Quake 4 Review
First Quake game in 6 years, first Quake story in 8 years, an Xbox 360 console exclusive, the exactment for this could not be higher. Dose Quake 4 on 360 match its PC counterpart? Or dose it faulter before it starts?
Quake 4 is the 2nd FPS to feature on the 360’s launch lineup behind Perfect Dark Zero. Its arguably a much better franchise than Perfect Dark but both games follow up what have to this point been two fantastic series of games. Quake 2 left off with the Strogg defeated and the macron destroyed. You play as Corporal Kane, a Mariene who is sent to destroy the Strogg on their home planet of Stroggos. Spoiler alert, it dose not go well, that’s hardly a spoiler as within 5 seconds of the game starting this is apparent, you crash land on the planet and spend the rest of the game trying to survive. The story is decent, not Oscar worthy but certainly keeps things moving well, its take cues from Doom 3, with cut sense intermingled with story sections in gameplay that create a nice atmosphere, you really feel the despair and dire situation you find yourselves in.
Gameplay also straddles the line between new and old well, the opening 1/3 of the game plays like a slightly more action heavy Doom 3, less horror here as you run and gun your way from one end of levels to another. Eventually you gain access to the Stroggs abilities and see an increase to movement and increased health, at this point it starts to feel more like Quake 2, darting through levels never stopping as you carve your way through you enemies. The weapons in Quake 2 are excellent, almost all are upgradeable through the story and are all fun to use, on harder difficulties ammo is scarce and you get a real sense of peril at times and wating of conserver it. What helps with this are you allies, for roughly 60% of your playthrough you will have allies by your side, and for the most part they don’t suck. They are more than capable and can at times clear levels for you if you want, they can be killed but they aren’t weak, they can also give you health if they are a medic or increase your amour out of combat if an engineer which is a nice touch.
Level design here is very good, the overall pacing is excellent, levels never get boring are vary the challenge well. They are intermingled with vehicles too which break the action up well. The Doom 3 engine looks great on the 360, its night a day better over Doom 3, lighting is impressive and there are plenty of high res textures, some of the level backdrops are very low res however and quite noticeable the rare times you are outside. It’s a shame the game dose not run better, it struggles to hold a steady frame rate, rarely hitting 30fps. Its never “broken” or unplayable, but on the harder difficulties it did lead to my death a few times.
Multi-player was available on launch but sadly the servers are now shut down now. You can play via system link but there is no way to play them split screen which is a shame, there is also no co-op campaign here, which is odd considering how often you have allies with you. This also means you cannot get 1000g on this game, roughly 40% of the achievements are online MP only, and do on work, even via system link. Single player difficulty achievements also don’t stack, so you will need to play through the campaign 4 times to unlock them all.
Quake 4 swings and mostly hits, the campaign is an expertly paced thrill ride with great weapons and fun level design. It’s a good-looking game that is poorly optimized for the 360, sadly its not backwards compatible with newer systems, so if you want to play Quake 4, the pc is your best bet at present.
8/10
First Quake game in 6 years, first Quake story in 8 years, an Xbox 360 console exclusive, the exactment for this could not be higher. Dose Quake 4 on 360 match its PC counterpart? Or dose it faulter before it starts?
Quake 4 is the 2nd FPS to feature on the 360’s launch lineup behind Perfect Dark Zero. Its arguably a much better franchise than Perfect Dark but both games follow up what have to this point been two fantastic series of games. Quake 2 left off with the Strogg defeated and the macron destroyed. You play as Corporal Kane, a Mariene who is sent to destroy the Strogg on their home planet of Stroggos. Spoiler alert, it dose not go well, that’s hardly a spoiler as within 5 seconds of the game starting this is apparent, you crash land on the planet and spend the rest of the game trying to survive. The story is decent, not Oscar worthy but certainly keeps things moving well, its take cues from Doom 3, with cut sense intermingled with story sections in gameplay that create a nice atmosphere, you really feel the despair and dire situation you find yourselves in.
Gameplay also straddles the line between new and old well, the opening 1/3 of the game plays like a slightly more action heavy Doom 3, less horror here as you run and gun your way from one end of levels to another. Eventually you gain access to the Stroggs abilities and see an increase to movement and increased health, at this point it starts to feel more like Quake 2, darting through levels never stopping as you carve your way through you enemies. The weapons in Quake 2 are excellent, almost all are upgradeable through the story and are all fun to use, on harder difficulties ammo is scarce and you get a real sense of peril at times and wating of conserver it. What helps with this are you allies, for roughly 60% of your playthrough you will have allies by your side, and for the most part they don’t suck. They are more than capable and can at times clear levels for you if you want, they can be killed but they aren’t weak, they can also give you health if they are a medic or increase your amour out of combat if an engineer which is a nice touch.
Level design here is very good, the overall pacing is excellent, levels never get boring are vary the challenge well. They are intermingled with vehicles too which break the action up well. The Doom 3 engine looks great on the 360, its night a day better over Doom 3, lighting is impressive and there are plenty of high res textures, some of the level backdrops are very low res however and quite noticeable the rare times you are outside. It’s a shame the game dose not run better, it struggles to hold a steady frame rate, rarely hitting 30fps. Its never “broken” or unplayable, but on the harder difficulties it did lead to my death a few times.
Multi-player was available on launch but sadly the servers are now shut down now. You can play via system link but there is no way to play them split screen which is a shame, there is also no co-op campaign here, which is odd considering how often you have allies with you. This also means you cannot get 1000g on this game, roughly 40% of the achievements are online MP only, and do on work, even via system link. Single player difficulty achievements also don’t stack, so you will need to play through the campaign 4 times to unlock them all.
Quake 4 swings and mostly hits, the campaign is an expertly paced thrill ride with great weapons and fun level design. It’s a good-looking game that is poorly optimized for the 360, sadly its not backwards compatible with newer systems, so if you want to play Quake 4, the pc is your best bet at present.
8/10
While the first half isn't that great and the soundtrack is a bit boring, the second half more than makes up for it.
if stroggification is this much fun, sign me the fuck up.
if stroggification is this much fun, sign me the fuck up.