Taking place after the events in the second installment, Quake 4 picks up in the full-on fray of battle against the Strogg. You, Mathew Kane are a member of Rhino squad, an elite group of marines distpatched to the Strogg homeworld in order take the fight to “them”. But that certainly won’t be an easy undertaking; tons of Strogg footsoldiers are everywhere as are all sorts of other Strogg beasties, all there to shut you down.
But, through an otherwise undesirable series of events you are captured and subjected to torture and the eventual transformation into a Strogg. Lucky for you (cool scene) you are spared the full transformation and are now one ugly, mean son-of-a-gun looking Strogg/human hybrid: Stroggification if you will. It’s a painfull and grotesque process that isn’t fit for a rabid dog and you sadly go through 90% of it. You’re as tough as they are, but in you still beats the heart of a human, and a heroic one at that.
Lock and load soldier! With your new body, you find that the total annihilation of the Strogg homeworld is not nearly enough pain to return to your enemies. And since you are on their home turf, the Strogg are quick to use your fallen comrades against you as their forces deplete.
Of course nothing worth doing right is ever easy. And you will find your attack to be anything but a walk in the park. Fortunately, you can count on driving powerful vehicles and running along side a cadre of Marines who are more than happy to help you out with their sophisticated A.I. (good programming) and combat training. The Marines will lay cover fire, toss grenades, cover you and form battle lines of offense. This is a military offensive for the ages and if you don’t get the job done, there will be hell to pay, literally.
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 10 years, you’ll know that the Quake series is one of the most revered and well respected game licenses out there. And for the most part, they have all been on the PC, in fact most top tier first person shooters have been on the PC until recently. HALO on the original Xbox showed what a console can do in the hands of someone who knows how to design a control schematic. Since then many of the FPS games have found refuge on the console (thank goodness for that).
Using a similar setup as HALO, Quake 4’s controls are as smooth as there is. The friendly, easy to use 360 controller uses both analog sticks to move and look. The trigger buttons control both the fire and alt fire functions while the face buttons handle all the other essentials while the top bumper buttons toggle through the weapons. It’s a really nice setup and I found that the game just clips along with a fluidity that I have rarely seen.
What’s nice too with the game, is that it does have you controlling turrets and vehicles but the game never suffers from any sort of control breakdown. There is the slightest auto-aim feature that helps you keep up the frenetic pace at which the game is moving at. Not enough so as you hit everything you “kinda” point at, but rather, moves the targeting icon ever so slightly so you hit those shots. Trust me, you need it with a game like this one where the action never lets up and forces you to have the trigger ready at all times.
What I found to be fairly neat in a way that helps move the story along, as you have those momentary breaks and are walking around human occupied areas, you can listen in on conversations and even try interjecting into them. Sometimes the Marines will engage you in conversation, other times they may shut up and act offended that you interupted them. I know that’s not really a control comment, but it is, since you control whether or not to interupt someone.
Like any good shooter, Quake 4 features lots of guns and weapons. Hell, in this game anything you can use against the Strogg would be useful. But in this case, the guns are big, beefy and make lots of pretty holes. Here is a breakdown of the standard Marine loadout:
As if a little bit of a throwback, Quake 4 features power-ups that normally are reserved for arcade games. Health packs, Armor, invisibility, super damage, super speed are but a few of the itmes you will find. It’s an interesting feature that you don’t typically see in FPS games other then maybe Serious Sam. I thought it was a novel idea and welcomed the feature. Trust me, without them you simply could not get past some ot the game’s tougher areas.
Lastly, you do get to command vehicles including a really bad-ass walker with powerful guns. Vehicles are certainly nothing new to these types of games, but how they are controlled and how they blow stuff up is where this title seperates itself from other titles in the genre. Trust me, this is a game worth picking up just to see how many things you can make explode.
Now in my opinion, I don’t think they could have put this title on anything but the 360. Sure Doom 3 and Half Life 2 both made it onto the original Xbox, and they even look great as well. But the thing about Quake 4 and the 360 is that this game runs damn near parallel to a high end PC playing the same game. Explosions are crisp and bright, line of sight is clear and accurate, the Strogg themselves look gross and evil. It’s simply an awesome looking game.
As you adventure you will note that even when a whole mess-load of action is playing out, there is very little breakdown on the screen. In fact, I can only remember one time when the screen had the slightest slowdown and that involved the exploding of a massive cannon. And even then it wasn’t anything I could complain about.
And it’s scary as well! This is a game that rivals even the creepiest of games. My palms would begin to sweat as I played at 2:30 in the morning with the lights out. Creeping around the dank and sewer-like steam tunnels of the Strogg facilities is creepy enough, but then when something “doesn’t” happen, the tension is ratcheted up another notch. Then finally when you just begin to let your guard down, BOOM! A sick looking Strogg monster comes crashing through the wall and begins beating the snot out of you. This is tension to the nth degree, God bless the folks at id for making a game that looks as good as it scares.
But it doesn’t stop there, the architecture of the levels, the unhealthy atmosphere of the Strogg planet the whole visual ambiance of the game really does a good job of drawing you in and placing you into enemy territory. It’s this desperate pacing that makes for addictive gameplay. Oh, sure there is some breakdown in the game’s pacing between battle scenes and non-battle scenes, but it is forgivable.
And don’t forget that this title has in game Dolby Digital sound. Not only does the intro and other cut-scenes come out of your speaker with excellent positioning and digital clarity, but so do the action scenarios. If you have set your 360 up the way Mr. Gates intended with the High-def cables and fiber optic connection into your receiver, then the action humming out of your speakers is comparable to a big budget, Hollywood action movie. Kick ass sound for a kick ass game.
I really am enjoying the hell out of this game. Aside from a really strong single player game, Quake 4 has a strong online game that allows you to log on to Xbox live and really load up on some dammage. Whether it’s a deathmatch style of game or a co-op mode, you can hop online, find some players and do it up to your liking. There are several styles of multiplayer matches: Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Single elimination tournament. Plenty to do here folks, and lots of folks playing out there online.
But when all is said and done, Quake 4 is a decent title to have if you own an Xbox 360. Quake 4 features good graphics, excellent sound and a on-par edition to one of gaming’s most hallowed titles. So break it down.
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Download the Quake 4Gameplay video
- 80MB Windows Media
- 7 minutes 57 seconds
- Opening intro video
- Walkthrough of first level