Quake 4 (PC) Review

Like Doom 3 before it, Quake 4 doesn't really care about the multiplayer. This is all about the campaign, which tries to be immersive, as well as fun to play through. Is it? Well, without going into detail, it's sort of like any iteration of the Call of Duty franchise. In other words, it is immersive, and yet, that's not really saying much. The players will "feel" that they are Matthew Kane, the lone soldier that will strike a blow into the heart of the alien Strogg empire, but they won't really care. Killing the enemy is cathartic… but not that emotive.

It should be noted that this ride, while powered from Doom 3's id Tech 4, doesn't follow the same path, which means that, instead of leaning more to horror, this feels more like WWII… IN SPAAACE!!! The shift in mood means several things. For starters, the environment looks quite boring. The beauty of this graphic engine had to do with how dynamic lighting and darkness managed to complement some, otherwise, dull places. Unfortunately, that beauty is lost here, since this isn't any more about "super sci-fi" labs and hellish caverns, but more about Earth-like rusty steel, army-green plastic, and Mars-like red sand - and throughout the whole freaking game!

The really big problem, however, lies in the action, which has always been the core in all of id Software's creations. Again, compared to Doom 3, it's a lot faster, the weaponry has more "kick," and the enemies are more aggressive. Compared to the rest, however, there's nothing special about it. In other words, this is like the very old Quake II; a title that shook the earth back then, but didn't have what it takes in order to remain relevant to this day.

Unlike, for instance, F.E.A.R., enemies are the typical morons of old-school FPS. They run towards the main character, they shoot at him, and they sometimes scream at him. All it takes to shoot them down is a full magazine and sheer brute force… and a little bit of good ol' strafing, of course. Furthermore, the levels, typical of most modern shooters, are stupefyingly linear and full of scripted "surprises," with doors locking in order to funnel the player into the only path available, where a "scary" ambush will occur.

There are only two "innovations" here, and they don't really help that much. Firstly, some missions require boarding a vehicle, but both of these instances are pretty boring; the hover-tank battle lasts too long, and the bipedal tank ride is too slow. The second thing revolves around the so-called Stroggification, where Matthew Kane will be transformed into a Strogg. The presentation of this 100% first-person sequence is surely quite intense, but, gameplay-wise, it doesn't really change things that much. Kane will be able to read Strogg text, operate Strogg machinery, and go through Strogg security lasers, but it would all feel the same if he had remained a simple human.