Previewed: September 16, 2005
Previewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Activision

Developer
Raven Software
id Software

Release Date: Q4, 2005
Genre: FPS
Players: 16
ESRB: Mature

Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)

Quake II was the last Quake game to actually tell a story and it’s that story that we are picking up on, and even though eight years have passed, we don’t miss a beat as we join the events that our anonymous marine started in 1997 in the soon-to-be-released, Quake 4.

For those who don’t remember what happened back on that alien planet so long ago, or even worse, never played Quake II, I strongly recommend that you pick up the Special DVD Edition of Quake 4 which not only contains all sorts of interesting behind-the-scenes info, interviews, and photos, but also gives you a chance to relive the past with complete versions of QUAKE II PC, QUAKE II: Reckoning PC (Expansion Pack), and QUAKE II: Ground Zero PC (Expansion Pack) .

At the end of Quake II you succeeded in destroying the aliens’ planetary defense system. This heroic feat is briefly mentioned in the opening movie as you join Matthew Kane, a member of the elite Rhino Squad, which is leading the next wave of Earth’s invasion of Stroggos.

But just because “The Big Gun” is destroyed, doesn’t give you free run over the planet. It merely enables you to land on it, or rather crash-land. What follows is a blazing battle of man versus alien in some of the most fiendishly clever levels ever seen in a first-person shooter.

I recently had the opportunity to play several levels of a recent build of Quake 4, including some indoor and outdoor locations as well as a chance to take a couple of the new vehicles for a test-drive.

For those of you expecting the next big evolution in the FPS genre, this probably isn’t going to fulfill any fantasies. Id Software pioneered this genre, and while they have continually tweaked the technology the core gameplay is relatively unchanged from Doom 3. In fact, Quake 4 is built on a heavily modified and upgraded Doom 3 engine.

This is instantly apparent in the stunning game-engine movies with character models and features that are accented with some of the best textures you’re likely to see on the PC. Quake 4 is certainly more colorful and much more well-lit than your nightmare on Mars, and when things do turn to the dark side you can now switch on a flashlight that can be mounted to certain weapons. While I’m thankful that they included the flashlight, you have unlimited battery power, so there is little incentive to limit its use.

Once the gameplay kicks in you will feel right at home with traditional first-person shooter controls. You have a powerful arsenal of futuristic weapons at your disposal including a few standards like the pistol, and machine gun, and when it’s time to get up close and personal you have a nasty looking rotary saw weapon.

The missions are much more immersive now with many of them making you part of a team. You can interact with these other soldiers in limited fashion, but most of their actions are heavily scripted. There is also a medic, who you must rescue and escort back to safety in an early mission. He is a useful asset since he can heal you when med kits are scarce.

By now you have likely heard that somewhere during the course of the game you will get captured and turned into a Strogg. As terrible as it might sound (and as horrible as it looks in the gruesome cutscene) this is really the only way you can infiltrate deep enough to destroy the Strogg once and for all.

Quake 4 also introduces vehicles. The first one I got to drive was a hover-tank, and even though it floats it was surprisingly slow and realistically cumbersome to drive. It’s slow to get started and once you build up momentum you can’t change direction or spin around as quickly as you are used to while on foot. The handling of these tanks reminded me of another Activision game, Battlezone.

Next, it was time to climb into the cockpit of a giant walker. This mobile armor doesn’t approach the scale of the mechs in a game like MechWarrior but you do get a nifty HUD, and a lumbering gait as you stomp around the levels unleashing missiles and cannon fire. The trick here is that you cannot reload your missiles until all six have been fired, so you have to marry the machine gun and the dumb-fire missiles in a strategic pattern so you don’t get caught without weapons at the wrong time.

Technically, Quake 4 takes advantage of whatever hardware you have and scales the experience accordingly. With a high-end video card you are going to be treated to some amazing landscapes and detailed interiors. Textures pop off the screen with realistic lighting and bump mapping and there are some truly innovative special effects I’ve never seen in a game before like the shield dispersion ripple effect from ID4.

The only thing that seemed a bit off was that the environments were almost “too clean”. I was looking for fogging or dust blowing in the wind outside or smoke or haze in the indoor levels. Anything to indicate that a war was going on. Of course, this was an early build so there is still plenty of time to add more ambience and realism before the final release.

Music and sound were solid even though my PC experience was somewhat limited by wearing headphones. I can only imagine how rich and dynamic this game is going to sound on a nice set of PC surround speakers. The music is your typical military fare with plenty of cues to accent those special moments.

There is also loads of quality dialogue, some of it aimed directly at you and other just casual conversations that you happen to overhear or the typical military com chatter. The environmental sounds are realistic and even a bit disturbing as you explore creepy interiors and expansive outdoor areas.

Quake III established itself as the benchmark by which all multiplayer games are measured, so it is only fitting that Quake 4 draws upon that inspiration for its own set of multiplayer modes. With support for up to 16 players, you can take part in Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag playing as either Marine or Strogg.

I had the chance to sample all three of these modes in some 8-player action, and I was quickly reminded how bad I really am at traditional Deathmatch. Once we got into the team-based games I was able to manage a several frags and even capture the flag a few times.

I got a good sampling of several of the multiplayer maps and most seemed perfectly scaled to the number of players and type of game, although the Deathmatch level seemed a bit crowded with eight of us. There is still no confirmed number of multiplayer maps for the final release, but the ones that I did see and play will offer countless hours of online fun.

Multiplayer also features a host of creative power-ups like quad-damage and invisibility, plus all the weapons and ammo pick-ups as well as health and armor. There wasn’t much new here, at least in what I saw, but it certainly all looked a lot better than ever before.

So, much like how Doom 3 really didn’t revolutionize the Doom franchise, Quake 4 doesn’t shatter any FPS conventions. Nonetheless, it’s a technical masterpiece and just as solid as any other game that id has made since Wolfenstein 3D.

Raven has done a fantastic job of taking id’s enhanced engine and crafting a compelling story mixed with excellent level design, intense action, and a few other surprises. Whether you are an FPS junkie or just one of those guys who complained that Quake III didn’t have a story, this is one action ride you won’t want to miss.

While we anxiously await the release of this amazing new title, check out our collection of exciting screenshots in our Preview Gallery.