Quake 4 is a action shooter game which serves as the another chapter in the Quake series.
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...did we all play the same game?
'cause generic soundtrack aside, i don't even need to hesitate - this is superior to quake ii in just about every way. sure, there's no rocket jumping, but that hardly matters in a corridor shooter; what's important is gunplay and Q2 wishes it had weapons half as good as these. the shotgun? nailgun? the fucking bfg that shoots black holes? get the hell out of town and don't let me see you here again
...that praise being said, i'll be damned if it doesn't put its shakiest leg first
unlike quake ii, the start here isn't slow because of its shooting - that feels fantastic from the get go - instead it's the aggressively invasive 'story' that's constantly trying to pull you from the action. let me shoot. the fucking. aliens! that's all i wanna do, man!!
"nah nah - i hear you", calls tim willits, newly appointed president of the Carmack Fan Club, "here, you can shoot again - in a turret section! and after that, ohoho, mission briefing!! and then - two more vehicle segments!!!"
with one swift motion i knock that shit out of his fucking hands. then i scream, "I JUST WANT TO SHOOT THE STROGG WITH MY SHOTGUN. THAT'S LITERALLY ALL I WANT TO DO. I DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOUR SET PIECES (besides the mech one - that was pretty cool) OR YOUR SPACE MARINE STORY - I DON'T EVEN CARE THAT I COULD PERSONALLY WALK FASTER THAN MY CHARACTER WITH WEIGHTS STRAPPED TO MY LEGS. THE GUNS FEEL GOOD, TIM. PLEASE JUST LET ME USE THE FUCKING GUNS!!!!"
i think he took that bit about space marines harshly given the events that transpired shortly after, but all of my prayers had been answered nonetheless! no longer was i walking back and forth through areas i'd already visited just to report to some dumbass military man that the elevator got unjammed or steve blum #3 successfully completed filing his tax returns; i was actually playing the game - uninterrupted
when quake 4 gets its shit fully together after the first 1/3 or so, it shifts from stop-and-go into maximum overdrive. there's zero bad weapons, enemy types continue to vary enough (not to mention there's actually a couple decent bosses - a rarity for shooters) and ironically even the mission objectives become significantly more engaging when they're things you're doing and not just details off sgt. pvt. blum's shopping list
environments start looking a lot cooler too. Q2 toyed with body horror in small doses, but ravensoft went all-in here. call me simple, edgy, whatever - i think giant entrails breaching through space corridors and limbless (but still alive and wiggling) bodies being used as power supplies are pretty fucking rad. say what you will about id tech 4 - doom 3 looks fantastic and this is no different. hands down the most underrated shooter engine
misguided start aside, this is the best fps (barring quake 1, obviously) that i've played in a considerably long time. can't wait to receive matthew kane's next orders in quake 5!
wait fuck
'cause generic soundtrack aside, i don't even need to hesitate - this is superior to quake ii in just about every way. sure, there's no rocket jumping, but that hardly matters in a corridor shooter; what's important is gunplay and Q2 wishes it had weapons half as good as these. the shotgun? nailgun? the fucking bfg that shoots black holes? get the hell out of town and don't let me see you here again
...that praise being said, i'll be damned if it doesn't put its shakiest leg first
unlike quake ii, the start here isn't slow because of its shooting - that feels fantastic from the get go - instead it's the aggressively invasive 'story' that's constantly trying to pull you from the action. let me shoot. the fucking. aliens! that's all i wanna do, man!!
"nah nah - i hear you", calls tim willits, newly appointed president of the Carmack Fan Club, "here, you can shoot again - in a turret section! and after that, ohoho, mission briefing!! and then - two more vehicle segments!!!"
with one swift motion i knock that shit out of his fucking hands. then i scream, "I JUST WANT TO SHOOT THE STROGG WITH MY SHOTGUN. THAT'S LITERALLY ALL I WANT TO DO. I DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOUR SET PIECES (besides the mech one - that was pretty cool) OR YOUR SPACE MARINE STORY - I DON'T EVEN CARE THAT I COULD PERSONALLY WALK FASTER THAN MY CHARACTER WITH WEIGHTS STRAPPED TO MY LEGS. THE GUNS FEEL GOOD, TIM. PLEASE JUST LET ME USE THE FUCKING GUNS!!!!"
i think he took that bit about space marines harshly given the events that transpired shortly after, but all of my prayers had been answered nonetheless! no longer was i walking back and forth through areas i'd already visited just to report to some dumbass military man that the elevator got unjammed or steve blum #3 successfully completed filing his tax returns; i was actually playing the game - uninterrupted
when quake 4 gets its shit fully together after the first 1/3 or so, it shifts from stop-and-go into maximum overdrive. there's zero bad weapons, enemy types continue to vary enough (not to mention there's actually a couple decent bosses - a rarity for shooters) and ironically even the mission objectives become significantly more engaging when they're things you're doing and not just details off sgt. pvt. blum's shopping list
environments start looking a lot cooler too. Q2 toyed with body horror in small doses, but ravensoft went all-in here. call me simple, edgy, whatever - i think giant entrails breaching through space corridors and limbless (but still alive and wiggling) bodies being used as power supplies are pretty fucking rad. say what you will about id tech 4 - doom 3 looks fantastic and this is no different. hands down the most underrated shooter engine
misguided start aside, this is the best fps (barring quake 1, obviously) that i've played in a considerably long time. can't wait to receive matthew kane's next orders in quake 5!
wait fuck
A mediocre first half is mostly made up for by a stronger second half in this mid 2000s FPS.
Following the multiplayer focused Quake 3, Ravensoft takes a stab at the Quake franchise with a continuation of the story of Quake II in humanity's war against the cybernetic Strogg, taking place immediately after the events of the 2nd game. Using the id Tech 4 engine, Quake plays very similarly to Doom 3 though with much less of an emphasis on horror. Whether this is a good or bad thing is up to debate.
Quake 4's biggest issue is that the first half of the game is a slog. The plot is very basic sci-fi military stuff and the game play isn't very engaging. The player character moves like they are walking through molasses and the experience is brought down by poorly implemented backtracking and hand holding. There is a specific event that occurs roughly midway through the game in which you gain improved movement speed, but more notably the plot becomes a bit more interesting and the game starts to actually feel like a Quake game. The latter half of levels are more varied and bring more interesting combat sections that almost make you forget the tedium you just went through.
Shooting feels pretty good though the explosive weapons feel noticeably weak. There's a decent amount of enemy variety as well even if some enemy types felt underused. Quake 4 can get very dark at times so the decision to make the flashlight only usable with the pistol or machine gun is just irritating. The biggest game play weakness, like many other titles of the time, is the over abundance of middling vehicle sections. There's multiple sections where you either pilot a vehicle or man a turret on one and while some are better than others, they all drag on too long and feel like a large step down from the main on foot game play.
Graphically the game has held up better than I expected probably thanks to the use of mo-cap and a darker ambience. The music and sound design is good as well, but for some reason is mixed awfully. Dialogue is often incomprehensible over background noise and with no subtitle options nor a way to adjust audio levels beyond a master volume control, you'll just need to deal with it. Voice acting is serviceable with a notable inclusion of Peter Stormare as one of the supporting characters.
I didn't play any multiplayer as the servers are pretty much dead, but from what I've researched it sounds like this is one of the weaker entries in the series for multiplayer. The lack of official bot support is disappointing as well given that it can provide an otherwise dead game a method to experience the multiplayer maps populated.
It may sound like I've little positive to say about the game, but I do believe the 2nd half of the campaign is quite good and the first half is fine if not a bit uninspiring. I don't think this is quite as good as Doom 3 and that is probably best showcased by how this game has been somewhat forgotten in comparison to the 3rd doom installment, but if you can grab this game on sale then I'd recommend it for a solid 6 - 10 hours of mid 2000s FPS gameplay.
Following the multiplayer focused Quake 3, Ravensoft takes a stab at the Quake franchise with a continuation of the story of Quake II in humanity's war against the cybernetic Strogg, taking place immediately after the events of the 2nd game. Using the id Tech 4 engine, Quake plays very similarly to Doom 3 though with much less of an emphasis on horror. Whether this is a good or bad thing is up to debate.
Quake 4's biggest issue is that the first half of the game is a slog. The plot is very basic sci-fi military stuff and the game play isn't very engaging. The player character moves like they are walking through molasses and the experience is brought down by poorly implemented backtracking and hand holding. There is a specific event that occurs roughly midway through the game in which you gain improved movement speed, but more notably the plot becomes a bit more interesting and the game starts to actually feel like a Quake game. The latter half of levels are more varied and bring more interesting combat sections that almost make you forget the tedium you just went through.
Shooting feels pretty good though the explosive weapons feel noticeably weak. There's a decent amount of enemy variety as well even if some enemy types felt underused. Quake 4 can get very dark at times so the decision to make the flashlight only usable with the pistol or machine gun is just irritating. The biggest game play weakness, like many other titles of the time, is the over abundance of middling vehicle sections. There's multiple sections where you either pilot a vehicle or man a turret on one and while some are better than others, they all drag on too long and feel like a large step down from the main on foot game play.
Graphically the game has held up better than I expected probably thanks to the use of mo-cap and a darker ambience. The music and sound design is good as well, but for some reason is mixed awfully. Dialogue is often incomprehensible over background noise and with no subtitle options nor a way to adjust audio levels beyond a master volume control, you'll just need to deal with it. Voice acting is serviceable with a notable inclusion of Peter Stormare as one of the supporting characters.
I didn't play any multiplayer as the servers are pretty much dead, but from what I've researched it sounds like this is one of the weaker entries in the series for multiplayer. The lack of official bot support is disappointing as well given that it can provide an otherwise dead game a method to experience the multiplayer maps populated.
It may sound like I've little positive to say about the game, but I do believe the 2nd half of the campaign is quite good and the first half is fine if not a bit uninspiring. I don't think this is quite as good as Doom 3 and that is probably best showcased by how this game has been somewhat forgotten in comparison to the 3rd doom installment, but if you can grab this game on sale then I'd recommend it for a solid 6 - 10 hours of mid 2000s FPS gameplay.
É um game muito bom e foi subestimado!!! Desafio do bom, perto do fim desse game!!!
Starts out as a boring ass game until you get chopped up into pieces and stuffed in a robot, and then you get faster movement speed, so it becomes a real Quake game at that point.
it really just doesn't get better man
DOOMATHON entry #17/20
List: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Mariofan717/list/doom--quake-campaigns-ranked/
Doom 3 is known today largely as the black sheep of the series, and its sister series would receive a game in the same engine the following year with a much stronger identity crisis that I imagine was overlooked because of how much Quake's legacy has been defined by deathmatch. Quake 4 is by far the most forgotten main entry in this marathon, remembered today mostly for a single scene that I saw in a WatchMojo countdown a decade ago if it's remembered at all. Because of this, I was genuinely unsure what to expect for once, and what I got is a game that's as much a product of its time as Doom 3 and just as influenced by its peers, this time for worse.
This is a linear military shooter that's as grey and brown as they come, lacking in the grotesque body horror-driven sci-fi aesthetic that makes the Strogg stand out for a substantial portion of the campaign and severely limiting movement speed in the first half without having the mechanical cohesion of Doom 3 to justify it. That last point is especially important, as I'd argue that the preservation of the original game's movement is what allowed Quake 2 to work as a sequel even though it wasn't originally intended as one. What holds Quake 4 together during the first half is its surprisingly excellent gunplay - every weapon here feels fantastic, especially the shotgun and nailgun once they're upgraded. The encounter design isn't particularly varied, but the enemies are always fun to shoot.
Once the infamous Strogg transformation occurs, things pick up significantly. You move as fast as you should have been able to in the first place, fights become tougher to compensate, and environments become more varied and make better use of the engine's atmospheric lighting capabilities. There's a particularly great section in the latter half in which you're faced with the mindless, shambling remains of failed Strogg transformations, easily the most striking bit of horror in the series outside of the one scene everyone already knows about. This huge increase is momentum is unfortunately halted by a final stretch of levels that return to the more repetitive structure of the early game, but aren't without highlights such as a much-appreciated reinterpretation of the Iron Maiden.
Quake 4 is an odd sequel, one that's arguably less faithful to Quake 2 than that entry was to its predecessor. Its rock-solid shooting mechanics are bogged down by the trends of its era more than any other game in this marathon, but if there's one thing I've learned from this experience, it's that good shooting goes a long way in making even the jankiest time capsules palatable to me.
Cross-posted on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mariofan717/status/1760796889761624405
List: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Mariofan717/list/doom--quake-campaigns-ranked/
Doom 3 is known today largely as the black sheep of the series, and its sister series would receive a game in the same engine the following year with a much stronger identity crisis that I imagine was overlooked because of how much Quake's legacy has been defined by deathmatch. Quake 4 is by far the most forgotten main entry in this marathon, remembered today mostly for a single scene that I saw in a WatchMojo countdown a decade ago if it's remembered at all. Because of this, I was genuinely unsure what to expect for once, and what I got is a game that's as much a product of its time as Doom 3 and just as influenced by its peers, this time for worse.
This is a linear military shooter that's as grey and brown as they come, lacking in the grotesque body horror-driven sci-fi aesthetic that makes the Strogg stand out for a substantial portion of the campaign and severely limiting movement speed in the first half without having the mechanical cohesion of Doom 3 to justify it. That last point is especially important, as I'd argue that the preservation of the original game's movement is what allowed Quake 2 to work as a sequel even though it wasn't originally intended as one. What holds Quake 4 together during the first half is its surprisingly excellent gunplay - every weapon here feels fantastic, especially the shotgun and nailgun once they're upgraded. The encounter design isn't particularly varied, but the enemies are always fun to shoot.
Once the infamous Strogg transformation occurs, things pick up significantly. You move as fast as you should have been able to in the first place, fights become tougher to compensate, and environments become more varied and make better use of the engine's atmospheric lighting capabilities. There's a particularly great section in the latter half in which you're faced with the mindless, shambling remains of failed Strogg transformations, easily the most striking bit of horror in the series outside of the one scene everyone already knows about. This huge increase is momentum is unfortunately halted by a final stretch of levels that return to the more repetitive structure of the early game, but aren't without highlights such as a much-appreciated reinterpretation of the Iron Maiden.
Quake 4 is an odd sequel, one that's arguably less faithful to Quake 2 than that entry was to its predecessor. Its rock-solid shooting mechanics are bogged down by the trends of its era more than any other game in this marathon, but if there's one thing I've learned from this experience, it's that good shooting goes a long way in making even the jankiest time capsules palatable to me.
Cross-posted on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mariofan717/status/1760796889761624405