“Forgotten” Forerunner
(Played as part of the 2023 remaster on Steam Deck. 5 hours to see credits on Easy. I was playing a game designed for mouse and keyboard with twin stick gamepad set-up, so of course I went for the lowest difficulty.)
Out of id Software’s Quake trilogy, 1997’s Quake II was something I did not get around to play until 2023. Quake III Arena was something I played a lot on PCs not at my home in 2000. I also ran through original Quake’s shareware first episode more than once, usually with all sorts of cheat codes entered. Yet, perhaps buying into the cult of Romero unknowingly, I never felt too compelled to play this first post-Two-Johns id game. Might as well I suppose, since playing it all those years later just made one go “So this industry had taken the ball of Quake II and run amok with it for the last quarter century, huh?”
Quake II is pretty much the prototype for Call of Duty. No, I do not mean how the “realistic” military shooter series was built on further iterations of Quake II engine. The 3 points are more on the contents side.
First, Quake II came out the year after the original Quake and had a different setting altogether. On that front there is the annual release ironically id Software never did again. 2023’s Call of Duty Modern Warfare III is the first time COD having a direct sequel in the same setting while the series had been switching setting up since 2007’s original Modern Warfare.
Second, speak of 2007’s Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare, that game would have enemies down, not out and take shot at player on higher difficulties. While Quake II would have the first 2 enemy types do so, even on the lowest difficulty.
Last but not least, Quake II is about invading an alien planet after then they er’ fouled up Earth I suppose. We never see Earth here, only hear “[INSERT BIG CITY NAME HERE] has fallen” on the radio and now we are counter attacking. One would suspect that the opening pre-rendered cinematics were made after someone over at id saw Starship Trooper back in earlier 1997 and decided to lift something from that movie.
It would be fair to say that 1997’s Quake II had been overshadowed by 1998’s Half-life, partially because the latter had an equally ground-breaking direct sequel in 2004. For one thing, there is still no reload in Quake II, while Half-life got to give its real-life guns reload, For another there is the puzzles. Half-life’s more elaborate action adventure style puzzles are not present, Quake II is still in the “looking for keys” mold. And we all know “looking for the keys” is just an excuse to throw different sets of enemies in the same arenas and corridors for players to shoot or outrun. There is no dedicated “interact” button, “pulling buttons” requires player putting their back into it by pulling and holding the left-stick forward on gamepads or holding W on the keyboard.
Combat wise, Quake II is pure shooter. By “pure”, I mean there is no melee weapon. If one ran out of bullets here, there is only an infinite ammo pea-shooter the game calls “Blaster” to fall back on. Then there are the old friends I knew from Quake III, rail-gun, semi-auto rocket launcher and the likes.
1997 seems to the year when the genre of action shooter was about running circle around enemies to avoid their attack while pumping bullets into them. Megaman Legends released in Japan as Rockman DASH that year managed well that with shoulder buttons since original Playstation’s controller did not have a second stick yet. Quake II certainly offer the same tactic with additional smoothness now strafing and mouse look are in. It’s translated onto the standard twin-stick setting quite well. One can see some stop and pop here as well. Running circle is fine in open arenas, but in narrow corridors, shoot then find cover is the only way to put down more spongey enemies thanks to their slow movement and relatively thick AI.
The remaster of 2023 added at least two new features.
Compass is something they had as marketing bullet point. Getting lost is never fun in the so-called “boomer shooters”, so knowing where to go is always welcomed. I guess I would have beaten the campaign in 5 hours if there was no compass.
To make the game more er, gamepad friendly, there is the time slowing item wheel (left bumper) and weapon wheel (right bumper). It’s safe to assume that those are lifted from 2016’s DOOM. Compass is on top of item wheel. While one can also switch weapon by left and right on the d-pad, this wheel allows one to pin point the weapon they want to pull out.
Speak of 2016’s DOOM, I dare call it “id Software finally made Quake II again”. The Mars levels of the beloved reboot are uncanny to the entirely of Quake II campaign. It is a shame that Quake II is so “forgotten” that the Call of Duty series of this world could maintain the little novelty they have.