Enemy Territory: Quake Wars review (PS3)

Having never played the PC version of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars I can only begin to image just how good it might have been. Maybe the graphics would have been smoother, cleaner: the palette used more varied and striking? Maybe the frame rate would have been solid? Maybe the aiming sensitivity more accurate? Because all that Enemy Territory: Quake Wars for Sony's Playstation 3 needs is a makeover; a few tweaks here, a drop of paint there and then I'm pretty sure it could have been the long awaited answer to Battlefield on a console.

I, like most other red blooded males out there love to get my hands dirty, lay down in the mud, and shoot someone I don't know repeatedly until they die. It's what we men do best, always has been, always will be. Enemy Territory tries to facilitate this testosterone charged affair by throwing you into a number of different arenas with up to 16 different players, lets you choose your guns, your class - soldier, medic, covert ops, engineer or field ops - gives you a directive like "Protect the Generator" or something similar and away you go. Sounds simple right? And it is. Quake Wars is incredibly accessible, just a few button-presses and you're getting killed by people infinitely better at this sort of thing than you are.

Confusing

You can be human or Strogg, drive around in vehicles, turn friendly fire on or off, report people instantly for a friendly fire offense - open to abuse but a good idea nonetheless - basically, everything is as it should be for this type of game: loads of options, loads of customization so why not loads of fun?

Well to start with Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is extremely confusing. There's nothing worse than playing a game continually asking yourself what on earth is going on why you are there and what it all means whilst getting repeatedly killed by your opponents. What make it worse PS3 fans is that the Xbox 360 version actually contains a tutorial but alas, someone somewhere didn't think us hardcore Playstation owners needed any, you know, basic instructions, so they obviously decided to leave it out. You know, to spite us.

Where's the Quake?

I also found the combat to be distinctly lacking and with me actually being a fan of the Quake series, never once did I feel like I was in the Quake universe. That sentence sounds like two different things but actually they're one and the same. I imagine most fans of the series are going to buy this because it's got the word Quake on the front cover, and thus this should be a Quake game. However, it feels like any other shooter. None of the atmosphere or personality from the original titles is present at all. Yes you have Strogg versus human GDI and yes, the Strogg equipment is very fun to use, especially the thing that hurls you into the air only for the opposition to use heatseakers and blast you out of the sky, but what it boils down to is that it's just another game.

The graphics don't seem to be up to much either. If we again compare it to the PC version, it seems like all the graphics setting are set to 'Off' or 'Low' as the game is in dire need of some smooth edges, brighter, richer colours and more detail all round. The level design is very good but again bland and looks distinctly old. I'm not going to say 'last-gen' as it's much better than that, but the levels have this tired, decrepit look about them which doesn't endear.

Why?

Over and above all these minor complaints I've made today one overrides them all: frame rate. When you're making a game that's purely designed for online play, you have to make sure the basics are in place, and the frame rate is the fundamental factor in all shooters, but in Quake Wars it's all over the place, which is a shame. Astonishingly, it also happens in the rather tedious offline mode, which is basically, online but with bots. I'll take my cap to Nerve Software, the bots are very good, but with no friends to maybe co-op with, and no real reason to be on your own with 31 other bots on screen, you'll find yourself going back to multiplayer.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars would have been highly recommended if it was half the price. With the absence of a decent single player campaign you're left asking yourself why you've just paid full price for what is essentially on half a game. To make it worse, the basics of a next-gen shooter simply aren't there. The frame rate is unstable, the graphics ok at best and I didn't really think it is fair slapping the word Quake across the box when it really doesn't live up to the quality of the franchise. Still, if you just love online shooters and have money to burn, then I'm sure you'll have some fun with this. Shame really, as I was really looking forward to it, too.