#Quake 4 reviews skin#
#Quake 4 reviews upgrade#

Everyone bangs on about Kane now being the army’s most important asset but we’re back to getting doors open and babysitting. It feels like the game just changed, but not enough. Faster, meaner, a better shot and you can hear the Strogg talking and interact with their equipment now. Once Kane escapes, he’s Robocop with a missile launcher. Kane himself though is just a Doomguy it has Doom 3’s weird ‘zoom out of his head’ cut-scenes and he’s the strong silent type, a grunt committed only to the mission - which the marines have started to lose the initiative on. It is industrial in look and without doubt falls into a Doom 3 feel at times, being built on idTech 4 but it’s got some sci-fi to take the dreary edge off and Q4 quickly develops its own personality. Progressing often requires a bit of thought and backtracking, rather plodding ever-onward and there’s quite a few outdoor levels, including some vehicular action hover tanks, exoskeletons and jumping aboard troop carriers to keep the Strogg off our tail. Q4’s enemies aren’t hugely original but they have some tricks up what’s left of their sleeves and while most of Q4 is close-quarter corridors, they’re nicely laid out with various ways to advance or get the upper hand if you spot them in time the game balances slow, uneasy exploratory levels with throw-down shootouts keeping it interesting. Meanwhile heavy-unit The Gladiator has to drop its shield to fire so it’s a quick-draw or run-quick.

#Quake 4 reviews upgrade#

There’s freaks like the surgeon guys who haunt the medical bays cut-off at the waist and hovering, they take great delight in swooping down, swinging surgical instruments, while returning from QII, the Iron Maiden has had an upgrade including the ability to teleport, going from nuisance to rocket-propelling threat. Most of the Strogg’s military is converted humans from past battles, adding a macabre element and there’s the standard gunners but also big rigs like the Harvester, a giant spider-like creature that reminds you of the striders from Half-Life – a scripted moment when one barrels towards you, legs stomping while you and your team are stuck in a corridor is awesome-scary.

Huge cyborg mentalists, sporting the kind of dismemberment and horror that’s usually reserved for Clive Barker even Pinhead would be like ‘that’s a bit much’ and they provide some great firefights it’s not a case of who can pump the most bullets into the other first (although it seems to be them generally).

The Strogg are basically what the Borg would be like if they assimilated the WWE. It reminds me a lot of Raven’s Elite Force - no Seven of Nine though, but you can’t have everything.

We listen to other troops discussing events from the earlier games, worry about ‘the folks back home’. Still, it's not all on you safe-areas where you hang with other troopers reveal missions they're on, sorties that got their teams cut to ribbons and you pick up snippets of transmissions detailing other events you get the sense that you’re part of a bigger mission, Q4 really tries to explore the grunt experience and seeing jets scream past in dogfights or troop carriers land or get bombed as they evac makes you think we’re all in it together.

#Quake 4 reviews skin#

Rather than be a straight FPS with us wading through infinite Strogg, Q4 goes for the realistic approach its a CoD-classic era tactical shooter and we’re often accompanied by other commandos, either from our squad or other regiments (Including Raven squad, complete with their logo as their patch) and they’re expendable - losing them is occasionally scripted but not always, and ending up alone can get under your skin you suddenly feel outnumbered.