Pong and Beyond

537th played so far

Genre: First-Person Shooter
Platform: Various
Year of Release: 1997
Developer: id Software
Publisher: Activision

Following in our travel through first-person shooters, Quake II is the next on the list. Despite its current omnipresence in the list, it seems to have taken until the 2000s before it got that good. Before then, this game’s predecessors – Quake obviously, but also Doom – mostly dominated it, together with Duke Nukem 3D.

As the sequel to Quake, mostly I’m expecting more of the same, with the usual set of upgrades. It’s going to be interesting to see where it goes.

Our Thoughts

Sure, on some level Quake II still plays like Quake. It would have been weird if it hadn’t. It also feels more refined and modern. The secrets are still there, but there’s less of a focus on finding secrets and speeding through a level, instead focusing on progress and missions. I started off having to move between several levels to complete mission objectives (where and when I could find it, the levels still felt a bit maze-like sometimes).

The controls feel tighter as well, or probably better, the controls feel like they’re closer to what we’re used to in modern games. There were still some oddities, but it never got in my way while I was playing the game. Slow progress, but it’s there.

Sure, a lot of it comes down to “it looks/feels better”, rather than a full approval, but that’s also what the genre gave us at the time. Compared to other genres, FPSes came in late and went through a more rapid development, but that also means we associate them with further advances more often. Technically, it’s done perfectly here, we just needed to wait for computers and consoles to catch up.

Final Thoughts

Quake II doesn’t feel as groundbreaking as some of the predecessor mentioned earlier, but that’s not a bad thing. The game improved the genre, perfecting it for the time, and adding some polish that make it feel more playable these days than they used to be. A good game on its own.