Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Impressions

Oh yes, I've got more impressions than a nudist beach after a summer shower. Today, I'm coming at you with my take on Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.

Now, you should be aware that this is based on the current Beta 2 trial, which is actually a beta, not a cheap - ploy - for - some - media - attention - by - passing - off - a - demo - as - a - beta. [cough] Call of Duty 4 [cough]. With that in mind, you should realise certain aspects of the game may change between now and Sept 28th (Eur/Aus)/Oct 2nd (U.S./N.A.) release. A demo of the now gold retail will be available before that date so you can try it out for yourself.

That in consideration, can Enemy Territory: Quake Wars supplant the likes of other team-based games such as the Battlefield series? What does it bring to the table that we've not seen before? What exactly is all the fuss about? Do British developers make great games as well as great lovers?*

Read on to find out.


The Developer

Firstly, if I am going to invest a considerable time in playing a game, I have to feel confident that the developer is going to support it. This isn't a 15 hour single player experience. If I'm going to invest hundreds of hours in this game, I demand a similar level of support from the developer to make that investment fulfilling. My digs at Call of Duty are not because the game ultimately failed at its goal, mostly because the path to reach that goal was often made harder by the developer themselves. (Although, I had several fun years playing it)

So I look towards Quake Wars with confidence in that aspect, as I see Splash Damage as a developer who enjoys interacting with its community. Whether it's on their own or the official game forums, it isn't unheard of to see the game designers, programmers, artists and even the head designer and owner of Splash Damage participate in discussions, verify changes that are being made, offer help and guidance to mod teams and even eat the occasional humble pie. Sure, this isn't a guarantee of a quality game but it is a good sign that the developer is listening to its audience. It's very refreshing and reassuring to see beyond the usual PR barrier we're exposed to.

With listening in mind, I have to say that I've never before picked up a game and thought, "Wouldn't it be neat if...", only to find out that it actually already does what I had in mind. These might be trifling interfacing issues on their own but they soon add up when you play the game over an extended period. Things like seeing the number of bots a server is running and so, saving on wasteful connections. Context-sensitive binds allowing you to map keys to specific classes or vehicles ensuring you utilise the keyboard fully. Independent screenshot and demo-rendering allow maximum quality output regardless of the power of the system running the game. These small implements, were no doubt added based on feedback on Splash Damage's previous game, Enemy Territory, and also during the development of Quake Wars with its extensive year-long testing with various clans and the public alike. It just bodes well for the future of the title. This is clearly not going to be an EA "release and run" effort as is now commonly seen with the Battlefield series and many other games.


The Plot

If you are unfamiliar with the Quake Universe story line (oh for the shame of it!), this game covers the period where it all began. The Strogg, a race torn apart by decades of war on their home planet of Stroggos finally emerge as a single cybernetically-enhanced race unified by their mighty leader, the Makron. Think Borg but less emo goth and more scorched flesh, blood and rusty metal. While rampaging through the galaxy and generally being up to no good, they stumble upon a juicy planet of potential spare parts and fuel. That would be humans and yup, it's Earth in 2052 (Ha ha, we'll all be too old to care by then). Long story short, invasion ensues, Earth is taken unawares and their Global Defense Force is tasked with fighting back the Strogg beachheads, learning about this new enemy and ultimately sending them right back to where they came from. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars covers 12 of those pivotal battles in four geographical three-map campaigns.

The Mechanics of Objectives

Technically, you're talking about an objective-based online team and class-oriented FPS. In English that means you'll typically have 24 players on each server (this is design choice, there is actuallly no hard limit and 32 player servers exist happily on the Beta), 12 on each GDF and Strogg team. Of those players, there are several classes to pick from. In the Beta 2 map "Valley", some classes such as the Medic/Technician and Field Ops/Oppressor have a more supportive roll while others such as the Soldier/Aggressor, Engineer/Constructor and Covert Ops/Infiltrator are more critical to directly completing specific objectives. You should also note that while each team mimics each other, there are also important underlying differences between them. For example; a GDF medic can revive his teammates with a quick paddle shock. The Strogg technician ,however, has a much slower revive injection but in turn can convert the dead or dying GDF into one off-spawn points (spawn hosts allow the Strogg team to immediately just back into the action instead of at the usual base position). This is true, to a greater or lesser extent, for all the classes, weapons and vehicles in which each team needs to find the correct balance and counter-balance in order to defeat the opposing team and win the map.


Gameplay centers around a set of objectives which one team must achieve and the other stop until the round ends. In the case of the Beta 2 map, "Valley", your ultimate goal is to have a soldier plant explosives and destroy a contaminator which is poisoning the local population. To do so you must first use an Engineer to reconstruct a bridge, then escort an MCP (Mobile Command Post) to the enemy base. You'll also need the engineers here to repair the MCP whenever the Strogg disable it. Once in the base, a Strogg shield blocks your attempts to gain access to the contaminator with a missile strike, so you'll need some covert ops to go hack and disable the shield. Finally, with a successful missile hit and an accessible contaminator, your Soldier can go in and do his stuff, planting explosives and destroying the structure. In the Beta 1 "Sewer" map, you again played as GDF on offense, this time trying to destroy a Strogg base by flooding the sewer system they are entrenched in.

First, you'll need an engineer to construct an EMP Generator to disintegrate the Strogg shielding around the facility. Once you have access, you need Soldiers to plant explosives at one or more access points. Finally, with access to the sewer controls, you get a Covert Op to hack the controls and flood the enemy base.

These are just the two maps that have been publicly playable in the Beta. Other maps have been confirmed as Strogg offense-oriented, so no one side is left defending. Additionally, the multiple objectives maps are to be swapped out with "Document Run" missions, which will see you infiltrate an enemy stronghold -- no doubt after completing some objectives -- steal their secret documents, and run to a safe point on the map. There is also no saying whether Splash Damage has some other tricks up its sleeve or how they've worked out the objective play in the other maps.


But but but it's Battlefield

No it's not. While surface similarities can be made, the game is quite different when you look closer. Speed, accuracy and twitch reactions are as crucial to this game as they are in many other games in the Quake series. This shouldn't lessen your expectations as far as tactical strategies are concerned. Slow does not in itself define strategy. In fact, the hectic path ensures you need to think on a wider scale altogether. Vehicles in Quake Wars are primarily a means of transport and have many vulnerabilities. That isn't to say a well-commanded Tank or Cyclops should be dismissed as useless, only that there are multiple avenues for removing them. I've covered this already, but the game is objective-based. Once an objective is completed, it can't be reversed, so while spawn points can and do get handed back and forth, the meat of the game never descends into a flag chase. It also means there is a defined front line, so teams are generally more concentrated in one place.

id Tech 5's Daddy

As this is possibly one of the last titles (RTCW2 to come) based on the id Tech 4 engine, we're seeing a lot of technology cross over and mature. The buzzword here, of course, is "Megatexture".

Simply put, the technology allows for a single huge texture tile to be applied to world geometry. This Megatexture can be up to 64,000 x 64,000 pixels in size, which is about a square Kilometer in real world measurements and around the 5 gigabytes region during its uncompressed development use. (At retail we're looking at 300-500meg of a more compressed and optimized megatexture per map) What does this mean for you?

Well, the impact of the Megatexture on the world is consistent, so looking into a distant mountain range or at the ground has the same impact and overhead. Detail is streamed from the Megatexture stored on your hard drive to your GPU, meaning you get a Google Maps-like increase in resolution as more data is streamed in.


The reality is, as you rush past a landscape, it is of a lower resolution. When you stop the resolution increases, revealing more details. This makes for a fast, fluid game on a variety of system specifications without those frequent framerate bumps as you look to the horizon. Of course, with the technology as it is here, you are still prone to see framerate drops when your already maxed-out system encounters traditional clusters of models and textures. Guess we'll need to wait for id Tech 5 and 6 to see that smoothed out or just stop being greedy and over-exerting our systems!

Overall, the system works surprisingly well, and I'm dying to see the 10 other maps and then all the community-related content that is created with that freedom. Two interesting details of the engine thus far are that, although the global light is not real-time calculated, (no on-the-fly time of day changes) there is nothing stopping it from being modified in a new map version. Likewise, the Megatexture file can be reused with new models. It would, therefore, be entirely possible to create a series of maps that plot a battle from dawn to dusk over the same terrain, but with architecture in different states of destruction. These could also be quite small in size as you'd already have the large Megatexture as part of the game installation. That means a lot more bang for your buck, with map makers being able, reuse their older work to stunning new effect.

Enough already, how does it play?

I'm in love with the game. Both teams offer a uniqueness that makes playing either side a refreshingly different experience rather than just a cosmetic change of player models. With the fact that both teams, depending on the map, also need to alternate between offensive and defensive roles, you are practically playing with a base set of 4 different team tactics. It's this deep, multilevel gameplay that I think raises Quake Wars up and above its competitors. Sure, when you first step into the game, the array of classes and multitude of options presented to you can be overwhelming, but again, Splash Damage have given you an adequate tool set to make this critically hard period in an online shooter into a real-time tutorial.

For example; the Mission Manager which is available at the press of the M key enables you to cycle through specific missions that will offer a direct benefit to your team and which are better suited to the class you are playing. Some of those missions will be directly added by your teammates, simply by them pointing out targets and using another neat feature called the Context Sensitive Chat System. So, although you may be playing a poorly-armed medic, you can spot an anti-personnel turret, press V and click the mouse button. Immediately even your most clueless team mates will have the mission available and can attack or disable the turret.


That is, however, just the surface of the game. As you delve further, you open up a surprisingly large amount of tactics and strategies you can use to help your team. I've already mentioned in passing the anti-personnel turrets. They are, however, just one of the deployable types available to select classes in each team. Each player can request one such deployment to any friendly area of the map the team currently posesses.

But there are choices here again. As a covert ops you have only one deployable type, which is a radar. This enables a circular area of the map around the radar to display enemy locations and automatically add missions to the Mission Manager. The radar is also useful to your team on an individual level, allowing them to see if groups of enemies are incoming, pinpoint a sniper, or even watch out for someone sneaking up behind them. But the question you have to ask yourself is, do I deploy at the front of the battlefield where I get maximum range but risk the radar being disabled or destroyed, or put it somewhere safer but have less exposure? Add to that question other deployables such as the Field Ops long range artillery, rocket artillery and hammer missiles (which will want to be in a secluded or well defended position far from the action). Likewise, Engineers with their short-range tactical personnel, vehicle and artillery interceptor turrets will want to be close to the action and in a frequently traveled path.

So, where would you put the radar?

This is just one of the questions that race through your head as the game opens up its box of tricks. It's funny, but you actually feel a slowdown in the initial hectic pace as the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. At times, you'll bypass the Mission Manager as you adopt certain strategies, changing them on the fly as your enemy counters with their own. Other times you'll use it as a tactical resource, feeding you targets to attack and so clear a path for your team. At all times, however, you feel that you're not just in another meat grinder game. You can play and contribute to your team from a distance and without even firing a shot. Such is the variety open to you when you play Quake Wars.


Weapons and accuracy

Weapon aim is pretty much dead center if you peck off single shots. This degrades with the usual firing rate and movement penalties. Shooting at targets over a greater distance has a larger spread, and over certain distances the damage rates will fall off. However, I've come away feeling that this is a more accurate model than say Call of Duty, which at times felt most random even at close quarters.

Of course, the sniper weapons (Currently, yes, sniper nerfing requests are piling up) are deadly accurate and just a slight sway at higher magnifications, from upper torso and heads result in one-shot kills as long as they are within the minimum range limits. Soldiers, of course, get a selection of heavier, more powerful weapons, which are good for creating a lot of damage. It's also nice to see that, where a weapon is not suitable for close quarters combat, an upgraded sidearm replaces the standard pistol.

Of all the aspects of the game, I'd have to say it's the weapons that appear to mirror each other with the most similarities, at least in function if not operation. The key exceptions being that the Stroggs reliance on Stroyant for health and ammo means they can exchange between both freely (this also means their technicians' Stroyant packs increase both health and ammo). There is also no reloading of involved with majority of the Strogg weaponry. Instead there is a cool-off period when the weapon is continuously used. (Burst firing is recommended) To further balance this clear advantage, most of the Strogg weapons have a slower rate of fire with the standard Lacerator firing 30% slower than the GDF Assault Rifle.


XP Upgrades, Campaigns and Stats (ranked or unranked)

As standard, games will be played over 3 maps, which is known as a campaign. During campaigns you will accumulate experience points (XP) for completing objectives on your team. The XP then enables upgrades, which may help you or your teammates better succeed at completing the objective. After the campaign is finished everyone's XP is reset back to zero. XP is balanced so that an average player should be able to attain the highest levels by the start of the third map, which should be a nice even spread of upgrades.

I quite like this. You get a sense of achievement and a reward for playing well, but with campaigns only consisting of 3 maps you're never at a disadvantage if you join, say, during the middle of a campaign. The upgrades are subtle, too. Small health bonuses, extra ammo, faster abilities ... nothing that dramatically overpowers one person against another but still gives a slight edge to them or their team.

Another "Wouldn't it be neat if..." moment around the XP points is that while Spawn Camping is possible to a certain extent, people will not be awarded XP points for doing so. This should limit the camping to an advanced strategy, and sacrificial decision rather than an easy way to score points.

Now, if you're playing on a "ranked" server, the XP you accumulate will, along with a whole stack of other details, be passed onto a central stats server maintained by Splash Damage and then likewise onto their stats website. There are however some key differences between a ranked and unranked server.

Obviously, a ranked server will pass on your details but it will also function on the same default setup as all other ranked servers. People who own and run those servers will not be able to tweak settings or change any aspects of the game. They will also not be able to add any custom maps or mods to their ranked server. While this ensures that on some level the stats can't be manipulated or skewed, it also means that when you join a ranked server you are assured of the same experience each and every game. Stats are also purely cosmetic. You do attain a higher rank as you complete objectives and gain XP, but at no point is there a difference between a brand new player and one who has played for several years due to stats. So no Battlefield style stat unlockables ... thank God for that!

However, with that restriction also come the "unranked" servers which you are free to run, tweak and modify to your heart's content. For example, SD specifically stated during the release of the server files in the Beta that, those who felt the game ran too fast for them could easily configure their own servers to enforce a slower pace. I feel that both server types will be popular, but unless SD run some competitions to integrate community maps into the fixed ranked server configuration, we'll ultimately see greater public support on unranked servers as custom mods and maps arrive from the community and offer fresh experiences.


The Lagness Monster

The beta has seen some lag issues client-wise. Most were crushed as the introduction of anti-lag code and prediction polished up the net code. Servers have still been found to lag out and spike, and I hope they fix up the server binaries to solve those problems before release. When the game is running and the server is fresh though, I regularly get a solid 20+ ping to local Dallas servers and the net code in those situations is stable and very playable. If the niggling issues are not solved prior to release I see that constant tweaks in the patches will perfect what is already a capable system. I just hope a majority of the server lag spikes are cleared up before more people misrepresent them as a dramatic flaw in the game.

The Spectre of Advertising

I'll be blunt here. The game will include ingame advertising on billboards and posters placed around the levels. Personally, I'm of the mindset that, if it helps the developer better support the game, release an improved or continually improving product, and that it can do that without interfering with my enjoyment of the game, it's a fair deal. I know others, however, feel very strongly about the issue and that is the only reason I mention it here, so you aren't surprised when you see it ingame and feel cheated. I'll end the discussion there as I think that might spill over into another feature at some point, so if you feel strongly in either direction please do send me an e-mail.

The release and beyond. Patches and support

If the Beta is any indication of the level of support Quake Wars is to receive, I have zero concerns for the health and future of this game. It is, however, shipping amiss of a few features, among those being VOIP, which was dropped from the PC version of the game due to time constraints and the fact that alternative VOIP software is available.

The community, however, responded to this announcement with varying degrees of disapproval and Splash Damage recently confirmed it is back on the wish list for future patches. I happen to agree that its removal was warranted if it was going to delay the game further, but think third party VOIP software is far from a practical solution on public and well-traveled servers. However, the point is moot now, and I wish Splash Damage luck on its future integration.

The SDK is also being completed to give the map makers and modders all the tools they need to tear apart the game and build an even better and more entertaining experience as the months turn into years. I'm glad to see that QWTV -- the spectator camera system enabling large audiences to watch matches live -- is being worked on directly at Splash Damage. Too often, these aspects are passed up in the expectation of users picking up the baton. A scripting system is also on the list to enable server owners to quickly change aspects of how a map is played. This will be key to help balance maps for different play styles or team sizes.

As of August 30th, the game was officially announced as going gold. Splash Damage are now focusing on completing the PC demo for release in several weeks so that you can try out the game before it hits retail shelves. If you can't wait that long, you can still download the Beta 2 files from Fileplanet and run a local server against bots. Either way, it's not too long to wait and hell, I'm damn excited to see what polish they've put on in the last few weeks and run through all twelve maps, some of which they've kept totally secret from everyone. Those guys think of everything. Power to the Tapirs!

• All pictures are courtesy of this thread at the ETQW Community Forums. They are all ingame generated, beta-tester shots with no post-processing short of some framing. Note that the distance blur shot was achieved with altering game settings, the game does not feature such a blur during play.
  
  
• Beta2 available from Fileplanet at this page or watch for the full demo release at the Community Site
  
• ETQW Stats page, including XML feed can be found here (this is mine. Don't laugh, I've been playing Metroid Prime 3 since they wiped the stats, honest!)

* May not actually be included as part of the impressions article.