Quake 4 is the last game in the series that had a proper single player campaign and the only one so far that did not receive a remaster (technically, Quake III was remastered back in 2010 as Quake Live) and after finishing it, I can kinda understand why…

To begin with, the problems began even before I clicked the “New Game” button. When I firstly started Quake 4, it requested a CD-key, I thought it was fine because I clearly remembered that Steam had a “show game key” in its options but apparently, this feature was cut out long time ago. After looking into Steam forums and verifying game files 3 times in a row, the game finally let me in into the main menu, and I tried to set up the graphics settings and install OpenAL to fix the surrounding sound feature and… the game simply began to instantly crash on starting. After tinkering more with the settings, the game finally began to load and… it requested the key again… I tried various keys and keygens from the internet but they all were for some different game version (probably the CD one), so in the end I just gave up and simply downloaded a Jolly Roger version hoping that I would finally be able to play, yet, the problems only stopped temporarily. After about an hour the game began to regularly crash, mostly after the boss battles and during loading zones, until I had to search the forums again to learn that the game freaks out if you have a multicore CPU. You may ask, why I simply did not install a fan-made patch, and the reason is – there is simply none (which probably tells a lot about the fans’ attitude to Quake 4).

Speaking about the game itself… it is not Quake… I am already not a big fan of Quake II because it traded a unique mix of dark fantasy and sci-fi for a general sci-fi alien shooter but at least it still had a solid gameplay… Quake 4 has none of that. Your movement is slow, every level is some kind of industrial zone, levels are cramped and half of the missions require you to procced slowly with your squad or escort someone from point A to point B (in a damn Quake!). Difficulty levels do not add any challenge and basically just increase the enemies’ damage output and damage sponginess. While the shooting itself is not that bad, because of all the aforementioned issues, it becomes boring and tedious rather than fun and challenging.

Quake 4 also runs on the same engine as Doom 3 (which explains small cramped locations) and tries to put heavy emphasis on the story when the plot itself is as one dimensional as a line. Moreover, you cannot even regulate volumes of music, voices, and sound effects separately and the game has no subtitles, so even if you are a native English speaker you will barely understand half of the dialogues because most of them are inaudible with shooting and music on the background.

Furthermore, just like Doom 3, Quake 4 also somewhat attempts to be a horror, when the game is not actually scary except for one creepy chapter after the one infamous scene. Even though Doom 3 also was not the scariest game in the world, it had some lore and immersive sim-ish elements which helped to build up the atmosphere. The locations were eerie and a few enemy spawns made you jump, and, on top of that, the Doom series had already experimented with horror elements before that, particularly with PSX and Nintendo 64 ports of Doom I and Doom II. At the same time, Quake was always about fast-paced gameplay and challenging fights, and making it a linear companion-based mid-paced cover shooter just kills its identity. Yes, technically, the Quake II universe with its cybernetic Stroggs and alien theme has a potential to be a good body horror, however, just as I’ve stated above, the game is not scary except one relatively short chapter.

Finally, the main campaign is only 6 hours long, and while it may seem not that critical, Quake 4 is the only single-player game in the series that has never received any expansions and there are no real mods for this game. So, right now, for 15$ you only get a mediocre 6-hour campaign and a long-dead multiplayer, which I am not sure if anyone ever tried to revive (oh, and a crapton of headache trying to boot the game on modern systems). Is Quake 4 a terrible game? Not really, it is just a regular alien-themed shooter from 2000s. However, it is definitely the worst game in the series (technically, there is also Quake Champions but that’s a whole another story), and it is just sad to see that the single-player era of Quake ended so poorly.

Does this game need a remaster? Maybe, at least to make it start properly on the modern systems and have a working multiplayer; maybe we will even get an expansion from Nightdive and MachineGames just like in other remasters. However, I would rather say this game needs a proper remake. Rather make it an actual Quake game with fast gameplay and no companion crap, or a full-fledged body horror which would be dreadful and uncomfortable to play. With the modern graphics features and advancements, the latter can actually be achieved relatively easily.

Overall, should you play Quake 4? If you are a hardcore fan of the series – probably but do not expect much. If you’ve always loved the series for its gameplay – you better skip this one and get a new modern fast-paced boomer shooter like HROT or a good-old long-standing classic like Unreal.

This is a really damn good game. The game is vastly superior to Doom 3, as it has a less repetitive gameplay loop. The story is also better, taking place right after Quake 2, and there's unique npcs and it makes the game feel more lifelike. Only complaints are that the weapons feel too weak / the enemies are spongy, and that the story is way too short and ends on a cliff hanger. If we had gotten the expansion pack for Quake 4, maybe the last complaint would be gone, but I doubt it. It's been almost 20 years after that cliff hanger and we still got nothing. Such a shame. Also, this game works perfectly out of the box for Linux, and like many id software games, had Linux support, which is pretty amazing as Linux didn't take up a single percentage point when this game came out. All in all it's an 8.5 out of 10.

great game