Current Events > Quake 2 - holy shit does it hold up well!

(+) Yeah! (+)

Grabbed Quake 2 on Switch during the Bethesda sale for like $3.99. I remember really liking it back in the day on a computer that could run it... okay at best.

I'm playing through the main campaign some 20 odd years later on difficult, and it is still one of the best first person shooter run and gun experiences ever. The action is quick, you are hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned. The level layouts are well done and the moment to moment gameplay is super addictive.

This is the one true spiritual sequel to 1994's DOOM. Only the demons are replaced by cybernetic sci-fi monstrosities.

I grabbed the first Quake when it released a few months back, and well... it's an interesting game with some moody settings and a fondly remembered experiment into true 3D shooters - but Quake 2 utterly eclipses it in every department.

The orginal Unreal and Quake 2 often get their glossed over in that era of early 3D shooters, and maybe it's a bit of nostalgia, but I think those two were really ahead of their time and hold up as just great games to jump back into.

I also should add, like the other ports done by NightDive of the classic ID games, this is an excellent port with lots of display and control options you can tweak.

I got the plain version off Gog for cheap awhile ago but I never sat down and played it much. Quake 1 just always made a bigger impression on me.

From a technical standpoint though it did some neat things like continous maps not broken up stages.

Kamil posted...

I got the plain version off Gog for cheap awhile ago but I never sat down and played it much. Quake 1 just always made a bigger impression on me.

From a technical standpoint though it did some neat things like continous maps not broken up stages.

It's so much more than that, the weapons feel better, the enemies and setting feel more coherent, the stages are laid out better, and everything really clicks.

Did you know Doki Doki, I kid. Quake 1 was supposed to be and then the power of myth. Actually Quake 2 was literally only called that because they couldn't think of a better name. Strogg war. I guess didn't take off yet.

I didn't really have much experience with Quake 2 so that is why I seem lukewarm to it. I shoulda tried to play that GOG copy I got more at the same time as Grim Dawn and What Remains of Edith Finch.

Quake 2 feels like more like it's own thing instead of "my own original Doom" but I really really prefer the aesthetic of Quake 1 and it basically being Lovecraftian and everything is demons and monsters.

Quake 2 is like... cybernetic humanoids in space? In a war?

wanderingshade posted...

Quake 2 feels like more like it's own thing instead of "my own original Doom" but I really really prefer the aesthetic of Quake 1 and it basically being Lovecraftian and everything is demons and monsters.

Quake 2 is like... cybernetic humanoids in space? In a war?

Here's the question: have you played them both recently?

I have and I'm sorry but the whole "Lovecraftian" and mystical setting thing just doesn't really hold up to a play-through. It's a great tech demo and first foray into real 3D for ID software with Doom being a raster and sprite based bit of wizardry that isn't actually 3D at all. So props for being a great first step.

But Quake 1 levels are bland, enemy movement and feedback is stiff, and progression feels like a series of rough, unconnected levels. Quake 2 feels like a real campaign, the enemies are a nightmarish cybernetic abominations, and the levels are much better laid out. People talk about the dark lovecraftian vibes of Quake 1, but don't comment on the holocaust like brutality of the Strogg and their torture and assimilation chambers.

I like them both well enough, but prefer the first game in most areas.

The new levels for the Q2 Remaster were really great though.

I should get it while it's on sale. I had a PC back in the day but I missed out on it. I was busy playing strategy games like Civilization 2 and Master of Orion 2. My first FPS was Half-Life followed by Unreal.

Well, technically I played Doom first, but we all played that.

I played through Quake II in co-op, great experience. I'd like to run through it again with raytracing when I get capable hardware.