Maybe I’m just a fanboy, but I’ve liked every ID product to date and Quake 4 is no exception. The graphics are great. Gameplay is fun, yet different, which is good. Who wants to play Quake 3 for another 5 years with better graphics? We get to play Quake 4 for the first time, which has its own new set of physics, maps, weapons, and the like.
Everyone is talking about what they don’t like, which I’ll touch on later, but why not focus on what they did right? I think the map selection and design is pretty good out of the box. The weapon selection and performance is also solid - I especially like the look and feel of the Railgun and Lightning Gun. The action pace is very good - fast, but not too crazy, either.
I think what really makes this game stand out in a positive way more so than its predecessors is the attention to detail and little touches throughout the game:
- The transparent ammo boxes to let you know that's where the ammo will be when it spawns
- The detailed HUD showing statistics
- The sticky score summary with your name and the frag leader or your name and whoever is in 2nd place, which means not more frantic tabbing to see how much ground you have to make up
- The condensed scoring reporting in the upper right with icons
- The more subtle "you hit an enemy" audible
Granted, it's not perfect, and a few quibbles that stood out of which many have already be mentioned ad nauseum:
- Better delineation of models in CTF is needed; I have no problem with Orange and Green, but a brighter shade of each would be better or anything so that team delineation is obvious
- Something seems weird with weapon firing as sometimes it seems like it's not firing, especially the RL; Maybe it's just me, but I've had more than one situation where I thought I had a kill only for the last fire not to go and then I perish instead
- Machine gun is too loud; It feels like it's a soundtrack on an infinite loop when you play because everyone and their mother whips it out on spawn
- Sensitivity on zoom needs to be adjusted
Fortunately, all of those problems are easy to fix, if they choose to. See you online - I'm Phatty[GOON].
