Truly one of the games of all time.
I grew up on first person shooters but came into the genre after the boomer shooter took off, missing out on classics like DOOM, Wolfenstein, and relevantly Quake. It's with this lack of affinity for a bygone genre that I've tried to sort of retroactively understand the hype behind such a landmark franchise. Sometime last year I played the Nightdive remaster of Quake I and had an alright enough time, and with some time to kill I figured it would be a good excuse to delve even further into one of the titles that made id the mammoth of influence that it is today.
Quake II being on Gamepass was the perfect pricepoint for its shorter runtime, with players seemingly clocking in at an average of seven hours. I didn't keep track of my own runtime with the game, but ultimately I felt like even that was too long. I appreciate the legacy of titles like this, but going back and playing them has felt more like a chore than an enjoyable experience as they are intended to be. The levels are intricately designed, which is neat especially for a game of this caliber originally released into to the world in 1997, but it comes with the unintended risk of turning the campaign into a McGuffin hunt. One thing leads to one thing that leads to one thing that leads to one thing... which isn't abhorrently bad game design but feels like it is uneccesarily dragging the game along.
My main qualms with Quake II outside of the monotony of its enemy encounters and the needlessly intricate level sequencing is that the combat didn't feel... good. As an avid Unreal Tournament enjoyer, and a mostly-fan of the recent Doom iterations, I love a good run and jump shooty mcshoot game. Freedom of movement in FPS' creates a level of player agency that makes the titles enjoyable, in lieu of staying stagnant and mowing down enemies as they appear, you are crafting intricate patterns throughout the arena's space. in Quake II you have this, somewhat, but there was a severe lack of reasonable health options. Many encounters in which I thought I was jumping and avoiding attacks well left me beaten and battered. Instead of being able to leap around and take advantage of the game's attractive movement, I was greatly limited to hiding around pillars and firing in between enemy volleys.
Quake II is a game that I understand, but do not enjoy overall. I get that the legacy of this game is far stretching and is probably a magnificent achievment in the first person shooter genre at the time, but it is unfortunately not a title I found myself engrossed with enjoyment in. I can't recommend Quake II unless you're looking for a nostalgia trip or on a quest to understand the history of the genre.
I grew up on first person shooters but came into the genre after the boomer shooter took off, missing out on classics like DOOM, Wolfenstein, and relevantly Quake. It's with this lack of affinity for a bygone genre that I've tried to sort of retroactively understand the hype behind such a landmark franchise. Sometime last year I played the Nightdive remaster of Quake I and had an alright enough time, and with some time to kill I figured it would be a good excuse to delve even further into one of the titles that made id the mammoth of influence that it is today.
Quake II being on Gamepass was the perfect pricepoint for its shorter runtime, with players seemingly clocking in at an average of seven hours. I didn't keep track of my own runtime with the game, but ultimately I felt like even that was too long. I appreciate the legacy of titles like this, but going back and playing them has felt more like a chore than an enjoyable experience as they are intended to be. The levels are intricately designed, which is neat especially for a game of this caliber originally released into to the world in 1997, but it comes with the unintended risk of turning the campaign into a McGuffin hunt. One thing leads to one thing that leads to one thing that leads to one thing... which isn't abhorrently bad game design but feels like it is uneccesarily dragging the game along.
My main qualms with Quake II outside of the monotony of its enemy encounters and the needlessly intricate level sequencing is that the combat didn't feel... good. As an avid Unreal Tournament enjoyer, and a mostly-fan of the recent Doom iterations, I love a good run and jump shooty mcshoot game. Freedom of movement in FPS' creates a level of player agency that makes the titles enjoyable, in lieu of staying stagnant and mowing down enemies as they appear, you are crafting intricate patterns throughout the arena's space. in Quake II you have this, somewhat, but there was a severe lack of reasonable health options. Many encounters in which I thought I was jumping and avoiding attacks well left me beaten and battered. Instead of being able to leap around and take advantage of the game's attractive movement, I was greatly limited to hiding around pillars and firing in between enemy volleys.
Quake II is a game that I understand, but do not enjoy overall. I get that the legacy of this game is far stretching and is probably a magnificent achievment in the first person shooter genre at the time, but it is unfortunately not a title I found myself engrossed with enjoyment in. I can't recommend Quake II unless you're looking for a nostalgia trip or on a quest to understand the history of the genre.