Product Reviews

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars pits humans against the invading Strogg across a series of huge battlefields but, as the title merely hints, it's not an ordinary, all-guns-blazing shooter where anything goes. The action is tamed with a sense of discipline by asking players to choose from several character classes, each of which contributes to the fight in its own way.

Twelve maps are included, spread across four continents in a variety of environments such as snowy plains, and dark and gloomy city ruins. It looks beautiful on our Mac Pro with a Radeon HD 2600, which defaulted to high quality for most of the graphics settings. Things were pretty smooth even at 1680 x 1050 pixels until particle effects like smoke filled the screen, at which point the frame rate took a short but noticeable hit. Even those with high-end Macs can try turning down individual effects or reduce the resolution; the latter improved things immensely.

Each team has an ultimate objective in battle, such as defending against Strogg attempts to destroy captured technology. The path to victory is littered with smaller objectives. Some apply to the whole team and are required to advance towards the larger goal, while others are class-specific; medics are, for example, called upon to revive fallen comrades. The field ops, covert ops and soldiers have their own missions too, ever changing as the battle progresses. A key press cycles through those available.

Every team member faces the same risks, so communication is vital. Engineers will need covering fire to complete construction jobs, while soldiers may need extra firepower from comrades when advancing on an enemy base. This requires a lot

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of faith in your team-mates' response to calls for assistance, and if you should tire of performing one class's tasks, you can switch to another in the next game.

Even the raw action of the game has plenty of strategic elements and it's a joy to discover these fine details through repeated play. We were elated to find that shooting out a vehicle's tyres brings it to a halt, showing just how far the shooting element has come since the days when gameplay was about well-placed shots into enemies and explosive drums.

Good performance is rewarded with experience points that result in different rewards depending on your class as you gain more of them. Medics can dole out bigger first aid kits and soldiers' rocket launchers can lock onto targets more quickly.

As you achieve smaller objectives, your team establishes a stronger foothold that pushes the opposing team into a tighter spot and towards defeat. Seeing territory expand across the battlefield is rewarding, especially when the goal comes into sight.

After each battle, you're presented with performance statistics for the best player in each class and various other awards, such as best use of vehicles and light weapons. They're neat trophies to wave in the faces of opponents, but the in-game rewards are far more satisfying due to their impact upon the game mechanics.

Investing time in Quake Wars doesn't just result in better skills. You'll also develop a sense of team spirit. There's plenty to learn though, and you're best starting with a few offline training sessions against the computer. Written and audible tooltips should be left on so that you're prompted on how to proceed with the selected mission, at least until you're familiar with the controls and a few of the basic gameplay mechanics become second nature.

If you've had a previous aversion to the guns-blazing attitude of older shooters, the strategic elements grafted onto Quake Wars are unlikely to sway your opinion. At heart, it's still a shooter, though the bells and whistles breathe a bit of life into the genre. The gameplay is well implemented though, and the maps feel suitably vast and engaging for team-based play. Shooter fans should expect to commit hours to lengthy battles before they tire of Quake Wars.