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Wednesday 15 January 2020

Review of Quake 2 RTX(PC)

Hey everyone, to kick off the hype-up for  DOOM  Eternal, and to get hyped for WarCraft 3 Reforged, I have decided to revisit a classic from Id Software. So is this game truly a masterpiece?

Let's find out!



(narration is best enjoyed with headphones on!)




The year is 1997, we were first introduced into the magical worlds of Harry Potter when the Philosopher's Stone hit bookshops, inspiring millions of people to read. Labour leader, Tony Blair was elected as Prime Miniter of the UK, and most importantly, Freddos were only 10p!

 Id Software was the juggernauts of the PC Gaming Industry, with the highly successful Doom  Franchise,  in 1996, they released Quake, one of the first games to have graphics fully rendered in 3D.

FUN FACT:   Former Microsoft and Valve founder, Gabe Newell used the engine for Quake as a base for the GoldSrc(GouldSource) engine, in which Half-Life runs on.

in 1997 a sequel was released, Quake 2. This particular engine was one of the first game to use hardware-accelerated, real-time 3D graphics, OpenGL.


Chinese hardware manufacturer, Nvidia released a remaster of this game using it's patented Ray Tracing (RTX) technology, which requires a $500 GPU to take advantage of(at a decent, consistent frame rate!). But that's beside the point. More on that later!

The story kicks off during the human-Strogg War, you play the Part of Bitterman, a marine who is tasked to infiltrate the Strogg capital, and assassinate  the Strogg's leader Macron

The accessibility scores are as follows-

Visibility 10.5
Although there is no colourblind mode, there is little need for one. There are no colour-coded elements that will cause issues for colourblind players.  If you need a keycard is required to open a door, a message should pop up and inform you. So you'll be ok with this game.

Audibility 3
For the most part, you are reliant on audio cues to determine whether or not an enemy know you're there. Also, the cutscenes are not subtitled, so you'd best to avoid this game.

 
Mobility 8
There is no controller support so you'll be stuck with the good ol' Mouse and Keyboard. But the controls are remappable. But the lack of controller support does hurt, especially when this game was ported to Xbox 360!*

Gameplay 7
Is this game worth forking out $500 for an RTX-compatible GPU to play? No.

First off, it only contains the base game. The Mission packs, (Ground Zero, and Reckoning)  did not receive the same RTX enhancements, so a lot of corners were cut. The game's saving grace is it's multiplayer. The multiplayer servers are still functioning. But with quake Live and Quake Champions still active as well, is this game worth your time?

If you don't have an RTX GPU,, you can switch off the RTX features. It still looks decent for a 23-year old game

In summary, Quake 2 RTX is a pretty decent remaster of a game that's two decades old.  the requirements of this remaster is very high. It's asking for a minimum  RTX 2060. That sets you back about £260. Over the price of an Xbox One X. When it comes to remasters, you'd expect to have access to all additional content out the bat.

Modern Warfare Remastered may be the only exemption of that rule,  but hey, It's Activision we're talking about here. 
But if you own Quake 2 on Stea,m you can download it for free. If you don't you can play through the game's shareware episode for free. It's good for a trip down memory lane, but it would be worth your while just getting classic versions. They are extremely laptop-friendly and is an all-round good game.

 OVERALL SCORE 71.25%

See you guys in the next review. 

SpartanCommander1990 out!

Roll out, Spartan Company!


*= This port was available in  disk 2 of your copy of Quake 4









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