Now, if you're playing Quake 4 on a console, you will never in a trillion years experience the game. You'll think you have experienced it, but you'll be cheated. It's such a sadness that you think you've played Quake 4 on your ffffucking console. Get real!

I'm sorry, but people rating this low having only played the console version are just being ridiculous.

Quake 4 is without exaggeration, one of the greatest first-person shooters of all time. In terms of gameplay perhaps only second to F.E.A.R.

It's probably the last of that era between the Doom-clone FPS and the CoD-clone FPS. This was the period when FPS games were generally not designed for consoles, and were able to utilize the superior hardware of computers to their full potential. And they really went all out with this one. Projectile-based weapons, a mix of long-range and melee opponents, each with their own unique tactics and vulnerabilities, ragdoll physics, some of the best level-design ever, and insanely smart AI that will play mind games with you. This is some of the pinnacle of PC gaming, and you cannot possibly play this on a console and understand what makes it a masterpiece.

The levels are laid out in such a way to always provide you a mix of cover and enough place to maneuver it in several different ways. You have to think on your feet, sometimes rush opponents, sometimes retreat, constantly move, jump, duck, flank them, and land as many headshots as possible. You're given 10 weapons, each of which functions differently and affects different enemies differently. As a result, when they throw several enemies in a room with you, you have to not only think of how to approach them and who to take out first, but also which weapons to take them out with. There is just an incredible strategic depth to everything you do in this game and a very high skill ceiling, and it's all very fast-paced and adrenaline-infused. You're constantly on the verge of death, and being able to narrowly survive encounters is exhilarating and rewarding in a way that makes you feel like an action hero.

The aesthetics instill a constant feeling of suspense, with occasional moments of awe and fascination, as they depict strange and beautiful alien structures and constantly force you to push yourself into increasingly dangerous and uncomfortable scenarios. The art design in this game mostly echoes Aliens and Starship Troopers, but with a tinge of impressionism. The result is something weird and memorable. This screenshot I took towards the end of the game, in my opinion, perfectly encapsulates Quake 4's visuals in a nutshell. A futuristic soldier lying torn in half next to what seems like Disney magic.

It's also genius how they played with the setting. You're fighting against the Strogg, creatures that view flesh as weak, so they "enhance" it with technology. Quake 4, being a sequel to Quake 2 where the concept was first introduced, and built on Doom 3's engine, weaves a meta-commentary on the relationship between biological creatures and technology. The interactive screens from Doom 3 take on a new meaning here. You're a human being interacting with technology (the computer) that allows you to interact with technology (in-game computer). Then there's the famous spoiler moment, which I won't talk about here, but it kinda moves the gameplay from a more realistic type gameplay to a more old school type, where you move faster and take on more enemies. In other words you (d)evolve from a normal human to a Quake 2 protagonist, an archetypal grunt that used to be the central character of every FPS at the time. A more efficient killing machine, but is something of humanity lost in the process there? Do video games allow us to transcend our limited biological nature, or do they deprive us of something essentially human? Seeing how young the medium is, I think it's still a valid concern, akin to how AI is viewed today, but it's one that isn't talked much about.

Of course this flew over everyone's heads because most gamers want mindless entertainment. Judging by the majority of the reviews (which spoil the only major plot twist in the game btw, so I don't recommend reading them before playing the game), most people expected a Call of Duty. One guy literally called it a "2005 Xbox 360 launch title FPS", which is just utter nonsense. If you're gonna buy a sports car and try to drive it on off-road surfaces, it's not the car that's the problem, it's you.