Quake Wars Beta

[Acidburns]

Anyone else here playing the Quake Wars beta?

I've played for maybe an hour or so, and I would like to share my first impressions. It feels like the bastard child of Battlefield and Unreal Tournament assault mode. There are plenty of classes and guns to choose from, but rather than just spawn points to fight over there are objects to complete.

It is very fast, and in terms of gameplay owes much to Unreal Tournament. Despite being able to crouch/go prone it descends into a twitch-fest at close range. The maps seem quite small. The vehicles feel somewhat toy-like.

The classes have plenty of depth, and both sides feel quite different as you learn their tricks. Performance is good, especially considering it is a beta. Unlock/rank system similar to Battlefield 2142. Multiple weapons for each class. Air dropping turrets as a Strogg constructor is cool. Spotting artillery strikes as an observator(?) is fun too.

Whether it stands up to continued play I'm not so sure.

[GuppyShark]

Keep us posted, I'm keen to see how it turns out.

[Mr Bean]

Two more hours and I'll have it downloaded, impressions to follow

[Laughing Mechanicus]

I've downloaded it an given it a quick go, to be honest I'm disappointed - playing a game like Battlefield but at the speed of Quake multiplayer completely removes any tactical nuance or feeling of being part of a team. Everybody just runs full tilt at each other firing from the hip and spamming whatever special ability their class has. The vehicle combat is also really simplistic (it makes BF2142s vehicle combat look 'deep').

Then again, I am very tired so my brain might just not be up to playing it right now.

Oh and the Strogg talk English now, and crack jokes. What the fuck.

[Mr Bean]

I have to agree with Aaron, it makes Battlefield 2 look like a "realistic and honest depiction of modern combat, complete with respawning"

Seriously, some of the things are simply borked.

Few good things

1. Snipers, trying to use that railgun like it's Quake III Area? Suprise! Your the one class in the game that in fact DOES make use of things like "bullet drift" and "shot deflection. Strogg have the Railgun of course, instant kill on any infantry but leaves that oh so bright "come shoot me" beam. Human snipers are using what looks like a futuristics AWP from Counterstrike. (AKA The Barret .50cal sniper) but unless you tag head shots it's two shots to kill unless they've taken some battle damage.

2.Turrets are fun, to bad you can't deploy them inside, and they are twenty feet talll(I shit you not, twenty feet tall, they are bigger than the Human TANKS) and yes they are deadly, but they do suffer from Point blank sydrome, IE if they can see it, they can't shoot it unless you really close. But get close... and your just gone.

3. Combat is fast paced, but hit or miss. Close combat can be hectic, but with the standard weapons that both sides are using, simple Quake III tactics will see you through.


Worst of all, Strogg's gift to Assault Rifles from Quake IV does not make an showing, making me a very sad person.

I'll be taken screenshots tomorrow and I'll post some up.

[Hotfoot]

The railgun isn't insta-kill. Trust me, I've gotten hits and no kills. It's good if you can get a headshot, but otherwise, forget it.

[CaptHawkeye]

Thus far my biggest problem seem to be with the application of vehicles. They are balanced fine, but they don't feel very good. They are overly sensative and seem to suffer from lots of lag.

1. Snipers, trying to use that railgun like it's Quake III Area? Suprise! Your the one class in the game that in fact DOES make use of things like "bullet drift" and "shot deflection. Strogg have the Railgun of course, instant kill on any infantry but leaves that oh so bright "come shoot me" beam. Human snipers are using what looks like a futuristics AWP from Counterstrike. (AKA The Barret .50cal sniper) but unless you tag head shots it's two shots to kill unless they've taken some battle damage.

Frankly, one thing that annoys me about both sniper rifles are their scopes. The Railgun scope has this weird "digital" effect that makes it annoying to use and actually slows down FPS. The GDF scope has no center dot so its uncomftorable to use as well.

It is very fast, and in terms of gameplay owes much to Unreal Tournament. Despite being able to crouch/go prone it descends into a twitch-fest at close range.

That's always been a problem with the ET formula. Short range encounters are too much dancing and luck and not enough skill. At this time, it's only been made worse by the abysmal hit detection. I'll never criticise Battlefield's short range spam fests ever again.

Oh and the Strogg talk English now, and crack jokes. What the fuck.

What? You didn't like the earth humor?

[Hotfoot]

By far, the most insane post from the fans on the beta forums has to be this:

Thankyou Id and Splash Damage for bringing the skill back to infantry battles. No more slow, go prone, no shooting in the air, dumbed down, poor rego infantry battles that we have come to expect from BF2.

Yeah, I don't know what the fuck he means by "rego" either.

Personally, I'm torn. I really like the dynamic in BF2, so a lot of the things in QW don't feel right. The vehicles especially feel very weak, while the anti-vehicle class, oddly, feels weak as well. The problem, I think, is that every class has a way to stop a vehicle, while the anti-vehicle rocket launcher isn't good enough to distinguish itself from the other weapons, especially given that it doesn't have a very good anti-infantry use. The best use I've found for the rocket launcher is taking down those lousy deployable turrets and shooting down the Strogg's fliers.

By the way, unless there's a good gunner in the human tank or a soldier with a rocket launcher, the Icarus packs are massively annoying. 1-2 Icarus packs can lock down a spawn with ease, and if the pilots are constructors, they can repair all damage to the packs in under a second. Honestly, if the pilot would take damage too, they'd be far less dangerous. As it is, it's like free hitpoints.