Quake II

aka: Q2, Quake 2
Moby ID: 405
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

A sequel in name only, this follow up to id’s 1996 Quake, is a first-person shooter revolving around the Earth-Strogg war. The Strogg alien race threatens the Earth, but Earth has launched a counter-offensive, Operation Alien Overlord. Overlord takes the battle to the Strogg homeworld with the ultimate objective of securing their capital city and killing their ruler.

As a FPS, Quake II contains a variety of weapons including the fall back Blaster, the Railgun, and the secret BFG10K. Health, armor, and ammunition pick-ups can be found during levels, as can the classic Quake’s Quad Damage power-up. Game play involves mowing down alien opponents as the player progresses through levels, completing in-game objectives. Quake II also comes with multiplayer support for Deathmatches.

Spellings

  • 雷神之锤II - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

43 People (40 developers, 3 thanks) · View all

Manual Design
  • JACKHAMMER - Dallas/TX
Programming
Art
Level Design
Business
Ending Cinematics by
  • Blur Studio - Venice/California
Environment models for Introduction Cinematic by
Assistance with environment design by
Sound Design by
  • Soundelux Media Labs
Music Composed and Produced by
  • Soundelux Media Labs
Music Composer (additional music)
Level Music by
  • Sonic Mayhem
Quake II Theme Song
Climb
Voice of computers by
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 87% (based on 44 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 301 ratings with 15 reviews)

Very solid classic-style FPS

The Good
The problem with technical showcases like Quake is that people ditch them as soon as the next hot thing comes along. Id Software no doubt realised this and set to work on a game with a half-decent single-player mode. It's quite telling that even though the game was rushed like hell and shipped with lots of bugs/missing features, it still feels like more of a game then the first Quake was. It's hard to say why, they are both shooters with similar gameplay. Quake II just feels richer and more detailed. The first game made the graphics 3D. The second game made the gameplay 3D.

The game's conceit is that you're stranded on a hostile alien planet and you have to complete tasks assigned to you from earth. This alone is a small but compelling step forward, as instead of an arcady "get to the end of the level GO GO GO!!!" through-line we have a much more mature game where you have to complete objectives like a real soldier would.

Instead of progressing from level to level in a linear fashion, you visit a series of areas (such as mines, suburbs, etc) that have sub-areas divided by short load times. You can go back and forth between these areas and the result is a game that is, while certainly not entirely non-linear, gives the player more freedom, as well as the feeling that he's deciding the outcome of the game rather than riding a one-way train track to the final boss.

The game's masterstroke is in the details. No more empty rooms with monsters just standing around, now you visit realistically designed areas such as nuclear plants, weapon facilities, and underground mines. There are various props like computer terminals to enhance the realism. The weapons are just plain awesome, with my favorites being the chaingun and the BFG 2134124 or whatever it is. The weapon balance is also much better (the rocket launcher isn't as strong as in Quake, so expect to use other weapons occasionally), and everything is spiffed up to become more realistic (example: you can now see your marine's hands reloading the grenade launcher.)

...Now, don't get the impression that Quake 2 is a masterpiece of game design. It's a simple shooter. But it's far ahead of Quake and that's all I wanted.

I also give props for the monsters (there are no goofy three-headed whatevers in this game, they all look like real alien soldiers) and the soundtrack (which features a theme song by Rob Zombie). The graphics were top of the line for the day, and with 3D acceleration they hold up well with most 1999-2000 games.

The Bad
The game's quality is heavily front-loaded. The first few levels are brilliant, but as the game progresses things get increasingly lazy and rushed until eventually you're wandering through empty mazes, shooting randomly-placed enemies...awesome, it's Quake I again.

The game is also really easy. On hard difficulty I breezed through the game with about 10-20 reloads (mostly from unexpected traps). The monsters are really stupid and the pathfinding is even worse than Quake's (larger monsters tend to get stuck walking around corners), and along with the frequent health packs and overpowered weapons means you're not in any great risk of dying. Most of the challenge comes from finding your way around mazes, and that's not what I call fun.

And despite all of the nods to realistic Half-Life gameplay, they couldn't resist adding a bunch of stupid videogame shit like bonus levels, powerups, et cetera. It feels a bit out of place given the otherwise realistic setting.

The Bottom Line
A good single player mode complements this technologically forward-looking game. It's not a must own, but it is nevertheless a good game.

Windows · by Maw (833) · 2010

Shoot, Strafe, get the power-up, repeat; Q2 has a certain kind of mindless gameplay I wish they left out with Quake.

The Good
For a mindless shooter, it's excellent; good graphics, weapons and enemies. But other games like Half-Life and Deus Ex are way ahead of it, and it's about time id grew up and made a complex one player game with mission objectives or something, besides find-the-key gameplay. Still, Q2 is a classic, though not as good as lets say, Half-Life. BUT, Q2 has awesome multiplay, and it adds some much-needed replay value.

The Bad
Mindless gameplay that makes you always Shoot and don't ask any questions.

The Bottom Line
First person shooter in a sci-fi setting.

Windows · by Dragoon (106) · 2000

Eh....Its ok.

The Good
After downloading and installing the patches, it played without a problem. I enjoyed the realistic rebounding of grenades. The AI actually worked. The game played ok. The music could be disabled.

Later in the game, the story started to take on some depth. You found yourself working more towards the Strogg center, and the building design reflected that.

The Bad
The dismal colors. The repetitive game play. Shooting, running, more shooting and running. The sound displacement wasn't very good. The repetitive use of sound effects and graphics became boring. The nonsensical mission briefings.

Unreal came out at the same time. In comparison, Quake II paled.

The Bottom Line
A piece of history. A lot of great games like Anachronox and Heretic II were based on the Quake II engine. You're better off playing one of those.

Windows · by Scott Monster (986) · 2005

[ View all 15 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Screenshots Geamandura (2326) Dec 10, 2009

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Quake II appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Action figures

In 1998, Quake II action figures were released to stores by ReSaurus. There was only one series of figures. The series was composed of: Marine (& Barracuda Shark), Jungle Marine (& Strogg Parasite), Iron Maiden (& Strogg Technician), Tank, and a limited edition Psycho Marine.

European version

The UK Windows Version Quake II CD has the following printed on it:

This product is intended for sale outside North America only and will not function on North American operating systems.

Upon testing this seems to be untrue, it works on every North American version of Windows tested. Assumedly this was to prevent people importing the CDs from the EU and selling them in the US.

German index

On December 20, 1997, the PC version of Quake II was put on the infamous German index by the BPjS. The Nintendo 64 version followed August 31, 1999.

For more information about what this means and to see a list of games sharing the same fate, take a look here: BPjS/BPjM indexed games.

Language

This is the second time id Software has invented an alien language for use in their games (the first was in Commander Keen). Like Keen's Simplified Galactian Alphabet, the Strogg language in Quake II is a simple letter-by-letter cipher. Although no-one has ever made a Strogg font pack, you can decipher signs and messages in the game using the Strogg translator at id's Quake 4 site.

Release

The game was rushed to be ready for the very lucrative Christmas 1997. It shipped with a lot of bugs, missing features (no multiplayer maps) and multiplayer was almost unplayable on the net at first, but id fixed all these issues with numerous patches.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack, composed by Sonic Mayhem, features a total of ten tracks in CD-Audio quality. If you listen to the CD be sure to skip the first track, which is the data information.

The rest of the tracks are:

  1. Operation Overlord

  2. Rage

  3. Kill Ratio

  4. March of the Stroggs

  5. The Underworld

  6. Quad Machine

  7. Big Gun

  8. Descent Into Cerberon

  9. Climb

  10. Showdown

Source code release

On 22 December 2001, the full source code was released. It can be downloaded from the ID software website.

Zeebo version

On June 15, 2010, both Quake and Quake II were removed from Zeebo's wireless network, the Brazilian Zeebonet. Both games were offered for 10 Z-credits and each Brazilian Zeebo came with 35 Z-credits, so the games were sold virtually for free. They were replaced for Zeebo Extreme Rolimã and Zeebo Extreme Jetboard as free downloads.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • March 1998 (Issue #164) – Action Game of the Year
  • GameSpy
    • 2001 – #47 Top Game of All Time
  • Interactive Achievement Awards (Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences)
    • 1998 – Computer Action Game of the Year – Won
  • PC Gamer
    • April 2000 - #8 overall in the "All-Time Top 50 Games" poll

Information also contributed by Apogee IV, chirinea, Maw, Mike Quigley, PCGamer77, Sciere, Xoleras and Zovni

Analytics

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Related Sites +

  • Bill Brown - Music Composer (additional music)
    Listen to streaming and MP3 music tracks from this title at the composer's official site including the intro and ambient tracks
  • Linux Quake HOWTO
    This Linux HOWTO describes how to get Quake, Quake World and Quake II running on a Linux Box
  • PlanetQuake
    One of the most comprehensive Quake, Quake II and Quake III: Arena sites, PlanetQuake is multiplayer-oriented and contains huge amounts of information, patches, maps, addons and just about anything Quake-related.
  • Quake II
    Official page on id Software's website
  • S&F Prod.'s Quake 2 Page
    Here you'll find a funny skin and more.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 405
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Brian Hirt.

Macintosh added by Corn Popper. Windows Apps added by Kam1Kaz3NL77. Zeebo added by chirinea. Amiga added by Kabushi. PlayStation added by Adam Baratz.

Additional contributors: Tomer Gabel, Cochonou, Adam Baratz, Unicorn Lynx, Frenkel, AdminBB, Dan K, Havoc Crow, Patrick Bregger, Titan10, FatherJack.

Game added November 10, 1999. Last modified March 12, 2024.