Quake II

Quake 2 is an odd one. Though it is a sequel to the first quake, it completely reboots the story and style of the game. Now you play as a soldier battling against the strogg invasion, which are a sort of ogre like alien species. The whole game revolves around levels that feel very brown and industrial, which can get tiresome towards the end of the game. It changes a bit with a couple more open areas, but it is definitly nothing near the level of variety of the first game. I also find the theme to be a bit more dull than the cthulu and medieval first entry.

The soundtrack is industrial rock, similar to NIN, which is very similar to the first game. It suceeds of creating a tense and engaging atmosphere to the game, even if there arent all that many memorable tracks in it.

I still maintain that this is a great game, mostly due to the level design and raw combat gameplay. The weapons feel as satisfying to use as on the first game, even if you acquire them at a much slower pace. Much like Quake, the levels are very short chunks of gameplay, usely requiring some sort of short puzzle for you to reach the end. This makes the game playable in small chunks, which is the best way i could find to avoid fatigue.

It took a while for me to love this game due to how similar it is to its predecessor (despite being a sequel in name only) however I've since come around to declaring this a perfect game thanks to how much fun it remains to this day.

The graphics may not be much to write home about (even at the time, unless we're referring to the rtx mode which looks gorgeous) however the game makes up for that with addictive gameplay and interesting enemies to fight. There's a bit more of a flowing narrative to this game than previous id software titles (complete with the infamous COMPUTER UPDATED mission tracker) however that takes a back seat to its creative puzzles and environments which build on the company’s previous hits to deliver their biggest campaign at the time of its release. Some elements from Quake 1 return here such as the power ups and several weapons, some elements also come from doom and the heretic series, however they're all utilised in a way that's distinct to this entry. I think what makes this game truly stand out are the new weapons introduced including the legendary rail gun which can often take out enemies in one shot, the drawback of course is that some of the enemies are also equipped with this gun, meaning it can be used against you. This is also the case for the mighty bfg, Id software really wanted to make sure none of the players arsenal was theirs exclusively which is a complaint I've seen thrown at their previous work.

I should also bring up the n64 version since I've been able to play that recently with the 25th anniversary release of the original. It's a decent port that tells its own story with its own levels, my main issue is that powers automatically activate when you collect them which takes away the strategy of when to use them. At least they didn't censor it given how it was released on a Nintendo console, however I recommend the pc version any day of the week over this version.

Either way, check this game out, it's the last game released on shareware, and it was a worthy game to end the trend of releasing games through a magazine subscription.

If its the main campaign: 3.0
If its the campaign made by Machine Games: 4.0

loses some points because it no longer has the eerie medevil feel but instead has a Action Hero Scifi style, the gameplay is quite similar but overall way less memorable than quake 1

6/10