Quake 4- the Demo

Huh, looks like the Quake 4 demo's out, and I just finished playing it.

The reviews on this game have ranged from everything from "Good ol' school fun" to "far too outdated for its own good." My own opinion lays somewhat in the middle.

First off, the visuals are what you might expect; its Doom 3 with more lighting, and some minimal art design inspired by Quake 2. So, while it looks detailed, it doesn't look interesting. It feels like something you've seen before because you pretty much have.

The actual gunplay is somewhat improved over Doom 3. The weapons here are much more satisfying; the feel powerful when they fire, something that was all too much absent from Doom (the shotgun was the worst offender. Was it even firing shells?). That isn't to say that the enemies will go down quickly; most of the strogg are tough cookies, and even with the help of your squadmates they often won't go down until they're right in your face. Which brings me to another problem; the AI is weak. Enemies are still only smart enough to strafe and blindly charge at you, and your comrades are not much better. This stands out in stark contrast to many of the scripted events you'll witness where Marines are kicking all sorts of ass. Why they suddenly become stupid when tagging along with you makes no sense. Actually, yes it does; Id and Raven, like so many other developers, are still far too worried about making a game look good to even bother much with AI . Considering we've had two generations in a row with identical playing games (and signs that the 360 wont' chagne things), I find this to be a bad trend.

So is it worth it? The weapons and the production values do a good job of giving Quake 4 the intensity and grittiness that one expects from a sci-fi shooter, but there's no denying that the gameplay feels old and tired at this point. At least Doom 3 tried to mask this by constantly trying to surprise the player and instilling them with a sense of dread. Quake 4 seems like a decent pick-up a year from now when its $20 bucks, but in the mean time I think Id and Raven need to hit the drawing board if they don't want to fade into obscurity.

Also, looksl like Bioshock may have found a publisher in Take Two. You may not be familiar with many of Irrational's games, but trust me; if these guys can get a big break, it'll be good for the whole industry.