[Jason Vines]

Quake 4, based on the Doom 3 engine, honors the Doom series more than the plodding Doom 3 ever did: Its pace is fast, the weapons are powerful, and its gameplay exudes fun. Plus, as befitting a game running the Doom 3 engine, the graphics are outstanding. Quake 4 isn't the most innovative game of the past couple years, but it epitomizes the classic run-and-gun formula while improving on it: Pointless key hunts are absent. Companies of fellow marines often keep you company, as well as heal your wounds and repair your armor. War vehicles allow you to decimate Strogg armies (an improvement over the weak buggies in Half-Life 2!). Brilliant set pieces, creepy cybernetic monsters, and skilled level design immerse you in the struggle against the Borg's cousins while terrifying you at the same time. (Notice, id Software: Making the levels too dark to see anything appears nowhere on that list. And yet Quake 4 delivers better thrills than Doom 3.)

The most memorable part of the game occurs midway through it:

Spoiler

You're fighting the successor to Quake 2's Strogg Makron, when the huge beast captures you in a min-tractor beam. You become a prisoner of the Strogg, after which your character, Corporal Kaine, undergoes an ordeal that makes Borg assimilation look like an affectionate hug. Kaine undergoes Stroggification when the Strogg saw apart his body and implant cybernetic devices everywhere. Just before the Strogg suppress Kaine's mind and place him under the control of their computer network, though, a Marine squad busts Kaine out of captivity. Afterward, Kaine enjoys improved health and better armor, as well as the ability to infiltrate Strogg areas he couldn't before.

Unfortunately, Quake 4 isn't perfect. It pushes the boundaries of the run-and-gun framework, but it doesn't go beyond them, as the Half-Life or No One Lives Forever series do. Also, courtesy of the Doom 3 engine, it renders outdoor areas poorly. Some of the skyboxes look as if they were from the original Doom 15 years ago! Half-Life 2 performs much better in this regard.

Still, Quake 4 is a great game. It cheerfully pays homage to the kind of gameplay that launched the FPS genre while adding a few twists. I enjoyed myself a lot playing it.