This is the way you do a remaster. A whole new episode, Quake II 64 (which was essentially a whole different episode in its own right), fast and smooth performance, and it looks incredible, all for the price of a burger and fries. Other developers need to take note. Nightdive knocks it out of the park yet again.
I have owned Quake II and the expansion packs for years, but when this came on sale I picked it up for the ease of installation. Gives you a very easy to use interface for the expansion pack/mod(s) you want to run, and also gives you Eraser bots, which are a bear to get working on modern systems, if you can find the files.
I run them with KmQuake and the Lazarus mod from Mark Shan, gives you better graphics, smarter monsters and many other improvements. I just renamed the original Quake2.exe to Quake2.bak, and renamed kmquake2.exe to quake2.exe. Saves making up batch files or having several shortcuts as the GOG launcher still works. One of the best deals I ever got from GOG, thank you for this.
The kid notices that Quake2 has been updated with improved visuals and a new expansion.
The kid also notices that they have made the update free to current owners.
The kid downs a few beers, to get in the mood for some Q2, downloads the game, and boots it up.
The kid is greeted with the accessibility options, all turned on by default. He disables all of them. He also chuckles at the aim assist option for gamepads.
After a quick look through the options, the kid jumps straight into multiplayer. He checks the lobby, and all servers are running "The Edge". 'Good', he thinks to himself.
Time to party like a LAN party in '98.
The kid spawns, and dashes for the railgun. Frags a few opponents with relative ease, until he meets an unceremonious demise.
He hasn't gone completely rusty, he thinks to himself. Next, he has a blast with the rocket and grenade launchers, because nothing says 'Welcome home' like a rocket to the face.
The kid is pleased that the fast pace, high skill mechanics have not been messed with.
After that match, the kid start the original campaign on Nightmare. Completes the 1st map in a few minutes, while finding all secrets.
Before continuing on to the next level, the kid looks over to the fallen corpses of his enemies; flies are using them as airports.
'Good', he thinks to himself. The single player has not been messed with.
I would like to start of by saying "Night Dive Studios" is the Kings & Queens of remastering and remaking games. I have bought Forsaken, Doom 64 and System Shock remake and they are all great.
Furthermore, I own Quake 2 on Steam and the full version here on GOG and I must say I am super thankful for this amazing remaster, "Night Dive Studios" have given new life to this game and the music is working again. In addition the self-shadows and dynamic shadows on everthing looks amazing and "Night Dive Studios" shows that amazing graphics can still be crafted with plain rasterization!