Over the many eras of the FPS genre, there are a few choice titles we pick apart and praise with all our being. 1993’s DOOM of course brought forth a staple and fundamental framework that many adopted, Half-Life is another, Call of Duty and so many more get credit where credit is due. But then there’s Quake, which for many reasons or another, doesn’t get the widespread love it deserves. Quake was given the affection of the FPS community and critics alike, even Joe Rogan is a massive superfan of the game and holds it in high regard for gaming. Quake 3 was a beloved alternative to Unreal, and with its Flaws, Quake 4 marked the beginning of a new era, setting a high bar for the 7th generation of gaming.
Then there’s Quake 2 … A game that many fans of the original didn’t like. A game that while got positive reviews from many, was slated by others, and while a huge cult/fan favourite, didn’t get the high praise back in 1997.
I love Quake 2, and so should you.
What is Quake 2? 
Quake 2 is the sequel to the 1996 smash hit Quake and a game that took a very different path in aesthetics, design and gameplay ideology. The original Quake is much an upgrade of DOOM and focuses on linear level-to-level progression, tense and tightly woven combat in narrow spaces, and was bathed in a Cosmic, almost medieval attire. It was ruthless, gory and a lot of fun.
But Quake 2 decided to take a different path with its story and setting, taking players into deep space to fight a nightmarish alien race known as the Strogg, which looks as if John Carpenter and David Cronenberg’s nightmares had a baby. You play a lone marine who manages to find themselves trapped on the Strogg home world after a massive offence by humans goes wrong, killing almost every soldier attempting to infiltrate the planet.
It's solely up to the marine to carry out a string of dangerous missions on the surface of the Strogg home world to disable their defences, take out their most dangerous weapons and soldiers, and face off against the mighty Strogg leader. The gameplay loop is your classic “Boomer-Shooter” style FPS, where you explore complex levels, gather new powerful weapons, fight hordes of enemies ranging from pathic to God-like abominations, and all the other staples of the genre back in its Hay-Day. But Quake 2 added in some cool design choices, from backtracking to additional/secret missions and quite possibly had one of the greatest soundtracks in gaming, provided by Sonic Mayhem!
This remastered package also comes along with additional content, including both expansions “Ground Zero” and “The Reckoning”, along with a fully playable version of the Nintendo 64 port and a brand new expansion by Machine Games.
1997 never looked so spectacular! 
I’m a simple guy, and I love my retro graphics, or more so the art style of many retro games. At the end of the day, very pretty graphics are one thing, and can indeed be a nice thing. But a great art style will live on forever in our hearts and minds. And hence, Quake 2 was a rather good-looking game, made to look even more better.
Nightdive Studios are masters of the remastered game, and they could most likely remaster anything in their sleep at this point. And while Quake 2 is a cool-looking game, they added in a nice bunch of visual treats to flare it up for modern audiences. First, there’s the inclusion of dynamic lighting, which is always a great addition to any game retro or not. The use of dynamic lighting adds an extra layer of atmosphere that was already brooding and intense, but now adds a neat tactical edge as lighting will create shadows of enemies, and you can spot them before they spot you. And in general, dynamic lighting is just a great way to make the world feel more organic and it does even for a game that’s 26 years old. If you look at the original version of DOOM 3, and its use of dynamic lighting, it just made the game world not only thrive but breathe with life.
As well as being played in native 4K, this remaster has anti-aliasing, completely new cutscenes, smoothing of textures (although I prefer the old grimy, rough look!), and a whole heap of accessibility options to make Quake 2 one of the most approachable retro games to date. That’s a lot of improvements with presentation and there’s no fault I can bring up, with Nightdive Studios having done it again for a banging remaster of a classic. The new dynamic lighting, a customisable feature to allow you to make it look more modern or more retro, and just having this play out so smoothly on current-gen hardware is just simply awesome.
But there are also some neat little changes regarding gameplay, and while they appear to be smaller feature inclusions, they do make a big impact, mostly excellent, with some I wasn’t a huge fan of. The major changes are to certain enemies and their AI, with many of the Strogg being able to pull off new manoeuvres which create even more nightmare fuel for me (thank you Nightdive). Enemies can jump off ledges or traverse more easily to your location, thus always keeping you on edge and being in your face. But generally, they seem a little smarter, and saying that when the AI in the original Quake 2 was pretty impressive, as they would duck out of your fire.
But several of the more annoying enemies have had their attacks reworked to be massively less cumbersome, like the Parasite enemy which I remember being a massive pain sticking you with its long-range tongue attack, which in the remaster appears much easier to dodge and if it misses you, gets stuck allowing you to land some extra blows while it gets itself unstuck. Then there’s the Berserker, which has a “lovely” (I say this sarcastically) leap attack where it can jump an entire Grand Canyon just to mess you up, and even if you’re not near where it lands, you can still take a bit of damage. There is a tactic and that is, to keep close to it, but even a small distance can cause it to jump and squish you to bits, and with how the philosophy of the level design is, being tight, and compact, there’s often very little you can do to avoid these attacks.
But like many of the enemy AI changes, it does add a tactical edge and new behaviours to learn and avoid. It adds in something new, making enemies even tougher and engaging to fight, meaning you can’t just strafe left or right and get the job done.
Then we get other features such as a new weapon wheel like from the recent DOOM games, and the ability to store power-ups and certain health items for when you need them most. There’s gorgeous visual feedback for when you have something like Quad Damage active, as the marine emits a Heavenly glow, showing he’s ready to Quad Damage the Strogg back to the never-realm! And the best thing, there’s a compass now! No more getting lost! God-send.
Quake-Play and why the haters are wrong 
So yeah, I touched upon the fact that Quake 2 was not liked by many of the fans of the original game. Many of the fans downright hated it … and I feel the reason is a lot more political than the gameplay. At the time Quake 2 came out, there was a massive shift in balance at id Software, as the lead designers for Quake 2 were American McGee, and Tim Willits, both legendary designers. But you may notice a certain name is not there, Mt John Romero himself. From gossip, rumours and some clues found in Quake 2 itself (vanilla version), it was hinted Romero may have let the fame go to his head, and his fans would defend him to the death. Even to slate Quake 2, which in my, and many people’s opinions, is far better than the original.
Quake 2 is a hard-as-nails “Boomer Shooter” through and through, with many guns, many enemies, many cool locations, powerups that make you invulnerable, deal super damage and much more, with bosses, set pieces and all the works to craft one of the best shooters of the 90s. The gunplay and gore are immensely satisfying, with every weapon having a purpose and feeling useful, from the Super Shotgun to the humble machine gun, right up to the Railgun, and with various other gadgets like grenades (which not many shooters had in their roaster). All the action takes place in elegantly crafted levels which show brilliant pacing and flow, making sure you’re never looping around too much, or stuck too long in a single spot. There are some cool looping level design elements, where you will backtrack with new weapons and keys to unlock new areas, and also come across optional secret missions that grant you powerful gear and weapons earlier than finding them in the main game.
By most standards, Quake 2 is a solid shooter, even today. It’s reliable, well-crafted, engaging, and has the right level of intensity and challenge to keep you invested through its 8 – 10-hour campaign. And did I mention the soundtrack by Sonic Mayhem is just fricking awesome? The only main thing that is missing and was for a lot of “Boomer-Shooters” are puzzles. There are some simple environmental tasks you have to do, but only require pushing a button to release an explosive in front of a heavily fortified door, but nothing much else than that. But levels are usually a bit of a puzzle themselves, and finding secret areas, and unlocking new weapons and goodies is a fine way to flex the lateral side of your brain.
The extra Quake 2 goodies! 
If we had just the remaster of Quake 2, I would say that was enough for the asking price, but to have the expansions, both classic and a new one from Machine Games, plus the port of Quake 2 from the Nintendo 64, this is quite the perfect package (well almost).
Both classic expansions give you more of what you played in the base game, just with the bonus of new weapons, enemies and bosses, with the likes of the Chainsaw making an appearance in Ground Zero. Both expansions are a lot of fun, giving you what you would expect with any PC expansion back in the day. More of the stuff you loved in the base game, just with lots more stuff to kill and maim. And even better is doing these extra missions with a buddy in split-screen co-op. Again, you have a magnificent level design, cool new weapons and plenty of interesting backtracking as you unlock new areas and lockers filled with powerful weapons.
Then we get the new expansion from Machine Games, and overall, it’s pretty intense for both good and bad. Now I like Machine Games as a studio, with Wolfenstein: The New Order being a class act and one of the best modern shooters of the last ten years. Then they decided that difficulty, or more so unbalanced difficulty was the way forward. And this expansion is both a lot of fun, but also frustratingly difficult.
Now I like a decent challenge. I love Demon Souls, Bloodborne and more to the point, DOOM: Eternal. These games are hard but give you the tools for the job. And while there are extra powerups, ammo and all that, the number of enemies can be overwhelming, or more so the high number of bullet-spongey enemies. The classic expansions did up the enemy count, but always paced them out and gave you powerful weapons early on to deal with them. The pacing feels a bit slower in this new expansion and the number of higher HP enemies is much more! It’s still a decent expansion, although it feels like Machine Games wanted to make Quake 2, meets DOOM: Eternal and it’s not firing on all cylinders.
And finally, Quake 2 64 is a nice blast from the past, and despite being stripped down in many ways, it’s still really great fun. The entire campaign has been created from the ground up, offering an entirely new experience just for the Nintendo 64. It has a lot more interesting use of colour, as the 64 excelled at doing that, as you could see with other shooters like DOOM 64 and Goldeneye. This port also feels much more vanilla as pickups are instant use, and the flow is more level to level, rather than being somewhat open-ended like the PC version of Quake 2. It is a much tougher experience than the original base game, offering the most intense and brutal Quake 2 experience you can imagine. Yet it’s also quite short, lasting around 2 to 3 hours overall, and maybe less for Quake Pros.
Still, all of these additional expansions and the port of Quake 2 64 are a real treat to accompany one of the best 90’s shooters ever made!
Overall?I didn’t expect to waffle on this song about a “Boomer-Shooter” from 97, but the Quake 2 Remaster is an outstanding surprise and will bring sheer joy to fans and newcomers to the series. The beautifully crafted campaign, with all its insane action, gore, guns and updated visuals makes Quake 2 the defining 90’s shooter, and all the extra content is just a massive bonus! The inclusion of accessibility options, the fact it runs beautifully smooth on modern hardware and just being able to play this with a buddy in local co-op makes it even sweeter.
Quake 2 Remaster is an easy recommendation from me, for any true fans of the series, casual shooters, and newcomers, and just in general any gamers! Quake 2 was a masterpiece back upon its release and aged like a fine wine just by itself, but this Remaster has made it even finer.
Now, Nightdive and Bethesda … please Remaster Quake 4 now. Pretty please!
+++ Classic Boomer-Shooter action brought forth to next-gen hardware.
+++ Soundtrack by Sonic Mayhem.
++ Updated to a profound standard with exceptional presentation, quality-of-life inclusions and more!
++ Lots of additional content to bulk up the package.
+ Quake 64 is playable now outside of owning a Nintendo 64.
- New Expansion is aggressively tough at times and unbalanced.
- A Boomer-Shooter through and through, and might not be for everyone.
A review code of Quake 2: Remastered was kindly provided by the publisher for this review.
