The history of Quake
So, who’s seen Shrek 2? Watched it all the way to the end where the dragon turns up and brings Donkey their children? Remember that each of the kids is part dragon with perhaps Donkey’s ears or Donkey with wings and tail? Well Quake 4 is what you’d get if videogames could have offspring… and after just five minutes play, even if Quake 4 isn’t telling, you’d know who the parents were.
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Click for larger imageIt’s pretty damn hard to imagine a couple of CDs mating, but if you locked Doom 3 and Quake 2 up in a Brighton hotel room for two days, Quake 4 is what you’d get a few months later. Now you may think I’m being harsh here but that isn’t the case at all. Quake 2 was a fantastically playable game and Doom 3 looked superb (check out our Doom 3 Review if you fancy). So what you’ll find as you play is that Quake 4 feels like Quake 2 in places and looks Doom 3 in places… Which can be a tad disconcerting at times because you’ll find yourself indoors and wondering if this is Strogg, Mars or some weird Mars/Strogg limbo…
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Click for larger imageOk, so I might be exaggerating a bit but even the most faithful Quake player will be forced to admit that while the main flavour here is undoubtedly Quake, the base of this pie is most definitely Doom 3 and it’s just a bit thick in places. A good example of this are the trenches and building architecture that scream ‘Quake!’ at every turn. But then along comes a whole load of non-interactive machinery or internal sections with that hallmark dim-lighting which chants ‘Doom 3’ over and over again… Jeez, playing this game is an almost schizophrenic experience!
Click for larger imageLet’s just ignore this strange duality and focus on the game itself, pretending we’ve never heard of Doom3, ok? So Quake 4 picks up where Quake 2 left off, even making reference to Q2’s single player campaign that saw you playing as a lone Space Marine, the only survivor of the first wave to attack the Strogg home planet and left to battle through to destroy the ‘Big Gun’. Quake 4 picks up with you playing the part of Corporal Kane, a bad-ass Space Marine going assaulting Strogg in the second wave after the Big Gun was destroyed.
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