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| | Publisher: Aspyr Media  Genre: Action | | | Min OS X: 10.4 CPU: Intel @ 2000 MHz RAM: 999 MB Hard Disk: 6500 MB DVD-ROM Graphics: 128 MB VRAM |
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Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
April 24, 2008 | Michael Yanovich | |
What do a soldier, an engineer, a medic, a spy and a scout all have in common? You’ll have to use them all to win a game of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. First, let’s get the obligatory back-story out of the way. ETQW is based on the Enemy Territories mod that came out for Return to Castle Wolfenstein. The mod expanded the game’s multiplayer functionality and now it’s back as a standalone title set in the future and based on the Quake universe. Gameplay In short, it’s a team-based shooter that throws out mindless fragging and replaces it with specific objectives that each team must meet in order to win the game. The two teams consist of humans on one side, and the alien Strogg on the other. A single game round usually lasts approximately 20 minutes and sets one team up in an offensive mode, the other team playing strict defense. The offense has to accomplish three or four major objectives to win the game, while the defense’s job is simply to prevent their opponents from completing all the objectives before their time runs out. An example match could include objectives such as building a bridge, driving a vehicle over the bridge to capture a forward positioned base of operations, fighting your way up the hill to hack and disable your enemy’s shield generator, then blowing open their bunker so you can run in, overpower the bunker defenses, and plant a bomb on some top secret alien tech. This is where the differing classes come in. None of these objectives can be achieved by one person acting alone in a typical 12 vs 12 game. Building a bridge requires engineers, but without solders to protect them, covert ops (spies) to deploy radars, field ops (scouts) to launch artillery strikes and medics to revive fallen comrades, there’s almost no way to get past even the starting point of the game. Teamwork and communication are essential to a successful attack. Meanwhile, expect the defending team to use their engineers to build defensive turrets, to target your radar with long-distance rocket launchers, and to take out your defending soldiers with any number of ground or air-based vehicles. Classes in one race are essentially the same in the other race, except for differing names and some subtle yet noteworthy changes in how their abilities work. The Strogg can transfer ammo counts for a health boost and have personal jet packs available to them as well. Plus, their medics can use the corpses of fallen humans to create strategically placed forward respawn hosts for their brethren. Humans medics can’t pull off that trick, but they can revive fallen soldiers instantly, a feat that takes Strogg medics several crucial seconds. This is a game of chess played by the X-Men as they are all chained to a boat that’s about to head over a waterfall. There’s plenty of strategy, but theories have to be put into deadly action in order to prevail.
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