3.5/5 ★ – Kalle_Deimos's review of Quake II.

TLDR: What the-? DOOM 4?? Gameplay: I can't help but be dissapointed with Quake II. Barring the setting and enemies, Quake II is what I imagine a DOOM 4 would have been like. Many of the Quake weapons have been swapped with their Doom counterparts. No nailguns, no tesla cannon. But we have a chaingun, energy rifle and...the BFG?? Quake is such a departure from Doom in a good way and now we are just trying to be more like Doom? Naw. Honestly I wouldn't mind it much if the guns didn't feel so strange. The shotgun is slow and weak, making it something you'll never use once you get virtually any other weapon. The chainguns animation needs to finish completely for you to stop firing, so you will frequently light up a group of enemies and then continue firing when you're done because the animation isn't finished. And you can't immediately start firing again either because you need to do the start up animation for it. This same issue is persistant in the Hyper Blaster, where taking your finger off the trigger puts you in an un-interuptable animation of the barrel slowing down before you can fire again. It's silly and does not belong in this kind of game. The granades are just so awful. Never use these. The grande launcher and rocket launcher use two different ammos now so there is a good reason to use the launcher now. But it does feel like most of the enemies have so much health. And a lot of hit-scan attacks. Which doesn't really feel like the telegraphed attacks of Quake. I think some weapons should have been massively buffed at the cost of much less ammo. I mean, you can carry 200 shotgun shells. You will never have less than 150 of them at anytime. Quake II also changes how they do power-ups. Instead of activating upon picking them up, you get an inventore where you can carry two of each. This makss secret invulnerabilities and quad damages much more useful when you can choose to use one instead of picking up a Quad Damage you overlooked after an encounter and then taking a mad dash to find some enemies before it runs out. Also included is the Adrenaline for instant full health, a rebreather, and environment suit and a silencer. Which is only marginally useful. Other than that, Quake is just a good boomer shooter. Maps are good. Most encounters are good, core gameplay is good. It doesn't really do anything spectaular but it does have a lot of confusing design decisions that I just don't understand. I was a bit dissapointed in the original Quake too before falling in love with it on a second playthrough. So maybe this opinion will change. Story: THE STROGG. KILL THE STROGG. There isn't even the classic walls of text that boomer shooters were known for waiting for you at the end of each unit. Just kill and go to your next objective. Graphics: Game looks great. I imagine the remaster made this game look even better because everything runs at a buttery smooth framerate, clear image and high resolution textures so you can see those classic polygons in their full ancient glory. Something new to Quake II is enemies showing battle damage, which is neat. Sound: Such a vicious let down. The music is just a bunch of cheap guitar riffs. Music doesn't even play for most of the level. Eventually it just cuts out and you're left in silence which is preferable somehow. I miss the ambient tracks. And I miss the classic cheesy Doom music too. So bad. Worst part of the game. The rest of the sound is also messed up as well. The guy on your radio is totally incomprehensible. The music is soooo low. And it's just full of things like this. Extra: Classic Boomer Shooter affair. Secrets to find in the levels which are just pick-ups. Secret levels are back as well which is cool. However Quake II does something very strange with psuedo-open worlds where you can go to and from different levels in a particular unit. Some aspects of a level can only be accessed by going to another level first, which is cool but a pain if you're trying to find all the secrets. Favorite Thing: That dev room at the end filled my heart with love. Not My Favorite Thing: Horrible Shotgun And the Super Shotgun has a weird handle on it? Get that shit off it.