*REVIEW* - Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (360)

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Cal
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Post*REVIEW* - Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (360)
by Cal » Sat Jul 11, 2009 4:35 pm

ENEMY TERRITORY: QUAKE WARS (360)

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Pros: Play as Strogg or GDF. Addictive, often frantic gameplay. Structured, objective based gameplay. Good variety of characters classes, weapons and vehicles. Large, varied maps with both indoor and outdoor locations. Offline AI bots provide satisfactory long-term challenge in SP.

Cons: Frantic gameplay can often be overwhelming. Only 12 maps available, with no DLC to expand the variety. Mystifying changes to console versions over the more superior PC version.


The 360 version of ET:QW has rightfully been criticised as being a poorer version of the game than it's PC equivalent. Mystifying changes were made by the game's developer, Nerve (working under the auspices of both Splash Damage and id themselves), leaving the 360 game somewhat impoverished against it's older sibling. For instance, there seems to be no good reason why cockpit views (while driving or flying vehicles) were removed from the 360 game - similarly, the menu screens are a pale shadow of the much more fully-featured (and informative) menu system employed by the original PC game. There is a barebones 'training' mode which I understand PS3 players were denied, but this merely highlights the fundamentals of each of the character classes and seems, at best, fairly token.

But the gameplay thankfully remains as addictive as ever. The twelve maps shipped on the game disk are all large and varied and all contain a good (if sometimes repetitive) selection of objectives to complete, indoors and out. It's just a tragedy Nerve decided not to support the game with any DLC in the form of additional map-packs (the scope for more is very apparent) - but this seems to be a recurring theme with id-based console ports.

Overall, ET:QW 360 is a whole bunch of fun - on or offline, thanks to the unusually well-implemented AI bots which populate the maps (up to 16 players at a time = 8 on each side) and provide some pretty stern opposition (these guys will often seem relentless on the harder settings and will definitely seek to complete their mission objectives regardless of whatever you're doing). Visually, the game looks perfectly acceptable, though not quite as impressive as the PC version. I detect no visible framerate issues, but I have read reports elsewhere of such.

For sheer replayability, it's a great game to revisit time and again for short, intense bursts of action. Playing through all the maps offline on each of the difficulty settings - as either Strogg or GDF - will net you all your off-line Achievements, while the remainder can be gained via online play. There is an upgrade system (of sorts) within the game, but like most things with the game, it's left unexplained and resets between sessions - an unfortunate decision on the part of the developers, imo.

Still, all said and done, this is a tight, well-made game worthy of any FPS player's time. It might be hard to find an online game these days, but the offline modes will provide a ton of entertainment and for a bargain-basement price ET:QW still represents some serious value-for-money.

7.5/10

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Hero of Canton
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PostRe: *REVIEW* - Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (360)
by Hero of Canton » Thu Jul 16, 2009 7:39 am

A bit brief for you, this, Cal. Reads a little more like an extended forum post than a review (the 'imo', especially), but I do enjoy reading your thoughts on games, so please feel free to post more of 'em. :)

DML wrote:F'NARR!
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Photek
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PostRe: *REVIEW* - Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (360)
by Photek » Mon Jul 20, 2009 9:50 am

The Demo on Live was awful. I loved all the Quake games right up until Quake3. Haven't played Quake4 due to the sub par review scores. What is the story if Quake anyway? The Strogg V humans is it? How did that come about?

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