Others say...

"End of an era."
I owned Wolfenstein 3D on my 486, back in 1993. I like first person shooters.

I barely played through the introductory level of Q4. Graphics performance is consistently crappy on both my MacBook Pro 17 and my dual G5 2ghz; what systems are they testing?!

Big disappointment.

"If you loved Quake 2's single player, you will love Quake 4"
Q4 is really a long awaited continuation of the very successful Q2. Those of us that enjoyed Q2 immensely, and were very disappointed that Q3 had no single player, have been waiting long for another chance to reek havoc on the Strogg homeworld!

The look of Q4 is a perfect blend of old and new. The designers did an exceptional job in designing the new game to be a fresh experience, while maintaining the essence from Q2. The same dark industrial look of Q2 is brilliantly carried into Q4. The Strogg supply boxes we have all come to know, and hide behind, are just one of the environmental elements carried over. Deadly red laser beams, massive hatches, pipes and bridges. The feel of being in the belly of an industrial war machine is palpable! The overall scale of the single player world is massive! Though most of the fighting takes place in dark, some times cramped interiors, there are many good sized areas and even a few battles that take place in large outdoor areas (With heavy war machines). Be warned though, if you hate elevators, there are many, many, many lifts!! I would give Q4 a 10 out of 10 for blending the old with the new to create a truly immersive single player environment!
Compared to other games like Halo (Not really fair) about a 7 out of 10.

As for the single player path, again this is a continuation and improvement on Q2. I have always been partial to the mission based single player path. Q2 was great in this respect, with the computer constantly updating you as to your next mission. Q4 is a quantum leap in this area! Yes you could get annoyed with the "Mouse in the maze" way that you are directed down the path, i.e. there is only really one way to go at any one time. But this is nicely tempered by the awesome effects and animations! Your fellow soldiers are very animated (Pun intended) it is worth hanging out when you get near them, they talk freely about the Strogg, how the war is going, and many have humorous personalities, like Strauss who is so full of himself, that to listen to him you would get the impression he is single handedly winning the war!! Most of the missions were interesting, and made for great plot driven action!!

The story is dark, grim and gory!! In some ways more so than the original! The Stroggification of Kane went on (Imho) about 30 seconds too long! I mean we get the idea how horribly he was mangled by the Strogg, and just when you think they have finished making this point, they jab, stab and slice him up some more!!!.maybe I am getting old? But I think they could have toned it down a bit.

The Strogg menagerie is again a perfect blend of old and new. Several of the old Strogg reappear in more deadly forms. All of them look superb, with this new 3D engine!! The Stroggified marine looks the most like a "Borg", though it pays to remember that the Strogg came first!!! The Berserker, the dude with a long spike instead of a right hand and a mace for a left hand, is quick and deadly in tight spaces!! One of the creatures that truly freaked my @#$% out in Q2, when ever I ran into one I would start muttering "@#$%!! @#$%!! @#$%!!" because they would gallop up to you and start whacking you with that wicked metal cable/tongue, making that horrible sound!! **Shiver** This creature has been replaced by a bigger, burlier dog-thing. This creature, called a Teleport Dropper, inspires a different kind of terror..it comes with in range, and starts shaking it's back like a wet dog. The effect is that it starts popping teleport balls onto the floor, which summon many Strogg freaks!!! The beast itself is fairly tough, so the longer it takes for you to kill it, the more Strogg freaks you will have to contend with!! The most wicked "Upgrade" goes to the Iron Maidens, they are vastly more wicked than in Q2. Though they are not physically that tough, they can teleport! But the really wicked thing about them is that they have a screaming
"Banshee" wail that totally messes with your ears and brain!!!! If you get caught in the blast radius of one of the audio blasts, you lose your hearing (Temp) and your vision begins to blur/waver!!! It is best to keep out of their range, until the right moment!! Including some small "Boss's" there are some 17 different Strogg types you will encounter, they are all very cool looking and wicked in their own way. The worst scenarios are when you have to battle 6 or more types at once!!! The most devastating Strogg unit (Boss's aside) is the Tactical Strogg Elite Soldier. These guys are what Kane get's turned into. The AI really works with these guys!!! They move in tight squads, use a variety of weapons and have deadly accuracy, imagine fighting yourself X 6!!! After dying horribly many times, I came to this conclusion, snipe as many with the railgun from a distance as possible, when one rushes you, switch to shotgun!!

The weapons are also a best of old and new blend!! All the favorites are here, sans the BFG, which has been replaced by an even cooler Dark Matter Gun!!! Which shoots mini-black holes!!! The immediate noticeable difference of the weapons is due to new gaming technology, they look cooler and sound awesome!! The game difference is accuracy and tech upgrades! As the game advances along, you run into marine techs who offer to upgrade your weapons (One at a time) and increase the rate of fire and or clip capacity!!! The game, for the most part, provides plenty of weapons and ammo as you go. I have always been a hoarder of ammo, and will usually stick to simple weapons like the shotgun and machine gun, saving my rockets, grenades and dark matter charges for the "Big stuff". Grenades for the grenade launcher were the only ammo I felt disappointed in a lack of!. I love the grenade launcher!!!

One major difference between Q2 and Q4 is the arcade like segments that break up the game, in spots. Over all I think this is a great addition, and gets you out of the killing things in dark corridors rut.. I was a little annoyed at the "You are locked into the vehicle for the duration" method of control, but that's because I have been spoiled by Halo's continuous seamless environment, where you can slip in and out of vehicles at will. That small criticism aside, I think it is a refreshing change to the killing things in dark corridors rut!! And adds a much appreciated dimension to an already wicked cool game!!

I have not played Doom3, but I have heard that the, "something just dropped in behind me" thing get's really old, quick. Q4 does not pull those kind of "Cheap shots". In this regard it is virtually identical to Q2. The old, step into a room, activate the charging screaming ghouls, then step back and blast away!!...same as it ever was....and that's okay!! I prefer that to the flanking BS, that even Halo would pull on you!! That having been said, you do get in larger rooms/areas where you are being shot at from multiple levels/directions.


"If you own a Intel Mac, WAIT FOR THE PATCH!"
I bought this game because it was the first Universal Binary game that I actually want to play (besides Enigmo 2), and when I got it installed I was puzzled as to why I could not play it on high-quality graphics in full (wide) screen mode. I tried all I could to get it to work and unfortunately it will only play in 4:3 mode and that leaves nearly 1/3 of my screen not being fully utilized. I contacted Aspyr tech support, and was told that they are aware of this being an issue with the Intel Macs and that they are working on a patch to resolve the problem. Well this means that I cannot really enjoy this game until the patch comes out, however long that will take.

I am very happy that I bought this game, and once this has been resolved I will replace this review with a more accurate description of Quake 4. But in the meantime, don't go out and buy this game if you don't want to get full use out of it!

"great game, but needs a fast CPU and video card"
I got it yesterday, played it for hours. My mac does not meet the min. requirements for CPU:

1.47Ghz G4 (upgraded Digital Audio G4 powermac)
Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB (PC version flashed for mac)
1.0 GB PC133 RAM
RAID 0 Array w/2 7200rpm drives

I think my Radeon 9800 makes up a little bit for the missing CPU mhz, but this game is making me want a G5 or Core Duo mac a lot more. Too bad they cost so much.
I play at 800x600, low quality, shadows off. Very playable in the indoor levels, very slow in outdoor large-scale battles. Framerate goes as high as 60 fps indoors, as low as 8 fps during heavy fights in/outdoors. Id says a patch (v1.2 ?) is coming soon "that will increase framerates at lower resolutions" which means on my computer :)
Good news: online multiplayer is FASTER than single player mode IF you have 6 or less opponents online with you. It's great, like Q3A was.
4 stars overall, -1 from 5 for the heavy hardware requirements.