ( 1 / 7 )

So in my first attempt at Quake 4 review I was quite confused. The multiplayer just does not live up to what we hoped for. It is, as advertised, “like Quake III”. More specifically however, it is nothing but Quake III Arena. Oh sure, there are a couple new weapons like the nailgun, and there are newer maps, but the gameplay hasn’t changed. There are no new game modes, no tricks, nothing – and unlike Q3 itself, it didn’t reach that magic middle between what Quake and Quake II lovers wanted. In short, when it comes to multiplayer, Quake 4 has little to offer to owners of the previous game. On the other hand, the singleplayer game is spectacularly surprising. This is not unlike ordering a sirloin steak dinner and getting the house lobster instead. It’s still very good, just not what you expected.

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Here I am then, having my expectations recalibrated, on my second attempt at describing the Quake 4 experience. Even that isn’t easy, given the two-faced nature of the singleplayer campaign. At the start, the player is a regular marine from Rhino Squad, working with other marines and enjoying bits of action quite similar to the parts where Gordon worked with his fellow resistance members in Half-Life 2. Of course, as with Gordon Freeman, our protagonist Matthew Kane always finds himself ordered into the most difficult and important situations by himself, while the routine jobs get full support of the squad and commander. This is a certain bit of logic that we’re still hoping that Valve and id may shed light on someday, but it certainly makes for compelling gameplay. When you reach about the halfway mark in the game, you end up being alone almost all the time.

The Half-Life 2 comparisons are not to suggest that Quake 4’s campaign is quite as good as Valve’s masterpiece, but it is definitely in the same ballpark. There is considerably more standard small-room and corridor shooting than in Half-Life 2, but the Quake 4 experience is surprisingly varied. There are some larger maps, especially those with vehicles, and at one point you actually manage to go about ten minutes without killing anything as you make your way through your unit’s landing craft. On the whole, Half-Life 2 has a slightly more restrained tempo and a more organic feel between missions, a sense that they are tied together, than Quake 4, but the margin is much slimmer than you imagine.

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Then we reach the halfway mark of the game where you end up more or less without a squad at all. Imagine Doom III without most of the annoying bits like teleporting enemies and monsters doing nothing but waiting in secret closets for you to cross an invisible trigger so they can pop out behind you. A few teleporting incidents can still be found, but they are mercifully rare relative to Doom. Even in the later stages, the story still manages to be quite interesting and events continue in the background as the player fights through his own struggles, providing a rich context for your actions.



More singleplayerPage:: ( 2 / 7 )

All of this is made all the more immediate due to the incredibly detailed game environments. There is no game that looks better than Quake 4. The only competition Quake has is from F.E.A.R., but we’ll call it a draw there. Quake’s levels are more interesting and vibrant, despite usually being brown, while F.E.A.R. has those sweet soft shadows and uses shaders and particles more liberally. In every other respect, including physics, it’s a dead heat.

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The engine shows off its muscle not only in drawing the usual crowded rooms that id is so famous for, but in being able to handle massive levels. Vehicle maps are the largest of course, but there are some very inspiring and long sections played on foot. Many sections of Stroggos are busy with working machinery, leading to a constant and distracting hum and thump of industrial equipment to mask enemy movements. Many objects are in constant motion, keeping the player tense even in the quieter areas.

Adding more atmosphere is the excellent music selection which is highly reminiscent of the original Quake score, superbly adapted to the setting and the level designers knew just when to trigger it. Sound effects are equally superb, with all weapons giving off crisp, solid, believable effects. I particularly liked the staccato of the machine gun and nailgun, and of course the booming thunder of the lightning gun.

Speaking of weapons, they are marvelously done. Every single gun in the game has a solid feeling of heft and power. Even though there is no way to aim down the sight like you can in Call of Duty, or Day of Defeat, all weapons felt natural. One thing that required getting some used to is the remarkable splash damage from the grenade and rocket launchers; they feel like they have considerably more kick than in multiplayer. About the only gripe we have with the game is that the shaft has no stickiness to it, though it doesn’t have the “lag” of the Quake 3 lightning gun either.

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Generally, I was surprised at the number of quality moments in the game. These come not from cutscenes or special sequences, but regular level design. A favorite battle is against marine-like Strogg on a series of staircases, constantly fighting down. The vehicle sequences were quite excellent as well, and of course there are the bosses (most of whom, fortunately, are killable with weapons rather than having to figure out a gimmick). Even the levels with enemy teleporters were done without being annoying, with the notable exception of one area in which the teleporters appear to be invulnerable.



The Bad StuffPage:: ( 3 / 7 )

The single most infuriating Quake 4 experience is the multiplayer browser. You could not possibly design a worse one if you tried, without making it completely non-functional. Take for example the filters to choose between punkbuster and non-punkbuster servers, or those that are not empty or not passworded. Now, you would think that this would be a simple list of checkboxes – “not punkbuster”, “not empty” – but oh no, that would make sense. Instead, you need to sort them using the columns up top – and hoping that you are the psychic twin of whatever sadistic designer decided on this. Otherwise, there’s absolutely no way you’ll ever find a non-punkbuster server that isn’t full, isn’t empty, and doesn’t have a password – without having to scroll through the entire list.

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The scrolling appears to be bugged – our trustworthy mouse wheel simply did not work. No, we had to scroll through – one server at a time – by clicking on the lowest server in the list. To be fair, unlike the terrible filter mechanism, this doesn’t seem to be a deliberate attempt at gouging your eyes out and sexually violating said empty socket; this appears to be more of a bug since the mouse wheel will scroll one server down, but then you have to click again. Unfortunately, this affected both my Logitech and Razer mice. This is, quite honestly, only the second time in my life I’ve wanted to install GameSpy Arcade. Yes ladies and gentlemen, the in-game browser is that bad.

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As mentioned earlier, Quake 4 just doesn’t offer anything new in multiplayer. This is a badly missed opportunity and one that we’re having some problems understanding. Quake offered speed and intensity. Quake II offered a more tactical, slower game. Quake III healed the rift in the community by finding that elusive middleground. Quake 4 is just… more Quake III. When we initially heard about this, we assumed that would apply to the movement code and weapons and footsteps – we didn’t think that it would literally offer nothing more than Quake III had. There’s deathmatch, team deathmatch, CTF and Arena CTF – and that’s all she wrote.



Ballistics ReportPage:: ( 4 / 7 )

Pros

Graphics
You will not find a better-looking game outside of F.E.A.R. Quake 4 is stunning and offers, at times, even more than the regular red and brown environments. Monsters are highly detailed, smoothly animated and have some of the best ragdoll physics around.

Sound
Crisp weapon effects, good voice acting, excellent music.

Singleplayer
I was surprised at how good the singleplayer game is. I’m certain that other people bash it just because it’s traditional to bash Quake singleplayer, but give it a fair shot and you’ll see how well-done this is.


Cons

No improvement in multiplayer
Don’t get me wrong, I deathmatch. I dream of rocket launchers and rail guns and the red armor, but damn, Raven and id, this is almost 10 years after the original Quake and 5 years after Quake III. Get with the plan baby.

Server browser
The server browser is concentrated, distilled and filtered cess. I have harsh words and will fart in the general direction of whoever thought that the current filtering scheme was a good idea, and don’t even get me started on the inability to scroll through the list with the mouse wheel!

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Final VerdictPage:: ( 5 / 7 )

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Gallery 1Page:: ( 6 / 7 )


Gallery 2Page:: ( 7 / 7 )
© Copyright 2003 FS Media, Inc.

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