Too many people underrate games for not being innovative. Innovation is not needed in this superbly developed game.

User Rating: 9 | Quake 4 PC
By CarnivaleClown | Review Date:
What can I say? It is truly a fun FPS to play. The game looks splendid and 3x better looking than Doom 3. The textures look very good and characters models are done very well. The smoke effects from a fire after an explosion look great. It is the best smoke effect I have yet to see in a game. Lighting of course is great and in a few areas looks stupendous with colored lights that seem to change the atmosphere very well. The game is a little dark like Doom 3, but not to the point where you need a flash light 90% of the time. Raven did an excellent job designing this game. The game looks exactly like it should. If you were actually in Quake II in real life, it would look exactly like this game does.

The feel of the game is what I was expecting having played the old Quake games and Doom 3. Run and gun! This time around it isn’t fully scripted AI. Every now and then a Strogg will jump down behind you or an ally. The fun thing about non scripted AI in this game is that you can take cover behind a container or a wall. Every now and then you are escorting a medic or a tech (I believe it is a tech) and they will heal you to full health or give you full armor.

Performance is pretty good. The only slow downs I get are when doors are opening. Some had problems like this in Doom 3 and there were several fixes for it. I am sure those will work for Q4 as well. On my system (listed at end of review with video settings being used) with Vertical Sync on I get 30-60FPS. It appears to me in my game that it locks at 30fps minimum. The only time it goes to 29 and below is when doors open. During fire fights it is 30-60.

Multiplayer is true to its roots in my eyes. Some do not like that it is basically Quake 3 Arena with a graphical upgrade, but I love it. There may not be a lot of online maps, but give it a few months there will be. They might even make a Arena expansion pack to help out the MP. It is extremely fast paced because some of the maps are very small. It supports maximum of 16 people. Again, many do not like this and somehow they are comparing it to BF2 and Joint Ops. I am sure people can see what is wrong with that picture.

The only beefs I have are very minor. Ragdolls are not that great. I like how the enemies die and it seems like the corpse is dead weight. They are not flying around or dieing in really awkward positions (most of the time). The weird side of the ragdolls is that sometimes they do die really inept. Sometimes you will unload a full machine gun clip at a charging Strogg and he will fall forward and end up in a position that looks like an upside “V” with his head and feet touching the ground while his butt is straight up in the air. The only other beef I have is the “Special Edition.” Could they have made it any cheaper? I was expecting the game to come in a tin or have a nice little art book. Even a poster would have been cool. But Quake II and a making of video will work.

All in all this is a great game. If you enjoyed the other Quake games then you will most likely enjoy this addition. Raven did a very good job developing this game. Highly stable and gorgeous.

System Specs:
•AMD A64 3200+
•MSI K8N Neo Plat mobo
•2x 512MB of Crucial Ballistix RAM
•eVGA 6800GT
•420W Enermax PSU

Video settings
•1280x1024 resolution
•Video Quailty - High
•Everything in Advanced Video Options is set to "Yes" and AA is set to 2x

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