One of the classics of gaming is set to return. Quake IV will be a launch title for the Xbox 360 console, promising to once again frighten and entertain the legions who play it. Published by Activision and Developed by the legendary id Software, who brought us the beautifully dark Doom 3, Quake IV looks set to smash its way to the shops, grab you by the throat and force you to buy it — its that good!
This latest incarnation of Quake follows on from the legendary single player game Quake II. The Strogg, a race of aliens with bits of rotting flesh and metal for bodies, launched an attack on Earth. Attacking Earth is a bad idea in games because the counter attack usually sorts the problem out. Earth sent their best marines straight to the home planet of the Strogg to kill the collective brain — the Makron. Everyone thought this would solve everything…
But the Strogg regrouped and are getting stronger as time melts away. You play Matthew Kane, a rookie marine. The game starts with you crash landing on the surface of the planet armed with just a pistol and a vendetta to wipe out every last Strogg.
The game is built using the Doom 3 engine and as such the visuals are absolutely delicious. You find yourself admiring the graphics instead of playing the game. Vehicles play a big part of the game from the humble Jeep to the mechanical walkers – The way you use your vehicles will help or hinder your destruction of the Strogg. The gameplay has been improved, instead of having to save the world single handedly, you work as a team with your other marines. This could have been a disaster with poor AI, but thankfully id Software knows what their doing and have made it feel like your team actually understands you.
Now for the interesting part. Quake IV will have full mutliplayer support, offline and on Xbox Live. The game will support all of the regular Xbox Live features such as buddy lists, ladders, stats, etc. The killing is good old fashioned style, no fancy team play. It’s simple, you kill or you are killed. In the multiplayer game there are 9 weapons to choose from, the weapon your handed first is the Machine Gun, a classic multiplayer gun perfect for in your-face action. The other 8 weapons range from the shotgun to the mysterious Dark Matter Gun — a true one hit wonder. No points are rewarded for grouping together and fighting in the multiplayer, its back to basics, and I like it!
Finally, after years of waiting, this is the ultimate Quake game. It has a great single player story line, and is still able to give us a welcomed shot of multiplayer fun as well.
