Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

id Software’s Quake series has long been a pace-setting series in the FPS genre, having begun over a decade ago, while Splash Damage’s free upgrade to Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, provided some of the most compelling multiplayer shootouts back in 2003. Now the two series are combining for the sequel to W:ET for Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. Taking the Enemy Territory concept of deep team-based missions and setting it in the Quake universe, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (or ET:QW for short) is an intense online shooter with some excellent class balances and truly great maps and mission structures, making for a team-based shooter that shouldn’t be missed.

ET:QW takes place before the events in Quake 2. The war has heated up between the Global Defense Force (GDF) and the invading Strogg forces. This time, the fight will take you through several locations throughout Earth and across several continents, fighting for control and supremacy.

Gameplaywise, ET:QW follows a pretty common theme, with one side fighting to destroy the other’s assets, while the opponent defends. Aside from that, you will encounter some deep mission sets that are geared to take advantage of the diverse class system, as well as requiring a good balance among the players in the game in order to make sure that those goals get met.

ET:QW features several classes that you can choose from for the two different sides of the match, the Strogg and the GDF. While the classes are named differently, they essentially perform the same actions. The GDF Soldier Class is comparable to the Strogg’s Aggressor class, the Field Ops to the Oppressors, Medic to Technician, Covert Ops to Infiltrator and Engineer to Constructor.

Each class will have their own mission sets for each map in the multiplayer mode. For example, Soldier/Aggressors are usually required to destroy enemy emplacements like anti-vehicle cannons or protect them from an oncoming threat, Covert Ops/Infiltrators will need to hack objectives and are required to covertly engage them, Engineer/Constructors must build bridges when the level calls for it.

The classes will also gain experience when you use them on the field. Depending on the missions that you complete for your class set, you’ll go up in experience and unlock special abilities and upgrades for the class, as well as improved weapon proficiencies. The more you play the game, the more adept you’ll become in your classes and the more powerful you’ll become.

The game is obviously geared towards a multiplayer experience, but it also boasts a pretty adaptable single-player mode. You’ll be able to play the game’s modes offline (Objective, Campaign, and Stopwatch) against bots. You’ll be able to tweak the match before it begins, scaling your opponent’s AI, the number of soldiers on the map, and even whether or not your teammates will complete objectives.

Graphically, the game boasts a tweaked version of the Doom 3 engine and looks quite good. ET:QW uses a new texturing technique called “Mega-Texturing”, which creates a single large texture map over the terrain instead of several small ones, improving the framerate and allowing for a huge environment without requiring a ton of RAM. The character models and vehicles also look quite nice. The game doesn’t really have all of the bells or whistles of other PC games on the market (or coming this fall) with DX10 features and such, but it still looks great, especially for being built on an engine with a few years under its hood.

The sound effects are also pretty good, with booming weapon effects and vehicle sounds lining out the presentation nicely. The score is a bit sparse, but the voice acting (generally one-word commands) is pulled off well. One nice touch is the “honk” sound that occurs when you shoot an enemy, something carried over from Quake III, way back when.

 ET:QW is a great multiplayer game that offers some new elements to the online shooter genre. The class system is very balanced, and the XP system is implemented very well. If you’re a fan of the genre and games like Battlefield, then ET:QW is definitely worth your time.

Gameplay: 9.0
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars offers some truly fantastic battlefield moments, balanced classes, and great missions. The one element that gives the game a great sense of longevity is the XP system, that will give you experience points for performing well on the battlefield adding to your weapon and class skills, and a nifty achievement system and persistent rankings that track your progress.

Graphics: 8.5
Even though the Doom 3 engine is several years old, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars looks great, with detailed character models, vehicles, and big environments. While the game isn’t quite as “pretty” as other PC games launching this fall touting special lighting effects and DX10 features, it still looks pretty darn good.

Sound: 8.5
The explosion sounds are great, and the voice work (usually just belting out commands and help requests) is well done, with the Strogg units sounding appropriately robotic. One great addition is the “honking” noise that accompanies a well-placed shot on an enemy (brought back from Quake III: Arena).

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 9.0
Whereas the harshest cynics to the game would say that ET:QW is a Battlefield clone with the Doom 3 engine slapped on, they’d be severely mistaken. Quake Wars sets the bar for online battlefield combat, with intricately structured mission objectives that feel more fleshed out than some single-player centric games.

Multiplayer: 9.0
Online play is where this game makes it’s mark, and the action is very fluid and doesn’t lag out even in high player concentration areas. The lobby system is also pretty intuitive and easy to navigate, so you should be jacked in and playing against other gamers online in no time.

Overall: 9.0
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is an absolute blast to play online. While a few more maps in the campaign would’ve been great, the rich XP system should keep you going back for a long time.