This review contains spoilers
After MachineGames' awesome Dimension of the Machine expansion for the enhanced Quake 1, as someone who's favourite Quake game is Quake II, I had high expectations for this new expansion after Quake II Enhanced was announced. I found Call of the Machine to be great, but not as good as Dimension of the Machine because of a few annoyances, but nowhere near as obnoxious as The Reckoning and Ground Zero expansions which CotM had the easy job of surpassing.
Starting with the good, the enemies and weapons from the previous expansions are back which mostly puts them to better use here. No turrets thankfully, those can stay in Ground Zero. If you liked the Plasma Beam and Phalanx but wish they weren't imprisoned inside the other garbage Quake II expansions then it's probably you're best day ever.
The level design is probably the most beautiful Quake II will ever look. Gone are the same sci-fi base aesthetic that takes up pretty much all of Quake II's base campaign. Some levels look like they are straight from Quake 1, which is neat considering this expansion ties Quake 1 and Quake II together at last. One level that takes place mostly in underground structures reminded me of Thief's Lost City level too. There are even secret "trial" levels that'll give you ammo, weapons and items should you find them and complete them if you like secret hunting.
CotM is much harder than the base game which is relatively easy even on Nightmare (which is the same difficulty I played through this expansion). Weapons are slowly handed out to the player and the power shield which makes the entire base game a cakewalk once you get it is practically nowhere to be seen. It's nice to play something that's paced differently that's not easy or complete bullshit like Ground Zero.
The great stuff about this expansion really speaks for itself but the negative aspects unfortunately stop CotM from being even better than DotM. Firstly, a lot of the encounters feel like a Doom Slaughter Map more than an average Quake II combat encounter. Quake II and by extension every Quake game has not been about mowing down hordes of enemies like Doom or Serious Sam, but CotM does not hesitate to throw dozens upon dozens of enemies at once which is as far removed from Quake II as it can get. A few big hordes is nice every once in a while, like when you get an explosive weapon, but during almost every encounter, it feels more like a Serious Sam/Painkiller/Doom Slaughter Map battle. On top of that, most of these Slaughter Map-like battles happen in areas that are way too congested and it's not rare to get boxed in and cornered by dozens of enemies rushing you. It's odd because not every level plays like a Slaughter map, some are more in line with Quake II's structure and others are not, which may make it seem like levels were handled by completely different people and slapped together like a fan-made map pack.
By far my biggest issue is the overuse of recycling awful boss fights. You mostly fight the same three bosses over and over again in each level. Sometimes they throw in a boss rush which should sound fun, but almost every boss fight relies on spawning a fuck ton of enemies which makes you focus more on them than the actual boss. Don't get me started on the final boss. I wish terrible things for whoever at MachineGames thought it was a good idea to throw in several pouncing mutants while you fight not one but TWO Shamblers. Yes, they brought back Shamblers from Quake 1 with their hitscan lightning attack. This one sentence is why this review was spoiler tagged to begin with. Thanks MachineGames I had to spoiler tag a review for a 90s FPS of all things.
Despite lacklustre boss fights and slaughter map-like battles that don't fit Quake II's gameplay, Call of the Machine is easily Quake II's best expansion and the best extra campaign that came with the enhanced edition of Quake II.
Starting with the good, the enemies and weapons from the previous expansions are back which mostly puts them to better use here. No turrets thankfully, those can stay in Ground Zero. If you liked the Plasma Beam and Phalanx but wish they weren't imprisoned inside the other garbage Quake II expansions then it's probably you're best day ever.
The level design is probably the most beautiful Quake II will ever look. Gone are the same sci-fi base aesthetic that takes up pretty much all of Quake II's base campaign. Some levels look like they are straight from Quake 1, which is neat considering this expansion ties Quake 1 and Quake II together at last. One level that takes place mostly in underground structures reminded me of Thief's Lost City level too. There are even secret "trial" levels that'll give you ammo, weapons and items should you find them and complete them if you like secret hunting.
CotM is much harder than the base game which is relatively easy even on Nightmare (which is the same difficulty I played through this expansion). Weapons are slowly handed out to the player and the power shield which makes the entire base game a cakewalk once you get it is practically nowhere to be seen. It's nice to play something that's paced differently that's not easy or complete bullshit like Ground Zero.
The great stuff about this expansion really speaks for itself but the negative aspects unfortunately stop CotM from being even better than DotM. Firstly, a lot of the encounters feel like a Doom Slaughter Map more than an average Quake II combat encounter. Quake II and by extension every Quake game has not been about mowing down hordes of enemies like Doom or Serious Sam, but CotM does not hesitate to throw dozens upon dozens of enemies at once which is as far removed from Quake II as it can get. A few big hordes is nice every once in a while, like when you get an explosive weapon, but during almost every encounter, it feels more like a Serious Sam/Painkiller/Doom Slaughter Map battle. On top of that, most of these Slaughter Map-like battles happen in areas that are way too congested and it's not rare to get boxed in and cornered by dozens of enemies rushing you. It's odd because not every level plays like a Slaughter map, some are more in line with Quake II's structure and others are not, which may make it seem like levels were handled by completely different people and slapped together like a fan-made map pack.
By far my biggest issue is the overuse of recycling awful boss fights. You mostly fight the same three bosses over and over again in each level. Sometimes they throw in a boss rush which should sound fun, but almost every boss fight relies on spawning a fuck ton of enemies which makes you focus more on them than the actual boss. Don't get me started on the final boss. I wish terrible things for whoever at MachineGames thought it was a good idea to throw in several pouncing mutants while you fight not one but TWO Shamblers. Yes, they brought back Shamblers from Quake 1 with their hitscan lightning attack. This one sentence is why this review was spoiler tagged to begin with. Thanks MachineGames I had to spoiler tag a review for a 90s FPS of all things.
Despite lacklustre boss fights and slaughter map-like battles that don't fit Quake II's gameplay, Call of the Machine is easily Quake II's best expansion and the best extra campaign that came with the enhanced edition of Quake II.