An expansion for Quake II
Take out the Big Gun sounded simple enough, except the Strogg were waiting. You, and a few marines like you, are the lucky ones. You've made it down in one piece and are still able to contact the fleet. The Gravity Well, the Strogg's newest weapon in its arsenal against mankind, is operational. With the fleet around Stroggos, 5% of ground forces surviving, and that number dwindling by the second, your orders have changed: free your comrades. Destroy the Gravity Well. New Enemies - The Stalker, Turrets, Daedalus, Medic Commander, Carrier, and the Black Widow. 14 Entirely new levels and 10 new deathmatch levels. New Power-Ups - Deathmatch specific power-ups: Vengeance Sphere, Hunter Sphere, and Anti-matter bomb. New Weapons - The Chainsaw, ETF Rifle and Plasma Beam.
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The infamous Ground Zero turrets are significantly nerfed in the NightDive Quake II remaster, however Ground Zero still remains a notch more frustrating than the rest of the expansions. Chiefly due to some particularly cruel encounter design. Still worth engaging with so long as you know what you're getting into. I'd probably have liked it much less were it not for the new compass feature always providing a clear route to the next encounter. Without it I imagine the lack of an ingame map would make figuring out where to actually go with no more than a text blurb commanding you to "Return to the [INDISTINCT TECH BASE #X]" a somewhat directionless and frustrating task.
The last of the original Quake 1/2 expansions. This one was made by Rogue Entertainment, the same developer who made the original Quake's 2nd expansion "Dissolution of Eternity", and this one is similarly not good. An overabundance of new weapons (most of them completely useless), some new enemies that are not fun to fight at all, and a lot of maps that feel like leftover unused Quake 1 maps recreated in Quake 2's map editor. So many labyrinthine levels where everything looks the same and there are no navigational landmarks, totally at odds with Quake 2's design philosophy of tighter interconnected levels with a sense of verisimilitude. Would be totally unplayable without the remaster's compass feature which basically tells you exactly where to go if you're stuck. I barely used that at all in the base game or the first expansion, but I used it a lot here.
Turns out none of the original Quake 1/2 expansions were all that great. I hear the 20th and 25th anniversary expansions that MachineGames made are much better, I'm looking forward to those.
Turns out none of the original Quake 1/2 expansions were all that great. I hear the 20th and 25th anniversary expansions that MachineGames made are much better, I'm looking forward to those.
It's really bad. Turrets around every corner and the spongy Daedalous aren't hard they're just annoying. Doesn't help that there's 167!! turrets on hard. Backtracking in this is bad, good thing the remaster has the compass.
It is better, but still not it. The new weapons are fun, and the final boss is somewhat entertaining.
DOOMATHON entry #11/20
List: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Mariofan717/list/doom--quake-campaigns-ranked/
Fittingly developed by the same team as the previous game's second mission pack, Ground Zero is to The Reckoning more or less what Dissolution of Eternity is to Scourge of Armagon; the new ideas on offer here are generally more distinctive, and not necessarily for good reason. This is still at its core more Quake 2, but this time it's more Quake 2 with like 25% more backtracking and quite possibly the single most obnoxious enemy in this entire marathon, which is really saying something.
Given that I take no shame in save scumming, I was almost able to admire just how distinctively obnoxious some of the design choices here - by the time Ground Zero was over, I was a certified expert at checking every corner for a deviously placed turret, and I was going out of my way to put an extra super shotgun blast or rocket in corpses of higher tier enemies in the presence of the godforsaken medic commanders. A tanky enemy type that revives fallen enemies as well as summons other tanky enemies makes it more intimidating than any iteration of Doom's Archvile that has ever existed - and there are even a few battles in which they're given the opportunity to revive each other! That's honestly hilarious.
Just as with the previous mission pack, Nightdive has extensively tweaked the balance of these added elements in the remaster to make them much more bearable, and I was actually able to tell this time because I correctly remembered the turrets being a lot harder to destroy in the original release. They even gave them armor to make the otherwise unremarkable armor-penetrating ETF rifle extra effective!
Despite its many quirks, Ground Zeroes is at the end of the day, as I said, more Quake 2. It's the weaker of the two mission packs for sure, but it's still a really solid solid shooter at its core, one that you'll get an extra kick out of if you can appreciate its more sadistic design choices.
Cross-posted on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mariofan717/status/1755443725961146831
List: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Mariofan717/list/doom--quake-campaigns-ranked/
Fittingly developed by the same team as the previous game's second mission pack, Ground Zero is to The Reckoning more or less what Dissolution of Eternity is to Scourge of Armagon; the new ideas on offer here are generally more distinctive, and not necessarily for good reason. This is still at its core more Quake 2, but this time it's more Quake 2 with like 25% more backtracking and quite possibly the single most obnoxious enemy in this entire marathon, which is really saying something.
Given that I take no shame in save scumming, I was almost able to admire just how distinctively obnoxious some of the design choices here - by the time Ground Zero was over, I was a certified expert at checking every corner for a deviously placed turret, and I was going out of my way to put an extra super shotgun blast or rocket in corpses of higher tier enemies in the presence of the godforsaken medic commanders. A tanky enemy type that revives fallen enemies as well as summons other tanky enemies makes it more intimidating than any iteration of Doom's Archvile that has ever existed - and there are even a few battles in which they're given the opportunity to revive each other! That's honestly hilarious.
Just as with the previous mission pack, Nightdive has extensively tweaked the balance of these added elements in the remaster to make them much more bearable, and I was actually able to tell this time because I correctly remembered the turrets being a lot harder to destroy in the original release. They even gave them armor to make the otherwise unremarkable armor-penetrating ETF rifle extra effective!
Despite its many quirks, Ground Zeroes is at the end of the day, as I said, more Quake 2. It's the weaker of the two mission packs for sure, but it's still a really solid solid shooter at its core, one that you'll get an extra kick out of if you can appreciate its more sadistic design choices.
Cross-posted on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mariofan717/status/1755443725961146831
Ground Zero is better than its preceding mission pack, The Reckoning, but not by much. Rogue Entertainment's pack has a leg up thanks to interesting enemy types—like the Stalkers and the wall turrets—and a more varied arsenal of weapons. The more straightforward level design and more engaging scenarios also distinguish Ground Zero from its predecessor.
Unfortunately, there are still some lame enemies, like the upgraded Icarus and Medic, and there are some peashooter weapons like the ETF Rifle and Plasma Beam. Also, not a fan of the persistent sci-fi military base theming that all these Quake II units are stuffed with; levels blend together, and they're only distinguishable by their unique objectives.
But overall, I'd recommend playing Ground Zero over The Reckoning. It even includes double the number of deathmatch maps, raising the bar to fourteen maps over The Reckoning's seven. And if you were wondering, yes, the Nightdive port unsurprisingly runs as smooth as butter. I played mostly on PlayStation 5, and it was a seamless experience.
Unfortunately, there are still some lame enemies, like the upgraded Icarus and Medic, and there are some peashooter weapons like the ETF Rifle and Plasma Beam. Also, not a fan of the persistent sci-fi military base theming that all these Quake II units are stuffed with; levels blend together, and they're only distinguishable by their unique objectives.
But overall, I'd recommend playing Ground Zero over The Reckoning. It even includes double the number of deathmatch maps, raising the bar to fourteen maps over The Reckoning's seven. And if you were wondering, yes, the Nightdive port unsurprisingly runs as smooth as butter. I played mostly on PlayStation 5, and it was a seamless experience.