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Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 3rd October 2007
Conclusions
Quake Wars is a great game, but it isn’t without problems and we had a number of issues with the game before we got to grips with it. The first obstacle was the interface, which feels very cluttered. It’s possible to remove elements or to make them more opaque, but this doesn’t really solve the problem and it would have been a better idea to let users resize fonts and remove elements completely.There’s only so many times I need to see “Waiting for respawn or revive from medic” taking up the majority of the screen.
There’s also a number of elements in the game which don’t quite perform as expected – the personalised missions being the first thing that pop to mind. Telling a soldier to “Destroy the Psi Radar for 2XP” isn’t a personalised mission to my mind and is incredibly generic, especially when it is listed for each and every Psi Radar on the level.
In terms of longevity and variation, the game is also a bit suspect. There are plenty of maps, but only three game modes; Campaign, Objective and Stopwatch. Campaign is the main game and is a three map struggle, while Objective is a one map battle and Stopwatch lets players alternate between attacking and defending. Not exactly revolutionary and it would have been nice if there were some more choices available.
Click to enlarge
Since this is a multiplayer game it’s also a little worrying that we never saw that many players online. The game has been out since September 28th, so the number of players should be at a peak, but we never saw more than 1,200 players listed as online despite there being almost as many servers available on our lists.
The baffling thing is that, in terms of actual gameplay, it’s very hard to fault Quake Wars. The two teams are perfectly matched (actually, nearly identical) and the array of weapons and vehicles is more than enough to keep things interesting. The levels are large and well designed too, often having a nice balance of outdoor and indoor environments.
I’ve had some great games of Quake Wars and there have been some enjoyably tense moments. I remember one game in particular where myself and two other players fought off a 12-man Strogg team without dying, forcing them back step by step until we reached our objective and repaired the MCP. No matter how good individual games have been though, the overall experience is still marred by some fundamental errors and though the game is fun once you get involved in it, it doesn't quite tick all the boxes.
