For the most part, where you need to go is pretty straightforward. It is easy to get lost but when talking about the main campaign and The Reckoning, the levels are not so intricate that they feel like mazes. You’ll frequently be backtracking through areas to do something or acquire items to access other areas. Each campaign consists of a series of missions and each mission is broken up into different areas, or maps, that are all interconnected. The level design in Quake II is a bit different than what we’ve seen in previous id Software shooters. Most of the time you’re going from point A to B to either activate something, destroy something, or to find items that let you access new areas like key cards, data CDs, and even enemy heads. Furthermore, at several points during the game you’ll hear somebody over the radio ordering you to do something. Regardless, there is a bit more emphasis on story here with intro and end cut scenes for each campaign and you can always bring up your objectives at any time during gameplay so you at least have some idea as to what the hell is going on. I don’t really mind because I love the sci-fi genre but it’s hard not to experience a sense of déjà vu when playing this. It seems id Software loves their sci-fi tech stuff and thwarting alien invasions. Just like the original Quake, the storylines have a very “been there, done that” feel to them just because they share some elements with prior id Software games. Your mission here is to make your way to the Gravity Well and disable the defenses of the Strogg home planet. In Ground Zero you play as a Marine named Stepchild. Your mission is to infiltrate a Moon base and stop the Strogg there. In The Reckoning, you play as Joker, a member of an elite squad of Marines. During an attack on their home planet of Stroggos, your ship crash lands and the campaign begins. Your ultimate goal is to stop an alien species known as the Strogg from invading Earth. You play as a Marine named Bitterman and take part in “Operation Overlord”. Like previous id Software games, the story isn’t really fleshed out and more of an excuse for you to shoot shit. Yamagi also supports music playback via the OGG file format and the original soundtrack can be obtained from the GOG release of Quake II. I played through the Quake II and mission packs on PC using the Yamagi source port which runs on modern operating systems, supports widescreen resolutions, irons out tons of bugs, and remains true to the original single player experience. Unfortunately, the 360 version does not include the mission packs. This version is a direct port of the original game with some graphical improvements and it came with Quake 4 on a bonus disk. Jeremy and I also played the Quake II campaign in split-screen on Xbox 360. ![]() I did not try the multiplayer so this review will only cover the campaign along with the campaigns in the Quake II mission packs, The Reckoning and Ground Zero, both released in 1998. But I think that’s because of the multiplayer and id Tech 2 engine, itself, which was used to power several games in the late 90s and early 2000s. I guess you could say Quake II was another revolutionary shooter or at least a very popular one. From what I understand, this was supposed to be an entirely new game and IP, unrelated to the original, but, ultimately, the developers decided to call it Quake II. Quake II deviated away from the dark fantasy stuff of the original in favor of a pure sci-fi theme. It was ported to several other systems in 1999, with the Nintendo 64 version consisting of an entire new set of levels. Developed by id Software and published by Activision, Quake II was released for PC in December, 1997. In our review of Quake, I said this is a very inconsistent series and that all started with Quake II. In my opinion, Quake is also the most unique game in the series due to its dark fantasy theme and aesthetic. Quake’s gameplay was definitely familiar to anyone who played Doom but its full real-time 3D rendering was a breakthrough for the gaming industry. ![]() id Software had developed another revolutionary shooter to follow Wolfenstein 3D and Doom that came before it. The original Quake released in 1996 and was all the rage.
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