User Reviews (11 - 21 of 88)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Moderately disapointed

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 13
Date: October 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I've been anxiously waiting for Q4 to come out for about a year now, and now that I have it, and played it, I have to say that it's nothing like I anticipated. First and foremost, if you want to play in Single Player mode, you are limited to playing a campaign, and just one campaign at that. Forget the concept of CTF, Free For All and Deathmatch - they simply do not exist unless you are in Multi-Player mode. And when you are in Multi-Player mode, you be playing the Q3TA maps....so nothing new here.

The graphics in Single player mode are pretty good...better than that of Q3 for sure, especially with the animation.

So this is my take on Q4: If you'd rather play Q2 or DOOM 3 over Q3 or UT04, then this is just for you. But if you'd rather play Q3/Q3TA or UT04 over Q2 or DOOM 3, save your money unless - you want to see some pretty cool graphics and a fairly decent AI experience at a hefty price (in the single player campaign mode...which there is only one campaign).

I've read other reviews where people insist that this is nothing like DOOM 3....but really, it is VERY much like DOOM3. Should have been DOOM 4 and not the successor to Quake III in my honest opinion. Sure, there are some improvements over DOOM 3 that would place it apart....but the campaigns are nearly identical (or, perhaps they shouldn't have made the campaign in DOOM 3 too similar to the campaign in Q2). It's all about "Campaign" playing (versus bot play, multi-play and instant action) in my opionion. - There you have it!...my opinion.

PROS:
Impressive graphics in Single player mode.

CONS:
Expensive - especially if you already own Q3TA
Bloody - excessive blood and guts in Single player mode and no way to turn it off.
Short - I bought Q4 a little over a week ago, and I've already conquered it! (and I'm no pro)...
Application HOG! - you have to completely EXIT the game if you want to do some other task on your computer! (Alt + Tab no workie).
Asside from the mission, where are the single player maps?

So as you can clearly see...the CONS far outweigh the PROS. Perhaps the next incarnation of Q4 will be better.

I'll have to admit, that I had some fun while I was playing it...but now that've I've completed the mission, I have no desire to play it again. :(

Quake 4... a decent FPS

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: December 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I enjoyed the game with some minor reservations ...let me explain

The Pros:

I've a half decent video card and mother board so the game loaded easily and played smoothly for me; resulting in good audio and great graphics.

The action takes place in both indoors and outdoors; and in some of the outdoor scenes you have the added fun of controlling [and from the first person perspective] 1.) a hover tank, 2.) a walker robot, and 3.) a machine gun on a monorail tram. I've always enjoyed this type of scenario in FPS and these 3 segments are really well done.

Some challenging Bosses that'll give you a run for your money.

Save the game where ever you like with the F5 quick save feature.

Cons:

The game play is somewhat repetitious at times, especially with the indoor settings; and also with the main opponent, that being the basic Strogg soldier, who becomes fairly easy prey after you get a few good weapons.

High gore level (which you can adjust in "options"); but I'm not sure that any graphics need to be this intense.

The Ending: for all the difficulty of some of the Bosses throughout (and especially just prior to the end), the finale itself is surprisingly simple. (once you know the way to do it)

All in all a good game; anyone that's liked previous Quakes, Doom, Half-Like, Far Cry etc. will enjoy this FPS.

Joke 4: The Death of OpenGL

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 14 / 32
Date: October 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Back in the mid to late 1990s two major Application Programming Interfaces managed to dominate the PC game scene - DirectX and OpenGL, so much so that graphics hardware developers like ATI and NVIDIA built hardware around these APIs. OpenGL seemed to enjoy a life with game developers who used Silicon Graphics workstations (SGI) to create models and animations for games and film. We could buy high-end OpenGL graphics cards that where up to 64mb back in the days when 8mb cards where mainstream. Even the Nintendo 64 built some of its architecture around OpenGL graphics. In the year 2004 the high end 256mb cards where quickly bought up to enjoy the power of games like "Half-Life 2" and "Doom 3" (in fact "HL2" was the only reason for the upgrade). "Doom 3" is an OpenGL game and looked amazing. "Half-Life 2" used DirectX 9 where previously Half-Life 1 offered both OpenGL and DirectX support. Because "Doom3" was so dark it led many to wonder that if the game was brighter, would it reveal something questionable about the quality of modern OpenGL graphics? "Doom3" also had an option to use 512mb cards that have only been released in the autumn of 2005. Valve's choice not to support OpenGL further fuelled speculation that OpenGL may be badly lagging behind DirectX 9. "Quake 4" is confirmation of this problem... and it is more serious than previously thought. "Quake 4" is built on the "Doom 3" engine. Since "Doom 3" was mostly occupied with hiding you in dark places you never got to see the full quality of a brightly lit OpenGL first person shooter. Now that "Quake 4" has had to come up with a sequel to "Quake 3", ID software handing over development to Raven software, the horrible truth has come to light. OpenGL is simply leagues behind DirectX 9... and we are talking a big difference here. "Quake 4" offers absolutely no reflections. Instead we are still in the world of mapped reflections. Texture detail is the equivalent of "Half-Life 1". Polygon shapes are clearly visible even with every setting maxed out. Bump mapping is hardly visible. Steam and smoke is displayed as big successive blocks of floating transparent maps. Fire is "Duke Nukem" quality, fat orange blobs of quickly changing pixels. The shading and textures of the weapons look terrible. Again, no reflections on the guns, but we do have shadows. The facial expressions of your space marines are an attempt on matching "F.E.A.R" or "Half-Life 2" but you must turn up the Anti-Aliasing to round them off. Sadly even on a high spec gfx card this results in an even lower fps. You are a space marine that must run through the alien enemy complex, usually to meet up with a special marine who you must bring back with you, or to defeat an enemy outpost. The enemy AI does not exist. Everything is scripted. The enemy, the Strogg, instead moves exactly the same, coming in waves of two or three and you can see them move like clones of each other, getting blasted up the same way and dying the same, every single time. Not good. Lighting looks extremely blurred and the sky background is just one big map that does not even move except for the odd ship that flies around the place. Even the PS2 has better graphics than "Quake 4" which when on a PC at this quality begs the big question - what will the XBOX 360 have to offer if the PC version looks like a pre-millennium first person shooter? This is terrible news for everyone. The Quake series has been ruined. Multiplayer is the same quality as Quake 3. There is absolutely no need to upgrade. OpenGL is now officially dead! Only "Doom3" could mask its failure. Now we know why Valve did not support it. The XBOX 360 is faced with marketing a bad port to show off absolutely nothing that the 360s architecture can handle. Various tweak scripts have been released for "Quake 4" on the internet. These seems to have a little bit of an effect on improving game play ever so slightly, but sadly do not help much. You simple can't get what isn't there and that is the bottom line. To add further trouble to the mess is the fact that these poor quality OpenGL graphics are so demanding that even high spec card users will find themselves turning off lots of features and running the game at a low resolution. That is why "Doom 3" and "Quake 4" have a 512mb option... because it takes a juggernaut of a graphics card to actually round the graphics off and even then we are nowhere near looking at something as good as "Half-Life 2". Things are really that bad.

As "Quake 4" was duel released with "F.E.A.R", a fully fledged DirectX 9 name, I would point gamers in the direction of that first person shooter instead and to also keep an eye out for "Call of Duty 2". OpenGL IS DEAD. QUAKE IS DEAD! ........noooooooooooooooo!!

Pros:
- Absolutely NONE.

Cons:
- Shockingly sub-par graphics.
- Poor graphics still demanding high end system specs
- No enemy AI.
- Nothing new. Same as "Quake 3"
- You must quit and restart the game every time for graphics settings to take effect.
- Same price as better first person shooters out there.
- It will break hearts.

Great SP, not great MP

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: October 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'm a Quake addict from the Wolfenstein era. Great Single player. Not as scary or biting your nails type of intensity. Doom III is, I think better for that. However, I'm disappointed in the multiplayer. It seems like Quake 3.2. Same maps. Nothing really new. You would seem like your playing the third of the series. Graphics are not like the SP. I wish. They're more like III. I was very disappointed. They didn't even put any effort to get any new maps. Forget about vehicles. I thought I was gonna ride a mech style vehicle. Wasn't worth 60 bucks. Wait until it's 30. In the meantime, the best and most fun MP game I've ever played is Call of Duty United Offensive. Try it. It'll get even cheaper when version 2 comes out next week.

Well worth the price tag!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: May 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

What Quake 4 lacks in gameplay complexity it makes up for in visual beauty. This is a beautiful game, no doubt about it. Now developing a great looking game engine isn't the most difficult thing in the world. Making a good looking engine that's EFFICIENT is a different story.

My PC is pretty average these days. 2ghz cpu, 1gb ram, 128mb video card. With this hardware, I can run the game at high settings with decent framerates. When I play FEAR or Oblivion, I tell myself it's time for a new system. When I play this game, I change my mind.

Aside from the visual feast, the gameplay is a step up from Doom 3. There's a few Halo inspired additions like vehicles and a shield system, and you'll also be fighting side by side with other marines. Also there's more variety in the environments. Pretty much all of Doom 3 took place inside industrial corridors. While you'll see a lot of that in Quake 4 you also experience spacious outdoor environments and varied indoor environments. This helps keep the game from feeling repetitive.

The sound is a top notch production. The score is great. It gives the game a hollywood movie feel to it. The voice acting is quite believable, and there's a perfect amount of communication happening between you and the other marines.

In my opinion, the game has 2 flaws. One is the AI, and the other is the multiplayer options. The AI is a bit too basic. They shoot at you, and dodge, but not much else. There have been times where i've hid behind a pillar and shot at them from a certain angle where they couldnt hit me and they wouldnt move at all, allowing me to kill them without being hit at all.

The multiplayer options are pretty ho-hum. There's an incredible amount of competition with online FPS and so many types of game styles, and you cant expect every game to create a revolutionary new style to the genre, but it would have been nice to see something new and fresh.

But I bought this game for the single player experience and it delivers. I think it's definately worth the price its going for right now.

Serious Problems Reported with Quake4

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 13
Date: November 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Think real hard before you buy Quake4 for PC. It's all over the web: There is a serious LAG time for tons of users, even those with good systems. Your mouse cursor is faster than the game. A few claim to have the solutions to it, usually involving playing it on the lowest qualities and using a cheapo mouse or low hz mouse settings. These "solutions" don't work for everyone, including me. Some reported bad problems with the sound. I had no problems with that before the lag set in. The official sites are no help. I had occasional problems with lag for the first levels. Tweaking the settings seemed to cure it, but when I got well into the level with the hovertank it became unplayable. The video took as much 5 to 10 seconds to catch up with the mouse. My computer handles Halo, Doom3, and UT 2004 with no problem. Quake4 on the other hand ... I can't believe they let it out like this.

Well worth a play.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I haven't played doom, and wasn't particularly impressed with Quake 1 or 2 when it came out so I wasn't expecting much from this, nevertheless I picked up this title ad hoc one day in the bargain bin. I can ramp it up to 'Ultra Qualitiy' on my PC and with my new Sennheiser headphones this game is a great deal of fun. The graphics and sound quality is outstanding and really this is a first rate title.

Quake 4 probably suffered mostly from its release coinciding with the release of F.E.A.R. In many ways F.E.A.R. is a superior title and if you have to choose between the two then F.E.A.R. is the way you ill want to go. But if you have the extra cash, or you can pick it up in the bargain bin then you won't be dissappointed by Quake 4.

Strengths:

* Outstanding graphics and textures
* Oozes atmosphere
* Immersive story line (well at least to get you into the action)
* Quality sound

Weaknesses:

* Fairly linear
* Can get repetitative.

Despite the fact that this game was largely ignored, it is better than most products out there. Well worth a try, particularly since it is now in the bargain bins.

The Game for all those Doom lovers who are now afraid of the dark!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: November 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

For all those who loved the grapics of Doom 3 but hated the tedious and endless hallways of demons and darkness this game is for you. Quake 4 brings in all the elements of Doom that you loved graphics, guns, voice acting and left the rest out. Darkness is no longer your enemy and tacital situations have been added thet ge rid of the runnin gun feel of Doom. Not to mention that you now work in squads sometimes, which is nice when you need backup or human contact (They wont' turn into zombies either). On a slightly different note those with weak stomachs ought to be wary of the wall decorations, not blood (This has far less than Doom 3 so that previous reviewer doesn't know what he's talking about) but of a slighly more gruesome nature. Although I beleve that it adds to the gameplay giving you an idea of what your really fighting against.

Warning to those who are lanners this game is not ment for you, the MP seems as though it was drug out of the gutter added a new coat of paint. Those looking for a new MP experence other than the traditional deathmatch should look elsware. However those who are looking for a great single player that is easily replayable good luck and have fun Raven has given yu something to enjoy.

Enjoyable romp - Better than Doom 3, for sure

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: October 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have literally this minute completed Quake 4, and thought I'd write a review of the game to let you know my feelings.

I have got to say, first of all, that Quake 4 is a big improvement on Doom 3. Not just because the graphics are far, far better, which they are, and not because some of it is set outdoors in daylight, but also because the gameplay is a wee bit more fun.

Let's start at the beginning

You start as Matthew Kane, a space marine. You are mute it seems, as you never speak even when your name is spoken. So, you have as much personality as a dead fish. However, you appear to be popular with your squad mates, due to past history.. hey, you're a hero!

Anyway, while en route to the Strogg planet in a drop-ship, guess what happens? Yes, your ship is shot down and your squad suffers heavy losses (am I the only one who wonders why they didn't just nuke the place?)

You wake up, injured. A medic comes to your aid. What a surprise. What I have described is exactly the same intro as in Half Life: Opposing Force from 6? years ago. You would have thought Raven would have done something more original.

So anyway, you rejoin your group, and from there on it's a case of following your objectives and completing tasks. Don't be fooled by ID's claim of "squad combat" - Operation Flashpoint, this is not.

You won't see Call Of Duty-like mass assaults on enemy positions. You won't see armoured divisions defending positions under heavy attack from Strogg walkers. You WILL see scripted set pieces that occur just as you walk through a door or pick up an object - sound like another recent ID game you know?

I think Raven missed a massive opportunity here: I got the impression they never tried to depict a massive war of Human vs Strogg because they wanted to concentrate on the graphics and not overload the CPU with too many objects moving around. Or the AI to do it would be too difficult. I think, and I may be wrong, that the most marines I've seen on screen at once, is 4.

So, most of the time you will be alone, performing the usual "press this button", "destroy this object" tasks, issued to you by an arbitrary leader.

I must say, it's really weird, every time you complete a task, you go back to your leader and he says, "Kane, go take a look down there, we'll stay here and..." - what is the point of being in a squad if you're going to do everything alone? I just thought it was a cop-out on Raven's behalf, and ruined the realism. As you don't speak, you can't remonstrate.

Every time backup arrives - they're killed before you meet them. Time after time. Trust me on this. Don't break sweat trying to get to them faster, you can't save them.

A welcome plot twist occurs when you get captured in a great scripted sequence. After various body parts are amputated and replaced by bionic equivalents, Kane *almost* becomes a Strogg but is rescued by a group of marines before his governing neural implant is activated.

Kane passes out.

Kane recovers in a medical room surrounded by various doctors discussing his condition.

I'm surprised that Kane didn't decide to shoot himself when he realised he was half-man, half strogg, and doubly surprised that he didn't run off to do it when he was told his condition was irreversible by medics. On hearing the bad news, Kane never said a word of complaint, nor did he break down in tears. Must be marine conditioning, eh? I know this is a game. But games are supposed to make you identify with the lead characters, not think "yeah, right".

Kane, despite being physically ravaged, is released to go back to the fight.

So off you go again, but this time you can access places that humans can't - don't get too excited though, I don't mean you can climb on the walls or hang from the ceiling.

I won't say what happens next but suffice it to say it's more of the same. Run, shoot, run... the AI's not much different from Doom3 either, except that the enemy sometimes hides - BADLY!!!

The game is still far more fun to play than Doom3 though, in fact I thought it was more fun than HalfLife 2 to be honest.

It's hard to explain why I like this game, maybe it's the fact that you don't really expect much from this release - well, I didn't, as soon as I heard the game used Doom3 technology I knew it wouldn't be that intense. Maybe it was just the desire to see new graphics (they are incredible. Its only near the end of the game do they get a bit "samey")

Then again maybe it's the fact the game is REALLY EASY. Yes folks - it's a walkover on normal level. Only the size and number of "levels" to go through makes this game last. Really difficult sections are few and far between. For old-timer gamers like me, it's compulsive to get to the next level!

So, to summarise: Quake 4 is a great game for those who aren't the fastest. Casual gamers will love it.

I would wait for it to hit the bargain bucket though, if truth be told, because at heart it's just the same as every other 3rd person shooter this year. But check out the GRAPHICS!!!!

A DOOM 3 repeat...nothing new !!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: October 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I would take a guess and say the ONLY people that will give this game a high rating will be kids 16 or younger.

If you have played DOOM 3, then you have already played Quake 4!

I was wondering why this game slipped out onto store shelves and was released to retail without any great fanfare. Now I know why! It is basically the new Doom, except the weapons have flashlights. I am not impressed at all. I beat this game on the hardest setting no problem. The enemies are not particularly clever, just greater in number. Talk about predictable...this game was that in spades. Sadly, you can finish this game in 10 hours or less....YUCK!

Quake 4 is built by the same team using the same graphics engine. I didn't like DOOM 3 much either but it was a great deal better than this. Yes, the graphics were average. I have a AMD 64bit 4000+, an NVIDIA 7800 256MB GTX, 2 sticks of Corsair 1GB 3200 DDR modules, and a Viewsonic 19 inch VP191b monitor. And with all that power, and with Quake 4 video settings cranked up to the highest settings...it still was rough and mediocre looking!! However, the Quake series was never known for its stunning graphics and beauty. Mainly, I felt there was nothing hard to accomplish or figure out. Basically this game did not fill the 1st person shooter void within me. I am a huge fan of id software and have played every Doom or Quake title they ever released, when they were originally released. Yes, I have been playing computer games since my old Commodore 64 was delivered!!!

This is just my opinion though. Download a demo version and give it a whirl but I doubt you will want to pay $50 for it.

That said, I bet multiplayer on this will be a blast after some MODs are created and released. I have hosted 5 different lan parties for this game and we yawned through it until we gave up and switched over to Battlefield 2 or UT 2004! MUCH BETTER MP ACTION!!!!

In summation -
Enemy AI is lame, graphics are weak, a few cool "factory" scenes but no reason to go crazy for this title, gameplay is predictable, weapons are mediocre, limited interactive environment, nothing thrilling, exciting or shocking that will keep your tension levels cranked up to 11.

Half-Life 2, Battlefield 2, UT 2004, GTA: San Andreas even the older and outdated Medal of Honor and Call of Duty games will keep you stressed and excited better than Quake 4.

Save your money....Call Of Duty 2 comes out this week anyway!

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next 

Actions