Quake 4 Review

Audio & Graphics

Part of the reason the story for the single player campaign holds your interested and keeps you on your toes is because of the audio soundtrack and sound effects. The sound effects of weapons, enemies and your surroundings are superb, aerial combat and bombardment goes on around you in the early missions and adds greatly to the intensity of the game. The chatter of radio communication between marines can be heard throughout the game and really adds some realism to the combat situations.

Built using the Doom 3 game engine, Quake 4 had to look good. Raven Software has done a excellent job working with the engine to fit their needs and have produced a game with some slick, top of the line graphics. The dark environments that gave Doom 3 it's eerie atmosphere are readily apparent in Quake 4. The lighting effects are excellent, watching a group of marines fan out through a dark corridor or room with flashlights is amazing.

The character models and detailed environments is also worth a mention. Characters both look and move naturally, up close you'll be able to see lines and stubble on the faces of your fellow marines while the Strogg enemy, many who were once human, look just as impressive. The game environments are very detailed as well and are surprisingly varied amongst all the metal and machinery of the Strogg military installations.

Multiplayer

The Quake series is known for it's multiplayer capability. Quake III Arena was entirely multiplayer and with its great straightforward game modes the series defined multiplayer for countless other shooters. Quake 4 multiplayer falls a little short of it's predecessor when it comes to innovation. With limited game modes, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Tourney, Quake 4 does do a good job of recreating Quake III Arena's feel with stellar graphics but there's an empty feeling when you compare this to many of the new game modes that have been introduced to the genre over the past couple years.

There are nine Deathmatch multiplayer maps set in environments from the single player campaign as well as recreations of some favorites from Quake II and Quake III. There are also a total of five Capture the Flag maps which can be played in standard or arena mode which includes bonus power ups such as regeneration, bonus damage, speed and more.

Tourney Mode takes all of the players and creates a bracket tournament of 1 on 1 battles until the last two are standing.

Bottom Line

Quake 4 does enough things right to succeed in being a good game. Although the single player campaign is simple and enemy AI is predictable and repetitive at times, it does keep your interest by looking and sounding fantastic. The multiplayer portion of the game is limited by the small number of game modes when compared to other shooters. Overall Quake 4 leaves a good impression that should please most fans.