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By Keith B (23rd Mar 2007)

Bunkered down between drums of flammable liquid, the alien forces begin to surge into the room. With only your arsenal of 9 different weapons, 7 grenades and a very sharp stick between living and an almost certain rectal probe followed by some deforming surgery, you leap out into the barrage of oncoming bullets and incendiary fire. Dodging and weaving like a warrior poet (cheers to ‘Braveheart' for that one), you begin to incapacitate your assailants one by one. Just as you think you have gotten the upper hand the spider dudes come out of the shadows and begin their assault. Continuing on your rampage, which can only be likened to a Viking berserker, you take the arachnids down in a flurry of legs and explosions, and there is silence in the summer night. All is deafly quiet (cue tumble weed), then an evil mocking laugh begins to echo through the darkness. Into the room strolls a big ass mutant dude with rocket launchers on his shoulders, mini guns sprouting from his chest and some lightning gun from hell attached to his nether regions. Game over? Yep, game over. The fun part of the game starts here!

Quake 4 (Q4).....what do we expect? Shooting, killing, blood and more blood? Yep, there is that and a whole lot more! Q4, the latest in the Quake series from the killer team at ID Software, uses the Doom 3 engine to fuel this blood bath. Is it better than Doom 3? Well, I am a purist and have always rated Doom 1 & 2 as probably the two most influential games ever created, plus they kicked butt! Doom 3 did not, in my opinion.....and lets face it, this in my article, so my opinion is the only one that counts! Doom 3 was way too dark and quite boring, Q4 is definitely neither of those things! Based on the Strog home-world, Q4 picks up on the predictable plot line i.e. humans must kill the evil Strog to survive. As usual......simple works!

You are a now ‘legendary' scout for Rhino Squad, basically the Hoo'ingest, Har'ingest squad in the Earths forces. Just makes you want to run off and join the army....or the circus, not sure which one yet! You and your gun toting mates are set to kill every Strog that steps into your cross-hairs. But, wouldn't you know it, half way through the game fate has a bitter twist and you are captured. In, what is probably the best cut scene I have ever seen, you get you limbs surgically removed and lots of other funky stuff done to your bits and pieces. At the end of the production line you are a Strog! Fortunately Rhino Squad has tracked you down and saves you before your consciousness is wiped and you lose your sex drive! Now you have heightened abilities and a kick ass mangled body that looks like you are a bionic burns victim!

Q4 is very similar to Halo 2 in many aspects. Game play wise you get to drive and ride on a number of vehicles and of course get to play with the mounted weapons and blow stuff up! The team aspect, and of course the fact that you basically get to play as the enemy also add to the cross over!

The graphics are very good, I was hoping for a little bit more, but the game was released quite early so I guess I can forgive ID Software. The levels are all very different and the scenery is surprisingly not repetitive. The animation is very smooth and the cut scenes are simply continuations of the game, which is somewhat refreshing. The guns, as usual, are very cool. It takes a few levels to get access to all of them, but it is worth the wait. The good, old fashioned, ‘ludicrous gibs' and Strog body parts fly all over the shop!

I really can not flaw the sound, especially seeing that one of the guest voices is that cool Russian guy from Armageddon, he was also in Prison Break the series....you know, that mafia dude who cuts off Schofield's toe! The soundtrack is pretty thrashing, which is kind of expected from the Quake series now (does not let down). With one exception the voices seem to match the characters.....I did say there was one exception! For some reason the designers believe that Chinese looking guys speak with Mexican accents! From my experience they don't, but hey, I haven't met every Chinese person in the world!

The controls are pretty easy to get the hang of and difficulty wise, parts should keep you busy. As long as you remember to save (a lot) you shouldn't have too many issues. There are some areas of the game that need a little creativity, and a butt load of ammo, but with a few bites at the cherry you should be able to pass most areas and move on to the next hapless Strog with your name on it! I did find it quite humorous that with all the killing you do in each level your squad mates still give you a hard time and treat you like a rookie! I didn't see them killing 100 odd Strog to secure a gun turret....they were providing ‘back up'. Well yip-bloody-eeeee!

The Scott's Final Word
Well, as I said, I love Doom, I love Doom 2.....I hated Doom 3! Well, hate is a strong word, but it was pretty damn boring! Quake 4 completely redeems ID Software, and gives me reason to live. There are areas for improvement, and there are some FPS's out there that are prettier and more original, but this was a hell of a lot of fun! I really think you enjoy this game more because of where it's root came from.....so for all of you young little ankle biters out there, go and down load a ‘freeware' version of Doom and Doom 2, and don't forget to play Quake 2 (which is on the bonus disk that comes with Q4), and you will feel the history.....you will feel the early nineties....you will feel complete! All hail ID Software and forgive them for all their sins!