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Quake II (IBM PC Compatible) Reviews:
id Software has followed up Quake with Quake Ii, a game that should have been called "Doom III." The company known for its revolutionary 3D corridor shooters (Wolfenstein 3D, Doom) has replaced the murky crypts and dark cathedrals of Quake with sci-fi inspired base levels and a bad "story." Well, it's about as much of a story as we can expect from id: you're a marine who has crash-landed on the Stroggos alien base. Surprise, surprise, it is now your job to escape and crumble the alien empire at the same time. Sure it's lame, but we all know that the gameplay is the important aspect of 3D corridor shooters!

Quake Ii is mission-oriented and features military base levels. Unlike Quake, you must complete missions in order to advance through them. These range in complexity from gaining energy cubes for powering-up a factory to setting up comlinks. Not a bad idea, in this reviewer's opinion. However, the levels are often very uninspired. The base theme of the game gets old, leaving you desperately wanting a crypt from Quake. Also replaced are the mutated monsters from hell. In Quake Ii, you are fighting alien machines or half-humans. The enemy AI is very good, and the characters fit in with the sci-fi theme.

They have also taken out the rather harsh and brutal weapons of Quake (Nail Gun, Axe) and replaced them with a more military efficient arsenal. New weapons include a Chaingun, Railgun, BFG (an enhanced version from the Doom games), and a Hyperblaster. They have brought back new versions of the Super Shotgun, the Rocket Launcher and Grenade Launcher. You can also throw hand grenades, which is kind of spiffy. All in all, the new weapons aren't too clever, but they get the job done.

The game "feels" nothing like Quake. Surprisingly, it feels like the Doom games. The new, enhanced version of the Quake engine is superb. Navigating the world of Quake Ii is very easy thanks to tight controls.

Yet the beauty of Quake Ii is not in the single-player game, it's in the multi-player feature. Whereas Quake was a better single-player game because of its "laggy" multi-playing, Quake Ii features bulletproof gameplay and relatively no lag while duking it out on the Internet. You can download multi-player modes such as Capture the Flag and the new Jailbreak. There are literally thousands of servers that allow you to play Quake Ii, so the possibilities are quite endless.

If not for the multi-player aspect, Quake Ii would just be another ho-hum corridor shooter. The game itself is good but lacks the inspiration needed to carry it above all other 3D corridor shooters released prior to 1997. Michael L. House, All Game Guide

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