My Entries
Quake 2 is a masterpiece - Game Review
Quake 2 is a masterpiece
As of writing this I have just completed the main story of Quake 2 and let me tell you. It was awesome from start to finish. It's almost as if ID Software had read my review in the past and took what wasn't that good about Quake 1. This game is awesome and MOGS Quake 1 tenfold. This review is based on the Quake 2 Main story and beaten on medium difficulty. It’s also in the eyes of someone wanting a better experience than Quake 1.
The Quake 2 Remastered Edition is an amazing way and I would even say the definitive edition when playing. The remaster has all of these awesome features that make the game look amazing while not changing the artstyle with awesome lighting effects and upgraded weapon models. One feature that I loved in the remaster was the compass of when you don't know exactly where to go. It helps you navigate levels easier by telling you where to go. Which does feel like you are having your hand held when using it but the game backtracks on levels and the levels are gigantic, it's a nice feature to have.
Weapon selection is awesome and every weapon has its own use. Unlike Quake 1 every weapon has a use that changes encounters, as you progress through the game you constantly get new weapons that may seem like “... when will I ever use this”, but as the game continues you tend to find yourself using all of your arsenal against the monsters. One thing that wasn't that good is the grenade, you basically get them at the start but your character has such a weak arm that they don't really get thrown that far. Later down the game you get the classic Grenade Launcher that uses grenades as an ammo resource but yet you still keep the original grenades and they take up a weapon slot. The grenades are only good in launcher form and rarely did I ever see myself using them as their own item. I’m glad that they removed melee weapons from 2 because they were just so useless in 1. Instead of a melee weapon you get a basic pistol that never runs out of ammo which is why it's also an amazing weapon because sometimes I wanna save my ammo for tougher enemies so I use it instead, granted the damage sucks but for infinite ammo I’ll take it. This game even brought over the BFG from Doom in an upgraded form, I didn’t use it that much besides when I was at the final boss, then it made the encounter easier.
Artstyle is so consistent. Seriously, this was a big issue that I had in Quake 1 but the whole game stays the same and it's perfect. Quake 2 is completely sci-fi and all enemies are sci-fi like. It all goes well together with the computers and every enemy is connected to technology in some way. Even in some parts of the level like when you are underground you still see a lot of technology like mining equipment and other research things on the walls and floor. It rarely strays from it and I think that is awesome.
The level design is superb. Infinitely better with the big one being these crazy open areas with great design. No longer does it feel like the world and enemies are against you because now you get to play with the world. Now there is cover and places to hide temporarily from enemies. “Parkour” is incorporated into the level design with needing to jump on top of boxes to reach health packs and ammo. The game just feels more vertical than Quake 1 and gives more of a reason to move around instead of just move forward and shoot because now you have all these options to not get damaged like moving around boxes and flanking an enemy to get a shot in first. The levels make you backtrack from level to level so it no longer feels like I can't go back to a level to pick up ammo that I left, because I literally can and have on multiple occasions. The backtracking is fine like I talked about in the remaster, they have a compass which makes it easier incase I get lost. In the original game I could see myself getting lost often. There are also these vast areas in multiple levels that look MASSIVE just like the Low Taper Fade. The image for this review is a screenshot that I took where I just had to observe everything because it just looked too good. I will say that closer to the end of the game corridors become more apparent but I give Quake 2 the pass because the whole game isn't like that.
Enemy selection is very diverse and constantly adds new enemies for every “chapter” that you finish. No longer do you fight only the same enemies but now the game keeps on adding new ones along with the old ones to keep you on your feet. The enemies that they add are everything from new flying ones to awesome melee fighters that lunge at you. The selection is vast and just overall great. The enemy AI is also infinitely better than Quake 1, In Quake 2 enemies will react to what you do, like if you go for headshots they will crouch down to avoid getting hit and it you kill an enemy there is a chance that they will fall and shoot their gun forward to try and get a final hit on you before they bleed out.
When it comes to gameplay, it has everything. The movement in this game is just as good as Quake 1, but then turned up a notch. Parkour and maneuvering is big in this game and don't even get me started on crouching. Even though crouching only helps in some cases it makes me feel like I have a full movement set and can accomplish more with it. Secrets and level design also incorporate crouching and crouch jumping helps the parkour aspect. Another cool feature is stealth, instead of run and gun you get perks for stealth killing enemies, like damage is increased if the enemy doesn't know you are behind them for a Super Shotgun instant kill. A cool feature in this game is items that you can pick up. No longer do you gotta use the items like Quad-Damage and Suit Armor instantly instead you can save them for later. Items also help for different playstyles, for instance if you want to go on a rampage you can store a couple Quad-Damages and release it back to back to wipe out enemies that are close together. Another Item you can save is the suppressor, which does not alert monsters allowing for more stealthy gameplay. One of my issues with Quake 1 was the fact that there was no inventory system so you couldn't see what keys or other story related items you had, but now it tells you in your inventory so now no longer do you gotta guess what you have because now it just tells you.
Final thoughts, this was a fun game and I enjoyed how much the game has improved since Quake 1. The overall feel of Quake 2 is awesome from the movement, enemies and level design. You can probably tell that I liked it by the way I glazed it throughout this review, but I do think that it is a good game and should be played by everyone. One thing I will say is that the game is good but is overrated by people that haven't even beaten it. For instance at the time of this review the game on steam has only 7,425 reviews. Only 9.9% of EVERYONE who bought the game have beaten the final boss. I get that not everyone writes a review but I have no way of knowing how many people bought it. Taking 7,425 divided by 9.9 only gives us 750 people that have beaten the game. Even if I estimate 125,000 have bought the game that's still only 12,626 people that have beaten. I know that the game is over 20+ years old and not everyone plays it on steam but I feel like people just join the zeitgeist of saying it's a good game from other people and not actually saying their own opinions. Other than that I would recommend Quake 2 and you could pretty much only play Quake 2 since the story doesn't really follow Quake 1 that much.
As of writing this I have just completed the main story of Quake 2 and let me tell you. It was awesome from start to finish. It's almost as if ID Software had read my review in the past and took what wasn't that good about Quake 1. This game is awesome and MOGS Quake 1 tenfold. This review is based on the Quake 2 Main story and beaten on medium difficulty. It’s also in the eyes of someone wanting a better experience than Quake 1.
The Quake 2 Remastered Edition is an amazing way and I would even say the definitive edition when playing. The remaster has all of these awesome features that make the game look amazing while not changing the artstyle with awesome lighting effects and upgraded weapon models. One feature that I loved in the remaster was the compass of when you don't know exactly where to go. It helps you navigate levels easier by telling you where to go. Which does feel like you are having your hand held when using it but the game backtracks on levels and the levels are gigantic, it's a nice feature to have.
Weapon selection is awesome and every weapon has its own use. Unlike Quake 1 every weapon has a use that changes encounters, as you progress through the game you constantly get new weapons that may seem like “... when will I ever use this”, but as the game continues you tend to find yourself using all of your arsenal against the monsters. One thing that wasn't that good is the grenade, you basically get them at the start but your character has such a weak arm that they don't really get thrown that far. Later down the game you get the classic Grenade Launcher that uses grenades as an ammo resource but yet you still keep the original grenades and they take up a weapon slot. The grenades are only good in launcher form and rarely did I ever see myself using them as their own item. I’m glad that they removed melee weapons from 2 because they were just so useless in 1. Instead of a melee weapon you get a basic pistol that never runs out of ammo which is why it's also an amazing weapon because sometimes I wanna save my ammo for tougher enemies so I use it instead, granted the damage sucks but for infinite ammo I’ll take it. This game even brought over the BFG from Doom in an upgraded form, I didn’t use it that much besides when I was at the final boss, then it made the encounter easier.
Artstyle is so consistent. Seriously, this was a big issue that I had in Quake 1 but the whole game stays the same and it's perfect. Quake 2 is completely sci-fi and all enemies are sci-fi like. It all goes well together with the computers and every enemy is connected to technology in some way. Even in some parts of the level like when you are underground you still see a lot of technology like mining equipment and other research things on the walls and floor. It rarely strays from it and I think that is awesome.
The level design is superb. Infinitely better with the big one being these crazy open areas with great design. No longer does it feel like the world and enemies are against you because now you get to play with the world. Now there is cover and places to hide temporarily from enemies. “Parkour” is incorporated into the level design with needing to jump on top of boxes to reach health packs and ammo. The game just feels more vertical than Quake 1 and gives more of a reason to move around instead of just move forward and shoot because now you have all these options to not get damaged like moving around boxes and flanking an enemy to get a shot in first. The levels make you backtrack from level to level so it no longer feels like I can't go back to a level to pick up ammo that I left, because I literally can and have on multiple occasions. The backtracking is fine like I talked about in the remaster, they have a compass which makes it easier incase I get lost. In the original game I could see myself getting lost often. There are also these vast areas in multiple levels that look MASSIVE just like the Low Taper Fade. The image for this review is a screenshot that I took where I just had to observe everything because it just looked too good. I will say that closer to the end of the game corridors become more apparent but I give Quake 2 the pass because the whole game isn't like that.
Enemy selection is very diverse and constantly adds new enemies for every “chapter” that you finish. No longer do you fight only the same enemies but now the game keeps on adding new ones along with the old ones to keep you on your feet. The enemies that they add are everything from new flying ones to awesome melee fighters that lunge at you. The selection is vast and just overall great. The enemy AI is also infinitely better than Quake 1, In Quake 2 enemies will react to what you do, like if you go for headshots they will crouch down to avoid getting hit and it you kill an enemy there is a chance that they will fall and shoot their gun forward to try and get a final hit on you before they bleed out.
When it comes to gameplay, it has everything. The movement in this game is just as good as Quake 1, but then turned up a notch. Parkour and maneuvering is big in this game and don't even get me started on crouching. Even though crouching only helps in some cases it makes me feel like I have a full movement set and can accomplish more with it. Secrets and level design also incorporate crouching and crouch jumping helps the parkour aspect. Another cool feature is stealth, instead of run and gun you get perks for stealth killing enemies, like damage is increased if the enemy doesn't know you are behind them for a Super Shotgun instant kill. A cool feature in this game is items that you can pick up. No longer do you gotta use the items like Quad-Damage and Suit Armor instantly instead you can save them for later. Items also help for different playstyles, for instance if you want to go on a rampage you can store a couple Quad-Damages and release it back to back to wipe out enemies that are close together. Another Item you can save is the suppressor, which does not alert monsters allowing for more stealthy gameplay. One of my issues with Quake 1 was the fact that there was no inventory system so you couldn't see what keys or other story related items you had, but now it tells you in your inventory so now no longer do you gotta guess what you have because now it just tells you.
Final thoughts, this was a fun game and I enjoyed how much the game has improved since Quake 1. The overall feel of Quake 2 is awesome from the movement, enemies and level design. You can probably tell that I liked it by the way I glazed it throughout this review, but I do think that it is a good game and should be played by everyone. One thing I will say is that the game is good but is overrated by people that haven't even beaten it. For instance at the time of this review the game on steam has only 7,425 reviews. Only 9.9% of EVERYONE who bought the game have beaten the final boss. I get that not everyone writes a review but I have no way of knowing how many people bought it. Taking 7,425 divided by 9.9 only gives us 750 people that have beaten the game. Even if I estimate 125,000 have bought the game that's still only 12,626 people that have beaten. I know that the game is over 20+ years old and not everyone plays it on steam but I feel like people just join the zeitgeist of saying it's a good game from other people and not actually saying their own opinions. Other than that I would recommend Quake 2 and you could pretty much only play Quake 2 since the story doesn't really follow Quake 1 that much.