Problems and new stuff
The two biggest gameplay omissions are in the controls with no lean left or right option and no secondary use for weapons. Sure you can argue that F.E.A.R doesn’t have a secondary weapon function either, but F.E.A.R. is set in a more realistic, near-future universe, unlike Quake 4. Thankfully rather than tease you with squad based combat like Doom 3 did, Quake 4 redeems itself with regularly teaming you up with other friendlies so you can lay down some serious firepower.
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Click for larger imageNow your squad mates are tough cookies and can take and give out some serious punishment, even on the harder difficulty levels which makes them far handier to have around that Call Of Duty’s squads or Half Life 2’s resistance fighters. Sadly, like Half Life 2, Quake 4’s Marines will get in your way at crucial moments, normally in the middle of a firefight too, leaving you to take the incoming fire and like it. Unlike in Half Life 2, these guys won’t get out of your way either… they’re where they wanna be and there ain’t no-one gonna budge em! This is most evident when the squad is opening a door to a new area, they’ll all line up, taking cover where they can and just wait for you to go forward and open the door… closing in behind you so that you’ve got no way to back out if there’s something nasty lurking on the other side. It doesn’t happen often but when it does, it’s supremely annoying.
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Click for larger imageAnother disappointment is the lack of interactivity in the environment. Just like Doom 3, Quake 4 is very nice to look at with loads of stuff strewn around the levels, but you can do bugger all with it. Don’t expect Half Life 2’s ability to pick up everything or even shift stuff about by running into it. Pretty much everything you see is window dressing, which, though fine for the original Quake games, is a bit of a downer given how much you can interact with today’s games. This serves to highlight Quake 4’s focus on ‘old skool’ style run and gun gameplay, which happily, Quake 4 still does very well indeed.
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