Games for Lunch: Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
In a nutshell: Putting the FPS in RTS.
7/30/2008 7:13 PM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 3
Developer: Underground Development
Publisher: Activision
Release Date: May 27, 2008
Systems: PS3 (reviewed), Xbox 360, PC, Mac, Linux
ESRB Rating: T
Official Web site
0:00 I played and loved the first two
Quake games, but I couldn't tell you a thing about the Quake universe "mythos," as it were. Here's hoping such knowledge is not necessary to appreciate this game.
0:01 "
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars needed to perform an initial installation. This will take 8 to 9 minutes." Of course.
0:09 Now the game is "loading data." A much faster process, but still just as annoying.
0:10 We're off! A bunch of logos appear on the underside of a massive spaceship. "They search the galaxy for the sole item their existence requires. Harvesting... and consuming everything in their path ... and now they have arrived here." Roughly a bajillion more megaships appear in the sky above the Earth. There's a glowing red portal with a metallic ring shaped like the Quad-Damage item from
Quake. A bit too cute for my tastes, there. Cut to title.
0:12 The options screen shows distinct control setups for on foot, ground vehicles and aircraft, each of which has about a million buttons, all with functions. There had better be a good tutorial.
0:13 A "Character Class video" shows a thumbnail size abilities round-up for soldiers, engineers, medics, field ops, and covert ops units. It all flies by too quick for me to acknowledge or remember anything long term. Again, I hope there's a good tutorial.
0:14 The alien units look quite a bit more impressive in this video. Earth might be in trouble here.
0:16 When I choose "Play Single Player" I get a menu asking me to set the game type, map, time, difficulty, number of players, etc. Nowhere is a "tutorial" option apparent. I might be in trouble here.
0:17 I try a four-character, Easy North American campaign, because hey, why the hell not? The rest of this minute is spent loading the Valley map.
0:19 I'm parachuting into a "warm-up" area. Everything is in a nice, shiny, first-person perspective. "Engineers, construct the bridge," says a voice in my ear. Does that mean me? I see a wrench on the radar/HUD, so I guess that's where I'm supposed to go.
0:20 I find the bridge and take out a generic-looking alien firing on me. A pulsating red energy beam is wandering down the road nearby. It ignores me, thankfully.
0:22 The red energy thing distracts me just enough to let me die from some enemy fire. I can sit and wait for a medic (not likely to come anytime soon, seeing as I only have one teammate) or choose to respawn the next time the periodic, 14-second reinforcement clock counts down. Just like in real life!
0:23 While I was laying dying, my teammate apparently started building the bridge. At least I didn't die in vain. Can they name the bridge after me?
0:24 I go back to the bridge and take out two more enemies, but my teammate is now nowhere to be found. Guess they got him.
0:25 Good lord. The bridge builder comes back and watches helplessly as a grenade falls next to him. Instead of running away, he SHOOTS AT IT and explodes. I'm so stunned that I get hit by that red, hovering energy thing on the road. GUH!
