In terms of features, the transition to the Xbox 360 hasn’t resulted in many sacrifices. The Xbox 360 version only allows eight players in multiplayer (whereas the PC version allowed sixteen), but aside from this, the rest of the game is nearly a carbon copy of the PC version. The single player campaign picks up where Quake II left off. Quake III: Arena didn’t really have a storyline as it focused a lot on multiplayer, so this is why the storyline picks up from Quake II. In the game you take control of Matthew Kane, who has been assigned to the Rhino squad. The space marine from Quake II has seemingly killed the makron, who is the leader of the Strogg forces. The team that you're on is deployed to take part in killing the rest of the enemy forces on the Strogg planet. Unfortunately, your ship gets hit on the way to the Strogg planet and your ship comes down, killing many of your team mates in the process.
Looking pretty dark around here.
It is from this point that the single player campaign begins. From there the story develops and even though it isn't an exactly gripping storyline it does well enough to keep you entertained through the campaign. The storyline actually contains a bit of a twist (that has been revealed all too many times during the game’s development), it doesn't change the gameplay that much but if you've managed to stay away from the twist then we assume it would be quite surprising when all is revealed.
The game actually also comes bundled with a bonus disk, which is an appreciated extra. The bonus disk includes a few novelty bonuses, such as a look at Quake IV in development and gameplay footage from E3. The real surprise is that the game includes a fully playable Xbox 360 version of Quake II. Quake II doesn't support online play, but there is support for up to four players via split screen, or sixteen players over system link; if you have that many Xboxes. The game even has it's own set of achievements so it's a noticeable bonus and the game runs with an extremely smooth frame-rate.
Gameplay wise the single player campaign is pretty weak. If you take away the graphics and the presentation then it really does feel like you're playing a generic first person shooter. As you would expect, as you work through the single player campaign you will have access to all sorts of weapons such as a grenade launcher, rocket launcher and shotgun but it's a weapons arsenal that's been seen many times before. There are a few vehicle based missions in the game as well but they don't add anything to the game. Unfortunately the game does suffer from frame-rate issues at times as well. Even the cut-scenes sometimes stutter which is extremely disappointing.
Unfortunately the flash light doesn't light up the rooms that much.
Whilst the single player campaign is linear, the game is definitely more enjoyable in multiplayer. We didn't encounter any frame-rate issues in multiplayer and even though there are only eight players in the game, this is still sufficient. The multiplayer mode features a few traditional online modes such as Deathmatch and Capture the Flag, they're all modes that don't require any thought but this is exactly what you'd expect from a Quake game. A tournament mode is also in the game which lets you work your way up a ladder trying to defeat each opponent, if you lose you can sit back and watch the other matches take place. The multiplayer is very similar to Quake III Arena, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The main complaint we’d have about the multiplayer is the fact that there aren’t enough modes.
Visually the game looks good on the Xbox 360, although there are a few muddy textures here and there and the environments aren't as detailed as we'd hoped. The lighting is good though and your guns have a flashlight which brightens the game up. Sound wise the game is actually really impressive with believable voice work that doesn't sound over the top. The music in the background is epic and helps to create a believable atmosphere without going over the top. If you take especially long to get to your next objective then you'll hear some conversations over the radio which are drowned out, but thankfully they aren't really important.
The single player campaign doesn't take any longer than fifteen hours to complete and once it's over there is close to no reason to come back to the campaign again. The multiplayer has the potential to increase the lifespan, but there are so many popular first person shooters already released for the Xbox 360 that we can't see this game having the multiplayer popularity of it's predecessors, especially considering the multiplayer hasn't really changed in this new game.
This or Call of Duty 2?
Quake IV on the Xbox 360 could have been the ultimate first person shooting game on the Xbox 360. If you don't have an ultimate PC that is capable of running Quake IV then you're likely to enjoy the fact that you can play if on the Xbox 360, however it is important to note that the PC version is actually the better choice if you have got a high performance PC just because you can play with sixteen players in multiplayer and the game won't have frame-rate issues. The Xbox 360 launch is crowded with first person shooters and Quake IV just doesn’t do enough to distinguish itself.
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