Quake 4 is actually good!

Laguna

Having bought and endured the dogs filth that was Doom 3, I told myself I'd never go near Quake 4, but as it was going so cheap in PC World the other week (€29.99), I thought to myself "Ah, why not". Surprisingly, when I started playing it (bar a few graphical tears and glitches that were remedied with the latest patch from the website), I have to say I feel website and games reviewers were overly harsh on what I believe is actually a very playable and decent game.

Whilst the gameplay may not be a par on Half Life 2, the frenetic gunplay (think Quake 3 arena) and constantly increasing in size Strogg that you're thrown up against gives for a very playable and enjoyable game. It's got good atmosphere (I'm sure everyone's pretty much aware there isn't really much of a story or plot development in this game bar for one moment when the marine you play goes through.. changes), responsive controls, the graphics on top settinngs are great and you're never more than thirty seconds away from pumping lead into a great big Strogg (unlike Doom 3 with it's intervals where you could be wandering around for fifteen minutes waiting for another Imp to appear)...

Anyway, all in all, give this game a chance if you avoided it at first on pre judgements thanks to short sighted reviewers.

(PC version)

Zapp Brannigan

Weren't Play selling that off for like 10 euro? I know I saw it somewhere dirt-cheap...

Cravez

when i was playing quake 4 i said to myself " This is what doom 3 should have been and doom 3 is what quake 4 should have been ( just change monsters around ) " i felt the locations on doom 3 would have fitted better for quake 4 and quake 4 locations would have better fitted for doom 3. But thats just my personal opinion

Ri_Nollaig

i have quake4 on pc too and i like it its a fun old skool shooter, no storyline to get in the way just shoot everything on the screen with a big grin

Retr0gamer

I think Raven are a terrible game developer and didn't like Quake 2 in multiplayer. However I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this game. It's nothing amazing or earth shattering but it is good clean old school blasting fun. Some of the npc marines characters are quite good and the soundtrack is excellent. Special mention to the sound effects. The guns are satisfyingly meaty and it's a huge step up from the spud gun effects of Doom 3 (save the excellent sounding plasma rifle). multiplayer is also brilliant and plays very much like a classic Quake 3 game.

December Son

Retr0gamer wrote:

The guns are satisfyingly meaty and it's a huge step up from the spud gun effects of Doom 3 (save the excellent sounding plasma rifle). multiplayer is also brilliant and plays very much like a classic Quake 3 game.

Get the trent reznor sound pack for doom 3 and all will be forgiven.
As for Q4, yeah i throughly enjoyed it myself, the later levels in particular are brilliant. From the level where you have to escort the EMP bomb into the storr facility (i think its only like level 2 or 3) but from then on, the game really started to rock ass.

mcgovern

I have Q4 on Xbox360 and liked it, and got Doom3 on PC just after it came out, and much preferred it.
Playing in the dark with surround sound, freaky!

December Son

Yeah i preferred D3 myself, but im a self confessed id/doom fanboy and had been drooling over D3 since the first screens were shown at E3.
the hell level and everything after was just pure gold. to hell with the naysayers!

BLITZ_Molloy

It reminded me of Quake 2 singleplayer. Good old fasioned meat & potatoes FPS gameplay. Good satisfying weapons and above average level design. After the mindless dirge that ws Doom3 I found this a breath of fresh air. In fact, from a purely combat and weapons point of view I enjoyed it alot more than Half Life 2.

Gonzo

ive only played the quake 4 demo single and multiplayer on the xbox360 and what ive played I loved, the multiplayer altho limited to one map for the demo was highly enjoyable, it will be my next game of purchase shame its so damn expensive on the 360... not bothered with the pc version as my poor pc would make it look crap.

jdwals

Dissenting voice time!

Have Quake 4 and think it is awful.
It is way too dark in some of the levels making it really frustrating to play. Sure, you say - turn up the brightness on your screen. Yeah, do that but you end up only being able to squint at the screen for ten minutes before you get a headcahe.
Cannot get my Quake 4 body to sidestep making it really hard to dodge weapons fire and shoot back. I either have to turn and run thus they are out of my weapons arc or else just stand there and take the punishment they dish out. (someone is going to come on and tell me how and I will feel really silly - go on, I'm waiting!)
I just got a new pc recently that has let me play old games that I have not played so far. One of those old games was the first Half Life which I have almost finished and was well into before I got Quake 4. I gotta say that Half Life is so far ahead of Quake 4 for enjoyment it's embarrising for the makers of Quake 4.
I have tried quiet a few times to get into Quake 4 as I loved Quake II but I just can't do it.
I am not surprised it's price has tumbled since it came out.

Pugsley

Retr0gamer wrote:

I think Raven are a terrible game developer

I think Raven done an excellent job with Wolfenstein:Enemy Territory, probably the best 100% free MP game out there (dont even need RTCW to play it).

jdwals wrote:

Cannot get my Quake 4 body to sidestep making it really hard to dodge weapons fire and shoot back

How can you say you didnt enjoy the game if you didnt even know how to sidestep? reconfigure your controls per chance? otherwise its like playing doom2 and not knowing how to change weapon from the pistol and complaining it sucks.

I really enjoyed Q4, wasnt expecting much after Doom3 (I actually though D3 was ok, if fairly boring, it was by far the most atmospheric FPS since Thief3 [way more atmosphere than FEAR imo]), but Quake4 had a very fast pace to it, and you were blasting strogg by the dozen right from the start, as the game progresses your guns get bigger, the strogg get bigger, but theres still dozens of them

The thing that carried Quake4 though was the maps, their by far the best looking maps to date, sometimes I just found myself staring at the maps for several minutes at a time, the weapons were also top notch, and the shotgun felt just right too (v.important), the only weapon I felt kind of disappointed with was the BFG (dark matter gun or something?), thought it lacked the kick of the other BFG's, especially the Quake2 one, now THAT was a gun, if a little unfair in MP

Gonzo

how does Quake 2 look on the xbox360 version?

Retr0gamer

I think you mean Quake 4. On the 360 it's a quick and nasty port. Doesn't look as crisp and the framerate is criminal for a next gen machine. Other than that it's okay.

I thought grey matter did enemy territory and raven released it. For me Raven haven't released a decent game since Hexen. The two SOF games are two of the worst I've ever played. RTCW was good for the first half and had some memorable levels but was ruined in the second half by annoying uber soldiers and bad level design. MP was outclassed by DoD.

Kare Bear

Pugsley wrote:

I think Raven done an excellent job with Wolfenstein:Enemy Territory, probably the best 100% free MP game out there (dont even need RTCW to play it).

Raven didnt do enemy territory,splash damage did.

sAid

Lies Quake4 licks balls

joe_chicken

Retr0gamer wrote:

I think you mean Quake 4. On the 360 it's a quick and nasty port. Doesn't look as crisp and the framerate is criminal for a next gen machine. Other than that it's okay.

I thought grey matter did enemy territory and raven released it. For me Raven haven't released a decent game since Hexen. The two SOF games are two of the worst I've ever played. RTCW was good for the first half and had some memorable levels but was ruined in the second half by annoying uber soldiers and bad level design. MP was outclassed by DoD.

What about Elite Force... thats what Quake 4 reminded me of alot.
Good solid blasting fun...

The only thing that disappointed me (as in half life 2, which is unquestionably better) was the single player team play stuff... like make that guy go there and do this, kinda thing... really waiting for a good fps to be able to have this