Asymmetrical Parity: The GDF and the Strogg

“The teams are distinct from each other,” explains Wedgwood. “They’re not just skinned versions of each other. The challenge was to find a happy medium where each ability for each team has a counterpart on the other. For example, the Strogg can turn dead GDF troops into spawn points, but GDF medics can use their defibrillators to destroy those spawn points.”

He adds: “We had four teams working on balancing the game: here, people at id Software, and external focus groups of experienced players and newcomers. They gave feedback during development. It was passionate debate that brought about a balance, rather than taking a formulaic approach.”

The Strogg’s source of health and ammunition is the same thing: Stroyent, a goo they can transfer between themselves and their weapons at will. They produce it at processing facilities by mulching enemies captured dead or alive, dead Strogg, and other biomatter. While the Strogg don’t need to reload ammo, like GDF troops do, their weapons will overheat if they hold down the trigger too long.

Strogg:

• Aggressor: The grunts of the Strogg army, aggressors are the only ones who can wield the obliterator (similar to a rocket launcher) and the hyperblaster (comparable to a heavy machine gun). They also carry plasma charges that prove useful when an objective requires destroying a structure.
• Technician: They revive fallen teammates and drop Stroyent cells that provide health and ammo boosts. Technicians can also turn GDF corpses into spawn hosts, allowing their fellow soldiers to return to the action at that spot after dying.
• Constructor: These guys come in handy when the Strogg need to build and maintain turrets that defend against enemy troops and vehicles, as well as incoming artillery barrages. They can also disarm the GDF soldier’s HE (high explosive) charge and plant up to three mines at a time.
• Oppressor: Long-range tactical decisions come from this class, which can deploy a rail howitzer, a plasma mortar, or a dark matter cannon. In addition, an oppressor can activate tactical shields that last 40 seconds and throw violator beacons that transmit a signal telling an orbiting Strogg spaceship where to fire.
• Infiltrator: Need to snipe a few enemies? Want to hack enemy deployables and disable them for 60 seconds? You can do all that and more, including disabling vehicles with scrambler grenades and spying on enemy positions with flyer drones, if you choose this class. You can even teleport around the battlefield and disguise yourself as a GDF soldier.

Global Defense Force:

• Soldier: They’re comparable to the Strogg’s aggressors, except they carry HE charges instead of plasma charges.
• Medic: They heal wounded teammates with their medpacks and revive fallen ones with their defibrillators, which can also be used to destroy spawn hosts created by Strogg technicians. In addition, medics can toss a supply drop marker that calls in an air-dropped crate full of medpacks and ammo.
• Engineer: Comparable to Strogg constructors, this class deploys and maintains the same types of turrets and can place up to three mines at a time. They differ, however, in their ability to construct machine gun towers and nests for teammates to use.
• Field Ops: Like Strogg oppressors, GDF field ops deploy long-range weapons — in this case, artillery, rocket artillery, and the hammer launcher. They don’t have the ability to use shields, but they can toss markers that indicate the targets for air strikes and ammo drops. Unlike medics, they can call in ammo drops indoors.
• Covert Ops: Use this class to: deploy radar that sweeps enemy territory; hack and temporarily disable Strogg deployables; and send out a spy camera that can detonate if someone finds it. Like the Strogg infiltrator, they can disguise themselves as an enemy soldier and toss grenades that disable opposing vehicles. Covert Ops differ in their ability to throw smoke grenades.

• Area 22: GDF troops in Nevada have captured a Strogg teleportation device known as a slipgate and want to learn more about the technology. The Strogg are determined to destroy the slipgate so the GDF can’t discover its secrets.
• Ark: A Norwegian GDF research station dubbed The Ark is close to figuring out how the Strogg’s biotechnology works. The Strogg must destroy the lab equipment.
• Canyon: Deep in Australia’s Kings Canyon, the Strogg have taken over an abandoned base and are using it to develop an improved Stroggifier, which creates new Strogg troops out of the pieces of other creatures, as well as mechanical parts and prosthetics. The GDF want to infiltrate the base and ruin the Strogg’s work.
• Island: An observatory sits on an island somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. Inside the facility is a DataDisc with important information about the appearance of the first Strogg slipgate on Earth. The GDF must recover the disc and take it to a transmitter.
• England: A crashed Strogg spaceship could teach the GDF much about deep space travel, if they can secure it before the Strogg power it up again.
• Outskirts: A Strogg DataBrain is hard at work in a New Jersey city, overseeing the construction of a new facility. The GDF want to capture the DataBrain and turn it over to GDF High Command via a transmitter.

• Refinery: The resourceful Strogg have adapted a Sudanese oil refinery for Stroyent production. Not only do the GDF want to stop that from happening, but they need to recapture the facility for use in the war effort.
• Salvage: An underground train network in Finland will secret away Strogg technology that the GDF salvaged, unless the Strogg can destroy the equipment first.
• Sewer: Strogg forces have overrun a Japanese sewer system in preparation for a major assault on the city of Kanagawa. The GDF must break through the Strogg defenses and override the sewer controls, literally flushing their enemies away.
• Slipgate: A Strogg slipgate in a remote North African valley will allow the GDF to access and destroy the Strogg Nexus Tower in Antarctica, if they can break through the aliens’ defenses first. The Strogg must hold off the attackers until reinforcements arrive.
• Valley: California’s water supply is susceptible to infection by the Strogg, who want to turn the state’s residents into mindless zombies. The GDF must destroy the contaminator device before it activates.
• Volcano: A facility in New Zealand is the testing ground for an atmospheric EMP weapon in development by the GDF. If it works, they will use it to disable the Strogg ships in orbit around the Earth. The Strogg want to stop that from happening.

To enable cheats in Enemy Territory Quake Wars, press Ctrl, Alt and ~ simultaneously during a single-player game. When the console appears, type “net_allowcheats 1” (with a space before the “1,” and without the quotes). Type in any of the codes below to activate them.