If you're able to overlook minor flaws you will enjoy this game.
The campaign in Quake 4 will take you from around eight to fifteen hours to complete. During the beginning of the campaign you're introduced to the basic Stogg units that you'll encounter through the majority of the game. Berserkers, Strogg Marines, and Grunts are some of the first types of Strogg you'll meet in the Quake 4 single player campaign. Later in the game you'll meet more armored, and powerful types of Strogg that'll get in your face along the way to completing the game. Like the majority of first person shooters, Matthew Kane will be alone in most cases, but he'll have Marines with him in a lot of cases. Besides having typical marines guiding him, he'll also get the aid of Marine Techs which can completely replenish your armor, and Marine Medics which can fully replenish your health. The AI of the marines along side Kane are actually pretty smart, and will take cover, and in some cases even get to the Strogg kills before the player can.
The weaponry in Quake 4 is another positive thing in the game. Quake 4's single player has eleven different guns in your arsenal to choose from. From the basic blaster to a huge dark matter gun, you'll have all the weapons you'll need to defeat an alien race and save the world. Another touch is that all the weapons actually sounds powerful. When you fire a gun such as the Dark Matter Gun you can just tell how powerful it really from the sound of it. The same goes for other weapons such as the machine gun, hyperblaster, and rocket launcher, all these weapons sound as good as they should. Speaking of audio in the game, the voice acting in Quake 4 is pretty top-notch. Each Marine in the game has their own distinct voice. The sound department definitely did their job in this game.
One thing Quake 4 was high criticized for was a bad frame rate. During the time I played the game I only experenced a frame rate problem once and when it happened it only lasted for a couple of seconds. The graphics were also critizied in the 360's Quake 4 port. I personally never worry to much about graphics, unless it's a bad art style that I can't see working with the theme, or bad on the eyes. I won't use that as an excuse to say the graphics for the game are not top-notch. The graphics are a tad dated, but all in all the graphics can stand on their own. If you played games during the time of Atari through the Playstation you know graphics aren't what make the game.
Quake 4's difficulty scale is pretty accurate, on Private the game has it's harder moments, but nothing too challenging to new players of the series or genre. Corporal and higher will tend to test the players skill in the first-person shooter genre from time to time. Each Strogg foe in the game has unique combat skills that will play into the difficulty of the game. For instance, over time the foes go from basic grunt-type enemies to thick armored and rocket shooting Strogg, which usually can dodge your projectiles with ease. Boss fights within Quake 4 can be challenging at times, having the player having to deactivate the boss's shield in order to even damage his health. On the other hand, after you've obtained the Dark Matter Gun you can pretty much annihilate the remaining bosses with several blasts of the Dark Matter Gun. To make up for the Dark Matter Gun being so helpful, a lot of the boss Strogg have back up with them. Overall the difficulty in Quake 4 is pretty solid.
Quake 4's single player campaign will have the player going to many different locations from the basic spaceship corridors to elaborate Strogg human testing facilities, and even the place where all the waste, and failed experiments end up. Besides the run and gun combat, Kane will have to bored a vehicle from time to time to get the job done. The vehicle parts of the game are pretty simple, and easy at times. Most times you're just controlling the gun on the rig, or standing on the back of a truck and shooting any Strogg that appear. Anytime the vehicles have a health bar it replenishes when it's not taking fire for a given amount of time. There's also a time when you get to control a tank, and have control of the guns as well. The tanks armor also replenishes, and has limited rockets along with a machine gun. The vehicle combat is one of the aspects the game could have needed a little more work on.
Quake has always been famous for it's multiplayer. Quake 4 also has multiplayer reminiscent to Quake 2 and 3, with the typical deathmatch, capture the flag, and game modes you would expect to find. You'll find all the same weapons from the single player campaign in the multiplayer game, with the exception of the blaster. Added to the weaponry in the multiplayer is a chainsaw-type weapon with a horizontal blade. The combat in the multiplayer is pretty fast paced, like the previous games. The 360s port has online play, and the option to system link for multiplayer. The 360 port is missing a split screen multiplayer which some people might of liked to have. If you're interested in Quake for the multiplayer experience I would recommend the PC's version, since it is the overall better version, and will likely have plenty of people still playing Quake 4 online. Xbox Live does have people playing online, most likely for achievement, so you can always try your luck there.
Overall Quake 4 is an enjoyable game if you're willing to overlook some minor flaws and just play the game for the experience. Fans of Quake and the dark, space themed first person shooters will find enjoyment in this game. If you're not sure about the game and have had no previous experience with Quake, then you won't be lost with this one and if you're a fan of the genre then you might enjoy the game.
Thanks for reading my Quake 4 review,