Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Hands-On

The other big surprise Locki revealed to us was the plan to include bots that can be used for LAN, single player or online multiplayer games. Now, bots are always a welcomed addition for when you can't get enough friends together for battle or if you just feel like practicing offline. The downfall for most games is a limited AI for the bots that cause them to play like not a person but, well, a bot. Splash Damage knew this was going to be a challenge, which is why they recruited John Dean, creator of the legendary Fritz Bot from Wolfenstein: Enemy Territories fame to work with Robert Duffy at id, to make sure that ETQW bots could not only navigate the maps, shoot and drive vehicles, but also function like a real teammate who can accomplishes goals and lends a hand where it is most needed. Once ETQW is released, I think most people will be anxious to see how these bots stack up top those in the Unreal Tournament Series. The level of control of play style, competence and support roles for bots in the UT series is the Gold standard for me. If Splash Damage can create something similar to that level of control for ETQW, it will go a long way to ensuring that the game will be played by many for years to come.

Keep me covered!

I can't see a thing. Damn, blizzard!

Back to the game, the map I've played most was called Area 22. Locki explained that the maps are not just random locations to stage battles on. Rather, each map is part of the overall story arch that makes up the Quake universe. This gives players background on the Quake storyline and at the same time a reason for fighting. The back-story serves as a sort of anchor for the conflict. Area 22 for example (located in Nevada, as you'd expect) is a GDF research facility where humans unlocked the mysteries of Strogg slip gate technology. The goal for the GDF is to prevent the Strogg from break through the defenses of the facility and take out the gate before time runs out.

At the start of the level, GDF is playing defense, trying to protect an EMP device that prevents the Strogg from warping in reinforcements. As the round got started, I was one of three Engineers on our side and we immediately began building defensive turrets to forestall the onslaught of Strogg. Once my anti-personal turret was up and humming, I hit the M key and received a mission to complete construction of a machine guy nest at the left rear of our base. No soon had I completed it that I saw the enemy. Two were using an Icarus backpack to jump into the base, while several others were heading in on foot. I was able to take out a couple using the machine gun nest but at least 3 were able to slip inside the building that housed the EMF controls. I didn't have much time to worry about that, seeing as a Goliath came stomping into our courtyard. Hitting it with the machine gun was damaging it, although very slowly. As I plinked away at the massive walking tank, the driver soon noticed my continuous hail of bullets and threw a couple of missiles into my pillbox. As I lay on the ground writhing in my death throws and waiting to respawn or by some miracle, a medic close enough to use his paddles and revive me, The Strogg who had gone after the EMP controls completed their objective and blew the EMP generator to bits.

Combat now shifted to the next objective point - a hill near the middle of the map, where a large Strogg mining laser was dropped from orbit. The GDF needed to prevent the enemy from getting a Constructor class access to the laser for the 30 seconds or so it would take him to turn the device on. Once the huge beam was enabled, it would punch through the concrete bunker protecting the lab where the GDF where reverse engineering the Slip Gate. As I was parachuting into the new battle area, I saw my teammates wasting no time while trying to set up a defensive position. Not long after I landed, the Strogg forces arrived en mass and began throwing themselves against the GDF forces. The mission clock showed we only had 9 more minutes to hold them off before the end of the round and we were doing a fair job. I had deployed another anti-infantry turret, my team mates were taking out the Strogg as they tried to get close to the mining laser and we even had a Titan tank to deal with any enemy vehicles that got too close. It looked like we were going to hold them here. Until an air strike of some sort came in and kicked the crap out of us. As soon as "the death from above" did its work, the Strogg team flowed around the mining laser like water and activated the device. A huge fiery beam tore across the map and punched through the reinforced concrete bunker like a hot knife through butter. Another objective had been achieved by the Strogg team. They only had two to go to win the round. After respawning, I quickly determined that the third objective, defending the entrance to the bunker, was not the best use of my time so I moved to the final objective, the Slip Gate itself, to setup some defenses. Just in case.

It was a good thing I did because after a few minutes of setting up mines and building another machine gun nest, the Strogg punched through the third objective and were making their final push to blow up the Slip Gate. Combat was fast and intense in those final few minutes, but in the end, we managed to hold the Strogg off. It was a very close fight and I found that at the end of the round I was hunched close to the monitor, my shoulders were sore from the stress of having them clenched as I fought. I have heard games described as nail biters before, but I had never truly experienced it before today.

We played a couple more rounds and the combat was just as much fun as the round described above. More so in fact, because as we all get more familiar with the ins and outs of the classes and their gear, the combat got really interesting.

As much as I was looking forward to Enemy Territory: Quake Wars following the preview last year, I am full on fanatic now. Even though the team says they still have tweaking to do, I am really pleased with how it plays already. The tough part now comes from having to wait until the perfectionists at id finally believe they have everything ready on the PC version and deem it good to go. PS3 and 360 owners will also get to experience ETQW (from what we were told the PC release will not be held up for the console versions). Regardless, as hard as has been to wait for the game so far, the rest of the wait is going to be sheer torture.