KEY POINTS:
Word of a new Quake game has traditionally caused an abundance of excitement and fervour within any first-person shooter fan - and Enemy Territory Quake Wars just out from Splash Damage (rated M) is the deep and satisfying multiplayer one would hope for from this franchise.
It's a kind of 'Battlefield' first person shooter combined with a classic prequel to Quake 2 however this iteration plays a lot more like a team based warfare battle than your traditional Quake frag fest.
The background to how this game happened is interesting and a great story for any budding game developer/designer.
The developer, Splash Damage, is actually a bunch of Quake modders.
Activision signed them up for what was going to be an expansion pack for Return to Castle Wolfenstein - and then did a bold thing.
In 2003, it released a game out to the wild and the multi-player part was absolutely free.
Called Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, the game included a lot more sophisticated devices and team objectives than regular Castle Wolfenstein players were used to and thus it became wildly popular.
Now comes the sequel to that game.
In this mission-based game, it's 2065 and you are placed in the middle of an alien Strogg invasion (remember them from Quake II and IV?) and select from five characters to do battle as a member of either the Global Defence Force or the invading Strogg bent on smothering Earth.
The five classes are soldier, engineer, covert ops, medic and field ops.
There's room for interesting spy/stealth tactics like taking on the guise of the fallen enemies as Strogg.
As you'd expect, there are heaps of cool tools and vehicles at your disposal including powerful tanks, explosives, turrets, parachutes, nasty choppers and even a boat or two! The Strogg invaders have a "flightpack" that lets them fly and a stomping "mech walker".
The 12 maps are huge and have lots of variety as is the fighting which can take place on anything from a large field to defending your base.
You don't have to play online - with tough AI opponents in offline mode, this game does cater to single play with bots, but you're better off online, gaming it up with the big boys.
The fun of Quake games has always been to destroy the opposition and ridicule them in fast flippant dialogue amidst the online action. And the depth of gameplay means there is heaps of multiplayer action to be had and clan battles to unfold.
You'll take a while to get to grips with it if you're new to the game and whether an old hand or not, there's a lot to explore in the maps, weapons and more to learn about using the different classes. Battlefield players will fit right in.
Visually, the game looks fantastic as it's based on the modified Doom 3 engine.
This is classic competitive fun as only Quake can make.
MadGamer rating: 8.5 / 10
What's your favourite Quake frag?
