Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars

User Rating:

ESRB: Blood,Language - Mild,Violence
Publisher: Activision
Genre(s): Action, Shooting
Home Page: http://www.enemyterritory.com/

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By: Antti Summala Oct 10, 2007

Gameplay: I know what I'm supposed to do, I just don't feel like doing it

From the numerous Battlefield comparisons in this review so far, it shouldn't be hard to guess where most of the creative influences behind ET:QW come from. That's not to say Quake Wars is a carbon copy of Battlefield 2142, the Battlefield franchise's latest installment and coincidentally another sci-fi shooter. BF2142's bread and butter is the traditional capture the flag game, with objective-based Titan missions thrown in as a new flavor. Quake Wars takes the objective-based game type and runs with it.

Blowing up objectives involves first placing an explosive charge and then arming it. Under fire, the process feels like it takes forever

Every mission is Quake Wars features multiple stages and objectives, many of which are straight out of a spy movie. Covert Ops units hack the enemy's computer systems to bring down their shield generator, mining lasers carve open GDF stronghold doors, and carefully planted explosives start massive chain reactions to bring down an enemy installation in one fell swoop. The objectives follow each other in a completely linear manner, and only a certain unit type can complete the task needed to advance to the next stage.

Even when there's no elected commander directing each team's actions, the game tells players once every couple of minutes what they should be doing to win the game. Do they listen? I'm afraid not. It's rare to find well-organized teams on public servers in any game, and Quake Wars is no exception, even though the developers have done their best to encourage teamwork. The game clearly indicates the most useful class for the team for each stage of the game, and shows where you're supposed to go and what to do, but most of the time people just pick whatever class they damn well please - even if that means that nobody can complete the objective at hand, and the team is sure to lose.

That's not to say you only need one class to win each objective - a well-balanced mix of support classes makes life easier for the guys trying to build bridges, plant explosives or hack security systems. In fact, deployable items like radar towers, defense turrets and artillery support are now spread out to three different classes, instead of just the traditional engineer class. In Quake Wars, the Constructor deploys defense turrets that automatically target enemy infantry, vehicles or artillery fire; Field Ops/Oppressor players deploy artillery pieces and give them target coordinates; and finally, Covert Ops/Infiltrator players deploy radar towers. For a team to have all of the game's tools in its disposal, they need at least one player of each support class.

GDF Field Ops placing a Hammer Launcher. The game's manual is poor, and you'll have to learn about different deployables and their features in the heat of battle

Strogg Oppressor placing a Rail Howitzer deployable. There's a limited number of green squares where deployables can be dropped, and careless placement can waste a lot of space

Field Ops and Oppressors have to get in harm's way to direct their deployable artillery's fire

The game's control mechanics are the standard FPS affair: when on foot, you can sprint, sneak, crouch and go prone in addition to the normal jogging around. Strafing and bunnyhopping are a viable defensive tactic - even the game's AI bots do this. Air vehicles take a while to master, while cars and tanks drive just like you'd expect. The Strogg Cyclops walker feels like it's walking and not gliding - the hovertank, on the other hand, rightly feels like it's riding on air.

There's one particularly annoying and counterintuitive feature in the movement physics on foot: the ground and floor meshes are mapped for areas where a player can go prone and where they can't. If you crawl in prone position to a location - say, the crest of a hill for the best sniping position - where going prone isn't allowed for some reason, your character immediately stands up and you get a helpful "You can't go prone here!" message. Not much later, you usually get an enemy sniper's bullet or rail gun slug in the noggin.