Around 4-5 days back, I finished Quake IV. After that, I always thought of writing a sort of follow up review – but didn’t have the time. You can read the earlier short review here. Today I managed some time, and here it goes:
Overall, I liked this game. This is a proper sequel to the original Quake II. The soryline is consistent. Even though more rich and detailed, the look and feel of the graphics are also similar.
Gameplay is nice – totally focussed on combat. There are nothing to worry about but just to kill the enemies that attack you. You don’t have to solve any puzzles, neither do you have to spend hours trying to find a hidden path. Everything is simple – aim and shoot and stafe away from enemy fire. I was playing in the hard level – but the enemies were pretty easy to kill.
One more interesting thing – you will be captured by the Strogg – and you will almost become a Strogg soldier. That is kind of interesting. Also, you get a 25% health and armor boost up.
One thing that I need to mention is the end-game boss fights. They were really interesting. There were not many of them though.
I faced some difficulties in only a couple. Once you will be maneuvering a tank and you have a kill a big red spider. It took me quite a number of tries. The trick is to dodge the seeker rockets when they are really close. That way they hit the ground and explode. If you dodge them too early, they follow you and hit you.
The same holds for all the seeker rockets that you will encounter through the game. Also, you can shoot the rockets and they will explode mid air. If you have unlimited supply of ammunition (in tank etc) then that is a good idea too.
Worth of mentioning is also the The Stroyent Processing Creature. You have to run across the room to reach the controls on the other side. It will kill you if you try to run straight. Run intermittently using the columns as shields. But don’t wait too long. It took me a few tries.
One more boss fight worth mentioning is Voss. The trick is to pay attention to killing the minions he summons. They are easy to kill – but they can render good amount of damage to you if they are left unattended. Use plenty of grenades on Voss – and rockets. They are really useful. He can reconstruct his shield only twice – so you just have to last. Also, strafe away from the DMG blasts he throws. Try to keep as far away from Voss as possible.
DMG is a useful gun to use on the Bosses; especially on the Tower Guardian. But aim carefully though. I finished him without much difficulty. You have 4 quicksave slots – so remember to hit quicksave in a boss fight if you think you are in a good position.
The last boss fight is a disappointment. That fight was over in less than two minutes. I just unleashed a flurry of DMG to the Makron using the columns as a hiding place. Also, the nexus is easy to kill. Shoot at the top of Nexus with a rocket to bring down the shield and immediately charge two DMGs., Its health will go down and the shield will come up. Repeat a couple of times and the game is over. The nexus summons a hell lot of enemies – you need to take care of them too – but it does not take much time.
That’s about all the gameplay hints I can give you. It is a pretty easy game with some moderately difficult areas which takes a number of tries.
About weapons – hyper-blaster is a kiss-ass gun. So is the rocket launcher. (but save the rockets – they are not in great supply though). Machinegun is powerful too. For me, shotgun was a disappointment. Railgun seemed to lack the punch (even with the upgrade from a tech). The lighting gun was nice though – especially with the multiple-enemy-hit upgrade that you receive sometime in the game (I forgot when).
Finally, here are some Quake 4 screenshots: (Pardon the low quality rendering – I am playing in my 2 year old laptop).