ET: Quake Wars looks like it wants to be Battlefield
Attendees of this year’s QuakeCon (which is still ongoing) have been lucky enough to get the opportunity to play the upcoming Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, a multiplayer game very much along the lines of Battlefield and, more distantly, Team Fortress where you play a distinct role alongside a team of comrades.
And, as you’d expect, some video footage was taken of the gameplay. Four videos are currently available on IGN, and I must say the game does look like it’s shaping together rather well. Some parts look slightly rough such as the “I am dead, please revive me” animation, but overall I’m rather impressed. I recommend using the “Watch It Now” links on IGN to view the videos straight away via Flash.
But I’m also slightly underwhelmed. Although everyone’s known from the start that I’ll have a lot in common with Battlefield, I wasn’t expecting it to be this similar. Anyone who’s played Battlefield 2 will immediately notice that the game looks, feels and sounds like Battlefield 2 through and through. The parachuting (or whatever they’re doing), the artillery attacks, the ingame promotion announcements — it’s all very “I’ve seen this before”.
I really hope the end game is a little more unique as this literally just looks like a futuristic Battlefield 2. That would be all well and good if EA themselves weren’t already working on a futuristic sequel to the aforementioned game: Battlefield 2142. And while Quake Wars seems like it’s only just caught up with the extremely stellar and popular gameplay of Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2142 looks like it’s developed a whole new feel. Largely because you now have to take over giant spaceships rather than ground objectives.
What do you guys think? Am I being a bit harsh on Quake Wars here or is it really as samey as I think? Oh, and for the sake of completion here’s a good video of Battlefield 2142. Personally I’m putting my support behind the Battlefield sequel, not only because of what’s been shown but also because Dice/EA have a lot of experience with the genre and have three full, successful titles in the series under their belt thus far.


Quake ain’t Quake anymore. I think a lot of the speedy gameplay will be lost if they complicate the formula too much. I didn’t really get around to buying Quake 4, either. I played the very, very short demo and it just seemed way to clean and generic. I got bored in the middle of the demo, which must have only lasted about 5-7 minutes. Quake Wars seems like it might be good and look good, but it won’t really have the same Quakeness.
I think your headline was right on the money, and if it’s not trying to be Battlefield, it’s trying to be Halo or something. Look how clean the surroundings look. Quake isn’t supposed to have clean looking, not-so-alien outdoorsy scenes.