November 22, 2007 - An explosion to the left of me, an air strike taking out the tank on my left I run for cover to protect my own life. Crouching low behind a half destroyed wall to avoid the suppressing fire of a group of filthy Strogg, I take out my machine gun pistol and lean out from behind the wall, shooting one in the face. As the technicians run over to patch up the fallen Strogg I try to hit them with my machine gun only to realize that I've used most of my clip. Luckily for me one of my teammates drove up at that moment with an Armadillo combat pickup. Quickly jumping into the gunners position I start shooting everything that moves as we try to lead a charge into the enemy position. Cutting a swath through the enemies we managed to reach our objective: a barricade in dire need of blowing up so we can reach Strogg command.

Jumping out of the vehicle, my driver moves to set the charge while I provide covering fire with the machine gun turret in the Armadillo. A sudden warning of missile lock makes me rethink that, jumping out just in time to avoid getting blown up. Taking out my sniper rifle and dropping the Strogg with his rocket launcher. The ground begins to shake and turning to my left I see a giant mechanical terror walking towards up, one hundred and twenty tons of bipedal death: the Cyclops battle walker. Saying a silent prayer I hear the barricade explode just as the Cyclops guns down myself and my partner with a well placed barrage of his guns. While I might die now, my mission is complete. The barricade is gone and the tanks are rolling this way. I can't wait to respawn in and join the charge.

Moments like this are what make Enemy Territory: Quake Wars such a memorable experience. Jumping head first into the battle for Earth between the Strogg and humanity’s last hope, the GDF (Global Defense Force), you will take on the role of a simple soldier from either side in a number of game modes. All of these modes and game maps are full of choke points, strategic movement and frantic gunfights that all come together to make this a compelling, if not frustrating, gaming experience.

Picking up the game is fairly simple if you have played any modern first-person shooter on a computer in the past few years. However the devil is in the details. Once you have found a game, or started up an offline game against computer controlled bots, you will get to pick which side you wish to join, one of five classes, each with specific battle strategies and uses, and then a primary weapon for that class. The end result of all of this is that even if three of you pick to play a basic soldier you can each have a different weapon with an entirely different purpose: one might be there to take out vehicles with his rocket launcher, one will have the chain gun to take out ground troops and the other, with his shotgun, handles close range enemies. This immense focus on teamwork is what really makes this game so unique and fun.

As a warning this facet of the game does have the consequence of making Quake Wars ungodly punishing to those who come into it fresh and new, expecting to be able to single handedly storm an enemy encampment. Trust me; before you go online try some games against the bots. Once you can handle the enemy A.I. on the hard difficulty setting then you can brave the shores of online.

There are three different modes to choose from, each with its own set of maps. Campaign mode is a best of three, taking place on three different maps on one continent. You take turns being on the offense and defense, thus requiring you to constantly pick classes that work with your team. These goals are usually multi-fold and have you frantically trying to set bombs, blow up barricades and take out enemy positions.