Quake 4

The game starts with you a new recruit in a landing craft with the best squad of the whole army ready to land and fight the strogg. the scene reminded me most of the intro of the half-life add-on: opposing force, and just like in that, the landing doesn't go very smoothly. A big explosions knocks you out and you awake laying on the ground with a soldier trying to get you on your feet. Don't get me wrong I am in no way trying to downgrade the intro to this game but a little more originality might have made it a little less nostalgic.

You progress trough the game following orders from your CO's and in most cases are accompanied by your buddies, which despite sometimes making strange decisions are actually quite smart and will take cover behind everything that is knee high, hardly ever get in your way and Medics and technicians will come and heal you at there own accord when they see you need it. Your enemies on the other hand are pretty stupid, standing in the middle of hallway's totally open trying to rain down bullets, or what ever the hell else they have at you. There are some points in witch the enemy will hide behind objects but in most situations there just cannon fodder, there aim leaves for some wishing too as they have trouble hitting a moving target. There are some tough situations that you think may require some caution to later find at that the only way to get passed them is to just run at them and keep shooting and moving, It may not work for them but it certainly works for you. The weapons aren't very special either. You start off with only your trusted hand gun and quickly find yourself a assault rifle which you will keep dear to your heart as it is the only weapon (other then the hand gun) that has a flashlight. You will obtain more and more powerful weapons throughout the game. There's the trusted shotgun, grenade gun, nail gun and more of those clichéd weapons that we have seen in almost every other FPS so I don't think you will get very excited by any of them. At least not by the ones you can carry. Because at some point in the game you will have full control over a tank! And man can that thing wreak havoc! It's also a nice change of scenery as most of the game is in side dark claustrophobic hallways.

Throughout the game you will get to recognize the faces and voices of your comrades and morn some of there deaths. Thanks to outstanding voice acting and impressive facial modeling (despite them some times looking at you like they are stoned) the atmosphere does a good job keeping you on the edge of your seat too, with strange noises coming from All over the place and a world animated by all sorts of moving machinery and nice lighting FX.

This game is a leap from the great graphics but boring game play of doom 3. You now have great graphics and a lot better game play however other then the story this game doesn't add much to the world of first person shooters. The weapons are clichéd and some of the situations you get in to have been done millions of times before and much better. The story is really the best part of this game and you will have no trouble getting sucked in to it. The game does have its short comings but the graphics sound and specially the story makes this game a must have for fps junkies.

There is how ever one thing that id like to add. and its not just to this game either. The main character, You! Doesn't say a word… what is it with first person shooters where the lead roll is a mute? Why doesn't he talk, and more over why doesn't any of you're comrades mind? A person that can't or doesn't speak seems like a pretty big liability on the battle field to me. It's a shame and something that I hope will be changed in the future. But until then grab your gear men! Where gone kill us some strogg!!!