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When a franchise is popular enough to have its own convention, hype rides along at the launch of every new installment. And Quake 4 inspires fevered anticipation, being the first Doom 3-engine-based game featuring outdoor environments. Though it mostly delivers on the next-gen visual embellishments, the game nevertheless plays like a late-nineties shooter--albeit a well-polished one.

Find the Auxiliary Whatchamacallit

You touch down on the forbidding and sand-blasted Strogg planet, continuing where your predecessor in Quake II left off. Your purpose is as straightforward as the run-and-gun game play itself: Assault the desolate rock. Fellow soldiers, armor-repairing techs, and medics deftly fight alongside your marine alter ego Matthew Kane; the game deliberately fades these characters in and out to give you a break from the simple squad-based combat. Plot twists are scarce in this conventional FPS. Aside from the scenarios in which you get partially turned into a Strogg yourself--which seems only to grant health and armor bonuses--the biggest surprises thrown at you do little more than turn you into a high-tech Mr. Fix-It. The "twist" gets old after you're told for the tenth time that the primary switch for some mega-gizmo broke and you need to go to a dank sublevel to flip some auxiliary switch.

Following Tradition

Thankfully, Quake 4 shows restraint with the monster-hiding-in-dark-corridor mentality of Doom 3. The B-movie theatrics, however, still linger in this linear experience--bionic monstrosities burst through walls, and bald Borg-like bots rush out from windowless steel doors. It's intense, challenging, and gripping, no doubt, but at the core the FPS fundamentals haven't changed. The Strogg thugs could use better brains, too, as the supposedly smarter Tactical Transfers frequently take "cover" behind boxes with half of their body sticking out. Multiplayer mode, which shows just as much polish as the single-player version, also remains mostly status quo. Levels are tight, balanced, and fun in a simplistic, almost carnal, way, and Quake veterans will feel a gush of nostalgia as they revisit space platforms and jumping pads.

The Great Indoors

Raven Software pushed the envelope with the amazing shadow effects in Doom 3, but unfortunately Quake 4 lacks that same degree of pixel-shader pizzazz outdoors. From the blocky sky box to the drab terrain and buildings, the exterior details pale in comparison to the atmospherically cramped interior spaces. Ultimately, Quake 4 is more a refinement than an overhaul of the franchise--but it's still worthy enough for more QuakeCons.