Quake II  

by Activision  Reviewed by: Bill Johnson  

Overview

With so many first person shooters on the video game market these days, you’d think that they couldn’t make any more good ones, right? Wrong. Activision has brought Quake II to the Sony Playstation with all of the action, graphics and gameplay that made Quake such a huge hit on the PC. The basic storyline is that the Strogg, a formidable cybernetic race, are determined to conquer Earth’s population and launch attacks against our planet. They are an unstoppable evil and they have no reservations about fulfilling their insidious plan to annihilate every living thing on Earth. But Earth has a plan as well. You. You are a space Marine -- Special Operations, elite among the forces. You’ve been dropped behind enemy lines to carry out a reconnaissance mission of the Strogg’s home planet. Your objectives are clear: Infiltrate. Destroy. Survive! You must stop the Strogg plan to wipe out Earth and its inhabitants. Your missions are carried out on a wide variety of battlefields and mazes full of hidden enemies, hidden supplies, and secret passages.

Gameplay

This game has plenty of variety and options to keep you busy in the multiplayer modes, and this is where this game shines, in my opinion. Sure, the single player game is really good, but I had a lot more fun playing with or against a human player. Don’t get me wrong, the single player game is really quite challenging and fun, but the two player games simply take it to the next level.

I don’t know why, but the single player mode does not give you the same option of choosing your battlefield as the two player games do. In the two player modes, you have the choice of playing in 12 different battlefields. The two player games also give you the choice of playing in either the Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch or Versus modes. You can also hook up a multi-tap adapter to the Playstation that allows you to play with up to four people at once. This is where the real fun and competition is found.

The Deathmatch mode is every man for himself in a free-for-all war. In Deathmatch there are no teams. The only objective is to kill your enemies and be the last man standing.

In the Team Deathmatch, you team up to destroy your opponents in an all out battle for “frag” points. If you have set a frag limit in the multiplayer options, it applies to all team member’s frag points. The winner is determined by which team has the most combined frag points. You are scored one frag point for every time you kill the other team and lose points for killing a teammate. Frag points from all team members are added together to determine which team is the winner. The score screen that appears after the game, displays which team is the winner and has the most combined frag points, as well as individual frag points.

When you are ready for the ultimate competition, the Versus mode is the one to play. All of the other modes have health and ammo “power-ups” hidden throughout the playing fields. When you find one, you can restore your health to 100%, or find some ammo to reload your weapon. Not so in the Versus mode. When a player dies, he or she is out for the rest of that round. The goal is to be the last player alive in the round. The last player alive will receive one point for winning the round. All players then restart in the next round. The first player to win the preselected number of rounds wins the game.

I was very impressed with the variety of playing fields available and the number of weapons to be found and used. You are automatically given a Blaster pistol, which is the standard issue rechargeable energy side-arm. It does not require ammunition. It will no doubt be your backup weapon of choice when your other weapons run out of ammo. The Blaster can keep you alive until you are lucky enough to either find another weapon or until you run across some more ammo. It is not quite as effective as other weapons such as the Super Shotgun, but it surely is better than nothing. There are nine other weapons from which to choose including shotguns, Machine Guns, Chain Guns, Grenade and Rocket Launchers and other high-tech energy weapons that can help keep you alive. As you journey through the various playing fields, you’ll soon find that it’s best not to leave any stone unturned. There are many hidden power-ups, weapon caches, and supplies just waiting for you to find. Many of the supplies can give you great advantage over your opponents. You can even pickup three different types of armor to increase your survivability from attack. If you stumble across a Bandoleer it will increase your capacity for some types of ammunition. An Ammo Pack will allow you to carry even more ammo on your back. This comes in handy when you are surrounded by enemies with little or no chance of finding more ammo until you blast your way into the next level.

Other supplies include an environment suit, a power shield, and four other power-ups to give you greater than normal capabilities. Using these power-ups will surely be to your advantage.

One of the nice aspects of the game is the ability to save your progress on a memory card to continue on your quest to defend the planet. This game only requires one block of memory space.

Quake II is also packed with 13 different varieties of formidable enemies. Each one has its own strengths and characteristics that are sure to keep you challenged and on your toes. You really don’t know what you’re going to run into as you move into each different area. Some enemies are easier to destroy than others, but be careful; they will often gang up on you and try to take you out. In addition to the enemies, you’d better be on the lookout for the many environmental hazards throughout the game. You’ll find pools of slime all over the place, which are left over toxic waste from the enemy refineries. This slime eats away at your flesh unless you’re protected by an enviro-suit. You’ll also need to be careful not to step into any lava pools. These can be deadly as well. You can also search for weapons and power-ups underwater, but make sure you come up for air every once in a while, otherwise you just might not make it back to the surface alive. There are also little traps that you’d better beware of or you shall quickly run the risk of extinction.

One of the nice features of this game is the ability to customize the controller to your liking. This made the game much more comfortable and easier to control. The dual shock controllers also add a bit of realism to the game, with lots of feedback from the action. The gameplay is fast and furious, with plenty of challenges to keep you entertained for quite some time. If you are a veteran Quake player on the PC, you even have the option of playing the Playstation version on a standard PC mouse. I think that option would be fine if you were really hooked on the use of a mouse, but I really think the Playstation controllers are far superior. You’ll have to decide for yourself.

Graphics

I would have to say that overall, the graphics in this game are really quite well done. Some of the enemies are not very detailed, but you really do not want to see them up close anyway. You’d better be blasting them to smithereens quickly, otherwise you’ll soon be made into mince-meat. You should be concentrating on decimating the next enemy in your way, not worrying about how the one in front of you looks, right? The scenes are well detailed and the graphics engine draws them in quickly with little or no delays. They definitely spent the extra time on the graphics in this game and it has paid off.

Bottom Line

This game rocks! I really had a blast moving through the levels and found them to be quite challenging. You will not master this game overnight, that’s for sure. That’s one of the things that makes this game so good. It’s definitely a treat for Playstation owners that have never played Quake before, but I wouldn’t say that it’s any better than the PC versions. It is quite good, however, and the action is about the same. The only real difference is that the Playstation’s limited graphics will never be as good as the higher resolution graphics that you can get from a PC. They are, however one of the better graphics games found on the Playstation. The music is good too and the multiplayer action is definitely the most fun to play.

I would definitely recommend Quake II to any Playstation owner who enjoys first-person shooters. It is really a well-done version of one of the most popular games originally brought out on a PC. The folks at Activision have definitely scored another winner with this version on the Playstation. If action’s what you want, action’s what you’ll get! Just remember, only the stong will survive! Keep your finger on the trigger and beware of everything around you. Listening is just as important as keeping your eyes open. The enemies will make sounds that will clue you in that they’re nearby. Keep looking around and be ready! If you’re quick on your feet, you just might make it through. The planet is counting on you. Good luck, warrior.

Review Posted On 13 December 1999.