Enemy Territory: Quake Wars released on the PC around the end of last year, now, the Strogg have brought the same war to the home consoles. We have seen many ports from both the console to the PC and vice versa., just how well though does this PC port compare to its recently released Xbox 360 counterpart? Given the over six month wait, many gamers might be a bit shocked to find out that instead of having some additional content thrown in, there is actually some content and features stripped away, which were featured in the older PC release of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.

The Xbox 360 is not really at a loss for first person shooters, as it's obviously the system's strongest genre, though with so many FPSs featured on the console, just where does Quake Wars fit in, is it the must-have action sci-fi fest or the complete and utter-rubbish that within the next few weeks will be seen in your local game stores bargain bin? I still haven't quite figured out the answer to that question, though I know which way I'm leaning towards. While the Xbox 360 is renowned for the many shooters available, good or bad, ET: Quake Wars clearly offers something very different.

Gameplay:

Quake Wars very much plays like your typical first person shooter, at least at first glance. However, it doesn't take long to realize that there's more depth on offer here. Depending on your play style you could actually play it very much like a Call of Duty 4, that is in the Soldier class with the LT scope and auto-aim assist to lend a hand. This might be possible online, which is more apparent with a well coordinated team. In the solo campaign however, this is just not a viable option. This would require relying on the in-game A.I. bots to perform tasks, and as with many titles, the only good thing bots prove to be useful for is to distract and keep each other busy. This means that the player is constantly required to keep tabs on the current objective and keep changing classes accordingly, thus enduring the severely annoying 15 second respawn screen. The latter of which can prove somewhat infuriating for newcomers, as they battle the opposing team back, and ultimately make way to their objective, only to finally realize that they are in the wrong class to complete the task at hand. There is nothing more satisfying than killing off many of the opposing team to then reach your objective, then sadly, to realize that you're not in the correct class, the latter of which is borderline infuriating. No doubt many players after experiencing this will soon realize to press the Back button, which lets you switch classes, and more importantly clearly indicates the required class needed to complete the current objective. While this is annoying and is even something that you can quickly get used to, it is no doubt one of the games tipping points that makes it more of a chore to play compared to other, simpler titles.

The basic idea of Quake Wars, is that the Strogg have invaded earth, and it is up to the GDF to hold them back. There's little food for thought here with basically no story, the actual offline campaign is essentially the multiplayer but with all A.I. bots. So, ultimately Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is aimed for the online audience, which is where most of the fun, if any, is to be had online with friends, who actually communicate and co-ordinate with each other. Other than that, the multiplayer experience can prove rather frustrating when playing with randoms, as there is a great deal of confusion as to who is doing what. Which ultimately ends up in everyone being in the required class to complete the first match objective, which means no support to drop down ammunition or health packs for comrades which are actually going for the objective, instead of everyone doing the same thing, and ultimately just, well, dying, and then crying for medics.... of which then makes it somewhat infuriating, as if you decide to switch classes, you then have the 15 seconds respawn screen to stare at, and ultimately race back to your fallen comrades location, which is just not a viable option at all. The basic premise of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars could work particularly well in the right hands, I see the game more as a clan type fiasco, where clan members team up, each having their own roles and face other clans. Random online matches otherwise are just typically unbalanced and prove to be a rather disorientating experience.
Depending on what team you are on, you're basically playing an offence or defence role in each match, each game having it's own multiple set of objective for one side to capture and the other team to defend against, all within a set time limit. This is where the multitude of differing classes comes into play, requiring one specific class to capture one objective, push forward, detonate something, change location and class again, and steal something from the enemy. The entire game both online and off, follows this similar structure throughout with a few different variations thrown in for good measure. Enemy Territory does reward players for their efforts in the long run, as you rank up in each class you earn awards which could enable a better weapon selection among other things, for the varying different classes. There are several vehicles in the game, and other than a particular rather cool Strogg suit which lets you basically super-bounce around the entire map dropping grenades and what not, other than this there is a rather nice selection of vehicles but the controls just flat out disappoint. Vehicular movement is controlled with the analogue sticks, though not both like Halo, which would have worked rather flawlessly, but rather just the left analogue stick which is there to both accelerate, reverse and steer, which can make for some rather awkward encounters in the heat of battle.

Graphics:

While the game no doubt offers a peculiar and supposedly tactful element to the gameplay, the visuals are in no way shape or form the game's strongest point, they are certainly the weakest, with rather appalling dim character models and low-res environmental textures. While Quakes Wars does feature some large scale maps to cause mayhem on, there is no denying that the visual fidelity on offer here is more on tap with a port from a last-gen game, as opposed to what is in actual fact a port of a superior PC title. Admittedly there are some nice effects that stand out, more noticeably just the the chaos going on around you with up to 16 players, there is always some action going on ahead of you, full of explosions and people once again, screaming for... medics!

Sound:

There's not much to shout about here, there are the typical sounds effects that you would come to expect, but nothing here really jumps out and grabs you like some other titles. While the visuals are not the most pleasing, the sound in-fact borderlines on irritating. Being able to hear your downed team-mates calling for a Medic repeatedly, or some other requests that might require you to change class and look at a 15 second countdown before respawning – it's not one of those moments where you think... I'll do that just to help you out and look at a respawn screen for several seconds, and eventually find my way back to wherever you are on this massive battlefield again.

Longevity:

Quake Wars may appeal to gamers looking for a different kind of shooter experience on the Xbox 360, however don't think that Quake Wars is as good as it no doubt should have been. The game attempts to be some what tactile, yet requires you to think too much instead off just letting you get into the action. Like your initial spawn at the beginning of the game, this may require you to need to switch classes for the required objective right at the beginning. What would have been more convenient, would be if the game offered up a preferred class for the player to default to, and more importantly force a match countdown giving the players in the game enough time to choose which class they would like to select. In campaign games this could have benefited more considerably, as you're not likely going to want to fully rely on the A.I. to complete current objectives. However, in a team game this may be different, especially if you are in a game with a well co-ordinated team of friends. Under these conditions, the game could potentially be rather fun to play as you might like to defend or offer assistance in the way of being a soldier or a medic and lend a hand to the other team mates and more specifically to those few that are in the correct class required to complete the specific objective for your team.

Overall:

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is a port from the earlier released PC version, and not a very good port at that. Quake Wars would have been hard pushed even if it was an Xbox 360 launch title, let alone to release now, considering the multitude of quality, and even less quality titles that no doubt surpass this multiplayer oriented game. A playable demo has recently released on the Marketplace, for those of you that have been considering ET: Quake Wars, well, at least now you have an opportunity to try out the Xbox 360 version before dropping any cash. For me though, as far as tactical play is concerned, I'll be sticking with the likes of the Rainbow Six series, and keeping my beady eyes on anything ahead in the near future that can surpass that series. Quake Wars, at least on the console, is not surpassing anything.