Quake II

Back in 1998, I spent countless hours death-matching fellow students playing Quake 2 on the university computer network. Its only in 2008 that I bought my own copy of Quake 2, and by now the game's age shows - but thanks to those nostalgic memories I'm extremely forgiving!

The single player campaign starts of with a quick introductory video to set the scene, and then literally drops you into the action. The programmers took the time to include something that resembles a storyline, but in those days the focus was really just on the game-play and killing stuff.

One of the first things that struck me about Quake 2, is how it improved upon it's predecessor in every conceivable way. Quake 2 features better graphics (outstanding), better physics, better weapons, better AI, better.... well better everything.

I loved the attention to little details in the game, for instance if you kill a monster, it will fall down but sometimes still manages to shoot off a few rounds before it dies. Also a lot of effort went into the weapons and each weapon has it's own strengths and weaknesses, like the rail gun (think the movie Eraser with Arnie) that will kill most enemies with 1 or 2 shots, but it's slow reloading times makes it a liability in a room full of angry monsters.

Quake 2 certainly does have it's flaws. The levels and monsters have little variation, and gets monotonous after a while. Combine this with the lack of a strong storyline to drive the game on, and things can get a bit tedious at times. And although the AI improved, the monsters are still not clever enough to make live difficult for even an average player like me.

I believe Quake 2 aged relatively well, and unlike its predecessor is still worth playing if you feel a bit nostalgic or if you want to see how FPS's looked in the mid-nineties. But certainly FPS's improved significantly since 1998.

It's a sad thing that classic games such as these get outdated. Unlike some movies video games rely 100 percent on technology, therefore the older they are the worse they seem to get. For the time the game is wonderful almost perfect but now it feels undated. Elements that are key now-a-days have a story for one, and variety for two. The game just has you running around opening doors and shooting everything that moves. It's still a lot of fun but I could only handle it in tiny doses. I suppose I am being unfair but it's all true. For the time I'm sure this game was the cream of the crop, but by todays standards it does not meet in my book. I would still recommend this game to anyone though it's quite the shoot em' up fest, every gamer loves. 6/10

Quake-2 is a very worthy successor to Quake-1 but starts off a completely new story and does not continue the story of the former game. The story now concerns an Alien invasion and the human racing launching an offensive..you get the idea. The first thing you'll notice as soon as this game loads up is the rockin soundtrack by Sonic Mayhem which sets the mood for action. With a huge arsenal at your disposal and an equally huge bunch of bad guys, the action is always frantic. The level design is mostly good but sometimes is crap. The strongest portion of this game is evident in multiplayer though. During its time, it probably had the best multiplayer experience in the world.

Quake-2 is a very worthy sequel to Quake. It has a few flaws and visually may not be on par with Unreal-1 but Quake-2 is certainly a game worth buying for several reasons. The most important reason is that when the game released, it had unbeatable multiplayer capability, just like the original quake. No game could touch it in that regard. The deathmatch is so good that it is still very playable, even after Quake-III, although not many really play it.

The single player experience is very balanced with effective weapons and enemies and good level design. There's also a fantastic soundtrack by Sonic mayhem. The ending is not at all satisfying though. But there are always the user made addons and the official addon paks to make up for that. Overall, Quake-2 has to be one of the most refined and polished productions in the gaming industry.

Rated M for Violence,Blood and Gore.

Quake 2 was the very first M-rated video game I ever got.I got the game when I was 10 years old.The first M-rated game I ever played was House Of The Dead.I sort of liked Quake 2 when it first came out but I didn't like it afterwords.I found it to be pretty hard and sort of boring.I have never played any other Quake games.For its time the game was pretty good but by today's standards Its really not good.There are better old FPS games out there like Doom,Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior.If you find it very cheap its worth a look but otherwise don't get it.

7/10