As Mom used to always say "if it isn’t broke, don’t try to fix it". In my personal opinion, and that of many gamers out there of online deathmatch gaming, there has never been a game that came close to matching the fast paced, white knuckled, mouse slamming, and sailor cursing action that Quake 3 Arena provided. Other games tried to capture the pure hectic pace q3 offered, but no one seemed to get the formula as right as Quake 3 did. After a few years, id Software came out with their next big game which featured a much anticipated online deathmatch mode that was looking to fill the gap for those tiring of the arena. DOOM 3, which was to have stealthy, shadow sneaking action mixed in with all out furious gun battles, was supposedly the next big thing. Sadly, DOOM 3 didn’t live up to its mega hyped expectations as the next great deathmatch game and as it turned out, they didn’t listen to Mom and they tried to fix something that wasn’t broke.

For those that are not familiar with the development of Quake 4, the single player game is looking to be a sequel to the id Software classic Quake 2 and the Multiplayer aspect of the game is to be a sequel to the 1999 smash hit, Quake 3 Arena. With that said, lets check out the most important part of any online deathmatch game, the weapons. Those seen during the game play on the particular map we witnessed, which as it turned out was the only map we were able to see being played, also being CTF gameplay no less. There was the Gauntlet, which is very reminiscent of the q3 version, the Lightning Gun, Shotgun, Machine gun, Hyperblaster (a throw back to Q2), the nailgun (also a throwback to Q2 and Team Arena), the must have Rocket Launcher, Grenade Launcher and of course, the Railgun with its newly designed zoom scope. A nice touch with the weapons during the demo was that the weapon icons in the HUD used the same icons from q3, or at least their corresponding matches from q3. The HUD itself had a technical updated look, minimal, out of the way and was more or less a mixture of the DOOM 3 HUD and the q3 HUD mixed together. Also a satisfying feature was the two teams were green and orange which was a pleasant switch from the traditional red and blue.

The game engine and physics are provided through the DOOM 3 engine which for all intents and purposes, seemed to run much better than it did for Quake 4 than it did for DOOM 3 (comparing the Q4 demo to the DOOM 3 demo when it was shown, albeit that was some time ago), and it featured more players within the game at one time. Granted, Quake 4 definitely was gorgeous, but in no way seemed as demanding as DOOM 3 was. You actually had to look to find a shadow of a player while playing, and given the speed the game action screamed by, it wasn’t easy. The shadows, when found, thankfully weren’t being crammed down your throat in a suffocation of gloomy overkill and the map was bright and open with room to run, strafe, rocket jump and best of all, actually get into a fight where you don’t have to worry about one rocket blowing your lid off because you were stuck in a corner constantly. There were no darkened corridors that would give a claustrophobic nerd the sweats just looking at it, no light switches to turn on and off and hallelujah, there were bounce pads. Oh sweet bounce pads, how we have missed you.

Although Quake 4 is being developed by Raven Software (Soldier of Fortune, Jedi Knight) with an over the shoulder watch from id Software, it’s pretty safe to say that from the demo we had the opportunity to play, they know what they are doing and to many Quake 3 fans out there, the game is in good hands. It will be interesting to see the full final version of the Multiplayer portion, to see the full line up of models for both the team of Stroggs and Marines and how many maps and weapons will ship with it, both the PC version and the Xbox 360 version. Quake 4 multiplayer absolutely looked as though it was a modern blast from the past and with all our fingers and toes crossed, we’ll be fragging long hours into the night with it for years to come just like its predecessor.