Preview
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Rumbling To Consoles
May 16, 2008
When it comes to engaging in interstellar–and interspecies–warfare, it’s all about blowing shit up in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. Come May 27, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 gamers will get to experience all of the action that those PC geeks have been hooked on since last fall. Developers Underground Studios (PS3) and Nerve Software (360) have worked closely with id Software to ensure that this shooter delivers all of the action that console gamers crave without all of the mouse-clicks that PC gamers salivate over.
“If it takes more than a few minutes to get into a console game you lose your audience,” said Kevin Cloud, executive producer of Enemy Territory at id Software. “We had these consoles in mind from when we first started designing the PC game. Xbox 360 and PS3 gamers will get an exclusive training mode to bring them up to speed as well as a new persistent campaign mode.” In addition to having a game designed from the ground up for console controllers, gamers don’t need to know anything about the previous Quake games or the never-ending conflict between the alien Strogg and the human Global Defense Force. Enemy Territory is a prequel that focuses on the initial Strogg invasion of Earth.
Over the course of the 12 campaign levels, it’s up to you to take back the planet any way you can (i.e. start blowing shit up). The importance of teamwork separates Enemy Territory from the rest of the FPS pack with maybe the exception of Army of Two. During solo play you can work your way through the game with the computer AI. When it comes to online, you can try to go it alone, but you’ll get your ass fried in no time. The only way to accomplish missions or take over enemy territory in the online maps working together with field ops (they can call in the big artillery guns and obliterate huge areas), covert ops (they can hack locks and snipe enemies), soldiers, and medics (they re-supply ammo and revive fallen comrades).
“Each side has land, air and sea vehicles that can be used in the online or campaign mode,” said Cloud. “The Strogg have things like the Goliath, a giant mech walker with two cannons and the Desecrator, a heavy tank. The GDF have flying vehicles like the Hornet and Bumblebee.” There is no Ladybug, but we did ask. All of these toys come into play in the online maps, which is the heart of any shooter—console or PC. Enemy Territory allows up to 16 console gamers to connect and fight across maps from Africa, North America, Europe and the Pacific. One of the cool variations on the trite deathmatch and team deathmatch online gaming experiences is Stopwatch. In this mode, a timer ticks down how long it takes for the opposing team to take down a base. Then the sides switch, the team that clocks the best time to total decimation wins. It’s just like real life.
Tags: id, Quake Wars
