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Following in the steps of the Quake series is not an easy task but thanks to the enhanced Doom 3 engine, Quake 4 is a worthy entry into the 3D shooter genre. For the 4th installment, Raven has decided to do a sequel to the events of Quake 2 where Humanity battled a cyborg menace named the Strogg. As the game opens, you plane a Soldier named Kane who is dispatched with his fellow Marines to the Strogg home world to clean up and take names. Of course the Strogg are not going down without a fight and player’s battle alone and at times in small teams to accomplish a variety of tasks to defeat the Strogg.
Of course this would not be a Quake game if players did not face the hordes by themselves leaving a good portion of the game for players to explore and fight on their own. Of course you will have the standard firepower ranging from a plasma pistol, shotgun, machine gun, nail gun, and at later levels grenade and missile launchers, and the lightning and plasma guns. Late in the game you get a nice weapon called the Black Hole Gun that really makes a mess out of anyone silly enough to be on the wrong end.
Of course there are moments when mere hand weapons will not suffice and Quake 4 has segments where players will mount vehicles to take the fighting up a notch. While Quake 4 does action and visuals well, it does not make the progressions that have become standard in most shooters in the genre. The story is rather basic when compared to complex offerings such as Half Life 2 and F.E.A.R. and at times tends to become tedious. As much as I liked the graphics running from one tower to another is not sufficient motivation to keep me enthralled. More than once I found myself saying “enough” as the repetitive nature of the missions stacked up, especially at the finale.
The enemy A.I. is also an issue as they do little more than charge straight at you, making little attempt to avoid taking damage or to be elusive. The game does offer a multiplay mode, but in many ways this is a throwback to Quake 3 as it is a very run and gun approach and does not offer the complex maps nor interactivity that has become standard in shooters such as “Half Life 2” and “F.E.A.R.” No matter how much I played, I felt I was playing Doom 3 or Quake 3 multiplay with new maps.
While not a groundbreaker or innovator, Quake 4 does have its moments and does provide some fun moments.
4 stars out of 5
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Gareth Von Kallenbach
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