Quake II: Enhanced Edition

This review is for the remaster rather than the game itself. This might be Nightdive's best remaster so far, which I like to think was made with the attitude of "OH, YOU PEOPLE DON'T THINK QUAKE II WAS VERY GOOD, DO YOU? WELL TAKE THIS YOU MOTHERS." It plays and feels GREAT. More like a 2023 game than a 1997 one now, and I mean that in a good way. The new campaign is nifty and merges all the content from the base game, expansions and console ports together, something I wish Nightdive would've done for the Quake I remaster. The slow weapon switching has been replaced with Quake III-esque weapon switching, making the game more fast-paced and solid in a way that may not necessarily be faithful to Quake II itself, but more to the Quake series as a whole, almost making Quake II fit between Quake I and Quake III Arena a lot easier now. I never had a problem with the weapon switching before but speeding it up was a good move I'd say. Like with the Quake I remaster, deathmatch now has optional bot support for offline mode... And yes it's a blast. I do hope Nightdive keep adding bot support to their remasters in the future. Whether this remaster completely obliterates vanilla Quake II on the Yamagi source port I can't really say since I still have a soft spot for vanilla Quake II. The Reckoning and Ground Zero expansions are easier/more balanced in this remaster which is something to keep in mind for those who are likely to get pissed off whilst playing them in their original forms. I can take or leave the Berserker's new leap attack. You can avoid taking damage by jumping at the right time, but it's an attack that really takes you aback (hey that rhymed) if you've played vanilla Quake II as much as I have. So yeah, while vanilla Quake II is still a fine way to play the game, this a wonderfully high-quality package that Nightdive should be very proud of.

An absolutely outstanding FPS that has stood the test of time and inspired many others to follow in its footsteps. The original Quake was a ground-breaking game when it first released, it absolutely changed the face of FPS gaming forever, and was the final nail in the coffin for many 2.5D shooters as it signalled a new dawn for the FPS genre. As Duke Nukem famously once said in Duke Nukem 3D "I ain't afraid of no Quake!" well...that didn't age so well! Quake II took what made the original spectacular and revamped everything, and this remastered Nightdive version of the game is SUPERB. Graphical upgrades look incredible, the support for modern hardware, and the easy online play plus added achievements are an absolute dream come true, not to mention the now improved enemy AI and QoL features such as the compass to help you navigate your way through the vast almost maze-like levels. Also included are the levels from Quake 64, making this the ultimate Quake II package for older gamers wanting to revisit their childhood, or newcomers to the classic "boomer shooter" genre who want to see where it all started. Quake II is a golden experience from start to finish!

very fun and epic action game from '97. Throughout the 90's id software continued to set the ground for games that would be created for decades since. Quake II is no different than Quake in the fact that they both set up ICONIC and game changing franchises, without Quake we wouldn't have Half-Life, Team Fortress, COD, and the way we played games would be VERY different. i am having alot of fun with Quake II and if you are into Half-Life, Doom, Quake 1 or old FPS titles, you're likely to have alot of fun with this. Love it.