If you persevere with the obvious problems quake 4 has you will find a far from mundane video game.
Story wise the game is set in the same timeline as quake 2 with the humans battling for survival agaist the notorious and widely feared Strogg.
Graphically the game is a technical wonder running of john carmacks doom 3 engine, This engine is renowned for its excellent ability to show lighting in various forms throughout the game, the textures on the game are very good apart from the odd bit of scenery which looks a bit rough to say the least. Games like this show what the next generation of gaming is about.
Although this game may seem a bit out of place next to technical giants such as gears of war and the elders scrolls oblivion, quake 4 manages to deliver a good graphical experience you won’t be disappointed with.
The gameplay in this game consists of your more classic run and gun shooting rather than a tactical shooter, and is very similar to the game style of quake 2. You can tell Raven really wanted quake fans to feel really familiar with the style of this game, if you loved quake 2 as a game chances are you’ll feel right at home with 4.
Although you cant help but feel this game could have had a new element to the game to make it more an original experience rather than a gameplay clone of two.
You can’t fault Raven for trying though with the Mech like machine and Tank sections but these parts of the game feel rushed and not as fun as they should have been. You sometimes wonder if it would have been better to skip these sections of the game out.
If you’re a fan of your first person shooters you’ll need about 15 minutes to adjust to the learning curve of this game, this is a good thing as the control layout will seem familiar.
This game isn’t too long either but proves to last about 8-12 hours depending on how good you are or what level your playing the game on.
Multiplayer wise this is taken place in arena style combat exactly the same as quake 3 arena, its good if you’re a huge fan of quake 3, but others who are looking for something new and refreshing your going to be thoroughly disappointed. After this you soon begin to relise the multiplayer was rushed and perhaps should have been more like quake wars or call of duty. Through these problems though multiplayer can be extremely fun and addictive.
The biggest flaw to Quake 4 is its very choppy frame rate on the Xbox 360, this game should run 40 fps like a breeze but jumps all over the place in various sections of the single player, sometimes making it a very frustrating experience. The bad framerate is due to the game being rushed out of development for the Xbox 360 launch and has ultimately paid the price for it. With more time these problems could have been ironed out and made the game much more of a gaming experience, it’s a real shame because the Xbox 360 could of made great things out of this game if it was utilised properly, instead Ravens greed has spoilt this golden apple and made it more into a mundane potato.
Overall although this game feels too familiar to its predecessors, if you persevere with the obvious problems quake 4 has you will find a far from mundane video game. You’ll experience a game that demonstrates how fun a first person shooter should be.