Graphics: Here’s where ETQW really shines. I jacked my screen resolution to 1600×1200 and set all of my video settings to High (with pixel shaders set to Very High), and game still ran like butter, with the only artifact being the occasional clipping issue during my character’s death animation. This visual feast is courtesy of id’s programming legend, John Carmack, creator of Megatexture Technology, which renders ETQW‘s one-square-mile maps as single entities and compresses each image into a mere 8 MB of video memory. As for the maps themselves, the outdoor scenes are amazingly detailed, while the few indoor areas are universally gray and uninteresting. But there are lots of impressive little touches, including the Strogg’s dark-matter cannon contrails, which I’d occasionally watch out of sheer appreciation.

Interface: The first thing you notice about ETQW‘s menu screen is the crystal-clear animation of menacing Strogg vessels orbiting the Earth. Overlaid on this image is a thoughtfully laid-out and easily navigated menu screen. At the beginning of each play session, the game checks the Internet for officially available patches and updates itself if necessary. As for the actual game screens, all of the information needed to keep up with in-game events is displayed along the edges of the screen, but players will probably have to consult the manual to decipher some of the unlabeled readouts, and it would’ve been nice to be able to eliminate some of the items to decrease visual clutter.

Gameplay: Botmatch play elicits a mixture of excitement and frustration. Beginning players should make sure they decrease the default difficulty level of Medium to Easy before starting a new match, since bot opponents are deadly shots and one-shot kills are plentiful. When you do die, you can choose to wait for a medic to revive you or respawn at the closest spawn point and work your way back to the action. I found myself choosing the latter more often than not, since it seems that bots enjoy playing as medics about as much as humans do, which is to say, not at all; I once played a three-hour campaign during which I was never revived a single time by an AI medic. The default 20-minute time limit for Campaign maps is much too short when playing offline, since very seldom does your team manage to complete all of its objectives before time runs out, no matter how proficient you are. Engineers will be frustrated by vehicles that won’t stand still long enough to be completely repaired (you only get your XP payout by finishing the repairs), and if you tarry too long at the spawn points and don’t look up, you run the risk of being squashed by falling armored units and artillery, which parachute in without warning. You can do lots of cool stuff, such as pilot an attack helicopter, assume the identity of a dead enemy and infiltrate their ranks, or use a laser designator or smoke grenade to call in air strikes. But getting flattened by a falling tank tends to suck some of the joy out of the experience.

Multiplayer: ETQW is primarily an online multiplayer game, but Internet games play exactly the same as the botmatches, mostly because bots are automatically inserted in the remaining empty slots on each team before an online match begins (unless the server administrator chooses to exclude them). This isn’t so bad when playing a 16-player match, but if you’re stuck on a 64-player server with only a handful of flesh-and-blood fighters, you’d probably be better off playing offline and saving yourself the public humiliation. But the biggest problem with the online component seems to be player apathy. In one of my play sessions, there were more than 900 active servers listed in the browser, but only 83 of them had players logged on, and of those, only 53 had more than 10 players participating.

Sound FX: All of the glitz and glamour of ETQW‘s visual presentation seem to have turned the game’s sound effects into an afterthought. Weapon sounds are adequate, but all of the handguns and rifles sound pretty much alike. Footsteps sound identical whether the characters are walking on concrete or grass. Water sounds are totally absent, even when the characters walk or wade through it. Also, there’s very little variety in the spoken dialog, with the same dozen or so lines being spoken repeatedly throughout the game.

Intelligence: The default settings for the bot AI turn them into formidable opponents, although enemies will occasionally run past you without noticing you’re there. They’re also accomplished marksmen, so players need to watch the minimap carefully and keep their heads down, lest they be sniped from afar. The bots can be valuable teammates as well as deadly enemies, making their inclusion an important part of the overall gameplay. But they also have an annoying tendency to team-kill you by running over you with vehicles, so stay out of their way.

Difficulty: This is one of those games that almost requires players to read their manuals carefully. Several of the character classes use pieces of equipment that aren’t obvious in their function, so you’re bound to raise the ire of your human teammates if you’re not totally checked out on your kit. New players should definitely spend considerable time in the botmatches before venturing into the online arena, if for no other reason than to become familiar with the massive maps and their layouts. ETQW is definitely not a good choice for the casual shooter fan, but it’s certainly worth the investment in time and patience.

Overall: I was initially taken aback by ETQW‘s depth and complexity, and after spending many hours with the game, I’m sure I haven’t even begun to scratch its surface. But once I figured out the basics, I found my enjoyment of the game increasing with each completed scenario. Twelve maps might be perceived by some as insufficient, but once user-generated mods start to appear, the replayability factor will certainly increase. ETQW is far from perfect, but it has one thing that this kind of game really needs: the “just one more map” feeling that compels you to keep playing long after your mind tells you to stop. Hopefully, ETQW will have the legs it needs to survive long enough for currently overstimulated gamers to discover all the great things it has to offer.