Quake 4 : Games : Web Wombat

As time moves on, and the winds of change blow ever faster, the gap between games and cinema is eroded with equal rapidity, from the Grand Canyon of the early eighties to no more than the crack in the pavement we see today.

There is much to be said for this advance, a movement spearheaded by iD Software's industry-founding Wolfenstein 3D and Doom.

In later years the flag has been carried on by people like Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid), Finnish developer Remedy (Max Payne), direct competitor Valve (Half Life 2) and most recently, Monolith (F.E.A.R) - but every so often iD pops up to gob-smack us and set a new benchmark.

A collaborative effort between Raven Software (known for the ultra-gory Soldier of Fortune) and iD, Quake 4 has been eagerly awaited since the revelation of its existence at QuakeCon '01, and has the honour of being the first Doom 3 engine game on the market (Prey having not hit the shelves at the time of writing).

The question on everyone's minds right now is, does it measure up? The answer is more difficult to put together than one might immediately suspect.

A direct and true sequel to 1997's Quake II, Q4 picks up where the first game left off, as the forces of Earth once again invade Stroggos, home planet of the hostile biomechanist Strogg, but this time as space marine Matthew Kane, member of Rhino Squad.

Amidst the carnage of a bungled landing (including a gorgeous opening sequence featuring mangled bodies floating soundlessly in space), you must get your squad together and march on the Strogg capital, to take out the newly rebuilt Makron (the big bad Strogg commander).

One of the first things any spectator notices on seeing Q4 in play is that it's a real looker. While not quite as impressive as F.E.A.R.'s multi-splendiferous pyrotechnics, Raven has still managed to ensure that their baby packs a strong visual punch, and combined with a rocketing pace and varied environments, everything comes together well as a package (though one has little time to stand around and stare at the scenery).

While backed by the Doom 3 engine, Q4 sports many open-air environments, a feature many thought difficult if not impossible, given the demon-shooter's arguably poor showing when it came to the outdoors.

Also unlike its daddy, Quake 4 does a much better job of combat, lacking as it does those painful and stupid areas of wall which look absolutely normal until you walk past them, after which the perfectly serviceable lighting drops deader than Mama Cass at the local delicatessen and said bit of wall disappears to be replaced by multiple spawn points (we call them 'monster closets' in the business).

Intriguingly, you also get many more enemies and NPCs on screen at once, and combined with a much higher base frame rate than Big Daddy Doom, one suspects many optimisations on the part of Raven Software.

That, or those endless miles of corridor were more detailed than we thought. Not that it mattered, since you couldn't see anything anyway.

Ahem.

Ah yes! Vehicular destruction. On the left is the
mechanised walker-bot, on the right is the big
bad tank, firing wantonly at a Strogg spider-bot

The Strogg spider-bot returneth, but hand weapons
appear to be innefectual: "Concentrate your fire!!"

Assuming the role of Kane, your objectives start out as orders not much more complex than, "One frothy latte, two donuts, and a ham roll, hold the butter, two sugars, kill everything that gets in your way and don't drop anything. And get a receipt."

As time goes on, however, you get a taste of independence, culminating in vehicular play onboard a large tank and a mechanised walker-bot, both armed with machine guns and missile launchers, and these are indeed fun to play with, lacking though the controls can sometimes be (i.e. the tank turret, in particular, could do with a slightly larger vertical aiming arc).

This, though, is a minor complaint, and overall the vehicles are fun without feeling like a contrived novelty.

Speaking of machine guns and missile launchers, and the various dogs of war, what is an FPS without weapons? It is much like a cheesecake without that crunchy, crumbly layer of crust at the very bottom that keeps me coming back for serve after serve; that is, it is not a cheesecake. Nor, might I add, is it an FPS.

Thank the gods of gameplay, then, that Raven have seen fit to include a suitable arsenal to outfit the progeny of one of the greatest FPS series to ever grace a personal computer.

From your standard pistol/assault rifle/shotgun combo, we ascend to the heights of hyperblasters, lightning guns, rail guns, nail guns, rocket launchers and Dark Matter cannons, and these all have a practical purpose, even, indeed, down to the lowly blaster pistol and rifle (which, I might add, come with flashlights pre-attached to their frames, an iD touch, no doubt part and parcel of a lesson learned from the original Doom 3 backlash [i.e. it's too bloody dark in here]).

In turn, the Strogg menagerie is equally varied, and you'll come up against everything from foot soldiers and gun-wielding grunts to mechanised animals and gigantic spider-walkers, and beyond to the worst nightmares of the twisted flesh-molding labs of the inner Strogg complex.

Raven has given full vent to their creative urges, and the result is a game that in the main looks nothing like Doom 3, which is a considerable achievement, and one that should be applauded since I'm sure the temptation was strong to turn this into yet another corridor-shooter.

Teleporters (through which you can fire, w00t), jump pads that allow you to bounce grenades as well as yourself, Quake 4 is a game of firsts, and, another first for the Quake series, NPC team-members play a big part in your game.

You don't feel like a lone trooper any longer, meeting up on your merry way with the many members of the human incursion force, from the various squads (denoted by your highly useful HUD). When you finally do meet up with Rhino Squad, you'll be assigned a medic and a grunt, and these guys, while not brainiac-brilliant, can definitely fight for themselves. They strafe, take down enemies, use available cover, and generally work like a unit, as opposed to a collective of cannon fodder who could not hit the bottom of the ocean if they were standing on it.

When not enjoying a rambunctious stroll through the Stroggian countryside, your men enjoy good conversation, and, led by the talented Peter Stormare (8mm), the professional-level cast does a excellent job of voicing-over the human aggressors, giving your blood-thirsty marines personalities all of their own, which you will come to love, hate and admire over time. Dare I say it, it can be quite a bonding experience!

"Hey fellas, what's going down in China town? Oh,
cat got yer tongue?? We don't tolerate rudeness
on Earth, *cha-chuck* time to take out the trash!"

The Strogg, on the other hand, are an ugly bunch of bio-mechanoid freaks who speak in grunts and groans, but they do it so well, though, unlike your marines, their single technique seems to consist of swarming you until you mow them down, but then what do you expect of a hive-mind?

For those who like their challenges a little more human, multiplayer goes like it should, feeling a lot like Quake 3, which isn't altogether a bad thing (though many of our fellow publications have made it out to be), lending itself to fast and furious skirmishing with up to sixteen players to a server, though most of the fourteen launch maps feel just a tad too small to support that many players without more than a little cramped style.

Thankfully, however, the modding community is already taking to Quake 4 like a duck takes to a fluid medium optimised for the aqueous transmission of momentum (that is, brake fluid, which ducks are renowned for taking to), and we should see many user-created maps hitting the net in the next few months.

A worthy continuation of the Quake name that has been, in this reviewer's humble opinion, unfairly slammed for not taking its multiplayer component more seriously (though one must ask what people expected when it was going to be a primarily single-player game anyway). Quake 4 takes something old and something new and blends the two together in impeccable style.

If you're looking for a deep, fun FPS with an excellent pedigree and industry-leading production values, an engrossing and complex single-player campaign, and you aren't looking for Counter-Strike on Mars, then you can't go past Quake 4, proof that space is a more interesting place when it's full of crazed aliens.

Game: Quake 4
Players: 1-16
Online: Yes
Developer: iD Software
Distributor: Activision

Rating: 90%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)

Quake 4 is on the shelves now.

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