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8/10/99 |
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Summary: * Cons: Misses John Romero's contributions, Somewhat aged graphics/engine. No map editor or bots (yet). Deathmatch maps somewhat uninspired. * Cost: Approx. $45-$50 (Mac version) Available Now.
Reviewed On:
Overview: I must admit that when I heard that Logicware was handling the port of Quake II, I was a bit nervous... I am happy to report, however, that Logicware has crafted an excellent, rock-solid version of the game. Not only that, but they are working closely with a Mesa programmer (Miklos) to insure that Voodoo-card owners can play the game, albeit in an "officially unsupported" capacity. The Mesa engine and .libs are updated often, work great, and now, used in conjunction with an updated gl.lib from Logicware, allow for multitexturing. That's what I call service! Once again, Logicware has done a great job - and hopefully this is portentous of things to come - it will great to have another solid software provider for the Mac. The big changes between Q1 and Q2 are in the graphics and game-engine. As far as the graphics go, the changes are a mixed bag. For example, Q2 now offers colored lighting, but tends to look a bit "cartoon-y" compared to Q1. Despite the aging graphics (Unreal is much prettier) and engine (Quake 3 is much slicker), I think that id did a pretty good job extending the Quake-universe, but some things were definitely missed...
Gameplay: The battles reminded me more of id's Doom-series, than Quake's. This is not necessarily a bad thing, just not what I expected. The much-touted "improved enemy AI" is definitely better than Q1's. The enemies duck fire, switch-up their attacks, and appear generally "smarter" than in Q1, but they are still basically sitting ducks in a target-gallery: many enemies simply run back-and-forth to avoid your fire, take a shot at you, run back-and-forth, shoot, repeat... The AI is better, but it's not that much better. As first-person shooters (FPS) go, I think that Unreal's monsters have the best AI - they are more aggressive, behave more "realistically", and are definitely not sitting ducks. Remember though, just to be fair for comparison's sake, the Q2 engine is older than Unreal's engine, and it shows. The single-player game starts-out slowly. You crash-land on the planet of your enemy, and must find a way to... blah blah blah: you've heard it all before... The game starts with base-style levels, and then there are more base-style levels, followed by more base-style levels... Where were the castles, dungeons and unholy shrines of Q1? Not here baby - this is what Q2 misses the most: John Romero's insidious touch. The game really doesn't have the creepy/scary quality of Q1 -- that gothic, Lovecraftian horror and architecture isn't present in Q2, and it's definitely missed. Having said that, once you get into the game, and get over the differences between Q1 and Q2, you start to appreciate it on it's own merits. The single-player game gets more interesting the more that you play. The gameplay reminds a lot of Malice (a Q1 Total Conversion) in that you are constantly re-visiting covered ground with new info/items. This is more of a "hub"-style system than Q1's linear level-style. Like I said, the deeper you get into the game, the better it gets, so if you get bored with the first few levels, keep going, it definitely gets better. The graphics and level-style, as I mentioned before are mostly bases and installations. There are some mines, and underground levels, reminiscent of Scourge of Armagon (a Q1 Expansion-pak) later in the game that are fairly interesting. Like I said, the weapons and fighting remind me of Doom. Maybe it's the return of The BFG...
Multi-Player: One note: the supplied deathmatch maps are much bigger and more complicated than the maps in Q1. Do yourself a favor load them up and get familiar with them before you play online. You will get lost and become easy fodder if you don't know where you're going Although they don't seem to be as inspired as the Q1's deathmatch maps, they are playable, and there are plenty of servers running custom maps. If you plan on playing Quake II online, or any game online, you should definitely check out Scott Kevill's mac only online gaming service, Game Ranger. Read more about it here: http://www.gameranger.com/
Graphics: In my computer (see specs above) I get between 38-39fps @ 1024x768 in demo1 with all of the graphics and sound at the highest quality. Your mileage may vary.
Sound / Music:
Screenshots: Conclusion: Quake II, somewhat dated though it may be, is well worth the investment, both in time and $$$. Go for it! Quake II's longevity will really become apparent as soon as the mods from the PC side get ported. (Bots!)
Final Score: Pros:
Cons:
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