Back in 1999 or so I got my hands on Quake II. Despite there being Doom and many other FPS before, Quake II is actually the one which shaped my image of a proper first person shooter. Maybe it's because it's the first FPS I played on my own machine, without anyone else's meddlesome interference.
What I like most is that the game feels kind of "massive". In other words it's like you feel your shots hitting your target and dealing damage to it. I'm not exactly sure why's that, maybe it has something to do with the sound, but that'd be only half-truth. Very few other games provided me with such impression.
I also appreciate the probably first proper instance of backtracking, which added great deal of depth to the environment. Finally it felt like an actual location instead of a narrow set of railroaded setpieces.
And call me shallow, but the possibility of gibbing any NPC or dead body, including bosses, felt incredibly satisfactory. (Actually upon being defeated the bosses kind of gibbed themselves which slightly reduced the satisfaction, but it wasn't that bad.)
While the plot was pretty shallow, I didn't care a single bit. Mind that I was in my early teens back then. You don't require much effort to impress that kind of creature. But I still don't care because it was the gameplay that mattered.
And it still does.
Trying as much as I can, I can't actually find any flaws about this game. Probably because it lived up to that era's standards and pointing out any flaws now would be pretty much useless. You can't judge a last century game by nowadays' standards. If an open world, a character developement and achievements mattered for you most, you wouldn't play such old game in the first place.
Last but not least is the soundtrack, courtesy of Sonic Mayhem. While not as impressive as what Alexander Brandon and Michiel van den Bos pulled off, it went incredibly well with the gameplay, amplifying the satisfactory action without instilling any unnecessary feelings of drama.
While now overshadowed by Half-Life, I still consider many Quake II's mechanics the keystones of FPS gameplay. And thus it will always remain firmly lodged in my heart. Just like a cluster of 12 Gauge buckshot. Urrrgghhhh.
VideoGame Old but satisfactory
Back in 1999 or so I got my hands on Quake II. Despite there being Doom and many other FPS before, Quake II is actually the one which shaped my image of a proper first person shooter. Maybe it's because it's the first FPS I played on my own machine, without anyone else's meddlesome interference.
What I like most is that the game feels kind of "massive". In other words it's like you feel your shots hitting your target and dealing damage to it. I'm not exactly sure why's that, maybe it has something to do with the sound, but that'd be only half-truth. Very few other games provided me with such impression.
I also appreciate the probably first proper instance of backtracking, which added great deal of depth to the environment. Finally it felt like an actual location instead of a narrow set of railroaded setpieces.
And call me shallow, but the possibility of gibbing any NPC or dead body, including bosses, felt incredibly satisfactory. (Actually upon being defeated the bosses kind of gibbed themselves which slightly reduced the satisfaction, but it wasn't that bad.)
While the plot was pretty shallow, I didn't care a single bit. Mind that I was in my early teens back then. You don't require much effort to impress that kind of creature. But I still don't care because it was the gameplay that mattered.
And it still does.
Trying as much as I can, I can't actually find any flaws about this game. Probably because it lived up to that era's standards and pointing out any flaws now would be pretty much useless. You can't judge a last century game by nowadays' standards. If an open world, a character developement and achievements mattered for you most, you wouldn't play such old game in the first place.
Last but not least is the soundtrack, courtesy of Sonic Mayhem. While not as impressive as what Alexander Brandon and Michiel van den Bos pulled off, it went incredibly well with the gameplay, amplifying the satisfactory action without instilling any unnecessary feelings of drama.
While now overshadowed by Half-Life, I still consider many Quake II's mechanics the keystones of FPS gameplay. And thus it will always remain firmly lodged in my heart. Just like a cluster of 12 Gauge buckshot. Urrrgghhhh.