Quake II
Nintendo 64
Nostalgia Factor:
I first played Quake II back in 1998. I was a big fan of the first Quake game, but due to financial limitations I only ended up renting its sequel rather than buying it. I enjoyed the game, though, and dedicated an entire weekend to beating it. After returning the game to Blockbuster Video, I haven't played it again since. That means it has been nearly 26 years since I last touched this game.
All I can remember about the game is that at the time, I was impressed by its graphics and lighting effects. I can't remember any specific details about my time with the game, other than that I liked it.
I purchased this game in 2011 at a used video game store for six bucks. It would sit on my shelf for thirteen years before I finally decided to pick it up and play through it again. Does this game still hold up after all this time? Let's find out!
Story:
No one cares about the storyline in these kinds of games. No one.
No one.
Including the game developers, as there is not a single mention as to what is going on the entire time you are playing. No cutscenes, no text, nothing. Not even an ending sequence when you beat the game. It just goes right into the credits when you defeat the final bosses.
Okay, then.
Gameplay:
This game was a bit of a shock to my system when I first started playing it. I play through the original Quake 64 every few years or so, and I've never had a problem with the controls or the aiming. This game? I had a lot of problems.
Lets start with character movement. It's a lot more sluggish and choppy than I had remembered. Lining up jumps is difficult. Aiming is difficult. This game lacks the fluidity of its predecessor. To top it off, the controller scheme is weird, too. Hey Nintendo - no one wants to use the yellow directional buttons on the controller to move the character. Didn't want to with Turok, didn't want to here. Luckily, the controller layout can be changed to the analog stick.
I also found it very difficult to hit enemies. The first Quake had a little bit of an auto-aim to it, where if you were off by a centimeter or two, your shots would still hit the enemy. In this game, there is no auto-aim. You have to be very precise with your firing. Normally, I don't mind this. I'm not a little wimp. I can shoot enemies without the help of auto-aim. But the sluggish, choppy controls make this game VERY hard to hit the enemy. I've wasted entire clips of ammunition without even hitting my target - and I am not someone who is bad at shooting games. It's just crappy mechanics at play here.
Other gripes - it is not always responsive when you press the fire button. Some weapons take a second or so to get going, and although it may not seem like much it still makes things much more challenging than they should be. Other weapons continue to fire after you let go of the shoot button, further wasting more ammunition in the process. I often found myself running out of ammo as I played, which almost never happens to me in these kinds of games. It is because I wasted so many bullets because the aiming is just complete shit. I also don't like how difficult and slow it is to scroll through weapons. You can't just hit the switch button three times to switch from the pea-shooter to your chaingun. You have to cycle through each weapon one at a time, with the character pulling up each gun onscreen, before you can move on. In the middle of hectic battles, this is not ideal. It's a pain in the ass, actually. I found that you can pause the game and select the weapon you want, but that really breaks up the flow of the action. It's lose/lose all around.
When I first began playing this game, I hated it. I thought to myself - this game is absolute dog shit when compared to the original Quake. I slogged through the first few levels, dying left and right. The game quickly became a chore to play through. To make matters worse, my N64 memory packs don't work anymore, so I had to enter passwords each time I'd start the game up again. Ugh. And it doesn't change your controller scheme, so I had to change it back to analog each and every time I played the game.
Now, from what I've written up to this point, you may think I hated this game. But it was around level 6 or so when my opinion started to change. I was really frustrated with this game and about ready to give up on it. I don't know what it is that changed, but I suddenly found myself doing well. Maybe it just took me a while to adjust to the choppy controls, the bad aiming, and the unusual enemy attack patterns, but all of a sudden I was racing through levels and destroying everything in my path with little to no resistance. And as a result, I was starting to have fun again.
I really enjoyed the latter two thirds of the game. The flaws were still present, but I had found my groove. While it had taken me about two weeks of off and on playing to get through the first third of the game, I was able to finish off the rest in a span of three or four days. The game was starting to feel like the Quake that I knew and loved.
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Graphics:
This is a very dark game, to the point where it make it difficult to navigate the stages. Cranking up the brightness as soon as you start playing is an absolute must.
Visuals are good but not great. The whole game has that haunting, eerie atmosphere present in Doom 64 and the first Quake. Characters don't always look good, though. Some characters look like a rough mess of polygons. Action slows to a crawl at times, too. Everything has a graininess to it that never quite sat well with me. I like the N64 and I am used to the graininess in other games, but it was off-putting here for some reason.
That said, the stage design and the haunting ambience of the game save it from being a complete visual flop. I also liked the new lighting effects as well, which were a big deal back in 1998. I think this game runs with the N64 expansion pack. I'm sure it looks and runs much better with one of those. Unfortunately, I do not own one.
Note - for some reason, screenshots from this game were very very hard to find. I had to use some upscaled HD screenshots for this review, like the one you see above and below this section of the review. This game does NOT look this good on the original N64 hardware.
Sound:
This game shines in the audio department. The ambient music and sound effects really sell the creepiness factor of this game. The characters give you audio cues when you are spotted, which is always a nice thing to have in these games. The sound of explosions and gunfire perfectly matches the vibe of the game. I really have nothing to complain about in this department.
Overall:
Shockingly, I ended up having a pretty good time with this game. After the first handful of levels and my rough introduction to the game, I was thinking how this was going to be a D or a D- title. But as the game went on and I began adjusting myself to the controls and the flow of the game, I really started to enjoy myself.
Look, I understand this is a flawed game with some severe limitations. I am not going to deny that. But if you can overcome those limitations, you are going to find a pretty fun game under all that. Quake II won't be for everyone - and I can easily say that the first game completely blows it out of the water. But it is a good game, and I'm glad I stuck with it and came around on it.
THE GRADE:
B-
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