Enemy Territory: Quake Wars - First Look Preview

Developed by Splash Damage Ltd, London based, who came to prominence by developing id Software's Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory - winner of multiple 'Game of the Year' awards - their expertise is second to none. Formed in 2001 from key members of the online Quake III Arena mod-making community, Splash Damage has continued their association with id through collaboration on game research and development ideas right up to Quake Wars.

Enemy Territory is set in the Quake universe, 50 years in the future, during the original Strogg invasion of Earth (as a prequel to the events chronicled in the Quake II and Quake 4 games), pitting the armies of Earth's Global Defense Force (GDF), with their conventional approach to warfare, against the invading Strogg and their advanced alien weapons and technology.

The GDF is a paramilitary rapid-reaction force formed from the various national armies and relief agencies. A military force with the equipment, command structure and mobility to defend Earth from the Strogg raiders. The GDF forces are humanity's elite. The Strogg is however a barbaric race of alien cyborgs traveling the universe killing or capturing any living organism in their path and their attack on Earth was originally believed to be an attempt to strip the planet of its natural resources, including humans.

A number of in-house or specially created tools and technologies is helping to create such a stimulating experience, as was explained by Paul Wedgwood, Founder/Lead Game Designer Splash Damage, "ETQW is set in large outdoor areas, built using a unique and revolutionary approach to terrain rendering devised by John Carmack called the MegaTexture. The game's physics and networking systems have been developed specifically for multiplayer combat. In-all, the technology behind ETQW has been designed with the goal of creating the most engaging and rewarding team-based multiplayer combat available - with visuals, sounds, and physics all geared toward immersing players in a nightmarish war of survival."

The new MegaTexture technology renders the entire battlefield un-tiled and unbroken to the horizon, representing over a square mile of unique terrain with inch-level detail. This technology was not designed, we were informed, purely for its visuals but special properties are derived from the MegaTexture that allow realistic friction on surfaces; vehicles slide on gravel or wet roads, but have better handling on dry pavement, while vehicles driving over dirt produce more dust than a vehicle driving on pavement or rock. This is also true for the dust trails kicked up by vehicles, the footsteps made by players and the gravel hitting the under chassis of a vehicle when off-road.

With any Quake title the presentation, look and attention to detail are a fascination for gamers and with the game now over 2 years into development and built using the heavily modified version of the Doom 3 engine with enhanced physics, the real focus must be on the dynamics of the multiplayer features and all it entails.

ETQW's gameplay is focused on securing enemy territory and pushing your team's front-line forward. This allows for very focused combat - with everyone knowing where the front-line is, what to do when you get there, and what your rewards will be for success. It's rare that anyone will wander the battlefield looking for a fight - and in-field vehicle drops take the leg work out of long-distance travel.

The game will be balanced for 24-32 players. This is considered to be the 'sweet spot' for great team play while pursuing each mission's military objectives as part of an overriding campaign. Rewarding players with promotions and specialist skills for not only being good with a weapon, but more importantly contributing to the team through their class-specific skills is core to the game.

"ETQW's networking system uses a new approach called 'Area of Relevance'. Best thought of as 'Level-of-Detail for Networking', the system only transmits the data that is necessary based on your distance from a target; for example, you don't need to know how many grenades someone is carrying when they are a mile away. This keeps the network stream efficient, and allows the advanced physics and rendering right to the horizon to co-exist with multiplayer combat," explained Paul Wedgwood.

Put the question why Splash continue to focus exclusively on multiplayer it was explained that both teams have a great love of this experience as both gamers and developers and felt that playing and facing live opponents rather than a computer controlled 'bot' is the ultimate encounter and design task. If gamers preferred playing against a bot maybe they had failed! Ensuring the experiences washes over and immerse not only the veteran player as well as a new player, who can jump into the setting and know where to go, what do so and are rewarded for their success was also a prerequisite for the team!

This last point was further highlighted by Wedgwood. "ETQW's game depth allows for previously unseen team play potential. The new 'Solo Assignment System' ensures that regardless of whether you know which combat role you're playing, what weapons you're carrying, or what your team objectives are, you'll know where to go, what to do when you get there, and what your reward will be for victory. This coordinated team play system evolves as you use it and your character advances, to provide the infrastructure for a significant improvement in interface and communications for fire-teams. We are convinced that even someone new to the FPS MP genre, will quickly move up from having fun in their 'sandbox', to completing military missions as part of a crack small-unit squad."

The vehicles will come with more sophistication in control and responses but it is more than mere physics but full on off-road driving, rock hopping, air stunts and vehicle jumps - all of which reinforce ETQW's goal of providing specialist vehicles to provide great team play. ETQW's vehicles can be thought of as an extension of the character class system - each vehicle offers basic transport, but more importantly can be used to augment the player's battlefield role, giving them access to unique routes and combat tactics.

The ground vehicles include the one-man Husky Quad Bike, six-wheeled Trojan Amphibious Armoured Personnel Carrier, tracked Titan Tank and huge Mobile Command Centre. Air-support is provided by vehicles such as the Anansi Hovercopter (capable, because of its reversible thrusters, of vertical-take-off-and-landing and reverse loops and fast altitude gains/drops), the Vampire Air-Strike Bomber, and Magog Sky-Crane (air-lifting deployables to the battlefield). GDF's vehicles feature a wide-array of anti-personnel and anti-armour weapons, some featuring stealth technology, or providing re-supply and re-equipment capability in the battlefield.

ETQW's character class structure is similar to that featured within Wolfenstein Enemy Territory. Both the Strogg and GDF feature infiltration, assault, defense and support roles. However, a significant goal for the game is that the GDF and Strogg don't just look different from each other, (the GDF adopt realistic military poses, while the Strogg are more animalistic) but more importantly, they play differently from each other. All of their tools, abilities, and weapons reflect their different technology and culture; their asymmetric capabilities dictate different approaches to combat.

A brief overview of the factions' weapon technology was explained. "The GDF's weapons technology is 'futuristic conventional': they use assault rifles, pistols, sniper rifles, machine guns, grenades, rocket launchers, land-mines, proximity traps and demolition charges - pretty much what you'd expect from a human army 50-60 years from now. Their weaponry, targeting, imaging and guidance technology is advanced compared to today, but their battlefield tactics would be recognisable on a modern battlefield."

The Strogg, however, are very different. They use directed-energy weapons, gravity manipulation and cybernetically augmented command and communications technology. Their weapons include remote-control drones and a greater array of area-affect and damage-over-time capabilities. Their tactics are dictated by their technology. For example, the tracer effects from Strogg weapons are more likely to give their position away, forcing the Strogg to seek direct combat instead of cover or concealment. The Strogg experience battle differently - when they take damage, their vision is distorted by distinctive interruptions to their biomechanical augmentations. Many of ETQW's Strogg weapons are predecessors to the ones they use in the latter QUAKE universe, including early prototypes of the Rail Gun, Lightning Pistol, and Hyperblaster.

A perfect blend of strategy and full-on actions, depending on circumstance or inclination, and placements in certain strategic positions or trying the gung ho method with vehicles is down to the choice you make. You might like to spend a good deal of time creating a fortified encampment but the end results may not be worth the time and tactical 'nouse'.