Quake 4 actually begins with your squad, the elite Rhino Squad, falling to the planet in landing pods. After smacking to the ground and losing consciousness for a little while, Kane wakes up to find himself in the middle of a battlefield. There's a sense of the size of the planet and gunfire can be heard in the distance. Kane grabs a weapon, talks to a few people in the area, and heads off in search of his team. Thus the experience begins. From then on, it's all about you and your squad...

It's obvious that the narrative is a big portion of the single players experience in Quake 4. One of the other big questions that seems to be thrown around now is "What's different about Quake 4 and DOOM 3?" This probably mainly stems from the similarity of art style and weaponry. "In DOOM 3 you were alone in the dark. It's you against the evil forces of Hell and that's it. In Quake 4, you're one part of an overall force," says Tim Willits of id. "Yes, you become the key to winning it all, but there's much more going on and it's not just you against the world. It's more of a war-type action feel."

"Raven has created all the textures from the ground up," Hollenshead is quick to point out. "There may be a pixel here or there from DOOM 3 on generic stuff like grates or things like that where whether they're on Mars or they're on Stroggos, they tend to pretty much look the same."