PC releases have been a bit lacking this year, so it's a genuine delight to see not one, but two kick arse FPS titles hitting shelves simultaneously. Not everyone's made of money though, thus begging the question...which is worth your time? Personally I'd say both, but if you're a little stricter with your piggy bank, read on for the full low down. It's Quake versus F.E.A.R. people, and you've got a ring-side seat.
Weapons
Winner: F.E.A.R.
 | | The railgun has always been one of the premier FPS weapons in my book |
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These are both combat-heavy first person shooters, so it makes sense to kick start our comparisons here. This is a tough one to call, mind.
Headlining Quake's arsenal is its bad arse machine gun, one that's solid as hell and a joy to fire. Subsequently it became my personal weapon of choice for 90% of the game. Pleasingly it's got some beauties backing it up though, such as the famous railgun, but sadly no BFG. It is however, replaced with something just as special...
One thing about Quake's line-up that I love is the way the guns are regularly upgraded as the story progresses. Remember in Half-Life 2 how the gravity gun became "supercharged" in the final act? There's a ton of that sorta shit here, with guns that start out a little lacking eventually becoming arse kicking gat-cannons of the highest pedigree.
 | | Ignore F.E.A.R.'s more mundane machine guns and you're in for a real treat |
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The game loses major points for its disappointing hyperblaster though, baring no resemblance to the old orange laser spitting cylinder of destruction from Quake II. Booooo-urns.
F.E.A.R.'s basic SMG is quite light and flimsy compared to Quake's no-nonsense scoped death bringer, but despite a few damp early weapons such as this, it goes on to introduce some true beasts as the game progresses. The shotgun is one of the better 12 gauges seen in the genre, and even the basic pistol springs to life beautifully when used akimbo.
But it's with the nail gun that F.E.A.R. really comes out of its shell, a hilariously sick piece of kit that pins enemies to walls, and its lead in this category is only cemented the first time you use the particle weapon.
Taking out your first bad guy with this big huge monster cock of a gun is just one of the flat-out coolest sights you'll ever see in a game, and arguably out-railguns Quake at its own game. For that, F.E.A.R. walks away the winner.
Combat
Winner: F.E.A.R.
 | | Fire-fights in F.E.A.R. are a fucking blast. It's Half-Life 2 meets Max Payne |
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Although Quake has a very nice, solid feel to its weapons, the combat in F.E.A.R. is just way more original and some of the best fucking fun I've had in ages. Arguably the combat is the game's single trump card in fact, as it creates the sort of over the top fire-fights not even the best of Hollywood are capable of.
This is hands-down the coolest implementation of slow-mo since the original Max Payne for one, but when coupled with the awesome physics, the incredible effects and the alarming amount of debris and detail all on-screen at once, it borders on gun porn. F.E.A.R.'s the kinda game that makes you feel like a cooler human being just from playing it.
As the developers of Halo infamously once said, a good game needs only 30 seconds of fun, looped over and over for 10 hours to be a hit. F.E.A.R. is the epitome of that. Chuck some grenades into a group of bad guys, whack on slow-mo, charge in and karate kick one before mopping up the rest in a fountain of blood and decapitations. Rinse. Repeat. But when it feels this awesome and looks so sweet, I ain't complaining.
If Quake had put more effort into injecting the physics into its battles and utilising the environments more, it would have gone from merely solid, to really rather brilliant. Alas, it didn't, and F.E.A.R. throttles it in this area.
AI
Winner: F.E.A.R.
Again, F.E.A.R. comes out in the lead kicking and screaming here. You fight by yourself pretty much from beginning to end, so despite the occasional NPC, it's the enemies you'll be interacting with for the most part. The game never for one second lets you down on this score.
 | | Quake's squad-mates not only help out in the heat of battle, but also heal you up and mend your armour when needed |
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These guys are some smart mother fuckers, I tells ya. While lower difficulty settings allow for the more Rambo-esque tactics mentioned above, cranking it up to high results in a much more vicious and visceral experience. You'll have to constantly watch your flanks, keep an eye on your rear and just generally act like a military machine if you plan on staying alive. Sticking to cover, suppressing enemies, flushing 'em out with 'nades - these become commonplace tactics at the higher difficulties.
I'll be honest, numerous times the enemy troops got the better of me by using such sneaky manoeuvres themselves. The intelligence of the F.E.A.R. clones actually ups the "fear" of the game considerably thanks to these such moments...arguably more so than the horror segments.
Although the intelligence of Quake's enemies pale in comparison to F.E.A.R.'s, it still shines in the AI department due to rather impressive intelligence on your squad-mates. Squadies are a new addition to the series, but it doesn't disappoint on this front; these boys are no mere scenery, constantly helping you take down bad guys, and even eliciting a degree of remorse when they fall. Due to some impressive voice-acting (namely from Peter Stormare of Big Lebowski fame), they feel like real people too, as opposed to scripted robots.
It's nice to have AI buddies who are worth a damn on the field for a change, even if they aren't quite enough to better the impressive AI of F.E.A.R.'s arse kicking bad boys.
Level Design
Winner: Quake 4
 | | F.E.A.R. only leaves the office for two small levels. A shame really |
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That all said, F.E.A.R. suffers here due to being stuck in a couple of very similar, very drab office buildings for most of its campaign. The designers do their best to weave some interesting ideas and set-pieces into this setting, but ultimately they all boil down to remixes of The Matrix lobby scene over and over. Nope, from a gameplay perspective, F.E.A.R.'s strength lies mainly in its combat, as opposed to impressive level design or amazing architecture.
Quake is the complete opposite. The story is set on an alien planet, and it uses that to its full potential. This game takes you from claustrophobic corridors, to massive spaceships, into the very depths of Strogg hell. It does however, take a while to get going.
 | | This level for me, marked Quake 4's true beginning. Stick with it throughout those lame intro missions |
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In fact I don't think many would argue that Quake 4's intro is clich?d and dull. However something clicks around one third in; your squad's sent into a chillingly enjoyable Strogg base, and out of nowhere it becomes the sequel we all wanted. The level's from here onwards are fantastic, the architecture flat out brilliant, and best of all, that old Quake vibe returns in spades.
Those evil deep voices, that familiar look, the famous railgun beam, it all comes flooding back with a vengeance. Developers Raven do a stunning job of bringing the atmosphere and feel of Quake II (the game's true prequel) into the new millennium, way more so for instance, than iD did with Doom.
There's a number of vehicular levels thrown in throughout Quake's campaign, ranging from tanks to massive ED-209-style mechs, but sadly they feel light, ugly and horribly basic. While a far cry from the quality of say, the Half-Life 2 buggy segments, or Halo's famous Warthog introduction, they come across more like small mini-games than full-on levels though, and don't derail the overall experience too much.
It's all about the on-foot missions at the end of the day, and despite a flaky start, Quake doesn't disappoint here. It's like Call of Duty with considerably better AI, dragged into the future and given a massive injection of dark grittiness. Impressive.
Art Direction
Winner: F.E.A.R.
 | | F.E.A.R. uses all the tricks in the book to pull off a fantastically spooky mood |
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As its title gives away, F.E.A.R. is part game, part horror movie. Its use of minimal lighting, spooky shadows and big arse shocks are impressively slick, but it doesn't stop there. The game weaves some crazy, off the wall visions into the game, brief moments that are as bizarre as they are beautifully surreal. It's moments like this where it starts to move away from simple bloodbath into something with actual artistic merit. The game's clearly had a lot of time and effort put into its mood and overall style, and for that it deserves some lovin'.
Quake nails the whole futuristic/sci-fi tech thing admirably, however I'd place it a solid second in this category due to that very slow and somewhat limp beginning. It starts off very much lacking in identity, with nothing making me feel like this was a Quake game at all. The squad mates are straight out of Starship Troopers and the early weapons - while fun to use - look no better than the millions of other machine guns and shotties we see so regularly in these games.
 | | Quake 4 does a decent job of updating the old look of Quake II...eventually |
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Of course, my appreciation for Quake skyrocketed later. In particular the darker Strogg environments in the latter half of the game come off well, with a fantastically gorgeous style reminiscent of a Borg cube by way of Aliens, with a little Empire Strikes Back carbon freeze chamber thrown in for good measure. Such environs not only look cool as fucking hell, but are distinctly more epic than what we saw in Doom III. More to the point, they nail that luminous green and orange look of Quake II, while being a lot more subtle and less garish this time around.
Comparisons will still be made to Doom regardless, primarily as this is the next game to use that same engine, but to be fair, Quake 4 does a whole bunch of stuff that Doom III never dreamed of. Still...at this point I can't really tell you how a Doom game differs to a Quake game if I'm perfectly honest. It's like the two power house iD franchises are slowly melding into one. Was Quake
always this dark?
F.E.A.R. has no such problems finding its own identity, and is bulging with unique, original style from beginning to end. There's one or two decent jump-in-your-seat moments - particularly during the beginning - but for the most part F.E.A.R. is more about creating an underlying sense of unease than anything. It pulls that off spectacularly well.
Story
Winner: Quake 4
 | | While not as "mature", Quake's plot is just downright cooler than F.E.A.R.'s |
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Sadly F.E.A.R.'s story just never grabbed me. I dig the concept of battling a crazy cannibal and his clone army, but in practice it's all a bit convoluted and confusing. For 90% of the game, plot points are really only divulged through mission briefings and the occasional answer phone message, so for the most part plot plays distant second fiddle to the action. When it starts giving you proper answers towards the end, I'd kinda switched off.
Quake's story is just fucking brilliant however. Right off the bat they tie in the events of Quake II superbly, but that's barely the beginning, with your character Matt Kane going off on his whole own rivetingly dark sci-fi adventure throughout the Strogg war that I not for one moment expected. Details would spoil it, but there's some fantastically twisted shit in store, both for you and your squad mates.
Although developed primarily by Raven as mentioned, this is probably the darkest and edgiest game iD have been associated with. Marines curse up a storm, the blood and guts are never held back and some of the Strogg mutilations around the middle section will turn your stomach. This could well be the only game in existence to have a first person amputation sequence.
Sound
Winner: F.E.A.R.
 | | Firing off big explosions then slapping on slow-mo equals pure auditory delight |
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We all know an FPS weapon is only as good as it sounds, but thankfully both games shine here.
I don't think a single iD powered game has ever sounded poor, and Quake 4 is no exception. It uses a great mixture of brand-spanking new sounds with touched-up versions of old "classics", such as the railgun "booomph!", the armour "cachink!" and those ever creepy Strogg taunts. Music is disappointing though, in that I barely heard a single note from beginning to end.
F.E.A.R.'s weapons similarly shine, but it's only the tip of the iceberg. This game uses its soundtrack expertly, with everything from the scarily imposing chatter of the clone troops, to the tingling of bullet shells hitting the floor coming through crystal clear every time.
Yet it gets better. Whack on slo-mo and just listen. The entire world slows down like a turntable, voices become deep and menacing, and explosions reverb all around you in stunning surround sound...my god, it's about as good a game has ever sounded. Throw in some deeply disturbing droning music that couldn't work better if it tried, and you have F.E.A.R - the perfect excuse to upgrade to 7.1.
Graphics
Winner: Quake 4
 | | The outdoor sections aren't perfect, but Quake 4 is still one of the best looking games currently out on PC |
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I love the fact both engines have such an emphasis on creating these awesome, real-time shadows, but it's a shame they're all pitch black. There's absolutely no ambient light whatsoever in either game, so everything is either completely dark, or overly bright. This is particularly conspicuous in Quake as soon as you step outside, and one has to wonder if this Doom III engine is really built for venturing beyond the safety of interiors.
It's worth noting that Quake does perform a heck of a lot better than F.E.A.R. in terms of frame-rate and slowdown, but then again F.E.A.R. has 10 times the action happening on screen at any one moment. F.E.A.R.'s technically very impressive with that in mind, with the sheer volume of smoke, bullet shells and decal effects drawing some major boners. It's just a shame that the levels are so monochrome and dull, once again a side effect of the dreary office building setting. If nothing else, Monolith must be applauded for making grey wall after grey wall look as pretty as they do...
Although the engine's fair similarly, I think Quake's out of this world setting allows it to shine much more than F.E.A.R. in this area. As a result, it's one of the better looking games of the year.
Longevity
Winner: Quake 4
 | | You'll clean through each in under 10 hours, but quality over quantity and all that |
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F.E.A.R.'s incredibly short, and although better off, Quake's single player won't last much longer either. This leaves multiplayer, and I have to say Quake takes the lead here easily.
F.E.A.R.'s multiplayer is nice enough throwaway fun, something to waste some time with on a rainy day, but I get the feeling Quake 4's multiplayer is here for the long-haul. Remember, all three Quake games still get regular online play to this very day, and with good reason. Of all the online shooters I've played over the years, little compares to some of the railgun duels I've had in the series.
For its multiplayer component, Quake plays it smart. It does away completely with the look and feel of the single player game, and pretty much just remakes Quake III Arena. We subsequently get all the pretty effects and massive polygon counts of this new engine, but with the sheer breakneck speed and over the top carnage that made the series so popular. It's an amazing halfway point between what we know, and what's capable with this awesome new tech.
Heck, there's even a remake of Q2DM1!
Conclusion
 | | Quake is my personal pick of the two, but I may be tainted by years of fanboy fever |
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I was so disappointed by Quake's beginning that at first it barely registered on my radar next to F.E.A.R., however in all honesty it slowly but surely won me over, turning into a completely different game by the end. Overall, it feels great to be back in the Quake-verse after all these years.
F.E.A.R. is a stunning game, and pleasingly different to the many FPS titles before it, but despite it winning many of the categories above, my inner Quake loving child has just too much attachment to the series to call F.E.A.R. the superior game.
As always though, it really boils down to what you're after at the end of the day.
I'm sure those who were never big Quake guys will proclaim F.E.A.R. a significantly better title. Monolith are the underdogs of the FPS world in many ways, constantly cranking out inventive and imaginative games way beneath the radar of the big franchises like Quake and Half-Life 2, and this is yet another notch to add to that bedpost. If you want the more original and psychologically engaging title, I'd go for F.E.A.R.
 | | F.E.A.R. is another winner for Monolith, alongside their other gems like No One Lives Forever and the under-rated Tron 2.0 |
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Quake may not bring much new to the table, but it's an amalgamation of so many other great FPS games from over the years. It mixes in some Elite Force, some Doom III, some Republic Commando and some Call of Duty, while simultaneously progressing the Quake II storyline brilliantly in the process. By stringing together elements of all these much hailed titles, then wrapping it up in a gorgeous looking slab of mature sci-fi action, we got a massively solid "best of", even if it never quite reinvents the wheel.
Either of these bad boys should keep you busy 'til the uber elite Prey rolls around next year anyway. But fuck all that, why ain't we got an Alien vs. Predator 3 in one of these sodding engines yet?
