Quake II is a game that has been released across thirteen gaming platforms and has had many releases across those platforms from its original release in 1997 up to the most recent release with the remaster in August of 2023. With so many iterations of the game, which game is the definitive way to play the game? Well, many would argue the remaster which is what this review is about and I would say that if you’re looking for the definitive experience, this is about as close as you can get.
The story of Quake II between the original game and all three expansions is that you are playing as four different soldiers. Each is tasked with taking the fight to the alien race known as Strogg, with each soldier acting as a one-man army and taking the fight to many different fronts in an attempt to turn the tides of the war. The story is interesting but a bit thin, which is not uncommon for a game that came out in the late 90’s.
This remaster comes with the original Quake II, both expansions (The Reckoning and Ground Zero), along with a brand new expansion called Call of the Machine which is exclusive to this collection. As an added bonus, Quake II 64 (the Nintendo 64 port) is also in this collection. In addition to all of the single-player content, it comes with all previously released multiplayer maps in the series that you can play locally, over a LAN, or even online with anyone around the world. Online multiplayer lets you play traditional multiplayer modes along with the entire set of story missions. All of these support cross-play across all platforms; so you can play with your friends no matter what platform they are playing on.
The game at its core is a first-person shooter with a set of objectives and unlike previous first-person shooters that just give you level after level, the original campaign of Quake II breaks itself up into nine different areas. Each area consists of a set of levels or maps with each one having a set of objectives. This was done at the time to not only give the illusion of the game being bigger than it is but also as a means to tackle the memory limitations of the platforms the game was released on. That’s not to say the game is small, I mean it has almost forty maps to explore, so there is plenty of content.
The expansions that are offered give you an additional sixty one campaign missions. Why they chose to have the expansions be specific missions, I would suspect is due to the fact the original game being broken up into areas without a designated number of missions was a bit confusing. In addition, Quake II 64 adds a couple of new levels that are exclusive to the port with all of the levels broken up a bit to make up for the limitations of the Nintendo 64.
Another thing offered in this collection that is exclusive to this release is the ID Vault. which gives you access to concept art and development information spanning every game in the collection. This includes enemies, weapons, and items, both in-game and those that would remain unused. One interesting thing included in this section is a playable, early in development build of the game, featuring three months of progress. In this build, you can see how much the levels have changed and makes for a unique playthrough and a historic look at the original Quake II.
The multiplayer game modes offered are Death Match, Team Death Match, and Capture the Flag. Quake II gives you twenty-one maps, with all three expansions and Quake II 64 offering an additional thirty-two maps. Depending on what game and match type you choose, will determine which of the fifty-three maps (yes there are really that many, I did the math) you can select to play.
Quake II isn’t the most graphically impressive or taxing FPS game you can play on today’s platform of choice, but it still looks really good. With so many resolutions, frames per second, and graphical options, you can make the game run the way you want. If you want to cap the game at 30FPS with a CRT filter for that old-school experience, you can. If you want to bump the game up to 4K, 60FPS, with a cap of 500FPS in an attempt to bring your PC to its knees or make your console sound like a jetliner, you can do that too.
The remastered collection also has some accessibility features like text-to-speech and speech-to-text for the in-game chat when playing multiplayer. There is even a feature for the game to speak for you in voice chat using a voice profile. Changing type face and increasing the duration descriptions stay up on screen are also available.
Performance-wise, the game looks and plays very well. Controls are responsive regardless if you are playing with a traditional keyboard/mouse combo or controller with no delay or input lag. As you are running through the various areas, it’s as smooth as a knife cutting through a room-temperature stick of butter.
It feels like you’re playing a brand-new game that just came out rather than an old PC game that came out in 1997. That’s as best as I can describe it, I mean you really need to be playing it to get a true sense of what I mean. If you’re really feeling bold, you can even try hunting down the original release and give that a go to see just how much of an improvement this release is.
The music in this collection consists of some great rock tracks with a futuristic/techno sound. Couple these with some alternative tracks and you get a soundtrack that feels hard-hitting and gritty, but also ominous. From hard-hitting tracks when running through a military complex, to the mysterious and eerie music when entering the space station, the music really sets the tone of the environment and the game series as a whole. Adding a reverb to the sound just gives it that much more punchy and modern feeling.
The other audio aspects are great as well, as the sound effects of your footsteps as they hit different surfaces and enemies shuffling or in some cases screaming just out of sight help to add a sense of both enjoyment and a true sense of fear of what lies ahead. Explosions and gunfire sound good, though they aren’t the greatest, they don’t sound tinny or muffled.
I mentioned at the start of this review that this remastered collection of Quake II is about as close as you can get for a definitive experience. This remastered set excludes Quake II Netpack I: Extremities, Juggernaut: The New Story for Quake II, Quake II Zaero, Quake II Unseen, and Quake II Vengeance.
Netpack I Extremities is a collection of community custom maps, models, and mods that were curated by id Software and published by Activision. This would be the only officially released expansion set to be excluded from a Quake II collection.
Juggernaut and Zaero were both unofficial expansion packs that were developed and published each by different developers and publishers from each other as well as from the rest of this collection. Unseen and Vengeance are two expansions that were both created by different developers but neither was ever commercially released with the latter never released in any form.
If you want to experience the unofficial expansions that were released along with Netpack, you can get the original PC release and track them down online. Maybe someday we can get a collection of Quake II that includes everything in this set along with everything I mentioned above. With that said, this really is the definitive way to play an amazing Quake II collection and I would totally recommend it to any FPS or Quake fan.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided
In addition to writing articles, Ryan Byers also creates content for his YouTube channel called "Obscure Games and Consoles", collects video games, and dabbles in video game development.