Completed??

sure, it's not a very long campaign - especially with how braindead easy it was made with the new balance "improvements" (even on hard+); the only time i have died is by getting thrown into lava pits by the new mechapinkie stomp. i'll mark it as mastered if i get through all of its content and mark mg's level pack separately once it gets added for me

having played through it now i'm confused as to how the balance changes supposedly make it easier; even aside from the enemies just having new attacks, the railgun does 2/3 its original damge, the power shield drains faster from energy attacks (combined with the idiotic "auto power shield" option leading me to wonder why my cell ammo keeps being emptied) and the 1st form of the final boss now has a whopping 8000 hp compared to the original 3000

q2 was never a difficult game [it's debatable whether a singleplayer game can ever be difficult - only more time-consuming] but there was challenge in playing it smooth. makron getting buffed is literally irrelevant in light of that quad damage was always a backpack powerup and the railgun nerf is irrelevant in light of q2ex's biggest mistake - halving the weapon switch speed: ammo pickups and fights were designed around one not being able to juggle weapons midfight and having to either dedicate themselves to a single firearm there-in or strafejump back into cover to 'reload'. the hyperblaster that was this game's power weapon - and one which you decidedly had to sacrifice the also overpowered energy shield for - is made the goto choice by the energy shield itself being more plasma resourceful, the hyperblaster being more plasma resourceful and being discardable midfight once one's supplies drain to around 75

sure, but that still pertains to the arbitrarily q3-ified matchmaking bound to spyware DRM keys and it defeats the proposed reason for these remasters to exist - offering the game as plug-and-play with zero need to tinker with non-contemporary arcane console commands. if one can pass that massive UX barrier, they can follow directions on pcgw too. q2ex being offered for free means only that it should have been ignored and sucking off bethesda and neurodivergent studios for 'akshually caring about us gaymrs' didn't override all discussion of the game and its 25 year legacy of community content