Quake 4 (SPOILERS)

[JBC]

Well i haven't been around as much lately because i've actually been spending more time playing games than just talking about them... and alot of my time has been devoted to playing Quake 4 in both it's story and multiplayer modes.

Now let me tell you... Quake 4 has a decent story. It's not the deepest story and it's certainly not the most original but it is enjoyable.

For those of you that don't know Quake 4 picks up right where Quake 2 and it's expansions left off. A lone marine has infiltrated the Strogg base and destroyed their leader, the Makron. Well... shortly after the Strogg build a new Makron and it's off to war again.

You control Corp. Kane. A marine hardened by combat against the Strogg on Earth during the initial attack. Kane is considered somewhat of a war hero because of something or another that happened in Dallas, Texas during the invasion where apparently he ran around and kicked alot of ass.

About two-thirds the way into the game Kane gets 'Stroggified' - since that's what the Strogg do. They turn people into them (much like the Borg in Star Trek). Which is why the game has the utmostly unoriginal tagline of 'The only way to defeat them - is the become one of them.'

Quake 4 is a good game... and NO it may not do anything new for the genre but that doesn't stop it from being highly enjoyable and having very high production value. The graphics are amazing. The level designers should be put on a pedastal for the work they did on this game. Every metallic corridor, every pulsating biological mass, every speck of dirt is pulled off with stunning detail. Especially if youre pc is powerful enough to play the game on it's highest settings.

But this here is why i'm posting this. Quake 4's ending blows. Really bad. It's another one of those things where you play through hours and hours worth of awesomeness only to be greeted with the most simplistic and incomplete turd of a cinema you've ever bore witness to.

The ending must be like 2 minutes long at the most and all it shows is this Aliens APC ripoff vehicle fly into a hangar where a bunch of your fellow soldiers are. Kane walks out - still a Strogg (who was earlier dealing with some pretty heavy racism) and all your little buddies start clapping and pat you on the back. Then your commander gets 'the phone call' and tells you that 'you have new orders'. Then you hear the Makron laughing and that's that.

Man... that blows.

[jp]

I agree. The ending was weak. I felt the plot within the game was superb though. And very tense. Especially when you're running around to the 3 towers and that giant thing is chasing you.


The multiplayer is excellent. I don't know if you're playing on PC or 360, but if you're on 360 my gametag is pzykotikjp.

[PsikyoPshumpPshooterP]

honestly. i hated the game.i cant stand it.nothing appeals to me.

[JBC]

Nah - i'm on pc. The story being so well done in the game itself is why the ending was so dissapointing... but i'm glad to have one if not the other.

[Neo Rasa]

I was really impressed with how the story was done in game. The pacing was fantastic too, VERY movie-like without every really taking you out of the action. I love how after the first two levels you get to walk around the ship and hear all the smalltalk from the characters. Way above average soundtrack and musical score too. The voice acting is also great when you're getting THE mission briefing with your squad codenames and such. It's something that would have been b-movie pap without such apparently talented people doing it.

It's weird how Doom 3's story was hyped up pre-release because they got actual sci-fi writers to write the script, blah blah blah, and yet Quake IV, the game NO ONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND would play for the story, ended up being a really involving game (up until that ending, ugh, obvious sequel bait).

What the hell is it with FPS game endings? It goes back to Doom, there's just nothing there. I remember Unreal's ending, it was literally twenty-five seconds long and was completely pointless. Quake itself, the original, had NO focused art direction because they couldn't decide if they wanted sci-fi or fantasy until like a month before release, the ending was literally a screen of text and a snapshot of your guy standing over the final boss' corpse.

FPS endings blow. Even more plot oriented ones like Deus Ex aren't that great compared to the quality of game prior.

[it290]

No One Lives Forever, man, that game's ending was awesome, especially the last level was crazy. The sequel wasn't bad in that respect either.

[Neo Rasa]

Those games were hilarious.

I loved the text notes in HARM's headquarters where they were having a staff contest for best organization name for "HARM" to be an acronym for.

Contract J.A.C.K. though, holy hell that game was godawful.

[Marc]

FPS endings blow. Even more plot oriented ones like Deus Ex aren't that great compared to the quality of game prior.

Yeah, was a real let down with both Deus Ex games considering the effort that had gone in elsewhere.

[ST Dragon]

I recently completed Quake 4, so here is a small review of my thoughts...

Quake 4 is a nice intergalactic war game with immense battle & sieges and massive air strike bombardments!
It features very memorable / epic scenes & some of the coolest epic Boss fights by far!

At one point you’re in lead of a hover tank convoy that is off to besiege the Strogg barrier control base that is also under a full scale bombardment from a huge earth-side battle cruiser.
(That spaceship specifically looked a lot like the space federation's frigates in Starwars III, at the siege of Korousant against the Star Destroyers. Those ships looked way cooler than the Star Destroyers.)

The war vehicles that you control are great! That includes Assault Tanks, Hover Tanks & a kick-ass Mech (Similar to Mech Warriors)
The Boss fights are devastating! They’re some of the best you have ever encountered on any FPS till now, really!

At own point (You’re in control of the Mech) you encounter a spider/strider/walker Boss and the huge fire powered used from both sides, leads to the partial destruction of the near by base.
All Bosses are huge, very bad tempered & will not rest until you’re one with the ground!

Other cool moments are:

The part where you control the hover tank and fight the 1st Spider walker Boss that ascends from the pit was such a cool fight!

The huge Guardian Boss that was chasing you all over at the 3 command towers was a pretty scary experience & the fight it self was pretty tough.

The part where you encounter the officer that was Stroggified and warns you to get back as he could no longer control the huge mechanical body. That delivered a shiver down my spine as to what I was going to face next.
Overall, the story line of Quake 4 is not that memorable, the ending sucked and the overall length is on the short side. The absence of a hyper BFG type weapon was below my expectorations.
The Dark matter weapon was nowhere near as destructively satisfying as Doom’s BFG9000 or Quake 2 BFG10K.

Also, the Stroggification scene of Kane was not as gory or scary as one would have expected it to be. I thought that it would have been shown form a third person perspective, like an FMV sequence rather than a “rail-train” trailer in first person view.
Also, one would have imagined that such a high-tech race like the Strogg, would have used laser beams to cut off the legs & arms rather than chain-saws?!

Personally I enjoyed it a bit more than Quake 2, but I can’t say that it introduced anything new to the genre and it was missing the wow factors of Doom3, Half Life 2 & Far Cry.

So if you want a shiver down your spine, play Doom3.
One that is not the faint of hearts, will absolutely love the dark/sinister & evil theme of Doom3. The atmosphere, story line, plot twists are all excellent and features the old-school gameplay that made the genre famous in the 1st place.
In Doom3 you’ll witness some of the most memorable FPS gaming moments.
A truly awesome remake of the original Doom.

But if Epic, Sci-Fi, War Drama with immense fire power is your cup of tea and don’t mind the short length, please make your self a favour and do play Quake 4.

[it290]

Heh, I thought the dark matter weapon was fun. The best way to use it is to shoot it right in the middle of a group of grunts, not directly at them.

[ST Dragon]

So, when is the expansion for Quake 4 due for release?
It's pretty obvious I mean after that horid cheap ending.