Quake 4 reviews

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Anonymous

Very pleased

(Review From Amazon)

General Comments:
I bought this game for my boyfriend. i was very pleased w/ the price and the time on shipping. he is very happy w/ the game.

Anonymous

Unfairly maligned game

(Review From Amazon)

General Comments:
Much maligned game. Unfairly. For those not in-the-know, the Quake franchise is basically what the ID guys did after they got bored with Doom. Quake4 is what they did after they got bored with Doom3. Doom 3 PC-to-xbox was well received, Quake4 wasn't well received in general, but the PC-to-360 translation seems to have gone fairly well though some complain of frame rate issues. They never bothered me. The other games you will have seen in the Doom3 engine / xbox universe would be Prey and the upcoming QuakeWars. Wolfenstein (very ugly looking port on the xbox) was Quake3 engine so not related.

CONS:
- early desert levels look uninspired, boring. If you left the game early, I can see why it got such bad press.
- goofy arcade shoot-`em-up game elements in which you shoot stuff and it flies up into the air. Reminds me of a boorish arcade game.

PROS:
- fantastic looking Doom3 engine.
- once you get beyond the external desert levels, much better maps and environments begin to kick in.
- variety of enemies with their own characteristics.
- slight twist on the health/armor pack. You also have techs that occasionally travel with you and can fix your health and armor. the also use the health station concept that Half-Life2 uses.
- good array of weapons. The weapons get upgrades which is nice. The lightning gun can hit multiple targets. I especially like the Dark Matter Gun which shoots a slow beautiful purplish-black inky deathlike projectile.
- no need to consult the internet due to glitches or non-intuitive gameplay.

Again, I don't know where to place the story. It's like criticizing a bad low-budget horror movie, it's almost unfair. But anyway I do like the story-twist where they make you the enemy, giving you access to enemy health packs, enemy language, etc (Prey also works this way) although the process by which this happens is too reminiscent of a cut-scene toward the end of Half-Life2. Doom3 Resurrection of Evil also ripped-off the Half-Life Gravity Gun so apparently the ID guys like Half-Life a lot. Consider it an homage.

And why is this guy still only a corporal after saving the planet?

It isn't Halo, it isn't trying to be. It's trying to be a good Doom3 derivative and that's exactly what it's good at.

Anonymous

It's Quake!

(Review From Amazon)

General Comments:
Hey, it's Quake. It's a sci-fi war. This is the grandfather of all first-person shooters (with son "Doom" and grandson "Wolfenstein").

You wander winding corridors full of pipes, circuitry, and flickering lights, and you shoot anything that moves (except your own squad, of course). The X360 graphics are great, the sound works (although the guns sound a bit tinny at times), and the plot is pretty much irrelevant. Straightforward point-and-shoot fun. Sure, "Half Life 2" has a better plot and "F.E.A.R." has better AI, but for mindless shooting, this is the best way to go.

Anonymous

Great graphics, but the action is repetitive and predictable

(Review From Amazon)

General Comments:
If you've got an HDTV and the right hookup, the graphics are incredible. With a 5.1 system that has a decent subwoofer, the sound effects are great too. Dialog is, as others have said, rather muffled at times.

The biggest problem I have with this game is that the designers seem to rely on many of the same cheap gameplay tricks that made Doom 3 such a letdown. There's no strategy or stealth in this game - it's just run and gun, and run some more. Two standard rules apply:

1. If you find a useful object or press a button, you will be attacked within seconds.

2. Every fifteen minutes you will be locked in a room, and multiple monsters will be thrown at you. The door will magically unlock when they are all defeated.

Repeat these gameplay devices endlessly, with only minor variations.

Unlike Halo you can't sneak up on anything, you can't find much cover, and there's never any need to conserve ammo because you've got a dozen guns and there are piles of fresh supplies everywhere. Just run in circles, blasting away.

I like FPS games, but this one (and others from this same company) are just too mindless. It's a play-once-and-forget-it game, which is a shame given the price and the impressive graphics.