➤ Quake 2, the Remaster review 🕹

The review of Quake 2, a remastered edition that adds a lot of value to the original title and is worth playing again.

Remastering a game should mean taking an experience from the past and bringing it back to a modern audience in a more technologically friendly form. At the same time, similar operations can be used to enhance a certain work, enriching it with content that renews its mythology, in order to underline its importance or some of its values that have been established over time. Unfortunately, many modern remasters simply do their job and nothing more, adding a few effects, increasing the resolution, and offering little more than what the game originally was. Fortunately, this is not always the case, as we told you in the review of the remastered edition of Quake 2, an operation that exceeded our wildest expectations.

Complete remaster

Quake 2, the Remaster review — Quake 2 was not distorted by the remastering

Let's be clear, thegraphic update there was. The new 2 earthquake, curated by Nightdive Studios, allows you to select a higher resolution than the original, as well as activate effects such as cathode ray tube simulation, anti-aliasing, depth of field, dynamic shadows and many others. There are also redone 3D enemy models, more realistic fogs, etc., which definitely improve the visual impact. To realize the excellent work done, just start the classic Quake 2 (present in the package) and make a direct comparison. Of course, we're still talking about a title from 1997, so it's not fair to expect miracles, but the news is there and it's definitely nice. The only thing missing is ray tracing, which was obviously not included so as not to overload the graphics engine, so that performance is similar on each platform, but we can settle for it.

Beyond the graphic update, which is nice but does not mean that Quake 2 is more than twenty-five years old, the most interesting element of the package is undoubtedly theenrichment of the offer operated by the developers. In fact, inside you will find Quake 2, The Reckoning expansion, the Ground Zero expansion, the classic versions of the three products, the new Call of the Machine expansion, created for the occasion by MachineGames (the Wolfenstein studio) and Quake 2 .64, that is, the version of the game for Nintendo 64, very different from the PC version. Taking into account also the wealth of online modes, including deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag and cooperative, we can define this remastered edition as the best possible expression of what Quake 2 was, is and how it has evolved over the years .

The game of the time, but with many new features.

For those who don't know, the second chapter of the Quake series did not directly follow the history of the first (the third will do the same with the second and the fourth with the third, although the latter is a direct continuation of the second). So it is no longer a gothic setting, but science fiction: humanity is at war against the Strogg, a particularly aggressive alien species. The events told in the main campaign of the game take place during the ground counteroffensive, which unfortunately did not end well. The player is the last survivor of his assault team and, weapons in hand, must infiltrate the ranks of the Strogg to stop their war machine, that is, he must overcome dozens of levels full of enemies, including weak ordinary soldiers, burly enforcers, who have a machine gun instead of an arm, Berseker thugs and very durable tanks, armored beasts armed with rocket launchers, to inflict a mortal wound on hostile forces. All while you search for the right path in labyrinths full of doors to open, keys to find and secrets to discover. The classic contents must be well known, so that we do not spend too much time describing them. It is better to focus on new features, that is, those that make the entire operation special.

Earthquake 2 64

Let's start with Earthquake 2 64, probably the worst version of the game. Why add it then? In fact, it's really interesting to find it in this context. The original was released in 1999, therefore before Halo: Combat Evolved for Xbox, the game that profoundly renewed the way of conceiving first-person shooters on consoles. Comparing it with the PC version from two years earlier, substantial differences are immediately noticeable, in particular in the levels built more horizontally than vertically (aiming up and down with the controller was not very pleasant), in the architecture of the maps less labyrinthine, so that console players couldn't get lost, and the total number of enemies was decidedly smaller. In short, it was a very simplified version of Quake 2, to adapt to the different audiences and the different control system. Also keep in mind that it could have been finished in about two and a half hours, compared to the 9 or 10 it took to complete the PC version the first time. Playing it today, perhaps with a mouse and keyboard, makes us immediately understand why it was considered difficult at the time to adapt games designed for PC to consoles, at least without making huge structural changes, distorting them in some way (or simply reducing their impact). . ). ), making them simpler.

The Call of the Machine Expansion

machine callHowever, it is a true expansion that can be completed in about five hours. It consists of six missions, seven if we consider the final one (although only one long boss fight), for a total of twenty-eight levels that transport us inside highly defended Strogg outposts, through narrow underground areas, inside threatening industrial zones. complex and whatever. The missions are designed with great wisdom, intricate at the right point and designed for players already accustomed to the title. Read: they are very difficult. So expect plenty of enemies, often infamously placed (in a positive sense), which improve the speed of the game and reward more mobile players, even if there are times when you are forced to slow down to study better. the situation. and understand how to proceed. It is with Call of the Machine that we discovered the usefulness of compass, one of the new features introduced by Nightdive Studios in the game. Immediately present in the inventory, when used it indicates the next objective, suggesting the path to follow through green arrows that appear in the game world. Although for some it may seem like an excessive simplification, it must be said that it is very useful, especially on those occasions when you have to retrace a large part of the levels and you don't want to waste time. However, using the compass is completely optional, so you can safely ignore it and play Quake 2 like it's 1997.

Conclusions

Tested version PC with Windows digital delivery Steam, GoG, playstation store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop Price 9,99 € Holygamerz.com 9.0 Readers (31) 8.5 your vote

The remastered edition of Quake 2 is what every remastered edition should be: respectful of the original, affordable (even free for those who owned the original on Steam and GOG), but at the same time full of new content, enough to justify the even. those who know it inside out are back in the game. Nightdive Studios, in collaboration with Machinegames and id Software, has done a truly excellent job, confirming that it is one of the most suitable studios for operations of this type, so much so that we come to define Quake 2 as one of the best remasters in history. We hope others will also do the same.