I bought the Quake 2 remaster on Switch since it's on sale there for like $3. Considering I only just got around to finally playing the original last year under similar circumstances (and ended up loving it quite a bit!) it might not shock you all to hear that this is also my first time going through 2 and like, man, it perfunctorily checks off a lot of boxes for ways to improve upon a game in a sequel, right? Bigger levels, smarter enemies, some new and retooled weapons, and so on and so forth. And by no means would I call the moment-to-moment combat bad, it's absolutely satisfying in its own right. But even just a few stages in, it feels like id went hog wild with the level sizes mostly because they could and not necessarily because they should. Quake 1 levels can get labyrinthine and a little meandering for sure since it's very much designed with a "Doom but it's actual 3D" mindset, but even the longest ones I've played in that are significantly breezier and more tightly laid out than the multiple hour-long slogs I've already encountered in 2. I don't know if the compass feature was in the original game or added by NightDive, but its existence alone is pretty damning. It also just feels a little stingier with giving you access to the truly good, fun weapons, which, come on.
I might try to keep soldiering through it mostly as an academic exercise, but all it's done is make me start another run through the original game and renewed my appreciation for just how much it still gets right. It's fast, it's unpretentious, and the weapons all have satisfying uses and varying skill curves. (The fact the grenade launcher in particular is both still satisfying to use even after getting the rocket launcher and still has use cases that favor it in particular is something I really admire about Quake's weapon design.) I have pretty much a negative amount of interest in modern FPSs and almost never bother playing for them simply because those game loops don't speak to me, especially the whole left-trigger, right-trigger stuff that I frankly think not many games actually benefit from. But playing games like Quake 1 reminds me that, actually, I can absolutely vibe with FPSs, they just have to connect with the part of my brain that grew up playing frenetic Mega Drive games and are just Game Ass Games first and foremost.
Might pick up that Powerslave port since that always sounds like its own neat thing, though. 🤔
