Enemy Territory Quake Wars Review

The battle for Earth between Humans and the alien Strogg continues in Enemy Territory Quake Wars, a multiplayer first person shooter set in popular Quake universe of a Planet Earth under attack. Featuring a class based system Quake Wars offers a fun and balanced multiplayer expereince with individual and team based objectives, a wide variety of weapons and land, sea and air vehicles.

Enemy Territory Quake Wars Details

• Publisher: Activision
• Developer: Splash Damage
• ESRB Rating: "T" for Teen
• Genre: First Person Shooter
• Theme: Science Fiction

Enemy Territory Quake Wars is the follow up to the multiplayer World War II free release Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. Quake Wars is the fourthSet in the early part of the Strogg invasion, Enemy Territory Quake Wars is the fifth Quake title to be released but the storyline is actually set during the early days of the Strogg invasion. Prior to the events in Quake II and Quake 4. As with other multiplayer FPS the storyline is not the game's strong point, nor is it meant to be. This isn't a single player game that needs to hold your attention; rather it's a game full of action and edge of your seat excitement.

The overall gameplay elements of Enemy Territory Quake Wars are very similar to that of Wolfenstein: Enemey Territory and other mulitplayer FPS games such as the Battlefield series. There are two armies to choose from the Global Defense Force(GDF) and the Strogg. From each army you'll have the option to choose one of five different classes. Other than their name the classes of the two sides are essentially the same. There are minor differences in weapons and ammo; the Strogg never have to reload but, there are some minor differences in things such as weapons and healing, but nothing that's going to throw the game's balance out of whack. One example of this is with ammunition. The GDF has a limited supply of ammo and must reload; the Strogg on the other had have unlimited ammo but their weapons will overheat if fired for a long period of time.

There are three main game modes in Quake Wars that contain a single map battle, multi-map campaigns and duels. A single map battle takes place on one of the 12 maps included with Quake Wars. There are three different campaigns that take players across three maps. The campaign settings include an African campaign, North American campaign, and Pacific campaign. Finally duels are played on a single map and last for two rounds with each team racing to complete it's objectives as fast as they can.

Campaigns & Objectives

One exciting feature of Enemy Territory Quake Wars are the multi mission based campaigns. These missions and objectives spread across a campaign gives players an opportunity to earn experience, promotions and special abilities that are saved from mission to mission throughout the campaign. This makes for a deeper gaming experience rather than just trying to wipe out as many enemies as you can or trying to hold a position, watching points decrease as found in many older multiplayer first person shooters.

Once players have selected their class and spawned the game will start with players receiving both team and class based objectives. The team objectives are the primary objectives to winning the game and are shared by the entire GDF or Strogg team. The secondary or classed based objectives are based on which class you choose to play. Medics could have an objective to heal certain wounded while Soldiers(GDF) or Aggressors(Strogg) may have an objective to take out a specific enemy position/fortification. Once complete players will receive new/updated objectives that keep the action and campaign moveing along.

Graphics

Don't expect to be blown away by the graphics of Quake Wars. It was developed using id Software's Doom 3 game engine and implements a texture mapping technique called MegaTexture which is fixes some texture mapping issues found with the initial release of the Doom 3 engine. Normally this statement would give the indication that you'd be in store for some great graphics. The environments in Quake Wars is one example where this is not the case, some just seem to lack detail and fail to set the tone for the game's settings.

Please don't take this as an overstatement though, the graphics are decent and are not regressing, but with more advanced game engines, graphics cards and processors, expectations are quite high for more realistic and believable environments.

Character and vehicle models on the other hand are excellent, both humans and the alien Strogg look terrific while weapons and vehicles are likewise very detailed. Character movement and animation could be more fluid but overall the fire fights and action moves fast enough to where you don't really notice.

Bottom Line

Enemy Territory Quake Wars isn't a ground breaking game to multiplayer FPS, nor are the graphics as detailed as one would expect but it does a great job in providing a fun and action packed gaming experience. The multi map and objective based campaigns offer a longer, more indepth game, while the single map and duel game modes gives the option for a quick, action packed game. The classes of each army, gaining experience and abilities make the replayability of Quake Wars very high and loyal Quake fans won't be disappointed.