The original Quake II is a bit of a divisive game, often compared to its older Quake sibling and regarded as not nearly as impressive, varied or fun. If you think of the original game like this then the remaster may help you finally like it.
Presentation-wise, this remaster was done by porting the game over to a specialized KEX Engine, expanding the level of detail possible in lighting and models along the way. The new lighting and shadow effects are really good and they manage to keep the original atmosphere without being nearly as dull. Audio has been greatly enhanced as well, with footsteps taking into account the material you're on and rooms having reverb for better immersion.
In terms of gameplay, this is where the remaster adds the most to the game. Weapons now have near instant switching, muzzle flashes, and small rebalances like removing the recoil mechanic from the machinegun, gunplay is leagues more satisfying as a result. They have gone back and added cut content to the levels and enemies, updating the AI (which had already been updated with an expansion) to make it smarter and give enemies a wider variety of behaviors and attacks based on unfinished code. Enemies can now follow you by jumping and what were previously very harmless enemies like the common grunts or the Berserker are now a force to be reckoned with when you're not paying attention. The Berserker probably has the most notorious change, having a charged jump attack that can send you flying.
The smarter and more aggressive enemy AI completely changes the game, as you are now strategizing way more to avoid being damaged and probably getting forced into using your items and different guns more often. Unlike my previous playthroughs, I no longer spent a lot of time just shooting the super shotgun while hiding behind walls, as that strategy has become nearly useless. This is a good bump in difficulty that actually makes the game way more engaging and I welcome this change completely.
Some smaller gameplay changes include an item and weapon wheel, with the item wheel in particular making inventory management much better, a compass that helps with navigation by giving you a waypoint and drawing a path on the floor, as well as making the Nightmare difficulty official and accessible on a new game.
Add onto everything that you get all expansions, a new one, and the Nintendo 64 levels, alongside a much more convenient multiplayer setup with official co-op support, plus an extras menu full of development content and playable demos, extensive accessibility options, and we got the best possible remaster this game could have gotten. Everything that was added wasn't necessary at all to do, but they did it, and they worked even harder for a game that people often dismiss when compared to its predecessors. My only nitpick is that I wish I could toggle the gameplay changes back, mainly the machinegun recoil, but I can't complain about the changes being bad at all and the original isn't going anywhere either.
This is the definitive Quake II experience and I'd definitely recommend reading this blog post on Bethesda's site where they explain the engine changes in more detail just to appreciate how much work went into this, because it's a lot, and very much worth playing the game for.
Presentation-wise, this remaster was done by porting the game over to a specialized KEX Engine, expanding the level of detail possible in lighting and models along the way. The new lighting and shadow effects are really good and they manage to keep the original atmosphere without being nearly as dull. Audio has been greatly enhanced as well, with footsteps taking into account the material you're on and rooms having reverb for better immersion.
In terms of gameplay, this is where the remaster adds the most to the game. Weapons now have near instant switching, muzzle flashes, and small rebalances like removing the recoil mechanic from the machinegun, gunplay is leagues more satisfying as a result. They have gone back and added cut content to the levels and enemies, updating the AI (which had already been updated with an expansion) to make it smarter and give enemies a wider variety of behaviors and attacks based on unfinished code. Enemies can now follow you by jumping and what were previously very harmless enemies like the common grunts or the Berserker are now a force to be reckoned with when you're not paying attention. The Berserker probably has the most notorious change, having a charged jump attack that can send you flying.
The smarter and more aggressive enemy AI completely changes the game, as you are now strategizing way more to avoid being damaged and probably getting forced into using your items and different guns more often. Unlike my previous playthroughs, I no longer spent a lot of time just shooting the super shotgun while hiding behind walls, as that strategy has become nearly useless. This is a good bump in difficulty that actually makes the game way more engaging and I welcome this change completely.
Some smaller gameplay changes include an item and weapon wheel, with the item wheel in particular making inventory management much better, a compass that helps with navigation by giving you a waypoint and drawing a path on the floor, as well as making the Nightmare difficulty official and accessible on a new game.
Add onto everything that you get all expansions, a new one, and the Nintendo 64 levels, alongside a much more convenient multiplayer setup with official co-op support, plus an extras menu full of development content and playable demos, extensive accessibility options, and we got the best possible remaster this game could have gotten. Everything that was added wasn't necessary at all to do, but they did it, and they worked even harder for a game that people often dismiss when compared to its predecessors. My only nitpick is that I wish I could toggle the gameplay changes back, mainly the machinegun recoil, but I can't complain about the changes being bad at all and the original isn't going anywhere either.
This is the definitive Quake II experience and I'd definitely recommend reading this blog post on Bethesda's site where they explain the engine changes in more detail just to appreciate how much work went into this, because it's a lot, and very much worth playing the game for.