Quake 4 is a 2005 first-person shooter game created by Raven Software and released by Activision. It is the fourth game in the Quake series, following the multiplayer-focused Quake III Arena and continuing the story from Quake II. Raven Software worked with id Software, which guided the game’s development and provided the id Tech 4 engine used to build the game. Compared to earlier versions, Quake 4 places more focus on single-player gameplay. Its multiplayer mode does not include bots that players can control.

Gameplay

Quake 4 focuses more on single-player gameplay than its earlier version, which had more multiplayer features. The single-player campaign continues the story from Quake II. However, it does not include bot matchmaking (features that let players compete against computer-controlled opponents) unless third-party software is used.

Multiplayer modes include Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Tourney, Capture the Flag, Arena CTF, and DeadZone. Players at QuakeCon noted that the multiplayer gameplay includes actions seen in earlier Quake games, such as strafe-jumping or rocket jumping. New features include the ability to shoot through teleporters and improved game physics, such as bouncing grenades and napalm fire off jump-pads.

Like previous Quake games, the multiplayer mode uses a client-server system, where players connect to a central server to play together. The network code was changed from Doom 3, allowing more players on each server. Doom 3 limits servers to four players, while Quake 4 allows up to 16 players.

Player movement in Quake 4 is similar to Quake III Arena and Quake Live but includes new actions like ramp jumping and crouch sliding. Crouch sliding lets players keep their speed while moving around corners. Ramp jumping allows players to gain extra height when jumping to the top of an inclined object. These features were present in Quake and Quake II but were not included in Quake III Arena.

Plot

The Quake 4 single-player mode continues the story from Quake II by challenging the player to fight against a cyborg alien race called the Strogg. The game follows a Marine Corporal named Matthew Kane as he joins the elite Rhino Squad. After the protagonist of Quake II destroyed the Strogg leader, Makron, Rhino Squad is assigned to lead a mission to capture the Strogg’s home planet, Stroggos. During the invasion, the squad’s ship is shot down and crashes in a battlefield, separating Kane from his team. Kane reunites with his squad members and joins the attack against the Strogg.

Kane and his squad complete tasks, such as destroying Strogg aircraft hangars and defense systems, before reaching the USS Hannibal. There, they are ordered to infiltrate a Strogg communication hub called the Tetranode using an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) bomb to disrupt the Strogg Nexus. Kane defends the mission convoy, which suffers heavy losses. After setbacks, including the EMP device being destroyed in an ambush, Kane must complete the mission with help from Private Johann Strauss and Lance Corporal Nikolai "Sledge" Slidjonovitch. Strauss discovers a way to destroy the Tetranode’s core by shutting down its cooling system. However, as Kane approaches the Tetranode, he faces two rocket-equipped guardians and the rebuilt Makron, who defeats Kane and knocks him unconscious.

When Kane wakes up, he is strapped to a conveyor belt in the Strogg "Medical Facilities," a place where captured humans are turned into protein or Strogg units. Kane experiences a detailed first-person scene showing the violent process of replacing his body with mechanical parts. Before the final brain implant is activated, Rhino Squad rescues him. After escaping the medical facility and fighting zombie-like half-transformed humans, Kane confronts his former commander, Lieutenant Voss, who has been fully transformed into a powerful mechanized creature. Voss warns Kane before being defeated. Kane and the remaining marines return to the Hannibal.

The commanders notice that Kane’s Strogg physiology allows him to infiltrate areas previously inaccessible or deadly to humans. The new plan is to attack the Strogg Nexus Core, a large brain-like structure controlling the alien forces. Marines must infiltrate three towers near the Nexus—Data Storage, Processing, and Networking—to disable the Nexus’s shield and activate a teleporter to send Kane inside. Once inside, Kane travels to the Nexus’s center to destroy the Core Brain and its guardian.

After completing the mission, Kane disables the data nodes, defeats the Nexus’s "Guardian," and reaches the Core. There, he faces Makron in a final battle and kills him. Kane destroys the Core and returns to the Hannibal. Later, Kane receives new orders from his superiors.

Development

The Xbox 360 version of Quake 4 was released when the Xbox 360 first launched and works with Xbox Live. This version had major problems with how smoothly the game ran, which led to it winning the award for Most Annoying Frame Rate/Best Slideshow on GameSpot.com's 2005 list. It also had long loading times and technical issues with Xbox Live that made multiplayer games difficult, as noted by game review websites and Activision's support pages for the Xbox 360 version. This version was priced the same as the PC Special Edition DVD and included the same content. Aspyr Media published and released Quake 4 for OS X on April 5, 2006. It was first available only for PowerPC-based Macs, but later became compatible with both PowerPC and x86-based Macs. id Software continued its support for Linux by having Timothee Besset of id release a Linux version of the Quake 4 game file. This file could be downloaded for free from id's website but required a licensed copy of Quake 4 for Windows or OS X to run. The Linux installer was made available two days after the game's release. The game's budget was $15 million.

Clint Walsh and Chris Vrenna were chosen to create the theme music for Quake 4. Vrenna was the producer, and Walsh was the composer. The rest of the music was created by Raven's audio leads, Zachary Quarles and Kevin Schilder.

In 2021, the Quake 4 game files were adapted to work with the open-source dhewm3 engine, which was based on the released Doom 3 source code. This adaptation later allowed the game to be ported to AmigaOS.

Release

Quake 4 was officially released in early October 2005 for Microsoft Windows and later for Linux, OS X, and Xbox 360 platforms. A "Special DVD Edition" was also released, which included promotional materials and the game Quake II along with its expansions, The Reckoning and Ground Zero. The Xbox 360 version of Quake 4 was modeled after the "Special DVD Edition" and included Quake II. On August 4, 2011, the game became available through Steam.

Quake 4 was re-released for Xbox 360 and PC on June 19, 2012, and published by Bethesda. In Europe, the game was launched in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Benelux territories. It was released in the United Kingdom on June 22. Unlike the original Xbox 360 version, the Bethesda re-release does not include Quake II.

Additional content

In 2018, it was discovered that a Quake 4 expansion called Awakening was planned but later canceled for unknown reasons. A former artist from Raven Software, Vitaliy Naymushin, shared some 3D models that were meant to be used in the expansion.

Like earlier versions of Quake, Quake 4 can be modified. This allowed players to create versions of popular mods from previous Quake games, such as Rocket Arena and Quake 4 Fortress (a version of Team Fortress Classic for Quake 4). Quake 4 Fortress was stopped before its creators finished it, and instead, they released an early version with source code. In competitive gaming, two main mods were used: Q4Max and X-Battle. The online Quake 4 community was divided between these two mods. Some online leagues, like ClanBase EuroCup and GGL, switched between X-Battle and Q4Max. However, professional offline tournaments organized by CPL, ESWC, WCG, QuakeCon, and WSVG all used Q4Max. Members from both Q4Max and X-Battle teams worked with Adam "SyncError" Pyle from id Software to create another mod called Delta CTF, which added a Capture the Flag mode inspired by Quake II. Another important mod is SABot, which added multiplayer bots to Quake 4 less than a month after the SDK was released, even though some reviewers had criticized Quake 4 for not including this feature.

Reception

Quake 4's PC version was given a "Silver" sales award by the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), which means it sold at least 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom.

Reviewers generally gave the PC version of Quake 4 positive feedback. Metacritic, a game review database, gave the game an overall score of 81 out of 100. Websites like IGN and UGO praised the game's single-player story, graphics, and voice acting, but noted that the multiplayer mode was similar to Quake III. GameSpot scored Quake 4 an 8.0, stating that the single-player campaign was enjoyable but the multiplayer lacked creativity. PC Magazine gave the game good reviews for both single-player and multiplayer gameplay.

The original 2005 Xbox 360 version of the game received slightly lower scores from critics compared to the PC version, but still earned mostly positive reviews, with a Metacritic score of 75 out of 100. One exception was 1UP.com, which gave the PC version a "B−" and the Xbox 360 version a "B+" score. Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the Xbox 360 version a mixed rating, criticizing the single-player campaign for being unoriginal and noting performance issues on the console. IGN scored Quake 4 8.1 out of 10, saying the game would appeal to long-time console gamers and praised the single-player story, which became more engaging later in the game. GameSpot gave the Xbox 360 version a lower score of 6.6, citing poor graphical performance. The website later named the Xbox 360 version "Most Aggravating Frame Rate / Best Slideshow" in its year-end awards due to frequent slowdowns. X-Play gave the Xbox 360 version a 3 out of 5 and the PC version a 4 out of 5.

Quake 4 was nominated for PC Gamer US's "Best Multiplayer Game 2005" award, which was won by Battlefield 2.

Because of its similarities to Quake III Arena's multiplayer mode, Quake 4 was used in several professional electronic sports tournaments.

The following competitions held Quake 4 events:

• Cyberathlete Professional League (2005)
• Electronic Sports World Cup (2006 / 2007)
• QuakeCon (2005–2007)
• World Cyber Games (2006)
• World Series of Video Games (2006 / 2007)