Product Reviews

Gamers are used to needing top-end hardware, but these days a fast internet connection is becoming just as much of a necessity. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars practically demands a speedy broadband connection, as it has clearly been designed with online multiplayer as its focus.

Having Quake in the name, and being the fifth full game to use it, means the designers have a background and universe from which to draw - but it's pretty thin, inconsequential stuff. All four previous Quake games focused on action, and so it remains with Quake Wars. Aliens, known as the Strogg, have invaded Earth. Humans, in the guise of the Global Defense Force (GDF), must fight back.

Players can fight for either side across a series of large maps, taking the battle to the other guys by traversing the extensive terrain with jauntily angled weapons in hand. However, Quake Wars is more complex than most FPS games, and you don't have to look far to discover this. It is not a game that

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reveals its charms gradually. Everything you need to know is onscreen from the beginning, and as a consequence the interface is cluttered and confusing from the start.

The game's developers have clearly spent a lot of time watching how people play online shooters. Quake Wars' clutter is actually a well-balanced series of missions, objectives and team chatter that add structure, rhythm and purpose to the often random experience of online games. Each player can see a variety of missions marked on the map, along with the experience points that completing them will yield. Players on either side can take to the battlefield in a variety of different roles, and completing an objective successfully requires teamwork and cooperation between characters equipped with different skills.

The 12 maps also contribute to the game's strategic depth, as they are studded with vehicles you can use, along with plenty of buildings, cover and short cuts. The game itself changes as matches progress, awarding bonuses when you're being particularly effective.

Once you've put in the time to master the game and found some like-minded players online, Quake Wars can be a great experience, but it has a steep learning curve. While training with the bots in single-player mode helps, a great game happens only when you play with other decent players. Still, if you're fed up with the chaos of Battlefield 2 and want an online shooter with more depth, Quake Wars is a decent choice, although it's likely to be overlooked given the release of Valve's Team Fortress 2.