First Impressions of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (page 2 of 4)
- April 02, 2007 09:28 AM PST
- Email this!
The levels are both huge and detailed
Spoils of War
"Ooh, pretty." ET: Quake Wars is yet another id Software poster child for the advantages of OpenGL over Direct X. The game is easily as beautiful as Gears of War, with the added bonus of taking place in far larger and more varied 3D worlds. The open-air environments are painted with ultra-high-res "megatextures," another John Carmack technical innovation. Because they don't tile or repeat, these textures boast fantastic detail. Reportedly, each one of these megatextures takes up nearly 3 GB of data in its raw form. Interior environments, like sewers and command bunkers, also sport excellent details, such as tiny rivulets of water tricking down the walls.
Battlefield 2142's desolate mud holes look downright plain next to ET: Quake War's vast, sprawling warzones, which blend effortlessly between outdoor and indoor combat. The level design is easily one of the game's biggest strengths; it's hard not to be impressed when you're plowing vehicles through an enemy roadblock one second, then seamlessly plunging into a highly detailed sewer system the next. It's this seesaw between Battlefield-style scouting and Quake-style twitch gunplay that makes ET: Quake Wars such a delight.
Artillery support is a key component of victory
The whole game looks just sensational, from the lifelike character animations to the explosive special effects. ET: Quake Wars is a visual powerhouse, and will need a suitable PC to play with its details maxed out. We played using a Geforce 8800 GTX, and saw excellent performance.
ET: Quake War's audio also deserves mention. The weapons all have a satisfyingly brawny sound, and the roars of artillery shells and wayward aircraft will give your subwoofer a major workout. Other amusing touches abound: if a teammate helped you, you could make your gruff Strogg invaders belt out a cheery "Why thank you!"
Year of the Quake
But given its technical prowess, it's encouraging that the most tantalizing aspects of ET: Quake Wars all involve its gameplay. Rather than flit around aimlessly from checkpoint to checkpoint as in Battlefield, your current goal is kept in constant focus thanks to computer-initiated mission updates ("Stop the humans from hacking the sewer controls!") and brightly-colored waypoints. And because you get real mission objectives (bomb a generator, build a bridge), the gameplay feels more epic than Battlefield's boring checkpoints. You'll feel a swell of pride after you blow up a sewer grate and lead your team to a key enemy asset, a feeling that's all too rare in other online shooters.
FPS fans, PC and console alike, should definitely take note. With the news that ET: Quake Wars will make the jump to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (possibly after 2007), id Software and Splash Damage are showing signs of once again becoming a major player in online action.
