Quake 4 Preview

…Tremors…

This E3, the earth trembled with the shockwaves of what could be the next big bang. Videos and screens of the latest in the quake series were released to a much anticipating audience hungry for anything that comes with Id stamped on the back. Quake 4 will be the latest in the exemplary franchise that changed the FPS genre forever. Although quake did not usher in the multiplayer wave, it was the definitive tide that provided the push for many a game to crest high. Quake 4 will be based on the doom3 engine, giving it extremely high ornamental value for any gamer. This will be the game that will grace the desktops of upgrade addicts and every graph made to demonstrate the pc’s prowess.

Flashy lights and slippery shadows

Quake 4 is being simultaneously developed for both the XBOX 360 and the PC. Since the developers have had considerable time to tinker with the doom3 engine, expect the game to be more tweaked and smoother than D3. Quake’s long lineage of being a multiplayer favourite is under considerable speculation this time. D3’s multiplayer required colossal amounts of bandwidth to be played and the high system requirements didn’t help things either. Quake 4’s net code is said to be optimized but the system requirements for the game to be playable are still under speculation. Quake 4 will show the outdoor rendering abilities of the d3 engine. There will be massive battles spread across the planets surface, an excellent place to watch pixel pie unfold.

Killing in the name off

The single player campaign is supposed to be the best amongst all the quake series. The story is a continuation of Quake II. You are Matthew Kane, along with having one of the most common surnames in video games, you also have the personality of a cliched anti hero, complete with shades of dark, a mean temper and a shady past. The Stroggos which you single handedly defeated in Quake 2 are being approached by Earth’s forces for an all out battle. Your ship is hit in the temple and you are sent spiraling into the midst of awar. Disconnected from your squad, your first objective will be to get back with them. Further plot details include Matthew being captured by the Stroggos. Whilst in the midst of conversion into a Stroggos unit, he is saved by a human squad, making him a hybrid of sorts, with the strength of the Stroggos but his loyalty towards the humans.

For the first time in a Quake game there will be squad based action. Raven has tried to model the game as a futuristic Battle of Normandy involving squad actions. Vehicles will be the other inclusion making it’s first appearance in a quake series. Players will be able to drive an assortment of wheels with guns.

Six years of shifting tectonic plates

Any quake game is nothing without it’s gameplay. Hopefully the developers have learnt from the mistakes that plagued Quake 3’s multiplayer and will have picked up a thing or two from CPMA and OSP. The game is expected to be as fast and brutal as it’s predecessors with Raven putting in good thought to keep the game balanced. The railgun and the rocket launcher make a reappearance as well as rocket jumping.

According to ID, the multiplayer of the game may feature some of the popular maps from the previous quake series for nostalgia purposes. But on the whole they are concentrating on creating new maps that will put emphasis on 1v1 deathmatch. The multiplayer is supposed to include the regular mix of Capture the Flag, Team Deathmatch and deathmatch. Squad based combat won’t be the focus of Quake4, that being left to the new Enemy Territory, also based on the D3 engine.

The exact release date for Quake 4 is still undecided. Bearing the stamp of one of the biggest developers in the industry and belonging to a royal lineage, this is one game that is on top of everyone’s “to play” list.

Sameer H. Pitalwalla