Quake IV finally on Steam

I remember checking the website numerous times, wondering why the first three Quakes were available, but not the fourth. I checked just now, and was quite pleased to see it available for purchase, and for only 20 bucks. Should I bother? Seems that a fair number of people thought Q4 was underwhelming, but I've been wanting to try it out. Is it worth my money?

Well, I played it and enjoyed it, but I've had no incentive to replay it at all.

I liked it and thought it was good to get back into fighting the Strogg again. I might give it a replay again but not anytime soon.

Doesn't feel like a Q2 sequel to me. But it's a decent shooter.

I played it once and never even got to the end. It's so linear most of the time it may as well be a railshooter. Enjoyable the first time, but even replaying an area after getting killed was tedious to me. It is very HL²ish, with allies worshipping the ground you walk on all the time.

I liked a certain scene in it more than the actual game. It was done so brilliantly.

Overall, the art isn't bad to look at, although it makes you feel like you're in a Doom 3 mod rather than a stand-alone game at times. I remember the shooting as being solid, again very much like Doom 3 (not surprising). Can't remember a thing about the foes, though.

It's worth trying. Not a fantastic game, but not a terrible one either.

I tried the demo when it was released and got bored with it less than 10 minutes in, but I'm not a big fan of Quake 2, either, so that probably says something. I'd be semi-interested in checking Q4 out again, but I wouldn't spend twenty dollars on it. Ten to fifteen, perhaps.

I didn't care for the strogg language they've come up with for this game. It felt like I was fighting mechanical black people.

Technician said:

I didn't care for the strogg language they've come up with for this game. It felt like I was fighting mechanical black people.

............

.....What?

I am sorry, but what?

How did the Strogg sound even remotely like black people?

Watch that blackface scene from King Kong and then play Quake IV. You'll know what I'm talking about.

My advice to the original poster, is that for $20 it's definitely worth a try. I bought it when it was first released because I had high hopes for it since I'm a huge fan of Heretic and heXen, both of which I thought were vast improvements on DooM.

See, they were made by Ravensoft which is the same company which was the same company who has done Quake 4, with the Doom 3 engine.

In summary of all that is bad with it though:
~ graphics are "worse" (underwhelming)
~ probably the most linear game I have ever seen (usually there is only ever one way to go)
~ bosses are new, but not that inspired
~ allies are more of a nuisance and hindrance than of any help
~ overall not that much variation between levels
~ disappointing

Played it religiously for a while after it came out, as it was Quake III's multiplayer heir. Not going to comment on the MP issues.

Single player: it was fun and worth playing through, but I felt like about half the time, the art team at Raven didn't have a good enough feel for what Quake II's art direction was, and they went off on their own and made several assets that just didn't fit in that world, in my opinion. Some designs, they improved upon, but there were also many that came out of nowhere and it was like, "have you ever even looked at an id game before?" They did the same thing with Jedi Knight II a few years prior. Sometimes it felt like you were in Star Wars, other times, it felt like you were looking at terrible fanfic-based art (essentially what it is, anyway) or something from some other franchise like Star Trek.

Ranting here about something many here will ignore, but when I remember playing through Q4 single player, this is the biggest complaint that comes to mind.

Pile of shit which has practically no relation to Quake 2 aesthetically or gameplay-wise. This and Wolfenstein 2009 were proof enough for me that Raven don't give a fuck about making good games anymore.

DoomUK said:

Raven don't give a fuck about making good games anymore.

Clearly you missed Singularity then.

BlazingPhoenix said:

Clearly you missed Singularity then.

No, I played it.

It was enjoyable. Certainly better than Q4 or Wolf I'll admit. But it was nothing particularly remarkable or memorable either.

Ah, okay. I was worried there for a moment because it seems like a game that passes over most people's heads. :P

I've got Quake 4 from ages ago (fortunately it's on one DVD at least, rather than 3 CDs like my copy of Doom 3). Kind of fun and I always like the generic badass space marines but... well, it's rather linear. Replayability is basically limited to doing the same thing agian but in different difficulties or taking the rooms with a different approach. Really glad the assault rifle has a flashlight at least.

DoomUK said:

Pile of shit which has practically no relation to Quake 2 aesthetically or gameplay-wise. This and Wolfenstein 2009 were proof enough for me that Raven don't give a fuck about making good games anymore.

Really? I thought the new Wolfenstein was lots of fun. In fact I am replaying it on my laptop right now, though it is regretfully not going as well as I would like since my laptop isn't really intended for gaming so I get rather mediocre FPS even on low setting :(

As for Quake 4, it was not fantastic but its still a good game. Easily worth the 20 bucks.

DoomUK said:

This and Wolfenstein 2009 were proof enough for me that Raven don't give a fuck about making good games anymore.

Except Wolfenstein was a good if easy and short game that was at least slightly reminiscent of their earlier games with the hub-based level design. You not liking their games != "they don't give a FUCK about good games!!!!!1".

Mogul said:

Single player: it was fun and worth playing through, but I felt like about half the time, the art team at Raven didn't have a good enough feel for what Quake II's art direction was, and they went off on their own and made several assets that just didn't fit in that world, in my opinion. Some designs, they improved upon, but there were also many that came out of nowhere and it was like, "have you ever even looked at an id game before?" They did the same thing with Jedi Knight II a few years prior. Sometimes it felt like you were in Star Wars, other times, it felt like you were looking at terrible fanfic-based art (essentially what it is, anyway) or something from some other franchise like Star Trek.

Ranting here about something many here will ignore, but when I remember playing through Q4 single player, this is the biggest complaint that comes to mind.

Quite true. Splash Damage did a much much better job with ETQW than Raven did with Q4.

stewboy said:

Well, I played it and enjoyed it, but I've had no incentive to replay it at all.

Pretty much my opinion on Quake 4 here. I do have two copies of it though. (I originally bought the CD version, but later my brother bought the collector's DVD edition. I already owned Quake 2 and it's mission packs so there really wasn't a reason for me to get the DVD version.)

Hmm, so far it's mostly negative responses with a dash of "Eh, it was worth playing through once." Still not sure if I'm going to buy it, although 20 bucks isn't bad for a game that isn't groin-grabbingly good, to paraphrase Homer Simpson. I wonder if the Q4 mod community has done anything interesting with the game.

I quite liked Q4, certainly a lot more than I liked Doom3 anyway. However, I agree, a lot of it was pretty rail-roaded and much of it got quite repetitive. I accept that much of the art direction was different to Q2 but, for the most part, I didn't mind it and I was quite happy with how a lot of the game looked (and, again, as a comparator, Doom3 looked more different to Doom than Q4 did to Q2 IMO but that could be because I am closer to Doom and, of course, the bigger differences in engine with Doom).

The big selling point of the game was "to beat your enemy you must become one of them" (or something like that) but I thought that how they did it was disappointing. OK, the stroggification cutscene was interesting enough and pretty cool but I was hoping for more than just a few hit points (or was it armour?), the ability to walk through force fields and the ability to read signs (although that was cool). I dunno, some kind of upgradable arm attachments or, go-faster leg upgrades or new vision modes or something (possibly a series of upgradable items that I could keep adding to - Mk1 legs, Mk2 legs etc) to really make me feel cyber enhanced would have been nice or maybe a more overt stealth section where you are trying to blend with the Strogg, or perhaps somewhere that you have to fight alongside the Strogg against the humans but, somehow, have to undermine the Strogg tactics.

I just felt that something that had been so enthusiastically publicised could have had much more done with it and been much more imaginatively handled. Instead, I found myself climbing one tower after another to pretty much the same formula each time with little more than the ability to walk through the forcefields to gain access - something that felt like an artificially added barrier to justify my Strogginess.

You could take a look at the videos here to get some idea whether it might appeal.

I just took a look at that Stroggification scene; wow... I really like how it was done with the sign.

The big selling point of the game was "to beat your enemy you must become one of them" (or something like that) but I thought that how they did it was disappointing. OK, the stroggification cutscene was interesting enough and pretty cool but I was hoping for more than just a few hit points (or was it armour?), the ability to walk through force fields and the ability to read signs (although that was cool). I dunno, some kind of upgradable arm attachments or, go-faster leg upgrades or new vision modes or something (possibly a series of upgradable items that I could keep adding to - Mk1 legs, Mk2 legs etc) to really make me feel cyber enhanced would have been nice or maybe a more overt stealth section where you are trying to blend with the Strogg, or perhaps somewhere that you have to fight alongside the Strogg against the humans but, somehow, have to undermine the Strogg tactics.

Ah, that's disappointing to read, and makes me feel glad I always skip the hype. I knew nothing about the game before playing it, so the cutscene (and, from that, everything else) came across to me as a subverted "hero guy gets saved right before the bad thing happens to him because nothing ever happens to hero guys in shooters" trope, especially as NPCs had been so intent on kissing my ass all the time up until that point.

All this time I thought the game was not so subtly ironic, while it is most likely dead serious with a B movie plot and characterization. Oh well. :P

One little nitpick: if I recall correctly, the player did run faster after the stroggification.

zap610 said:

I just took a look at that Stroggification scene; wow... I really like how it was done with the sign.

The stroggification process did seem suitably disturbing, perhaps even better than what was depicted in Quake 2 where they'd simply grind them up or crush them, as opposed to trying to keep their victims as intact as possible. It did kind of bother me that they just used the same scream sound for the main character every time they did something to him though, partially because just going "uagghagh" over and over again doesn't sound like the expected reaction someone would have to having their legs sawed off or several giant needles, rivets, etc. jammed into their body.

I kind of wish they had also made the stroggification have more of an impact on gameplay instead of just having it give you the ability to understand the written and spoken language of the strogg and use their medical terminals.

I rather liked Q4 actually. The weapon upgrades were pretty cool IMO, and I did enjoy becoming a Strogg. I didn't expect anything from the story, seeing as how I didn't understand Q2's story that well; was there something I should have read in the manual?

As for mods, one of the only ones I saw was a map which showcased the ally and Strogg Marine AI in battle with each other. Pretty neat, but you couldn't actually do anything other than look down through a glass floor.

Craigs said:

partially because just going "uagghagh" over and over again doesn't sound like the expected reaction someone would have to having their legs sawed off or several giant needles, rivets, etc. jammed into their body.

I actually never noticed that or had a problem with it. I was way more bothered by the fact that Doom3Guy and Doom3ROEGuy had the same pain sounds and death sounds. But let's not discuss that.

Hmm... I agree with Stew. It's a fun game, but once you play it once, you're done forever.

The weapon upgrades were neat, but even those are given to you in an entirely linear progression instead of allowing the player to actually get 'em as a reward of sorts. That and some of the later weapon designs (rocket launcher, railgun, lightning gun, darkmatter gun) seemed so similar in aesthetics that they became boring and same-y. Hooray for facetless cylinders. :P

Meh, I might give it another playthrough once the new machine is built, if only to see how it looks maxed.

In my experience it still looks surprisingly angular and old. Not sure if that was properly maxed out graphics or just nearly though.

Craigs said:

It did kind of bother me that they just used the same scream sound for the main character every time they did something to him though, partially because just going "uagghagh" over and over again doesn't sound like the expected reaction someone would have to having their legs sawed off or several giant needles, rivets, etc. jammed into their body.

Yeah I totally agree with that. It had a huge buildup as you see it done to the person in front and when it's finally your turn it's just like taking normal damage.