Quake Wars doesn't relive the great multiplayer spirit of Quake 3.
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+Occasionally funny voice acting.
+Huge maps to run around and explore.
+Gadgets and weapons are plenty.
+Being able to play as Strogg.
-Horrible online lag.
-12 maps only.
-Occasionally boring weapons and gadgets.
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There's a rumor, stretching all the way to the N64 days: Games are deveolped for consles, and therefore, always run better on a gaming consle than on a PC. While this is occasionally true, it is not the case for id games. Every id game, except for the oringinal Doom, has always been better on the PC, leaving the consle ports rendered inferior. Its been like this from Quake 1 to Quake Wars, and although its not particularly a bad game, it would definetly be better running on a PC.
Quake Wars takes you all the way back to the time when earth was first being invaded and earth's defenses were plentiful. The Strogg, a faction of cybernetically enhanced humans are mind-controlled to overun earth, solely to take human flesh and use to to extend their lifespawn and their army. Our last hope is the GDF Global Defense Forces, a large army of Desert Storm-like troops. The two playable teams emerge in a slightly comical battle with hilarious radio chatter and insults in an action packed war, but the story doesn't go far from there.
Unlike Quake 3, you are told to complete certain objectives for each map, not kill each other. Quake 3 was about deathmatches, CTF, Tourneys, etc. However, Quake Wars goes in the other direction. You don't get any deathmatch mode or CTF or any of that. Instead, you have to destory or build stragey points. For instance, in one mission as the Strogg, you need to work with your team to set explosives on a radar town, while the GDF team tries to keep it explosive-free. You use a number of cool GDF and Strogg gadgets to do these things, as well as a number of GDF and Strogg weaponry, like the hyperblaster and the nailgun. Too bad they aren't all that fun to use.
You can choose to play a campaign, which is just like the Instant Action, where you fight againest cpu bots, or you can take the fight to the laggy online mode. The online lags terribly and cannot be fixed, and even without lag, you usually find so little players to the point that the map is almost entirely filled with bots.
Quake Wars features only 12 maps, which is extremly unusual for a multiplayer online based game. These 12 maps are huge and allow you to roam around mountains, woods, and anywhere you please, although, staying too far off the map results in instantly dying. They each invovle the same mission over and over again, but 12 maps is alot more than it sounds, and can keep it from becoming repeatitive...for a while. The graphics are fair and fair, and you still run super fast like Quake 3 and 4. But in a way, Quake wars is both recommendable and not. There's not too much involved in the game; if you just want an online shooter to kick back and relax when your bored, Quake Wars is worth at least renting.