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It's time for more wartime action as the human war against the cyborg nation of Strogg reaches a new chapter – the second chapter, actually.

The Quake series started with a very loose plot about a soldier going through a dimensional gate after the military opened one to a rather nastier dimension. But instead of the demonic hordes in 'Doom', 'Quake' took its ideas from 'Lovecraft' – the final 'boss' was the Cthulu god Shug-Naggorath.

'Quake 2' brought a more coherent story to the series – or was at least id's attempt at making a game that goes beyond just its technology. But they didn't have to go too far – when 'Quake 2' arrived in the mid-nineties, games and in particular the first person shooter genre, were far less evolved. 3D was still a fairly new gimmick and blasting away tons of monsters in a myriad of levels more than did the job.

Shoot ahead to now and the arrival of 'Quake IV'. 'Quake III' was completely focused on multiplayer features, but Q4 returns us to the fight against the Strogg, this time using the new 'Doom 3' engine.

Players assume the role of Matthew Kane, a new recruit to Rhino Squad. Things quickly kick into action as Rhino's transport gets shot down and crash lands on the Strogg home world. There is a war going on and the landing teams have to secure areas and take out key installations for the larger forces to arrive. One of the earliest big objectives is the demolition of an anti-air cannon keeping the battle cruisers from landing on the surface and replenishing supplies.

From here on the missions continue until Kane gets turned into a Strogg (a plot twist that was spoiled by id and Activision at E3 earlier this year).

This is authentically Quake and fans will get pangs of nostalgia as they go through the world. Familiar and new monsters will try and kill you. The new addition of squads will keep you alive for large parts of the game. Technicians and medics provide armour and health, while other soldiers are very adept at opening fire on charging Strogg. In fact, for a large part of the game it's a bit easy since the marines add a lot of punch to assaults. Things get sticky when you have to do things on your own though.

There is no doubt that 'Quake IV' has a high level of graphic fidelity and pushing the settings to their zenith will definitely give you some spectacular eye-candy. But apart from that requiring a powerful machine, the cat's also kinda been let out of the bag. 'Quake IV' doesn't look or feel that vastly different from 'Doom 3', except that the latter managed to create a lot more atmosphere.

The reality of dying under an assault of monsters was far more evident in 'Doom 3' and the primitive AI was effectively masked behind players sneaking around in levels instead of charging. 'Quake IV' loses out here, as charging becomes part of the package pretty early on. You simply aren't that scared or nervous, especially once you start exploiting the horrifically simple enemy AI.

Actually AI is the wrong word – I've encountered stupider opponents in a game, but not in this kind of a game. In 'Serious Sam' you also deal with thick-as-dough intelligence, but the game compensates by throwing a lot at you. 'Quake IV' has neither volume nor depth in its enemy encounters, which sucks a lot of the air out of the experience.

Even graphically, though very nice, it's flawed. There are no real vistas, terrain deformation and synthetic damage is lacking, the character animations are standard, physics use is kept to a minimum and – believe it or not – but the backdrop is still a flat picture.

'Outdoors' doesn't really exist and the open areas in the game are essentially just rooms with more of the sky showing, a big difference from the huge terrain found in 'Half-Life'. Not all games do outdoor areas well and titles like 'F.E.A.R.' cleverly avoided this by keeping the story inside large constructed areas. With 'Quake IV' the developers figured we just won't notice.

Granted, you encountered the same problem in 'Doom 3' and any new shooter that still relies on nineties design principles. And using older ideas isn't the problem here – 'Painkiller' reinvented old school shooters quite beautifully. Meanwhile, 'Far Cry' and other landmark titles have shifted FPS titles into another gear. 'Doom 3' still carried the load because it had Hell – a visceral area of the game that was very different to how things looked on Mars. 'Quake IV' doesn't share this dramatic range in location and style, which attributes more to the eventual lacklustre feel of the game. In a nutshell, it gets boring.

The Strogg part of the story could have changed this. As mentioned, your character is turned into a Strogg halfway though the game, though you keep fighting for the good guys. What does this bring to the package? Well, you have a bit more health, you are a bit faster, you can use Strogg medical points and some Strogg signs become legible.

The human voice announcements are replaced by a deep gruff version, because surely you can understand Strogg now. Strangely, the Strogg soldiers still grunt, puff and scream in a tongue I couldn't comprehend. Also, most of the Strogg screens don't get deciphered. Call me a cynic, but I smell a rush job slap-on addition to the game story. Or let me put it this way: turning into a Strogg in 'Quake IV' adds nothing to the experience.

'Quake IV' in itself isn't flawed – if you are longing for a near-purist approach to 'Quake 2' with today's technology, you've got it. But the charm soon wears off and the sheer unoriginality of 'Quake IV' screams at you.

It becomes dull and boring – the Strogg change actually changes very, very little and the whole project feels like a 1997 game ported into a 2005 engine. It's fun, but 'been there, done that' is eventually the mantra.

The FPS genre has evolved to far more challenging and atmospheric games – I could cite one or two of Raven's own titles that beat this attempt. Enjoyable? Maybe, but definitely not revolutionary. Not even a classic.