Quake Wars

[Salazaar]

Wooo, just got my copy in the post this morning! Though now I've gotta choose between playing that and Halo 3 ! Damnit.

[alsenior]

you bar stool mine wont be sent while tonight

[cougarslam]

got dispatch note off play.com today.

forgot i had pre ordered it

doubt it will come tomo tho.

[alsenior]

i have ordered it form amazon. it should leave toinight

[Salazaar]

Don't worry, there aren't many servers yet and the ranked ones don't seem to be turned on!

[Deadlight]

It's funny how my first impressions were the same as the very first Quake game.

Brown.

[spazman]

Am i alone in disliking this game alot??

[shackahn]

I was really dissapointed with the beta but it seems to have come along nicely.

Been playing against bots to get used to maps, seems to be good fun

[Salazaar]

I'm quite enjoying it at the moment.

[acrobat]

Am i alone in disliking this game alot??

Nope, I didn't like it much either. Although I only played the demo. I thought it was a battlefield clone. If all im going to do is run around gibbing people, I'd rather just play a HL2 mod or something. If I'm going to get in to a modern shooter, it needs to atleast have some originality. I think I played the demo for about 3 or 4 nights and then felt like I'd seen it all before and couldn't play for another minute without being bored to death.

[acrobat]

semi REVIEW

I changed my mind on this game! I've been playing it for the best part of the night. I started to understand it much better and it seemed really great. I feel like I know enough, and that the game is good enough, to justify me writing a bit of a review of it. And also, I said it bored me to death so its only fair that I explain that I changed my mind. I hope this helps somebody... NOTE: Some of my interpretations of the game may not be completely accurate. Because like I said, I've just changed my mind on the game, so I'm still figuring it out. So I'm still a noobie really.

Anyway, if you have played Team Fortress (TF) in any of its incarnations, it will help you understand this game, and help me explain it. Basically, they have taken the Team Fortress concept, and improved every aspect of it. Now that I realise that, it's starting to really impress me much more. I know they did this by the way, because one of the lead guys has a big TF history.

It does resemble the likes of Battlefield, but its actually a much better game. I'll try to explain. There are quite a lot of maps, and the all have a bunch of objectives for each team. Each team is trying to dominate the other team. But instead of it just being like Team Fortress where you have to capture a flag, or like Battlefield where you just have to stand at a flag.... it is a bit more involved. There is a much bigger variety in these goals, and some of them can only be achieved by various classes too. So unlike the other two games I mentioned, its not as much of a desperate rush towards flags... Its a bit more of a thought out process. One goal for example, is to get a huge armored deployable vehicle to a new location and then set it up. Someone has to drive it, some people need to protect it... and then other people need to keep it repaired. Then you have strategic locations you have to capture, and then you have shield generators you need to destroy or protect. And there are lots of other objectives too... So they have basically improved that aspect as much as any of you or I could, and taken it beyond just flag capturing.

But what makes this game special, is the classes. I could never understand them before, but now that I do, its made me change my mind about the game. It is truly a new and improved offspring of Team Fortress NOT Battlefield. The fact that it resembles Battlefield seems to be a complete coincidence. Once you get to know the game better, you can see this - if you where ever a TF player.

Anyway, there are about 4 or 5 classes (can't remember exactly). One of them is basically the "Soldier" class from Team Fortress. So if you just want to jump straight into the game, and run around gibbing people, then this is the class to pick. Unlike TF though, it allows you customise your class. The role of this class seems to be to just cause damage..... Both to people, vehicles, and equipment. And the customisation options of the class really help you do this. The customisation is done by choosing a variety of weapons, and like the "Soldier" in Team Fortress, you can use a rocket launcher. But unlike TF, its not something you fire at a guy nearby to blast him into the air.... Its much more realistic, so if you land a rocket near a guy, the guy is very, very dead. Infact, if you see a little group of guys, and you manage to land a rocket on them, it will easily kill them all with one shot. Seeing as this game has dozens of great vehicles though, it also lets you right click and then you can zoom in and lock on to any vehicle with your rocket launcher. It then becomes like a heat seeking rocket launcher. It can take a few shots to take out a vehicle, but this class seems to be the best class at taking out vehicles. The weapon options give you other possibilities though. That rocket launcher isn't that great at killing people.... mainly because if they get in your face, you are stuffed, because shooting them will just blow you up too. But its also slow to fire and very slow to reload. So if you intend on killing people instead of vehicles, then you can just switch your "Soldier's" weapon to one which is basically like a chaingun. It fires many rounds of bullets a minute, so you can tear through people easily and accurately - even when they run right into your face (which is strangely, a common tactic for desperate people). The bullets are also decent at taking out vehicles still too. There are a couple of other weapons too, but I can't really remember what they are. But basically, this is the general purpose "blow stuff up" class, but with some weapon options. The class is also capable of achieving objectives by the way (sometimes), but generally, it seems to be a support class. In other words, you support your team mates by blowing up bad guys or vehicles that try to attack them, while they are busy doing the hacking and whatnot.

As I've been playing most of the night, I lack the stable mind that sleep brings, so this may be a bit jumbled up. But I think there is another class, which is basically a combination of the "Sniper" from TF, and the "Spy". Unlike the stupid sniper class.... this is MUCH more involved. Its more of a scout class really. You can snipe people from a far with a high powered weapon (with high powered zoom too), but the class can disguise as an enemy... So you can infiltrate deep into the enemy territory (which you would never be able to reach otherwise...), and then you can hack their machines etc... and complete objectives that would be a nightmare to achieve otherwise. I started to really enjoy this class because I like sniping, but I love the stealthy option too. Being able to sneak behind the enemy team and then attack them from the back when they aren't expecting it... and being able to hack machines and stuff made it extra useful.

Theres seems to be a "Medic" type class which I haven't played yet. And then there seems to be some kind of technician class which I didn't play either. But before I gave up for the night, I played one more class... I forgot what its called, but this is the class of my dreams basically. This is the "Engineer" class of this game. In Team Fortress, the engineer was this goofy little guy who used to run around with a spanner... He could build a piddling little sentry gun, and an ammo dispensor. In this game, they have taken that class and multiplied it by about 900.

Instead of a little sentry gun, you can build one of 3 huge.. things. I didn't get a chance to suss them all out, but they all seem to be like various types of artillery - rather than an actual gun. So they shoot up into to the air, and rain down death on people. (One is a huge single beam, and one seemed to rain lots of seperate firey shells). What is especially cool though... is that you not only choose which specific type of artillery suits your needs best, where it will be placed, and what direction its facing, but you get to actually manually fire it at people. So the last map I was playing on, seemed to have all the bad guys spawning in a tunnel. (Its the same map as the demo). And they all come out the tunnel and all seemed to run in the same direction. So I grabbed a jetpack, and flew up on to a nearby roof, and I designated the location of this tunnel entrance for my enormous artillery. It powers up, and you see it launching its massive shells into the sky. A few moments later, and they rain down on the exact location I marked, and the usual "Bob killed Bill with a sniper rifle" messages, turned into "Acrobat killed ____________________" and a list of about 9 people. Its..... satisfying Also, besides firing your own artillery, the class seems to be able to call in another general purpose air strike kind of thing. What I liked about that, is that you have to actually go to the location and set a beacon. So again, I went to a populated area and set the beacon. It worked a treat too, although unfortunately, I missed peak hour and only incinerated 1 poor soul.

The last thing to mention about the classes, is that although they all have their own special abilties, they all have other gear too. For example, they ALL have grenades, they all have melee weapon (for stabbing people with), and they all have a secondary general purpose gun for shooting stuff. But its the special tools for each class that really defines the class.

One other thing that dawned on me, is that I was playing it wrong. Its a strange game and takes a lot of getting used to, or atleast... it did for me. I am used to games being a big frag fest, or a strictly stealthy game. Well this kind of falls in the middle somewhere... What seems to happen, is that if an enemy sees you... they kill you. So you can't go bunnyhopping around thinking you're Rambo, because someone who you can't even see, will just snipe you from 20 miles away. Or someone up above you on the roof of a building, will just drop a grenade on you. Or... someone will call in an airstrike on you So you really have to play the game in a much more low key kind of way. You can't be completely stealthed (unless you are that sneaky scout class...), but it definitely pays to stay behind cover all the time, go through buildings instead of flying over them shouting "Wheeee!", and walking behind vehicles rather than walking out in the open by yourself. If you don't play a bit sneakier like that, the game will just frustrate you - because you'll just get your head blown off every 12 seconds.

Vehicles. They are super cool. Tanks, little truck things with a machine gun attacked. And then all kinds of flying things. Its like an improved Battlefield 2142, but nothing seems to ruin the game for everyone else. Everything seems to serve a purpose - rather than just causing grief to as many people as possible, and everything is easily destroyed so its balanced pretty well.

One last thought on the gameplay. I was playing with a bunch of newbies, and then I had a go offline with bots. Its still a fun game like that, but only half the team seem to actually be working towards the objective. The other half look like they are trying to figure the game out. But even the half who are working towards the objective, don't seem to be working TOGETHER. They all just rush off in various directions as soon as they respawn. I never played the Battlefield games in a clan or anything, but I am assuming this game could be REALLY interesting if you get into a clan or whatever. I can imagine that it turns into a much more serious strategic game, thats all about team work. Its almost like an RPG and an RTS combined.... in that each class complements each other. So a big dumb slow soldier by himself, will just get sniped from far away. But a sniper by himself, will just get blown up by a soldier... So really, to give yourselves the best chance of winning, you need to work together. So if all the classes group together and actually run together... you could probably do really REALLY well. Because your group's sniper would keep the other snipers at bay. The soldier would deal with enemies who get close to you all. A medic could keep you all healed. And then the other technician type classes could actually reach their objectives safely, so they can do whatever the goal of that map is.

Lastly, the graphics. Not that great. Its better looking than probably 99% of other shooters out there... But thats only because its newer. It has all the standards I suppose... The sun is bright when you look at it... and it creates lens flair. The roads have a proper texture so they ook like they are made out of tarmac. The water glistens. But its just not REALLY well done. I didn't really examine it closely, but basically, I got the impression that Halflife 2 probably had better water, Gothic 3 had better skies, pretty much any RPG on the market has better grass and mountains, etc. All together, it does look decent. But its probably a very slight step down from the likes of GRAW2. The only reason why I mention this, isn't because I would be disappointed in the graphics, because it does look good enough to enjoy. But its because Crysis and UT2k7 are due soon... When those games are released, I suspect this game will instantly look dated.

It also has quite a bad artistic style... Often, the graphics aren't actually BAD, technically speaking, but they just used brown galore... Brown for mud, brown stone and brown cement roads. So all you see is.... brown. And a lot of maps seem to suffer from that. A lot of the maps are based in areas like quarries etc... so they are all inherantly brownish. Its a shame really, because I really appreciate it when a game manages to set the setting of the game somewhere pretty... Like FarCry or UT2k4 etc. One map was The Lake District in the UK by the way, and that was brown galore. If you go there in the winter, I suppose it is very brown... But I was quite disappointed with the graphics of that map really. But you can make your own minds up about the graphics anyway, I'm sure you can find screenshots easy enough.

Overall, I would go as far as to say, this is by far the best online game (none MMO) on the market. As much as I love the Team Fortress games, this is just so much better because it has 50 times more depth... It has the vehicles and it has the deployables and air strikes and stuff.... Poor old Team Fortress can't even compete. But its also better than UT2k4 and Battlefield too, because its just that one step above them in terms of depth. In Battlefield you could apply to be the commander and call in artillary strikes and whatnot. But in this game, you can do that whenever you want... you just switch to the appropriate class and you have all that kind of fun at your fingertips, and you don't have to be voted in or whatever. And every class has grenades. And every objective is more meaningful, etc... Its just bigger and better in pretty much every way. Not massively better.... but enough to make it the best

The only negative thing I have to say about it (besides the graphics), is that, as much as I now love it....... it seems to be the culmination of the last 20 years of gaming. Like a greatest hits... All the best bits of the shooters of the past, refined and evolved and updated and modernised into one slick new game. Which is cool but... its still a fairly old school type of gameplay. So it beats anything prior to today (like the Battlefield games etc...). But how will it compare with the next generation of games? I don't really know much about them unfortunately, but I know the very basic principles of the likes of Tabula Rasa and Huxley and Crysis and UT2k7 etc... And so I wonder if atleast one of those could end up taking online shooter gaming into a new kind of generation, where as ETQW is just a good version of the current generation.

[cptwhite_uk]

That's probably the most accomplished review you're likely to read on the net. Weldone acrobat, good read for insight into the game

[OriginalDon]

Firstly I would like to say nice review acrobat

Having been lured into online gaming since the original Enemy Territory, 3 or so years ago. I can only speak from what I know.

The original game has all the elements you mention:

1) Two Teams
2) Different Classes and skills
3) Multiple objectives
4) Team orientated <-- main reason for playing imho

Speaking as a CL for the original ET and now QW I can say that the games graphics are slightly dissapointing but non the less very pleasant. The game plays and feels like the original i.e. fast and furious.

What makes this game an improvement over the original is rambo medics are near obsolete. Unlike ET one leet player could not wipe out the whole opposing team. I am not yet sure if there is an adrenalin so only time will tell.

Responsibilities seem to have been divided more equally in this game, so those of you unsung engneers can breath a sigh and let the soldiers and coverts destroy some objectives as well

Unlike BF2 vehicles have been implemented quite well and they do not dominate the action (this is a personal opinion). The use of the new deployables can counteract vehicles quite well.

Going back to the medics, some work needs to be done on spawn timing as it is too quick for allies and almost makes reviving obsolete.

Apart from that I am enjoying the game very much.

If anyone wants to play on a UK based server please feel free to enquire .

[Fatboy40]

Unlike BF2 vehicles have been implemented quite well and they do not dominate the action (this is a personal opinion).

Probably more to do with the fact that they're some of the worst vehicles in an FPS (that I've played with) (very poor physics, weak armour etc.)

I've tried my best to like it and give it a chance but it just has no spark. Lots of BF2 fans, of which I'm one, can't handle the speed but I'm happy with it (played enough Q3A in the past), so I was after that 'something special' to draw me in and I can't just can't seem to find it

Crysis has the mega super doopah graphics/physics sewn up + Frontline: Fuel of War has the BF2 with better graphics thing sewn up, I get the feeling that ETQW is just going to fade into the background ?...

[Elspuddy]

I'm disappointed about this game, i thought it was something like quake 2/4 where you had to save the earth! and not like BF2/21XX

[Fatboy40]

The only negative thing I have to say about it (besides the graphics), is that, as much as I now love it....... it seems to be the culmination of the last 20 years of gaming. Like a greatest hits... All the best bits of the shooters of the past, refined and evolved and updated and modernised into one slick new game. Which is cool but... its still a fairly old school type of gameplay. So it beats anything prior to today (like the Battlefield games etc...). But how will it compare with the next generation of games? I don't really know much about them unfortunately, but I know the very basic principles of the likes of Tabula Rasa and Huxley and Crysis and UT2k7 etc... And so I wonder if atleast one of those could end up taking online shooter gaming into a new kind of generation, where as ETQW is just a good version of the current generation.

Yep, the more I think about it the above is the reason why ETQW is going to just fade away. Halo 3 is the first nail in the coffin by stealing its launch thunder, ETQW needed to be on the shelves a good six months ago, and come the end of November I'll be spending my time playing Crysis and FM2008 so where does ETQW fit in ?.