Classic 90s FPS action with some blemishes that has new life breathed into it by its 2023 remaster.
Playing Quake 2 immediately after Quake 1 makes the differences easily apparent. Besides the obvious setting change, the game play mechanics are more refined, levels are more advanced, open ended, and are divided into units allowing traversal between them. Additionally, Quake 2 does try to string together some semblance of a story through actual mission objectives albeit this is mostly just to facilitate the gameplay.
The weapon selection is generally stronger here over its predecessor, though the absence of the lightning gun is unfortunate. The machine gun and chain gun are more interesting to use over the nailguns and the railgun and BFG are welcome additions to the roster. Power ups return with the added bonus of being useable when you choose rather than as soon as you pick up, at the drawback of being more scarce.
The biggest issue Quake 2 has is that the levels tend to blend together. The sci-fi setting on display here tends to be less interesting than the gothic horror of the original and this is exacerbated by the lack of creativity in the levels. Quake 2's level design has a consistent level of quality throughout the campaign that doesn't really have any major lows, but also never really impresses. It's just fine, good even. This is more apparent after witnessing some of the more interesting missions offered in the expansions.
The cybernetic Strogg replace the demonic and otherwordly enemies of Quake 1. Overall there's a larger enemy variety in Quake 2 over its predecessor, though whether their designs are more or less interesting is up to debate. Quake 2 does massively improve on the first game, by having actual boss fights, especially in the expansions. These, while mostly still simple, are more interesting than those encountered in Quake 1.
The Reckoning expansion is mostly more of the same though it does add some new weapons and enemy types. The levels feel likes remixes of the base game's with the exception of the final stages that involve stowing away on a ship and culminating on the moon.
Ground Zero also doesn't deviate too much from the original game's theming while also adding a new selection of enemies and weapons. It does, however, significantly ramp up the difficult, almost too much so. The mines and hangars are the stand out levels here.
Included with the remaster is the N64 port of Quake 2. This is a simplified version of Quake 2 with shorter, less complicated levels, and some gameplay features absent such as crouching. Despite this, the quicker campaign was quite enjoyable. The level theming is much less grimy and industrial than the original, instead incorporating a cleaner, sleeker theme. After so many similar levels in the base game and first 2 expansions, this was a nice change of scenery.
Finally, the 2023 remaster includes an all new campaign, Call of the Machine. Featuring 6 level sets and a final boss fight, this is Quake 2 pushes to its fullest potential. Levels here sport a much wider variety of scenery, are more complex, and very challenging with a large number of boss fights. Nightdive did a fantastic job with this campaign. It was the highlight of the remaster for me.
Multiplayer is of course, a staple of the Quake franchise though the online servers don't have much of a community from what I could see. It was a titan back in the day, but you can still have a good deal of fun playing offline with bots. It's a shame that CTF doesn't work with bots though.
If you liked Quake, or liked old school shooters in general, the Quake 2 remaster has dozens of hours of content on offer. It has some issues with a somewhat generic theme and "safe" level design but that's not enough to detract from how polished and tight the gameplay is. A must play for any boomer shooter fan.
Playing Quake 2 immediately after Quake 1 makes the differences easily apparent. Besides the obvious setting change, the game play mechanics are more refined, levels are more advanced, open ended, and are divided into units allowing traversal between them. Additionally, Quake 2 does try to string together some semblance of a story through actual mission objectives albeit this is mostly just to facilitate the gameplay.
The weapon selection is generally stronger here over its predecessor, though the absence of the lightning gun is unfortunate. The machine gun and chain gun are more interesting to use over the nailguns and the railgun and BFG are welcome additions to the roster. Power ups return with the added bonus of being useable when you choose rather than as soon as you pick up, at the drawback of being more scarce.
The biggest issue Quake 2 has is that the levels tend to blend together. The sci-fi setting on display here tends to be less interesting than the gothic horror of the original and this is exacerbated by the lack of creativity in the levels. Quake 2's level design has a consistent level of quality throughout the campaign that doesn't really have any major lows, but also never really impresses. It's just fine, good even. This is more apparent after witnessing some of the more interesting missions offered in the expansions.
The cybernetic Strogg replace the demonic and otherwordly enemies of Quake 1. Overall there's a larger enemy variety in Quake 2 over its predecessor, though whether their designs are more or less interesting is up to debate. Quake 2 does massively improve on the first game, by having actual boss fights, especially in the expansions. These, while mostly still simple, are more interesting than those encountered in Quake 1.
The Reckoning expansion is mostly more of the same though it does add some new weapons and enemy types. The levels feel likes remixes of the base game's with the exception of the final stages that involve stowing away on a ship and culminating on the moon.
Ground Zero also doesn't deviate too much from the original game's theming while also adding a new selection of enemies and weapons. It does, however, significantly ramp up the difficult, almost too much so. The mines and hangars are the stand out levels here.
Included with the remaster is the N64 port of Quake 2. This is a simplified version of Quake 2 with shorter, less complicated levels, and some gameplay features absent such as crouching. Despite this, the quicker campaign was quite enjoyable. The level theming is much less grimy and industrial than the original, instead incorporating a cleaner, sleeker theme. After so many similar levels in the base game and first 2 expansions, this was a nice change of scenery.
Finally, the 2023 remaster includes an all new campaign, Call of the Machine. Featuring 6 level sets and a final boss fight, this is Quake 2 pushes to its fullest potential. Levels here sport a much wider variety of scenery, are more complex, and very challenging with a large number of boss fights. Nightdive did a fantastic job with this campaign. It was the highlight of the remaster for me.
Multiplayer is of course, a staple of the Quake franchise though the online servers don't have much of a community from what I could see. It was a titan back in the day, but you can still have a good deal of fun playing offline with bots. It's a shame that CTF doesn't work with bots though.
If you liked Quake, or liked old school shooters in general, the Quake 2 remaster has dozens of hours of content on offer. It has some issues with a somewhat generic theme and "safe" level design but that's not enough to detract from how polished and tight the gameplay is. A must play for any boomer shooter fan.