Quake II

The Good
Although it has basically nothing to do with the original Quake, except the Quad Damage, its still a very good FPS game in terms of graphics, audio and gameplay. The step in further technology from Quake to Quake 2, is almost as from Doom to Quake.

The graphics are really impressive, the monsters look great, and the added feature when you shoot the monster so he has less than 50% of its HP, he already has wounds and blood all over him, all the weapons and effects made by them and the behavior of the AI make this game look very real. Also the epic environments are astonishing.

Just like Quake 1, the game has a powerfully good audio, weapons sound powerful, enemies sound hostile and the soundtrack in the background this time really fits the atmosphere, unlike Quake 1 did.

The game has a very interesting single player campaign, where you can run from a level to the previous level if you want, similar to Half-Life, which is another thing which makes it look real. The campaign itself is huge, includes secrets in it as well and has objectives to complete in it, so this is already a very serious tactical first person shooter.

There are lots of types of enemies in the game, as well as a huge weapons arsenal and several capable items.

The game originally had a quite weak multiplayer deathmatch mode, but it was fixed with patches shortly after.

The Bad
The most disappointing thing in the game has to be that it actually isn't a sequel to Quake, and it may even be that we will never even have one.

But that's not a problem by itself to be honest, in fact, this is my only serious complaint about this game, other than that, the game is very good.

The Bottom Line
This game may not be a Quake sequel, but it is good enough to be one. Definitely worth playing. The game did show itself like a Quake game should, by bringing new cool ideas to the table, which influenced a lot of game developers later.

The Good
After downloading and installing the patches, it played without a problem. I enjoyed the realistic rebounding of grenades. The AI actually worked. The game played ok. The music could be disabled.

Later in the game, the story started to take on some depth. You found yourself working more towards the Strogg center, and the building design reflected that.

The Bad
The dismal colors. The repetitive game play. Shooting, running, more shooting and running. The sound displacement wasn't very good. The repetitive use of sound effects and graphics became boring. The nonsensical mission briefings.

Unreal came out at the same time. In comparison, Quake II paled.

The Bottom Line
A piece of history. A lot of great games like Anachronox and Heretic II were based on the Quake II engine. You're better off playing one of those.

The Good
Like any other Doom game, the game offers immersive 3D slayfestivals, either in single player or multiplayer mode. On a decent system, it's a smooth, efficient little combat game.

The Bad
There's really no substantial difference between this and Quake, Doom, Doom II, Duke Nukem 3D, or any one of a bunch of first-person kill-the-monsters games.

Quake II's color palette is one of the ugliest in gaming history; everything is brown and grey. I'm not sure what id's obession is with publishing games that are entirely brown and grey, but to each his own.

The game has no backstory and there's nothing unique or even interesting about the levels, weapons, or interactivity.

The Bottom Line
OK shooting game. Might be a decent diversion if you can get it for cheap.