Weren’t the Quakers pacifists? Review

Weren’t the Quakers pacifists?

Ahhhh – Quake II: everybody’s favorite frag-fest. No introduction really needed here. Run around. Kill lots and lots of Strogg aliens from your first person viewpoint. And most importantly, stay alive. Need I say more?

A game as popular as Quake II will eventually spawn itself on all the systems. Of course, there’s the original PC game and its subsequent mission packs. Then there was the tragically bad Nintendo 64 version. And now the Playstation edition…

Essentially, this version of Quake II offers no surprises. It brings the dated action of the PC classic to the Playstation, and while good for a few kicks, it just feels a bit too old.

The game does feature mouse support, but how many gamers actually have a Playstation mouse? Not many. And how many would buy a mouse for a single game? Exactly none. The Playstation’s analog control ought to be an adequate substitute, but it doesn’t quite cut it. The familiar Turok style strafe controls work fine, but aiming with the analog stick doesn’t feel quick or accurate enough.

For starters, there’s no “auto center” button, which would have worked perfectly with the analog stick’s button. Also missing are the action and duck buttons. Somehow things just aren’t the same when doors open by themselves or secrets appear just by walking up to a wall.

There are extensive loading times during the game – after you finish one section of a level, the next section will load. While it is a smart programming trick that allows the Playstation to take in less information at a time, the load waits are too long and are annoying.

All things considered, the graphics are good while maintaining a surprisingly good clip. Even though the environments don’t have that moody, light and dark contrast you get when running off a 3D accelerator, there’s still plenty of simulated light-sourcing. My guess is that the bitmaps had pre-rendered effects, allowing processing to be saved.

By this method, they were able to cleverly keep the frame-rates at playable speeds (unlike the Nintendo 64 version). I also noticed that compared to the PC versions, the characters animated less smoothly.

Like heavy metal? Hope so, because that’s the only music there is. And what better way to kill minions of evil then to the riffs of electrical instruments? The sound effects still retain their deep booms and sounds of terror.

How is the multi-player? Well, it goes without saying there’s no network support, which to me has always been the heart and soul of Quake. Thankfully, the game supports up to 4 players. The multiplayer levels aren’t quite the same as I remember, as some feel much smaller. With the lack of action and duck control, things are simplified. It may run smoothly, but it’s just not the same.

Quake II for the Playstation does a decent job of bringing the speed and slaughter over from the PC, but for most people this is a case of been there, done that. Quake 3 Arena is already out, and if you’re reading this review, I’m hedging my bets that you already own a computer. The recently released Medal of Honor has shown what first-person shooting can be on the Playstation. With Quake II, you just know that there’s more to it than you’ll find in this version – expansions, network gaming, map creation, etc. This one just shines better on a computer.