There’s alien killin’ to be done on the PC as well, it seems - with another venerable franchise, Quake, bringing the fight back to Earth for a teamplay-focused rumble between the human forces and everyone’s favourite biomechanical horrors, the Strogg. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is English developer Splash Damage’s follow-up to the popular Enemy Territory freeware title, which was based on another id Software game, Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Around four years in the making, this second instalment in the Enemy Territory series has transposed the action to the science fiction universe of Quake II and Quake 4 - and somewhere along the way, seems to have swapped some DNA with Digital Illusions’ celebrated Battlefield series.
Well this game is based solemnly to fill the gaps in the games franchise with some problems to produce a flow through game play in the previous Quake one and two game, but being one of the different themes, they made Quake as the start of the game and the Quake Wars is the prelude of the game, of the Invasion of earth by the Strogg plans to take over earth and consume the plenty of their many resources; people or living organisms to fuel their living entity and energy to live on, but earths inhabitants did not go in open arms, their have originally formed the GDF (the global defense force) for the protection of man form the invading aliens made this an all round shooting playground.
The objectives flow in a logical progression from one to the next, and the attacking team can only win by completing the full sequence. On many maps, this actually means that the game gets harder as you near the end; with only one final objective to go, vital seconds are ticking away, and the full enemy squad is defending just one room or one entrance. More than once we’ve seen an attacking squad makes it all the way to the last objective, only to be held there in a bloody stalemate for ten minutes - although that’s nothing a bit more coordinated team-work couldn’t solve. The game’s determination to cast you as a clueless newbie for your first few matches continues in the equipment load-out. As you select each weapon and tool from your arsenal, you get a brief description in a window at the top of the screen; helpful as this is, it’ll still be a long time before you instinctively know which of the bewildering items you need in each given situation. This is especially notable on the Strogg side; the humans, at least, get sensible weapons like shotguns and sniper rifles. The Strogg equivalent items will take quite a bit of experimentation to get your head around.
Similarly, the game offers a degree of persistence, with players earning experience in matches that they play and levelling up through the military ranks, as well as picking up various medals for achievements. This persistent approach is a nice idea, and for some gamers will be a key selling point, as achieving the higher ranks in the game will earn genuine bragging rights. If you’re not an online games, though, they’re probably meaningless to you.
