The Mac transition of Quake 4 has been a long time come ; if you ’re a first - person shooter fan , it ’s been well worth the wait . The secret plan has the highest production time value of any first - soul shooter I ’ve seen since Doom 3 ( ) and terrific single - actor gameplay . unluckily , as I noted in my first expression at Quake 4 , multiplayer musical mode left me need more .

The first three installing of the Quake franchise had very footling in vulgar with each other . The first was a techno - gothic monster shooter ; the 2nd was a straight - up sci - fi action game ; and the third was an sports stadium - establish multiplayer game . temblor 4 actually picks up the news report of Quake 2 — you return as a human space Marine assail the homeworld of the Strogg — these filthy cybernetic aliens bet like Star Trek ’s Borg on increase hormones .

While a technically impressive plot , Doom 3 ’s grade pattern and overall gameplay style left a lot of first - soul shooter enthusiast wanting . That plot was prone to way too many dark room and spots where you ’d get ambushed by monster — that ’s neat for a haunt house attraction at Halloween , but it does n’t exactly make for compelling gameplay . earthquake 4 does n’t fall into that trap — most spots are well light enough to see . And when they are n’t , your weapon system often have torch so you’re able to see what you ’re doing in the dark .

Quake ’s unreal intelligence seems a moment deficient — pathfinding for non - player case and bad guy likewise often leaves them stand in bushed ends or taking longer than they should to get to where they ’re go . All too often , the Strogg just lay out in the open like statues waiting for you to mow them down .

Multiplayer in Quake 4 is okay , but not great . There ’s a relative paucity of maps , and , with a few exceptions , the ones that are there are n’t particularly imaginative or well - designed . It ’s probably the game ’s weakest overall component . That ’s not a big business deal for me — I do n’t drop a band of clock time play against others online — but it does bruise the game ’s overall replay value . The flat multiplayer presentation is particularly surprising from a franchise that ’s so well - known for its outstanding multiplayer gaming up until now .

As I mentioned , production caliber is splendid . Quake 4 ’s graphics and sound are both dead top - notch , with pro part performing and lots of interstitial sequences to split up up the action and keep you take in the report .

The game perform well — provide you havea Mac that can run it effectively . A Power Mac G4/1.67MHz or faster is mandatory , although Aspyr would rather see you run this plot on a G5 or Intel - based Mac ( excluding the Intel - base Mac mini , whose graphics are n’t up to sniff ) . And yes , Quake 4 ships as a Universal Binary .

As I compose this , Aspyr is working on a temporary hookup that will provide symmetrical multiprocessing support , which promises faster performance for many multiprocessor system . Aspyr differentiate me that the performance welfare for MacBook Pro organization is n’t liable to amount to much because of other limitation related to that system ’s computer graphic processor ; however , Dual Core and multiprocessor Power Mac G5s and Core Duo iMacs are potential to see some pregnant improvement .

The bottom line

Ultimately , Quake 4 stand out from the crowd partly because of its own great execution and partly because it ’s been built on the shoulders of giants . disregarding , if you ’re a first - person shooter partizan , this game should be on your must corrupt list .