Quake IV gives the saga a much-appreciated narrative improvement, but at the expense of any advancement in multiplayer.

User Rating: 8 | Quake 4 PC

Quake IV appears to have two major product goals: to be the narrative successor to Quake II and to show off improvements made in the idTech 4 engine which debuted in Doom III.

As a sequel to Quake II, the story in Quake IV's single-player mode (which is launched via a different executable) takes place just after the events in Quake II (and its expansions). The human Marines' forces have managed to establish a beach-head on Stroggos, but are facing tremendous resistance and wholesale capture-and-conversion, also canonically known as "Stroggification".

Unlike the story (or lack-there-of) of previous id shooters, the premise is not about some generally unnamed and taciturn protagonist being the last winning chance for the good guys. (The protagonist is still a taciturn fellow, however.) The player assumes the role of Corporal Matthew Kane, who had just recently joined the Rhino Squad, the only squad to have achieved consistent success against the Stroggs.

The single-player mode consists of a string of consecutive missions, each transitioning to another via cutscenes (and the usual loading screens). However, the tradition of having to do things to unlock and reach the exit of the current level is not so apparent in this game, which is a pleasant departure from previous games and marks a notable improvement in id Software's skills at crafting stories.

Nevertheless, the story is quite linear and does not offer a massive leap over the par set by Half-Life and other shooters that offered a worthwhile story.

Despite this, the story have highlights which incidentally take advantage of the backstory and canon of the Stroggos-Earth conflict, such as a very gruesome (and likely entertaining) scene that shows the conversion process that turns captured humans into Stroggs.

Side characters, especially Rhino Squad's members, also receive adequate narrative attention, if compared to those of Doom III's; they have their backgrounds mentioned during opportune moments in the story, are important to several plot twists and provide tidbits on Strogg civilization, technology and military.

There are also computer terminals and datapads (not unlike that in Doom III) which contain information on the backstory; this would be of interest to those who want to know the lengths that id Software has gone to in developing the canon.

The missions themselves also bring the player to locations that depict the infrastructure, industry and abodes of the Stroggs, more so and in an even better manner than Quake II's levels had. They also show off id Software's efforts at crafting very detailed levels that were also heavily scripted to produce in-game cutscenes. Many of these cutscenes show off the graphical improvements in idTech 4, though they also unwittingly expose its weaknesses.

The single-player mode also contains set-piece moments and vehicular sequences. These are fun, though not terrifically remarkable if compared to vehicular sequences in other shooters.

Overall, the single-player mode is a lot of fun to play, even if it doesn't offer anything that a shooter veteran had not seen before.

The multiplayer mode of the game is not as good at showing id Software's willingness to innovate, however. It is very much like a combination of Quake II and Quake III Arena's multiplayer modes; players play in matches and game settings reminiscent of those in the third Quake, but with player characters that feel and move a lot like those in Quake II. There is little, if anything new, to be had with the multiplayer mode.

A later update in the form of the DeadZone game-type increases the longevity of the game a little. In DeadZone, teams of players vie with each other to collect as many Strogg runes as possible and return them to deposition points which are shared by all teams. Yet, shooter veterans would recognize DeadZone as an extended variation of Capture-The-Flag.

There is even an update later that borrows an idea that was popularized by Half-Life: Counterstrike. Perhaps the only significant update is the introduction of a very powerful multiplayer-only weapon which is great at area-denial, but it is nothing that has been done before in other shooters at the time.

To summarize the multiplayer mode in this game, it doesn't offer anything new over the previous Quake games – much less other shooters. Nevertheless, it is a solid inclusion in Quake IV, is entirely functional and most importantly, is still quite fun, despite the "been-there-done-that" impression.

An id Software shooter would not be one without entertaining weapons to use. Quake IV does not disappoint here (at least not as much as its single-player and multiplayer modes).

Most of them are returning weapons from Quake II. There are little changes to these weapons, though the biggest change is that they now follow Doom III's mantra of weapons having magazines instead of drawing from a pool of ammunition indefinitely.

The Blaster returns, and retains its unlimited reserves of shots and its puny default damage output. It can, however, be charged to deliver a far more powerful shot. Due to thematic considerations, the Blaster is only available in single-player mode; mods can still unlock it for use in multiplayer, though it is not likely to see much use as it is a rather weak gun. For multiplayer mode, the Gauntlet from Quake III Arena returns to take on the role of default weapon again.

The Shotgun returns as a reliable solution to close-range combat, but otherwise packs no surprises. The Machine Gun returns in Quake IV, taking on the form of a compact assault rifle and the role of a general-purpose gun, thanks to its flashlight and low-powered scope attachments. (It is worth noting that it will do a bit more damage per shot if the player character is using the scope to line up shots.)

The abovementioned weapons are there for thematic purposes (e.g. as weapons for the human Marines) and are satisfactorily functional and well-balanced, but are otherwise unremarkable.

The Nailgun returns, entering the canon of the Stroggos-Earth conflict as a Strogg weapon that, thematically speaking, shows off the dual-use applications of their industrial tools. The Nailgun is somewhat a stand-in for the Chaingun; its firing mechanics are very similar to the latter, in that it has a spin-up time. However, the Nailgun is also a flechette weapon, having small but noticeable splash damage capabilities that can lock down narrow corridors and pathways. This is balanced by an overheating issue, which causes it to lose accuracy the longer that it is fired.

As a result, the Nailgun is a highly situational weapon as it can be unwieldy to use outside of area-saturation/denial roles, especially when compared to its predecessor in Quake. However, its flaw should be understandable because its predecessor is a non-hit-scan version of the Chaingun in id's shooters, and that role is fulfilled very well by the much more versatile Machine Gun in Quake IV.

The Grenade Launcher returns in Quake IV, but the less outrageous physics in idTech 4 has reduced its grenades' ability to bounce. Furthermore, the idTech 4 engine has fixed the issue of targets that are directly hit by explosive munitions receiving even more damage from the splash damage that ensues. While this would seem acceptable and probably even well-appreciated by proponents of weapon-balancing, damage from direct hits by Grenades in Quake IV appears to do less harm than its splash damage.

This means that players are not rewarded for the relatively difficult feat of landing direct hits with grenades and consequently, this reduces the weapon to the role of area denial due to lack of any practical incentive to perform accurate hits.

The Rocket Launcher accompanies the Grenade Launcher in its return. In multiplayer, it is still an effective explosive weapon, but is not really much improved over the already-balanced Rocket Launchers in Quake II and III. However, the single-player variant is more exciting to use, due to reasons that will be told later.

The Railgun returns with a three-round chamber, while retaining the same amount of killing power and the same slow firing rate. The addition of a limited capacity chamber further reduces the potency of this gun, but it is line with the introduction of limited capacity magazines for (most of) the other weapons in the game. However, this weapon is not entirely "nerfed" to uselessness; finally, it has a scope now, effectively cementing its reputation as the sci-fi version of the high-power sniper rifle.

The Hyperblaster has been redesigned, appearing to be a lot like an energy-based version of the Machine Gun, only slightly more powerful per shot and having a much higher rate of fire. Visually, each and every shot is also a brilliant light source, more so than the Plasma Gun's were in Doom III.

The Lightning Gun also returns in Quake IV, and it still fires the continuous stream of electrical doom. It is also the only gun that does not have a magazine, so it can continue firing as long as there is ammunition left, which would be pleasant for any player who remembered it fondly from Quake III Arena.

The BFG is the only weapon that does not return in Quake IV, but only in name. It has been renamed the "Dark Matter Gun" for thematic purposes, but it still fires the same orb of doom that the BFGs of previous games were (in)famously known for. However, unlike the orbs in previous id shooters that used sight-dependent damage scripts or rays shooting out of the orbs, the Dark Matter Gun's orbs are essentially floating black holes.

When they collide with anything solid, they implode and proceed to suck in anything not secured for a few seconds before exploding, dealing massive damage to anything that survived the quantum inhalation.

This weapon is, of course, a tech demo of improvements in the physics-scripting of the idTech 4 engine, though it is not the first such weapon in the shooter genre that uses digital versions of black holes.

In the single-player mode, the protagonist will obtain upgrades to his weapons as the story progresses. This makes earlier weapons, which tend to be weaker compared to the later ones, more viable against the enemies that appear later in the story.

For example, the Shotgun, which by default has to have its shells individually loaded into its chamber (which has a capacity of 8 shells), later receives a magazine loading mechanism upgrade, which made it much more convenient to use. Another instance is the Rocket Launcher receiving auto-loading mechanisms for a 3-round clip and homing capabilities.

There are power-ups in this game, though many of them are available only in multiplayer; the single-player mode eschews these to prevent any thematic issues from cropping up. Only health kits and armor pick-ups appear in the single-player mode. However, the single-player mode compensates for its disappointing lack of items with a major plot twist later that makes available new ways for the protagonist to heal.

Armor pick-up designs that had been satisfactorily balanced in Quake III Arena return in Quake IV, but with no fundamental difference.

Health pick-ups in Quake IV are ported over whole-sale from Quake III Arena. In addition to Medikits (or floating health icons in multiplayer), there are the Regeneration, Megahealth and Stimpack power-ups, all of which remain unchanged, balanced as they already were in Quake III Arena. The only differences that they have are aesthetic, though they do have some very impressive visuals.

Quad Damage and Haste also return essentially unchanged.

In fact, there are far fewer power-ups in Quake IV than in Quake III Arena, which is quite disappointing considering the opportunities provided by the idTech 4 engine to craft new and wild power-ups.

id Software's shooters, regardless of the narrative strength of their single-player modes, always have disturbingly inhuman enemies and monsters to be slain; Quake IV will not be the first to break the tradition, fortunately (if one likes id's shooters to have such hideous creatures, of course).

The protagonist will enter the first few fights in the game facing the cannon fodder of the Stroggs, which are simply designated "Guards". Like the fodder of Quake II, they have weapons grafted as replacement limbs, and are very weak opponents.

Other low-quality enemies include the Grunt, which can be best described as a heavily drugged cyborg gorilla with a back-mounted machinegun. This one appears to have a deliberately introduced flaw that causes it to perform animations that render it vulnerable to punishment that it cannot retaliate against.

However, starting from the middle of the single-player mode, the game will challenge the player with much more difficult enemies. Many of these are actually returning enemies from Quake II, albeit improved and more challenging to defeat.

The Berserker returns in an upgraded form, having an electrical rod that it can use like an extra deadly Taser or sending lightning bolts or electrical waves at the player character. Nevertheless, it retains its frenzied behavior and prefers to run up close enough to use its mace on its prey.

The Gunner now packs firepower that gives it a support role among Strogg mobs; it also has the smarts for that purpose. In fact, Gunners are quite conservative combatants, preferring to wait for enemies to move into their favored firing zones, which is a behavior that is markedly different from the over-eager monsters that id usually designs.

The Iron Maiden is now flight-capable and can also teleport to confound enemies' aim; her AI will often use this tactic when confronted with weapons that fire slow-moving projectiles. Her main close-range attack is a sonic scream that can disorient vision, not unlike the visual lurches that the Marine had in Doom III when he is hurt. The Iron Maiden retains its claws, now visually upgraded to look more fearsome.

Tactical Stroggs eventually replace Strogg Guards as the protagonist penetrates deeper into Strogg territory. Tactical Stroggs are the only Stroggs with a semblance of team tactics, which by itself is a major departure from id's traditions of having rather frenzied enemies for the player to fight. Otherwise, they are not much different from enemies that happen to be (or resemble) trained soldiery in other shooter titles at the time.

The only exceptional flaw in their AI design is that they do not appear to acknowledge the presence of Grenades near them, which is a disappointing oversight on the part of id Software.

It is worth noting here that Tactical Stroggs are the only enemies to supply the protagonist with ammunition when they are defeated. Unlike Quake II, most enemies in Quake IV will no longer drop any munitions of any kind when slain, in keeping with canonical lore that Stroggs with built-in weapons also have built-in ammunition stores.

Making use of advancements in the canon that the Stroggs have developed their teleportational technology, id Software introduces the Teleport Dropper, which is an apparent attempt at bringing the reinforcement-summoning archetype of enemies that Doom's Archvile belongs to.

The "brute" archetypes are not to be left out in Quake IV too, though they return in more sophisticated forms.

The Gladiator is still armed with a Railgun, but the latest model eschews its previous incarnation's melee claw for a plasma blaster and an impenetrable and large energy shield that it deploys whenever it receives incoming fire. Quake IV's Gladiator is certainly much more troublesome than Quake II's, which may be a pleasant change to players wishing for a greater challenge.

The Tank is now diversified into two variants: a "Light" version and a bigger, hovering one. The bigger one is encountered only late in-game, because it is the lynchpin of any force protecting the most important of Strogg facilities. This of course means that it is a bruiser of an enemy, especially considering that it is one of few Strogg creatures that fires homing missiles.

The Light Tank is apparently the Stroggs' attempt at alleviating the issues of mobility that the previous variant of the Tank had in Quake II. The Light Tank is much faster and more mobile, and also has a versatile fire-based weapon that can shoot volleys of fireballs of various sizes and density, or spew flames like a flamethrower for close range fights. It also has a mace attachment, which it is fond of using – at the expense of its other, more practical weapon.

Like Quake II, there are enemies that are created for thematic purposes, or one-off scenarios. Some of these are for the vehicular levels in the game, though these can be said to be only there to make the vehicle sequences look good, because they are quite easy to kill - especially considering that said vehicles can repair themselves and have unlimited ammunition. The exceptions are the Harvesters, which serve as bosses for these sequences.

There are Zombies, which have yet to fail to appear in an id shooter other than Quake III Arena (if a certain zombie model in that game is discounted). These typically serve to show how uncaring the Stroggs are for failed conversions of humans.

Overseeing Stroggification are Strogg "Scientists". In addition to being armed with surgical tools that double as close combat weapons, they also have poison gas grenades, which are effective area-denial weapons that somehow never made it into the armoury for player characters. (A later update to the game does introduce a similar weapon, however.)

Sentries are slow, floating enemies that populate the permanently built and critical facilities of the Strogg. In-game, they effectively serve the role of cannon fodder where the canonically more mobile Guards and Tactical Stroggs are better off deployed elsewhere for the Stroggs' war efforts.

The Stream Protector appears to be id's experiment on fitting as many weapons as possible on a single enemy model. The result is a huge creature that has plenty of weapons, but a predictably large hitbox that can be taken advantage of.

Quake IV has bosses which are more impressive than those in Quake II, and they also serve to show the lengths that the Stroggs would go to in order to protect their homeworld's vital installations. Many of them are terrifyingly huge and require a lot of firepower to be brought down. Doing so is easier said than done, because each boss has many types of attacks that are likely to catch the player off-guard the first time that they used them.

There is a boss-like creature that cannot be defeated through running-and-gunning, but can only be defeated through the resolution of scripted events. It would have been unremarkable, if not for its relevance to the canon of the game and its rather agonizing, almost pitiful death animations, which are notably more entertaining than those for other bosses.

If there is something that a veteran fan of id's shooters would find pleasing in Quake IV, it is the variety of enemies in its single-player mode. Changing the difficulty of the single-player mode appears to not only affect damage-taken/damage-dealt ratios of enemies; it also affects their aggressiveness (not unlike Quake I). The highest difficulty gives them the most satisfying ferocity and tenacity, though it is, understandably, quite hard.

As for this game showing off improvements in the idTech 4 engine, one can say that Quake IV almost fulfills this goal.

While idTech 4 is a step above idTech 3 in terms of technical competencies, it appears that it did not advance far in creating models that are softer-edged. This limitation seems to be insurmountable despite id Software's efforts, because in Quake IV - which was released some time after Doom III - polygons do not look smooth; they have noticeable rough edges and a lot of sharp vertices, even at the highest anti-aliasing settings.

However, the engine compensates with other things. For example, it has impressive bump-mapping that produce great lighting effects on models. It also has improved the already great shadow-casting features in Doom III. There are also a lot of polygons in every environment in the game.

The idTech 4 engine also allows for some great sound effects. The weapons-fire in the game feels beefy and sci-fi at the same time, as is appropriate for a Quake game. When coupled with the inhuman and bizarre noises that accompany Strogg combatants and the organ-cum-hardware technology that make up their civilization, a long-time id fan would be forgiven for disbelieving that this game is made by id Software.

For an id Software shooter, the voice-overs for the game are of surprisingly decent quality. While most of them sound just decent or above average, none of them are bad enough to detract from the impression that id Software has done a worthwhile job crafting an actual story to accompany its shooter title. The Strogg voice-overs are particularly satisfying to listen to - when they do articulate actual spoken language, of course.

The musical soundtracks of Quake IV are another surprise, though not necessarily a pleasant one. They are mostly written and performed by largely unknown but otherwise competent artistes. The only returning artistes that would be familiar to id shooter veterans are those of Nine Inch Nails.

In conclusion, Quake IV has little if anything new to offer the veteran shooter fan. id Software is not pioneering anything here, and is in fact quite conservative with this game. It would have been disappointing for anyone who had been eagerly awaiting the next Quake game, especially if he/she had been looking for a terrific multiplayer experience.

Yet, id did not promise anything more than that, and it fulfilled exactly what it promised: the next Quake game with progress in the Strogg-Human conflict, being fully functional and worthwhile to play.