Review: Quake 4 - PC

Falls victim to the same "problems" as Doom 3

Monday, November 7, 2005

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Good: Mostly great graphics and sound, cool weapon ideas

Bad: AI, backtracking, arbitrary unlocked doors, limited multiplayer

Suited for: The hardest of hardcore fans...maybe

Ah yes, it’s that time again. It’s time for another of id’s trademark properties to see the light of the next generation treatment. Quake 4 hopes to do what none of its predecessors have done: deliver both a compelling single player story a la Quake II and combine it with a deep, engaging multiplayer element a la Quake III Arena. Is that what we get?

Well, yes and no…but more no.

Matthew Kane gets thrown into the ever-so-risky Rhino Squad to both prove his mettle and help alleviate the new dangers posed by the Strogg. While his new team is quite skeptical of his sanity and capabilities, Kane quickly proves that he’s the best scout around to wreak havoc on the planet Stroggos.

Monsters and lots of projectiles ensue.

Quake 4 is built with the pretty, yet outdoor-restrictive Doom 3 engine. Developer Raven made some noticeable tweaks to the engine to allow for outdoor battles, but the limitations of the lighting-intensive engine still make the outdoor environments seem pretty small and barren. The ground and sky textures in the outdoor environments are bland, pixilated and stretched. Sometimes I wonder if these sequences were really worth it.

The Doom 3 engine does have its perks though. The indoor environments are exceptionally varied and dripping with awesome shadowing and lighting effects. Quake 4’s design of the interior levels boast much more breathing room than Doom 3’s repeated claustrophobia. While you’re never at a loss for where to go to complete your objective, there is a lot of arbitrary backtracking and doors that magically unlock to let you move to the right place. The levels essentially hold your hand the entire way through. Even when the Strogg capture you and turn you into one of them, nothing really changes except your skin. There is no more validity given to this plot “twist” other than a few lines of dialogue and a different skin texture.

The enemy AI is considerably behind the times and does nothing to advance itself from its roots. Half way through the game the repetition really starts to wear on the gameplay, despite some nifty new weapons like the Dark Matter gun and rail gun. You’ll still probably stick with your rocket launcher and shotgun as your one-two combo. I mean, holy crap, that shotgun has great range. I almost expected a scope.

The vehicle battles are also pretty lacking. The walker is fairly interesting and the tank could hold its own, but they all boil down to a shooting gallery with no layers and no flexibility due to the very short amounts of time and space you’re given to actually play these sequences and explore the (lack of) outdoors.

By the end of the campaign, you’re kind of left with an “okay, and?” sort of feeling. (Not to mention a “that was a boss?” feeling.) It doesn’t take any solid step forward, totally dismissing the amount of depth provided by a Half Life, Halo or F.E.A.R. when it’s obvious Raven was trying to enter that territory.

Quake III fans hoping that 4’s multiplayer options would rival that of an Unreal Tournament are up for a real disappointment. With support for only Deathmatch (with nine maps) and Capture the Flag (with five maps), Quake 4 comes nowhere near the robust options of even the latest console shooters. Still, what’s there is competent, and will get fans by. Again, outdoor environments aren’t explored at any mentionable length. There is one map where you’re jumping from platform to platform in space that sort of divides the action up a little, but the overall tone is very conservative. There weren’t many risks taken with the design of the new maps as several return in a much prettier fashion from II and III.

Like Doom 3, Quake 4 sticks to its outdated guns with fervor. Any perceived changes are either cosmetic (“twist” in the story) or not worth mentioning (vehicles.) It is definitely worth playing once on its technical merits alone, but don’t expect the Earth to shatter…or Stroggos for that matter.

Graphics: A

Sound: A-

First Play: B

Last Play: C

Gameplay: C+

Overall: 79% C+

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Review: Quake 4 - PC

Falls victim to the same "problems" as Doom 3

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