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)

A bad sequel to Quake? Definitely not!

The Good
Although it has basically nothing to do with the original Quake, except the Quad Damage, its still a very good FPS game in terms of graphics, audio and gameplay. The step in further technology from Quake to Quake 2, is almost as from Doom to Quake.

The graphics are really impressive, the monsters look great, and the added feature when you shoot the monster so he has less than 50% of its HP, he already has wounds and blood all over him, all the weapons and effects made by them and the behavior of the AI make this game look very real. Also the epic environments are astonishing.

Just like Quake 1, the game has a powerfully good audio, weapons sound powerful, enemies sound hostile and the soundtrack in the background this time really fits the atmosphere, unlike Quake 1 did.

The game has a very interesting single player campaign, where you can run from a level to the previous level if you want, similar to Half-Life, which is another thing which makes it look real. The campaign itself is huge, includes secrets in it as well and has objectives to complete in it, so this is already a very serious tactical first person shooter.

There are lots of types of enemies in the game, as well as a huge weapons arsenal and several capable items.

The game originally had a quite weak multiplayer deathmatch mode, but it was fixed with patches shortly after.

The Bad
The most disappointing thing in the game has to be that it actually isn't a sequel to Quake, and it may even be that we will never even have one.

But that's not a problem by itself to be honest, in fact, this is my only serious complaint about this game, other than that, the game is very good.

The Bottom Line
This game may not be a Quake sequel, but it is good enough to be one. Definitely worth playing. The game did show itself like a Quake game should, by bringing new cool ideas to the table, which influenced a lot of game developers later.

Windows · by Medicine Man (328) · 2009

A let down

The Good
Quake II wasn't all bad, there were some very big improvements over the first installment, even if the game as a whole didn't live up to its predecessor.

For one the graphics engine was phenomenal. Again we're treated to fantastic graphics that run extremely fast even on poor systems of the time. It amazes me how fast and smooth the game would run, while just about everything else out at the time looked worse and ran half as fast.

The single player was a big improvement. Enemy AI was much, much better, the story (although lacking by standards of the time) was better than the first installment, and the level design while not as good in my opinion, offered a wider variety of colors and environments over the first. Furthermore, the lighting effects were much, much better than the first and the character models far more detailed (but we'd expect that with a newer game).

The Bad
Unfortunately everything else is lacking. While Quake 1 gave us fantastic multiplayer action while failing to deliver on the single player campaign, Q2 is the opposite. The single player is decent, but the multiplayer was atrocious.

The state of the online community surrounding Q2 reflected this. This was a game that outsold its predecessor, but still there were fewer ladders, competitions, and online servers.

Some designer got the bright idea that the rocket launcher in Q1 was too powerful, so they dumbed it down, they nerfed it BIG TIME. Not only did the rocket launcher produce a minimum amount of damage, the rockets traveled so slow after being fired that it could take 4 or 5 seconds to reach your target. Not only that but the blast radius was so small that only a direct hit would really do anything, but even so that was dumbed down as well and it would take multiple direct hits on an unarmored opponent. Worthless.

But then they introduce the rail gun. A one shot instant fire, instant kill weapon. This wouldn't be so bad because many FPS games have a weapon of this sort, but to shoot themselves in the foot, the designers slowed player movement to a crawl. The result is everyone using rail guns; the instant kill weapon while players move around at a snail's pace. The result is that newbish, unskilled players are now on level playing field with seasoned veterans, and the game comes down to excessive camping with those that have the faster computer to get into the level first usually ending up the winners.

The multiplayer was slower and buggy. There were crashes, and super low pings were less common than in the first installment. Lots of activity in game would cause slow down, even if your machine is 10x the recommended specifications. The DM was slower, required less skill, and there were fewer customizations available to the end user.

Furthermore, the multiplayer level design was not as good as the previous installment, and the game generally lacked the hard core multiplayer experience that the first offered.

The Bottom Line
If single player goodness is what you're after, and you feel that the original Quake failed to deliver, then this one is for you.

If you're a hardcore multiplayer competitor, then you're out of luck with this title.

Windows · by D Michael (222) · 2007

An underrated classic from id

The Good
Quake II was far ahead of anything else in its time graphics-wise, with vibrant, fully 3D maps and realistic (for its time) enemies. Its fast-paced action lead you through a long campaign where you play the role of Bitterman, a lone soldier trying to take down a killer race of cyborgs called the Strogg. Sure, it's a cliche storyline, but who really gives a damn about plot in an id Software shooter? Multiplayer is also fun, and the ways you can play online has since expanded with a huge amount of fan content. If you're looking for a mindless, "pick up and play"-type first person shooter, this is a great option.

The Bad
As good as Quake II is, it's far from perfect, and contains a few negative aspects. First and foremost is the horrible AI of the campaign enemies. You'd often find these guys running in place, in-fighting, and or dying in traps which are really meant for the players (lasers and lava pits, for the most part). Another major issue is that the game is almost completely unrelated to the original Quake, minus the ubiquitous Quad Damage (who could live without it?). The weapons seem more like those of Doom, with the return of the Shotgun, Super Shotgun, and Chain Gun. The Plasma Gun and BFG are also reincarnated as the Hyperblaster and BFG10K. The Axe, Electrobolt, Nailgun, and the rest of the familiar Quake I weapons are gone. What gives?

The Bottom Line
Quake II is a generally well-done first-person shooter, and offers hours of fun to those who get into it. The graphics, multiplayer capability, and ease of play make it very entertaining. Although it has nearly nothing to do with the original Quake, it is still a genuine id Software FPS, and deserves a larger audience. If you ever get a chance to play this game, and are a fan of old-school shooters, I guarantee you will enjoy it.

Windows · by Idkbutlike2 (18) · 2009

[ 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.