Quake 2 - Influential yet Overlooked | Trav Guy Reviews

[@ThatTravGuy]

I was out of town while editing this video, so it was entirely edited on my laptop, which is significantly less powerful than my Computer at home. Because of that, there's significantly less Audio and Videos from online used in this piece. Thanks! Strogg Renders in the Thumbnail courtesy of Models Resource: www.models-resource.com/pc_computer/quake2/model/11520/ SOURCE PORT USED: Yagami Source Port - Tutorial and Music included in this link steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1223177211 AUDIO USED: Quake 2 OST - Sonic Mayhem "FBI OPEN UP" : kzbin.info/www/bejne/h4K1aKdtZpeAnsk

[@sausage6984]

Mate, the game was released 1997. It is incredible on a Pentium 2 PC. You really can't knock it for its time. I still have the CD

[@serbianslav5494]

You should review Quake 4.

[@mchannel6865]

Play serious sam the first incounter

[@JamesGames3]

@@sausage6984same! I still play it on my windows XP toughbook

[@Minority119]

Just a correction real quick Bitterman's pod didn't get shot down by the big gun but rather by another pod slamming onto his, which ended up saving him from being destroyed by the big gun

[@unfa00]

4:28 Bitterman's pod wasn't shot down by the Big Gun, it was damaged after deployment: "some cowboy clipped me(...)" says Bitterman in the intro. Later he hears "getting clipped just saved your life" from his command as the rest of his platoon got shot down (by the Big Gun?) but he missed the LZ having no flight control. It's all in the intro cinematic :)

[@plaguedoctorjamespainshe6009]

Bitterman get through the stroggification process and them is taken by the guys who runs the Arenas in Quake 3 He doesn't have a happy ending

[@DoomguyIsGrinningAtYou.]

I wonder... How did Doomguy escape Quake arena?

[@fallouttoonlink]

@@DoomguyIsGrinningAtYou. he's Doomguy. That's how.

[@austrakaiser4793]

What about Crash, how the fu*k did she escape that pit?

[@fallouttoonlink]

@@austrakaiser4793 uuuuuuuuuhhh. who?

[@austrakaiser4793]

@@fallouttoonlink Your Commander

[@SeekerLancer]

Quake 2 is an undeniably great game, but for some reason it always tends to fall short of being considered a classic like the loose "trilogy" of Wolf 3D, Doom and Quake. I don't know if it was because they made the mistake of calling it Quake or because they went with a sort of safe and bland aesthetic but it definitely feels like something is missing. That something isn't in the gameplay or technology however, those are spot on. It's also worth looking at it in the context of the time, id software was sort of treading water creatively and Carmack was more focused on the technology than the games themselves. He was content to have the company make the same kind of Doom clone shooter over and over again because it was just something to show off what his newest engine was capable of as licensing out that technology to others had become their bread and butter. People were starting to get sick of it and while Quake 2 tries its damnedest to mix things up from the mazes and key hunts of the past it was obvious that they really weren't feeling very inspired or ambitious about it. This really came to a head with Quake 3 and they stopped even pretending to care about the single player content anymore. That said nobody should consider Quake 2 a bad game because it's still phenomenally fluid and fun to play today. It still has that weird je nais se quoi to it where even though it still has the trappings of a 90's id game you can subtly feel that things had changed. I love Quake 2 but it's always held this melancholy "end of an era" feel to it. It's part of why when Half-Life came out and it's core design ethos completely rejected the increasingly repetitive id releases that it blew us all away. Combined with other strong competitors of the time like Unreal it's easy to see why Quake 2 faded into the background quickly. It wasn't the biggest, baddest dog in town in the way previous id games always were.

[@jacobchristopher7085]

True

[@maxwellandrews509]

great breakdown

[@underthemayo]

I have stronger feelings towards Quake 2 because it was the first one I played, and the first 3d shooter I played. And the first multiplayer shooter I played. And the first online shooter I played. I didn't play the original until near 20 years later. So it's hard to look at them really objectively. I think i'll say that Quake 2's first part is really strong and then gets week. Where Quake never really reaches the highs of Quake 2, but stays more consistent and enjoyable until the end.

[@Soulfly415]

How is Quake 2 weak in its second half? How exactly does Quake 1 stay more consistent in comparison to Quake 2? Why can't Quake 1 reach the highs of Quake 2? What are the highs of Quake 2? You just make statements and present them as facts, but your words have zero substance! If you're going to make statements like that from now on, could you at least try to back them up? Or maybe you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about?

[@DoctorReflux]

@@Soulfly415 i farted

[@mushbrainsmedia1061]

@@Soulfly415 Jesus Christ, calm down. He wasn't writing a fucking essay, just giving some thoughts. You can ask him to extrapolate on a point without being a dickhead.

[@mushbrainsmedia1061]

But for real, what are the high points of Quake 2? I find the entire thing boring, slow, and too easy, even on that hard+ mode.

[@Soulfly415]

@@mushbrainsmedia1061 I'm sorry but an unfunny neckbeard moron like you, who likes modern crap shooters, will never be qualified to judge a classic like Quake 2. You don't know what you're talking about kid, go back to your casual modern garbage!

[@DP-ez8lx]

Quake2 literally paved the way to other games that had multiplayer and modding communities

[@Ropoid]

Doom

[@konradfun]

That was Doom followed by Quake. Nothing Quake 2 does in that aspect is new.

[@1nfinitysL1mit]

I LOVE this game one of my childhood favorites.

[@justwilliam4802]

It’s Turing into one of my childhood favorites lol

[@Punk93Metal]

Quake II deserves more love

[@JaySplash00]

My father came home from work one day back in 1997 with a 3.5 floppy disk. It was Quake II. Played on Windows 95 Gateway Computer. hahaha. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Dig all your videos.

[@jkostans]

Must have been a CD, I think even the demo was 10+MB. The last id game I had on floppy was Doom 2 (5 discs I think?) Still, pretty cool dad bringing home badass games like that.

[@Gurra88]

Quake 2 on one floppy disc? Are you sure?

[@DeadPixel1105]

Your story is pure nonsense. Quake II wasn't on floppy disk ever.

[@mattsperk1238]

This game was my life. I helped develop online multiplayer maps and mods such as Jailbreak and D-Day, weapons and scenarios. I really hope they re-introduce quake to the new gaming platforms. I probably have a gig of unfinished maps on my computer right now LOL. The reason why I stopped gaming with quake online is because the servers were consistently empty all of a sudden. Then they went away because they were too expensive to operate.

[@mcd3379]

I've been playing it continuously since it was first released back in 1997. And I'm now playing the KMQuake2 version. One thing you forgot to mention - is that although a lot of the environments are a dull brown - this is contrasted with the use of beautiful coloured lighting, and lots of orange, yellow and green. It's also very easy to get into and has immense replay value - I should know I've been playing it for 26 years now! It loads quickly, saves quickly and the gameplay is flawless. No it doesn't talk to you or give you multiple choices, it is just pure, straight out action with a musical score that is perfect. It is the ID game that I've played the most by far - and although Romero wasn't part of it, I know he was very impressed by it when he saw it and later played through it on one session. So much so that he insisted on using the Quake 2 engine for his ill fated Daikatana. Quake 2 isn't a successor to Quake 1 - but it is certainly more of a spiritual successor to the original Doom.

[@LachM2011]

Ok so I'm not crazy. The steam port's lack of music made me think my copy was bugged.

[@justinregenwetter5240]

theres a free patch online for that

[@DoomguyIsGrinningAtYou.]

@@justinregenwetter5240 Seriously valve.

[@cfdeers]

​@@DoomguyIsGrinningAtYou. it's not valve's fault, but rather the license for the music being weird. The game streamed the music from the CD, so the license said that iD was allowed to distribute the game with the music on the CD so long as it stayed on the CD. Everything else about the game could be mounted to the hard drive, just not the music. Because Steam is exclusively digital and the rights for the music were never updated, Valve cannot legally publish the Steam copy of Quake 2 with the music because the online copy is treated the same way in law as the stuff you downloaded to the hard drive in 1997. The same thing happened to Quake 1 on Steam.

[@fernandohood5657]

steam is quite shitty store to get classic and retro games, thres ALWAYS some patching you need todo yourself

[@alfiehicks1]

@@fernandohood5657 That's just how PC games are - especially when trying to run old games on a modern machine. But even new games will almost always require some tinkering on the user's end to get them to your liking. It's not Valve's fault when game developers sell a bad version of their game on Steam.

[@AtunDesenfrenado]

The multiplayer was INSANE, all the mods, all the maps, skins. It gave us Action Quake 2, Navy Seals (Q2 Counter-strike) and so much more. I´m so happy I experienced that era.

[@bunkaaa8726]

Small note , I believe its pronounced 'Bitterman' almost like one word, and 'Mac-ron' ! Nice to see Q2 getting more love.

[@basteagui]

i love quake2. quake2 is my favorite quake. always was. maybe because i got my pc in 1997 and i WANTED 2. that was the whole reason i wanted to get a pc to begin with. it's the game i have played the most in my life. like some people have played doom2 on this site, i have played quake2. mapped for it, modded for it. everything. quake2 was when modding REALLY took off. you can technically make any mod for quake1 but they really perfected mod making by 2 and a lot more people got creative. some of the quake2 mods influence can be felt in the industry in 2020. no joke. there was a mod called brazen quake2 that added so much the game ended up being something between call of duty modern warfare and arma2. i have kept this mod in my personal files since the year 1998.

[@aleksandrpetrosyan1140]

I think id software's biggest mistake was calling this game Quake 2. It's a fun shooter that really gets you into the "WW2 but not quite" vibe, and hammers home the technical accomplishment of John Carmack, the problem is that it has very little in common with Quake 1. It's a legacy of failure, though not failure itself, in that it is the first game that was planned to be an "id shooter", and didn't involve reneging on a grander design. It's also the first game I beat to the end, one of the few games that I replay regularly, and the projenitor of the much unfairly maligned Quake 4. Also Sonic Mayhem is just one guy. He's scored Mass effect 3, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, and in my honest opinion was the better composer on both projects.

[@zakazany1945]

I played the ps1 port first, and actually it is one of my favorite FPS ever, with the strogg concept being one of the most terrifying in gaming

[@roryh50]

I feel the soundtrack is really underrated, the music in this game is amazing!

[@indie2311]

Quake 2 was my first rated M and shooting game back in 99.

[@theanti-hypemonitor9079]

quake 2, blood 2, kingpin, soldiers of fortune... those were my super early pc days... despite being 14 y/o at the time ;D

[@cjnf11]

Sonic Mayhem isn't a group, it's one musician, Sascha Dikiciyan. > We never see this guy again to my knowledge. That depends. Quake III Arena's "plot" is about teleporting great fighters to participate in the tournament, and Bitterman is also there. > Quake II was a lot of fun. Yes, but you could illustrate that point MUCH better if you'd also remember the multiplayer. Q2DM1 The Edge is one of the most iconic deathmatch maps ever. Even playing with bots is a cool action experience (I mostly played with crbot).

[@Jarza]

quake 2 was my favourite game as a kid, and still is one of my favorites, great video

[@fuzzybridges]

i remember playing quake 1 as a kid and really loving it. it was the first fps shooter i ever played. But when quake 2 released i just completely fell in love with it. I remember i used to watch my brother play online. I know quake 1 is a legend but quake 2 was always my favorite among the 2. I think the games ost and futuristic setting pulled me in.

[@WillieManga]

It's amusing that Quake 2 was barely Quake 2 until Id Software was like "Good work guys, now what do we wanna call it?" "Errrrrrrrr... Strogg?" "Nah, that sounds dumb, naming the game after an alien species." "I think we should call it War, but with an O in the middle instead." "But an old arcade game partially had that title." "What about Lock and Load? Or even just Load?" "Nono, sounds too generic." "Well what do we do? We got any IPs laying around?" "...." "Screw it, we're calling it Quake 2, so let's just make the Quake logo into a roman numeral." "But didn't that John Romero guy make it?" "Whatever, this'll be more interesting. In fact, let's just make the other games about whatever we want it to be... Also maybe we'll add a Shambler into it as a cameo and make an excuse that the Strogg brought it from an alternate dimension or something. There, we're totally justified in making it Quake 2 now!" That is what happened; they didn't know what to do with their IP so marketed it a sequel to a popular game. That's just shameless, no one else would possibly do th-oh wait! Hi, Nintendo! XD

[@Quakecon-s9r]

I love Quake 1 but Quake 2 is so much more kick ass. The guns feel so powerful, and the strogg are a pretty cool enemy to fight with. And the soundtrack? well, that speaks by itself, it's nothing but amazing.

[@N64Archive]

Solid work as always Trav! Though Quake 2 N64 might not be such a treat ;)

[@Leo.Dalarosa]

Quake 2 is my favorite in the series, VERY underrated

[@KrazyKain]

I grew up playing quake 2 so it's always held more of a special place in my heart than the first quake. But with that said it wasn't until watching this video and the way you described it that I REALLY want to see a complete from the ground up remake of Quake 2 that turns it into a metroidvania. The objective based progression/exploration, building your arsenal from the ground up.... it just feels like such a good fit!

[@BobsRevenge]

People apparently have beef with the game all these years later, but Quake 2's soundtrack wasn't topped until Doom 2016, 19 years later, literally you could not play a more badass FPS for a full 19 years and people still found random reasons to think Quake 2 isn't one of the best FPS games ever

[@AlexJonesGaming]

I'd say Unreal tops Quake 2 in every aspect including the soundtrack also if the soundtrack is all it takes to be a badass game your standards are incredibly low dude

[@austrakaiser4793]

Doom 2016s soundtrack is amazing but it's gameplay feels dated in some aspects, same logic bruh. Quake 2 and Halo 3 were both my first and all time favourite fps games.

[@AlexJonesGaming]

@@austrakaiser4793 I think Doom 2016s gameplay is the proper continuation of what Quake started it feels super smooth and badass when you master it the soundtrack is good but there's way too much WubWub for me to really get into it

[@austrakaiser4793]

@@AlexJonesGaming fair enough

[@dotcomgamingd5564]

based

[@sannicfann3338]

"There are some theories as to whether or not these games are connected" Machinegames: Nightdive I think I have an idea

[@GodEater1313]

Quake 2 was and still is awesome. It really pushed PC technology at the time and is mostly hated by Quake 1 fans. Both are great games. I like Quake 2 better tho.

[@kodemasterx]

My dude, there was no plasma gun in Q1, Q2 HyperBlaster was sort-off like the nail gun, Plasma Gun was introduced in Q3 Arena.

[@AelfwineGaming]

Played this more times in 1998 and still get pumped with that music! Great analysis anyway, good job ;-)

[@SaturnineXTS]

I will always love Quake 2 for its amazingly rounded out arsenal that has created the classic precedent followed until as late as even Doom Eternal. I've also always liked the urban, futuristic feel of Quake 2 that has always reminded me of busy cities and evenings out downtown

[@jonm.6309]

This game is one of my absolute FAVORITES! No.1 having to be Doom, the original. I agree with almost everything this guy says about Quake 2, except the music. The soundtrack to this game is the best I've heard in ANY game! (Medal of Honor soundtrack...close runner up) The music did propel me thru the game, and helped set the mood, my mood for getting through some of the tougher parts of it. I still listen to the soundtrack on MP3 in my car and around the house on a quite regular basis. It NEVER gets old!!! How many songs, let alone video-game soundtracks can say that?! Not many. I am currently playing Quake 4 for XBox 360. Good Co-Op gameplay, good sequel to Quake 2, but not as immersive as Q2.

[@amaterasu_eyes3486]

Jon Morris I really enjoyed quake 4, quake 2 has a much better atmosphere but i quite enjoyed the more story focused campaign of 4.

[@jonm.6309]

@@amaterasu_eyes3486 I especially like the very noticeable adjustments ID software made to the Doom 3 engine. I'm crazy about that graphics engine! There's just something about it.

[@amaterasu_eyes3486]

Jon Morris Yes! ive always loved the graphics. especially the way the strogg are designed.

[@iowndisturbed]

The soundtrack on q2 is literally the best. I also have all of it in mp3 as well and listen to it almost every day. I started playing this game on an old Pentium 3 when I was 6 years old. And I still find it fantastic. This soundtrack is what got me into metal. Headbanging at 6 and killing strogg. My mom had to force me to go to bed so I could wake up for school.

[@jonm.6309]

@@iowndisturbed Not to sound too '90s, but that's totally awesome! Finally someone who agrees with me. Thank you. Metallica's The Thing That Should Not Be, from Master of Puppets album is what got me into metal.

[@petwisk2012]

Quake 2 i played the Shareware Version like 14 years Ago as i was having computer classes all the coleages come to the computer School earlier (since we where the only class doing the cource, the School was a scam) everyone set a Room and everyone played Quake 2 Death Mach no end for hours for months i love this game even If i never Saw anything more than the First level and Boss Also can you do the magnum opus of John Romero that was destroyed by Quake 2 (and eventualy 3) Daikatana?

[@ThatTravGuy]

I actually own Daikatana but haven't played it. Maybe I'll save it for a Subscribe Special once I hit a goal

[@danielbosshard7768]

@@ThatTravGuy Congrats on 1.6K subscribers! Now that you've reached that goal, will you be doing Daikatana? :P

[@Thrackerzod8]

i like to think Quake 1 to Quake 2, is basically almost like Half life 1 to Half life 2, you destroy the demon leader (shub niggurath something) and in the second game, some new alien the Strogg specie invade earth and uses the demons powers they had left, just like the combine with the xen aliens.

[@jess648]

you could view it as revenge for her defeat by sending an alien force that was far more horrifying than anything in the realms of Quake also the recent Call of the Machine expansion basically confirms Shub-Niggurath created the Strogg which is what people have been saying for years

[@Wolfkaosaun]

Well great. Now I wanna play Quake 2

[@austrakaiser4793]

If you're on PC then you need good modding skills to get it up and running in good condition lol, the Xbox 360 port is a fantastic HD remaster though and is quick and simple as it's the Bonus Disc for Quake 4 on Xbox 360.

[@tagoldich]

Because I discovered Quake 2 first, Quake 1 always seemed like a step down (in graphics and game play). Not being able to look up or down while moving was a step down from Quake II. Also, I gravitated toward sci-fi more than the occult. But Quake now comes with the option of a graphics upgrade. And now I like the games about the same. And yeah, I'd have to agree that Quake was a bit more artfully done.

[@paulj505]

I remember the second Quake more than the first one and I even like it a bit more than the first one.

[@thommagnusson8449]

Great memories of playing Quake II, such a fun game. And a great sound track too.

[@lemagreengreen]

Quake 2 did make a splash at the time, a lot of people were a bit upset by the change in theme and I think they probably should have called it something other than Quake but most people quickly got over that. That said, the single player was mostly unimportant - Quake 2 came around at a time when a lot of people were getting into online gaming and it was by far the best FPS for that until Quake 3 came out... although some people said it was too slow compared to Quakeworld. id software wrote the best engines and netcode for the 90s Quake games though, if you wanted to play an multiplayer FPS in the late 90s you played some variety of Quake.

[@skychaserthedragon2046]

Hope you like brown and red! They're the only colors on display in quake 2! Oh, and quake 1 too.

[@DTA707]

I'm sure those are the only two colors in your underwear too

[@lllXanderlll]

It's so crazy how similar this game is to Doom 3, the grenade animation and the sound effect of the super shotgun being the same that is used for the regular shotgun in Doom 3. I actually got quake 2 for free on the Bethesda store and boy did it quickly inform me I'm not a very good PC gamer lmao

[@djangofett4879]

this game is nothing like DOOM 3

[@benjaminharmon6541]

I've been getting into the retro shooters recently, and this video has me convinced that I'll have a great time playing Quake 2 as well. Thanks for the great video!

[@blockyvids2]

I’ve always wanted a crossover between Quake and Doom (that’s not just Doomguy in Quake Chamipons) where Ranger, or Bitterman, and Doomguy team up to defeat the Strogg which have taken the Demons and put them through the Stroggifacation machine, making them more powerful than ever.

[@commanderkruge]

Quake 2 Multiplayer was quite big. It also would allow for player models it would download from whoever had a new model not on your HD yet, so your skins folder got bigger and bigger with time. :)

[@skew5386]

I had the same exact experience with thinking Quake II was boring compared to Quake and then picking it back up later to love it.

[@junojun722]

Theory: Quake 2 passes in earth or something in the quake universe, while quake 3 is arenas in some place still in that universe

[@captainharris8980]

Pretty accurate review. I played it when it was first released when I was going for an engineering degree, and found it a great stress reliever. But, it was also just a touch too violent for me, so I had to put it down every now and then. It was interesting all the same.

[@FearsomeWarrior]

The mods and skins and things were insanity for Quake 2. Quake 1 had them but Quake 2 was a nuclear explosion of projects. The driving mod kind of encapsulates that fact. There is a basketball mod.. there is a entire Headhunters game where you hold heads from kills (even your own teams) and if you die you drop them and get bonus points for holding onto them before delivering them to a spike altar. Roschack that went on to work on Unreal 2 skinned all of Headhunters2. I remember having a Battle Angel Alita/Gunnm skin in Quake 2. A Teknoman skin that was amazing too at the time. The websites for Quake2 that are long gone were massive and hosted so much of that history.

[@refdwestern8612]

best classic FPS game. I have a lot of memories with it

[@GroinMischief]

As a fan of Quake sp (I still play it), I've always thought Quake 2 falls short on pretty much every aspect, it just feels like it wasn't designed as well as the predecessor. To name a few issues that irk me when I'm playing it: Weapon cooldown is slower, weaponswitch is slower, movement is slower, enemies have solid hitboxes for seconds after they die and a lot of them are hitscanners. All of this makes the gameplay tedious and slow paced when there's more than one opponent on the screen. Quake 1 worked better for both small and large scale encounters. Lastly, I have not found a single mod or mission pack that I enjoyed more than vanilla. Quake 1 has much better mapping and modding content, including projects like Arcane Dimensions and Rubicon for example. The enjoyment lasts long after beating the vanilla campaign. Only thing I enjoy about Quake 2 is the Q2 jump mode. Even though the movement is slower it has so much more depth than Quake 1 when you introduce obstacle course like gameplay.

[@ArcturusOTE]

So the base game is a bit bleak but the movement physics are wonderful?

[@Leichenschrei]

Quake 2 movement isn't slow at all lmao you can actually quickly accelerate through bunny hopping.

[@DedHedJosh]

Where quake 2 really shined was online. It was the best multiplayer shooter by far and away. The ability for player skins and mods made it that much better. I played quake 2 for years after it's release playing the mods and online. You should read up on the mod community this game had and you'll understand how popular it actually was.

[@brutusmagnuson315]

Let’s not forget that Doom 2016 had almost the exact same arsenal.

[@Gatorah]

I heard of the quake games but never played them. I don't really see many retrospective/review vids of them in this decade. I'd love to see a review of the latter ones too. Think we could see a Quake 3 review someday? Just heard of the characters Crash and Phobos inspired from doom and wanted to know who the heck they were

[@Gatorah]

@@Cha4k Thats cool though

[@justinregenwetter5240]

bitterman is in quake 3. story wise he was abducted to be a eternal gladiator for his exploits.

[@ArcturusOTE]

3:56 Ah the good ol double tapping Iirc the original Medal of Honor games also had this kind of shtick, hell sometimes enemies will still fire their guns while their death animations play out

[@WaxTheDolphin]

Yea man, I have played all the Quake games. If they make a new one, hopefully they keep the dark matter gun from Quake 4 :D That weapon is as cool as the BFG.

[@gutsygutman2475]

I played through the entire game without knowing what mouse look was or that it was even an option. Back then most games came with it turned off and the mouse was pre mapped to be like a side step movement. So young teenage me just used the "page up and page down" keys on the keyboard. It wasn't until one day at my friends house when our other friend was getting ready to play the "Sin" demo the following year and he says "How do you do that thing so you can aim with the mouse?" I perked up from playing Play Station with our other friend and was like "Man, that's brilliant!!" Now all games come with it turned on as standard. I could only imagine trying to play the original Rainbow 6 with only the keyboard. Because of mouse aim I would say you could call Quake 2 and RB6 the first "twitch" shooters. I still remember cleaning my "Ball" mouse wheels off while holding the cordless phone against my head with my shoulder while taking to my buddy getting ready for RB6 matches and getting "taco neck" from it. Good times.

[@SQGReviewShow]

Another solid video, Mr. Guy!

[@lupinthenerd439]

I appreciate that you had a wonderful time with the game. As for me...well...ykes! don't get me wrong, I'm open to a more sci-fi settings, the units instead of a series of linear maps, the item system and themovement, but Quake 2 really lacked the shooting department. Fighting enemies in quake 2 is not as fat paced and rewarding as 1 which had some of the most solid and balanced arsenal in any fps imo. Quake 2 arsenal straight up sucks: the bullet weapons had little annoying perks (like the machinegun's recoil that goes up if you shoot to much) that both needlegunbs in the first one didn't have and they where fine; the grenade launcher has smaller pills and a really annoying shooting speed is too slow, when the first one didn't had such things and it was fine if they just keep the ammo separeted from the rocket launcher so the grenade launcher wouldn't be antiquated; I spent most of the time with the shotguns which had ammo everywhere and after a while it got pretty boring; the only weapons I liked where the plasma rifle, the rocket launcher and the railgun and they come after a while. The expansions didn't add anything either to change my view on the game. I'm glad for Q2 existance I just don't think its true quake, and I played them both this year for the first time. Quake 2 just feels like an Alpha for Doom 3, at least that what I feel about it

[@fallouttoonlink]

Fun fact: Did you know that the Super Shotgun from Quake 2 is based on an actual double barrel pump action shotgun called the Neostead 2000?

[@unfa00]

That's fascinating! Thanks for the heads-up :D

[@fallouttoonlink]

@@unfa00 I made that comment 2 years ago, not knowing that the Neostead is not actually a double barrel shotgun. What I thought were barrels were actually magazine tubes

[@blackout295]

Personally I'll say it's a matter of aesthetics. For one, I prefer Scourge of Armagon to dissolution of eternity when it comes to quake expansion packs. Dissolution of eternity definitely has better gameplay, level design and music (you should seriously do a quake and doom expansion pack video because the music in DOE is what quake's soundtrack could've been.) Scourge of Armagon just has more interesting aesthetics and lays out it's maps in ways that just get you lost in the ideas the designer had.

[@DiegoAlanTorres96]

I played Quake 1 and Arcane Dimensions to death prior to this game and it just doesn't hold a candle. The gunplay alone in this is far more satisfying. I can only think of a few games and mods for other games that come close to Q2's arsenal. Also the soundtrack of the expansions are awesome.

[@ArcturusOTE]

I bet FPSCarol would love this video

[@duderitoz6953]

Brownie points with me, this was my favorite classic ID game back in the day. I liked the sci-fi military setting & metal tracks more than quake 1. To me, quake 2 is like commando & quake 1 is like conan the barbarian.

[@linusdickens4767]

I never knew how much influence quake had on doom 2016

[@thesamejackalsniperthatkil117]

Quake 2 had the most influence on 2016 and eternal imo

[@sjcongo]

I love this game… i m playing quad damage version with 2 exps included and i think it s a classic fps that is still playable nowadays

[@aliencatcrew3336]

5:12 I dont think duke nukem beat quake 2 with the weapon on the side because in duke nukem it was only on one side whereas quake 2 you could go into the options and change the weapons from left handed to right handed.

[@Lt_Voss]

Not only that, but a not-often-if-at-all mentioned feature is the handedness of your player (left, right, or centered) affects where your shots come from; if you set your handedness to right handed, you can shoot round corners by "poking around the corner" with just the gun and blast away. Same thing for left handedness. This, I think, is why I see a lot of gameplay where a lot of shots end up in walls or to the sides of enemies; they are playing right handed but pointing the crosshair centered on the enemies.

[@mintmag8748]

the hub based level design was an idea they got from Hexen. The first fps game to do it.

[@AkiDave]

Finished it the other day and I think it’s just okay, the same way I felt about Quake 1. I’m more of a fan of Doom 64. But I’m glad I played Quake 1 and 2 because they’re important games in the shooter genre and are worth experiencing :0

[@grasshopper-ln9us]

I love the strogg storyline of Quake 2 and quake 4 I hope that if they make a Quake 5 it picks up with the story

[@paulstaker8861]

Way back I finished the cracked version without music. It was the most melancholy expetience blasting cyborg heads off lol.

[@Spartan195X]

I only have to say, the light of this game is so amazing it adapted so damn good with the rtx release. It's a blast. Removing power cores leaving you in complete darkness looks so good it makes you feel fear around you

[@uzknistasis]

you missed the MULTIPLAYER. that is what Q2 is famous for. Strafejumping and all kind of jump tricks, acceleration .first capture the flag mode and very good teamplay.

[@JessicaChastainFan]

I love Quake 2! Still have it on my Xbox 360, but I played it on the PC first back in 98.

[@johnsmith9205]

I used to re-play this game pretty much every year for more than a decade (That, and Dune2 (in DosBox, Atreides sonic tanks FTW). And I played a Doom 1 episode every day after school, before that.). I even wrote some code to make it (Quake 2) run on widescreen (it was a simple change from the 3.20 code), and added some code to make sure it plays the music from an emulated CD (very stupid code as it restarted the music every time it had to pause it, because the CD emulator software was broken anyway). These days I'm just using Yamagi with separate music files. I love Quake 2.

[@MVegetto1]

I had the quad damage edition, also the netherworld episode 1st level had strogg grunt and enforcer in the original quake

[@mist602]

Loved this game. It was the multiplayer that got me hooked. Logging on to Mplayer, then GameSpy to find servers... Ahhh, those were the days

[@whiteforest62]

I had no idea the french president was leader of the strogg

[@salaciouscreations4323]

I spent 3 years of my life playing quake 2. It was a stronger multiplayer than a campaign game. So many players had never played the campaign and just downloaded the 13mb patch and off they went. I admit I was one of those but my kid has been asking about old games so we played through it and it was extremely easy once I got used to moving around again like in multiplayer. The kid didn't want a go he just wanted to watch as everything was basically outpaced or shortcutted with a few double jumps through. One thing I will give the campaign the objectives complete themselves without you really noticing. I am surprised it's ignored as the multiplayer was huge and the tools were even being used to design building in university. I dread to think how many prefabs. Mods the extra id level. All the crazy and amazing things which were made for this being lost to history. Oak bots were way better than ice bot. The history and memories. 😭

[@FlamboyantArt]

I grow up with doom but quake was pedal to the metal for me. Still play it to this day. Works without any schenanigans despite beeing so old...

[@cbekaroglu]

When I first played Quake 2 back in 1997, in my high-school years, I was both thrilled and disappointed at the same time. Visually and technically, the game was breathtaking with 3d accelerated graphics on a 3dfx vodoo machine, and the game was avant-garde in this respect. However, after playing a few weeks in an increasing level of disappointment, I remember uttering the words "They forgot to make a game while creating an engine as a technical showcase". As John Romero left, the game was all a corpse without a soul at the hands of John Carmack unfortunately. Gameplay and design wise, Quake 1 is years ahead of Quake 2. I played Quake 1 and derivatives thousands of times but I barely ever touch Quake 2 except for the mods maybe.

[@scottallen6227]

I loved Quake 2 the most because the multiplayer maps were large and interesting.

[@cracinlac923]

I think that the reason it was overlooked is because it was just another id shooter seen after most of the original art directors left and it lacked charcter and the diffuculty was dropped heavily making it more mainstream

[@saisameer8771]

Speaking of difficulty, is quake 2 the easiest old school fps ever made? Even on hard I only died like 2 or 3 times because I got a little careless. Quake 1 and even quake 4 in certain areas kicked my ass on normal. Even doom 3 is harder than quake 2.

[@cracinlac923]

@@saisameer8771 yea its probably the easiest theres a source port that allows you to choose the 5th difficulty ultra nightmare which raises shot speed and fire rate also enemys cant be put in a pain state this really helps the game because it makes it actually surprising some times and diffucult and makes it alot less mundane

[@cracinlac923]

@Jotaro97 it's not bad but if the player meets next to 0 opposition when playing it's not very fun and gets bland because there's little brain power required to play

[@LotusOfDoom]

“Shub-demonitized” is an underrated joke in this video 🤣

[@informitas0117]

So many all-nighter LAN parties playing Quake 2 multiplayer. Those were the days.

[@ChaseMC215]

Descent Into Cerberon is arguably the best teack that Sonic Mayhem did

[@d4rk45t6]

You should really try Quake 4, it´s Doom 3 but done well, with an even deeper take on the plot witout getting heavy and slow like Doom 3. Changing the core gameplay experience to an even better and more aggressive gameplay, and the fact that the plot is the one enhancing the upgrade, makes it an even funner experience.

[@alexandrpeterberg390]

I honestly do like the fact that Quake 2 takes on science fiction. I am sure everyone loves to kill some monsters, demons, and eldritch abominations but let's be honest here. How many fun fast-paced retro shooters out there that aren't about killing monsters and demons? It's possible to have a good enemy variety in a fast-paced retro shooter that is set in science fiction without having any monsters, demons, and eldritch abominations. Oh, and I do like how Strogg turns its victims into new soldiers. That means a fallen ally is a new soldier for the enemy ranks. Though Hell also does convert its victims into demons you are fighting as it was revealed in Doom Eternal.

[@stuffthings1417]

Played the N64 version many, many times and my favorite port. The PC one was the first version i played. Also my first online multiplayer experience. Truly awesome.

[@Sarge-u3s]

I think quake 1 had coller monster and enemy designs, while quake 2 had better weapons and gameplay. Wish they would make a remake of quake 1 that incorporated quake 2's weapons like the railgun. The railgun in boty single and multiplayer was fun as hell to try and one shot enemies with while strafing.

[@TheBengalDragon]

Here's the thing. I only played Quake II, and I really liked it. Looking back, Quake II and especially that soundtrack made duke nukem look like britney spears!

[@vincent78433]

hell yeah this game is amazing the gunplay is so good better than anything released at the time, too bad i could never finish the game as a kid cause the level was design was too complicated for me at the time and i didn't understand english very well. still enjoyed the game a lot.

[@Pay-No-Mind]

I spat my drink out at "Shub Demonitized " 😂

[@Marek82313]

I just realized that Armagon from the expansion Scourge of Armagon for Quake 1 is a biomechanical being... could it be a proto Strogg?

[@jess648]

wouldn’t be surprised if modern ID lore comes out basically confirming this as canon. they already said Shub Niggurath basically created the Strogg

[@austrakaiser4793]

Quake 2 was my first ever fps, I played the Xbox 360 port which btw is fantastic and was a bonus disc for Quake 4. Why is it my favourite id game? ADRENALINE, THE SOUNDTRACK IS AMAZING, much like Doom 2016.

[@HikingFeral]

I had quake 2 sat in my steam library a year because I wanted to revisit my childhood, it was so dark though and not widescreen I didn't really play it much. Anyway I was sat on the loo scrolling the steam store and noticed quake 2 rtx is free for people who have quake 2 and WOW! WHAT A DIFFERENCE, it's now a pleasure to play and you can see all the details completely missed as a kid because they went too far with the dark and dreary theme. All the models remain the same and so does the game, just all lighting and things like glass and computer screens and water look incredible if you have an rtx card.

[@roguerifter9724]

I like Quake II but I was a little annoyed when I first played it. Shotguns are among my favorite gaming weapon types, and I had played Quake I a couple of years before I got the sequel so I expected to start with a Shotgun like the first game. And to make it worse I somehow missed the Shotgun in the opening map on my first run so I didn't find one until I got to the comm center (The third map. Full-auto weapons are another of my favorite gun types so once I found a Machine Gun on the second map I started having more fun but getting to that point with just a Blaster was a pain. On the plus side I had found many Shotgun Shell before I actually got the weapon so once I had one I had plenty of ammo. And a friend showed me where the first Shotgun was then I memorized its location to make sure I never missed it on any future runs through the game.