Product description
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Computer game - Part of info. read from box - "Minimum System
Requirements: Windows 95, 98, or NT 4.O (with Service Pack 3),
Full Version of Quake II Required To Operate"
.com
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Enter a treacherous alien city and crawl through scum-ridden
tunnels to destroy the alien moon base.
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Review
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The first official mission pack for Quake II is a cohesive, if
conservative, extension of the original, offering more weapons
and nents along with plenty of solid single-player and
deathmatch levels. The question you need to ask yourself is
whether you enjoy Quake II enough to merit playing it again,
because The Reckoning is a supplement rather than an improvement.
You're still just one marine up against the evil biomechanical
Strogg, and though you'll take up a few new s and see a few
new s, The Reckoning remains thematically identical to the
original Quake II campaign.
Though there are plenty of new graphics in this add-on, you'd
have trouble picking them out of a lineup. The polished metal
walls, the crimson skies, the dimly lit corridors - all the
s from Quake II are back, albeit slightly different than
before. Though you'll pass through a few all-new vistas, such as
a canyon and a low-gravity moon base, they are not so different
as to make you think you're playing an all-new game. Likewise,
while the mission pack features a sizeable slew of new enemies
just waiting to frag you dead, only a handful of these are
original. The most noteworthy of these new enemies is an
amphibious ape-like creature with glowing, ic blood. Instead,
most are stronger variants of the original Quake II menagerie:
slightly different in appearance, much tougher to kill, and far
more potently equipped. Expect to face three new types of guards,
an enhanced Tank, an Iron Maiden equipped with guided missiles,
and more. Meanwhile, there are very few new audio effects worthy
of note. The new weapons sound appropriate enough, the occasional
instances of voice-over are effective, and the soundtrack is
naught but the original Quake II distortion guitar mishmash.
The new weapons you'll discover are well designed, but nothing
too far out of the ordinary. The Phalynx Particle Cannon unloads
two huge, explosive fireballs, but it's a little too slow to be
effective in a heated firefight, let alone against a skilled
nent in an open deathmatch. The Ion Ripper, a design quickly
becoming yet another first-person shooter cliche, fires powerful
ricocheting energy bolts (surprisingly, a sniper is nowhere
to be found). Other new gadgets include the simply named Trap, a
device that absorbs and collapses everything in range reducing
its unfortunate victims to a bite-size, edible cube; and a quad
damage variant that increases your rate of fire fourfold.
Level design in The Reckoning is akin to that of Quake II at its
most mediocre, meaning the majority of the areas are suspenseful
corridor crawls. The levels are hub-based like in the original,
such that you'll need to move back and forth between several
areas killing the sition, solving puzzles, and unlocking new
regions before you can move on. Though the backtracking is better
implemented than in Quake II (expect plenty of resistance even on
your second pass through, rather than a bunch of corpses), the
architecture itself isn't as striking as the original missions.
You won't see anything like Quake II's grisly processing or
detention cell areas, for example. But these new levels are
certainly tougher than those of Quake II, in no small part
because of the stronger enemies. After all, those guards you used
to scoff at are now armed with hyper blasters and laser s,
making even the weakest of your foes a formidable challenge.
Fortunately, you'll find weapons and ammo on a regular basis. The
puzzles within the levels are much like those of Quake II, in
that they help make the game seem bigger than it really is
without frustrating you excessively. Overall, The Reckoning is
roughly equivalent in physical size to Quake II's campaign,
though its difficulty means it will invariably take you longer to
complete. Furthermore, there are enough secret areas within each
level to warrant playing it through more than once.
More than half a dozen new deathmatch levels mean The Reckoning
has much to offer in terms of competitive play. Its deathmatch
levels are typically well designed and allow you to use the new
weapons to good effect. Internet servers running The Reckoning
levels are already springing up, so rest assured you'll find
online competition anytime you're ready for it.
Those who found the original to be either entirely or gradually
disappointing will want to pass on The Reckoning for the same
reasons. But this mission pack contains all the necessary
ingredients to satisfy the Quake II fan looking for more of the
same. --Greg Kasavin
Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written
permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot Review
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