Another cool Quake Sequel

Quake 4 is the newest of ID Softwares great game series. This time though, it's not actually done by ID, but by Raven Software, who have handled a lot of games for ID in the past, always using ID's game engines.

This time, ID let them do a sequel to one of their own games. And a good sequel at that. Firstoff, Quake 4 is a direct sequel to Quake 2 (Quake 3 being primarily a multiplayer shooter without a real story). It starts basically right were Quake 2 ended. To refresh your memory... The Strogg, some alien army who are ID's version of the Borg, tried to invade the earth. In a final attempt to turn the tide of the war, US Marines attack the homeworld of the Strogg. The attack goes terribly wrong, leaving only one sole marine to battle the entire Strogg army. And yes, that was you. At the end of Quake 2, you defeated the Strogg leader and crippled the attack on earth.

This is were Quake 4 takes of. You play a different Marine as part of yet another assault on the Strogg homeworld. This time, it's about actually defeating the Strogg army that is now without a leader. Being part of a Platoon, you fight your way through the Strogg homeworld.

Raven Software put an emphasis about the "fighting in a platoon" idea. A lot of times you will find yourself battling alongside fellow marines and fulfill different objectives to finally bring the Strogg down. Lot's of cutscenes and scripted elements draw you into the game, providing a good movie like experiences that is top notch and easily amongst the big ones like Half Life.

Being a member of a platoon means you have help this time. Depending on the skill level you choose to play, that actually means help. You can't really give your teammates orders, like in Half Life 2, but I never found them to be in the way or acting stupid. On top of that, you have engineers and medics, who take care of your armor and health while on the battlefield, much like in Half Life. The general A.I. of the monsters is pretty limited, but hey, it's a shooter with emphasis on shooting. Puzzles are limited in this game, but your way through the war constantly gets interrupted by little missions on the side and big story twists. Like in real war, nothing ever goes as planned, so you find yourself in a lot of situations you didn't predict. People who loved Quake 2 but missed the movie-like game experiences that other titles brought will really like this game.

On the technical side, well... it's ID Software. So what can go wrong? Quake 4 uses the game engine from Doom 3. In a slightly modified version so it's able to render bigger outdoor areas (let me just say, you will take extensive trips over the surface of the Strogg homeworld, as well as it's buildings. And not always on foot...). If you have the machine able to run Quake at a good quality setting (at least a 1.6 Ghz, 1 Gig RAM and a graphics card with 128 MB) you will see a graphically stunning shooter.

The gameplay is, like I said, very good and movie like. Yet, unlike others, I found the game to be too short. I played it completely through on a weekend. So after about 20 hours of play, expect to see the end if you play on the easiest setting or are a FPS crack. Since the game is one scripted storyline, the only thing you could after that is multiplayer, since there are no alternative endings or anything. But unlike Quake 3, the fourth game of the series was made with single-player first, multiplayer second in mind. It offers the standard multiplayer scenarios that you know and love in ID games, but nothing really fancy.

Fans of Quake 2 will be happy to hear that all their favourite weapons are back. Except for the BFG, which was replaced by the "dark matter gun". If you ask me, that's even more fun, cause that thing actually shoots little black holes. The whole handling of the game just feels like all the ID shooters. If you every played one, you will find yourself right back into the action without any problems.

If you ask me of things that aren't so good in this game, I would be hard pressed to find more than just a couple of minor tidbits. Yes, the game is a little short but that would be about it.

Oh, and a note to parents: It's an ID game. If you don't know what that means, let me just tell you it's bloody. Utterly bloody and very violent. Nothing I would give my kid to play.

As a final note: If you like story driven 3D shooters and especially if you're a fan of Quake... get the game. If you are more into "real life" shooters like Battlefield or all the World War FPS games, you might be better of with something thats a little less Sci-Fi.

No matter where your taste lies, Quake 4 is an excellent shooter game, both technically and story wise. Since it's been already out for a while, you can probably get it for less than the full price now... so go get it!