Quake 4 (and Doom III)

ID software’s Wolfenstein 3D is arguably the first popular First Person Shooter. Doom however, is the game I remember really being impressed by (1994?). The graphics, the dark story, and the sheer, bloody fun was incomparable to any other game to date. It proved that the shareware strategy could be successful, and the FPS was a genre to be welcomed by gamers. ID’s Quake was a parallel world to Doom, with more emphasis on the bizarre and the alien than doom. With updated engine and technology, it also set new limits for FPS. Quake 3, despite being a fun game, offered no more depth into the interesting single-player story-world of the franchise. Therefore it was a complete surprise to see a huge and extremely comprehensive single-player game and storyline in the Doom III engine based Quake 4.

Doom III, in my opinion was outstanding in the way it creeped you out. It took very little imagination (especially with a good headset and the volume cranked up) to almost feel like a soldier fighting in a huge “urban” battlefield. The depth, quality, quantity of radio chatter–screams in your ears from dying civilian and marines, desperate requests of backup, orders from the brass, etc. – made it a very immersing experience. Of course the dirty trick of making you fight in almost pitch black levels with a flashlight that lasts 5 seconds did set you up for very suspenseful encounters.

On the other hand, Quake 4 takes all that, along with the beautiful graphics that accompany each ID game, and somehow manages to immerse you in the gaming environment even deeper as CPL Cain. I actually stopped moving many times to avoid running into the next skirmish just so I could finish listening to the conversations in my headset in peace. I even found it interesting to stop and listen to the idle conversations among the many NPCs in the game. And despite the fact that I had a permanent flashlight this time around (thank god), I was still creeped out more playing Quake 4 than Doom III–almost to the level of F.E.A.R.

Oh and a word of advice if you’re actually thinking of playing the game. When you get to the brain all the way at the end… you have to shoot at it near the ceiling to damage it. I must have wasted 30 minutes running around it trying to dodge the never-ending supply of enemies white shooting at the thing’s “feet” before I figured it out.