• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Quake vs Quake 2

I'm curious about the general consensus, mostly because I saw More_Badass post about grabbing Quake 2 in the GOG sale thread.

It made me think about how much I fucking hate Quake II, you take an awesome lovecraftian first person shooter with great level design...and make a boring science fiction shooter with terrible bosses, boring design like Quake IV sucked not just because it was terrible but because it was tied into Quake 2 which is honestly the worst Quake Game.


See, the lovecraftian technology angle of the first game was so much more interesting than the boring Strogg dudes and generic sci-fi guns. Like really, the strogg are just boring ass weird looking cyborgs with a hive mind intelligence.

It's boring science fiction.


Shit like the Dimensional Shambler is top tier fucking awesome, the final boss of the game is fucking Shub-Niggurath, a being so powerful that it makes Cthulhu look like a tiny space baby shitlord.
He fucking is, he literally appears for 5 seconds in the material world before "dying" in the Call of Cthulhu.

Quake 2's campaign may have been generic, but its the multiplayer people kept playing it for. It's modding community was more influential as well.

Also, making an argument that Quake 1 has a less generic story is a stretch. Quake 1 is literally a Lovecraftian retelling of Doom's nearly non existent story (did they even name the government agency responsible for the Slipgate?). At least ID put some effort into an actual plot structure with 2, even if it's considered Generic Sci-Fi (which is also arguable considering this was 20 years ago... it's easy to consider this now, but not back then)
 
Quake 2 gets way too much shit.

- It has waaay better level design than Quake 1. It creates "hubs" of multiple levels and they all interconnect in interesting ways. Clear one stage to open up a path in another which gets you the key to access another and so on. It's really really well done.
- The soundtrack is absolutely fucking *godlike*. Trent Reznors Quake 1 score while some nice ambient music, doesn't fit the game *at all* and would feel more fitting in something like Silent Hill. These are super fast paced, adrenaline filled blast em ups so having super subtle ambient music really doesn't work. Sonic Mayhem knew exactly what Quake was and make a fantastic shredding metal soundtrack.
- The enemies are more interesting and fun to fight. Not only is the beastiary in Quake 2 much larger then Quake 1, but the enemies are much more interesting. You've got enemies that duck and avoid your gunfire, they take visible combat damage as you shoot at them and they have more complex AI behaviors.
- The weapons are more fun in Quake 2 (except for the Rocket Launcher, Quake 1 wins that one). I mean: Rail Gun.
- Actual boss fights!

I literally just finished re-playing through Quake 1 and it's expansions and Quake 2 and it's expansions on Tuesday. Overall Quake 2 was a lot more fun.

I literally feel like I read this post in Bizarro World. Better Level Design? More Interesting Enemies?? Better music??? Better weapons????

Somebody wake me up, please.
 
I was just thinking today how amazing a remake of the first Quake campaign would be with the graphics plucked from the Quake champions. That game looks amazing. I was never a fan of Q2 campaign and i love the first game.
 
Quake 2 gets way too much shit.

- It has waaay better level design than Quake 1. It creates "hubs" of multiple levels and they all interconnect in interesting ways. Clear one stage to open up a path in another which gets you the key to access another and so on. It's really really well done.
- The soundtrack is absolutely fucking *godlike*. Trent Reznors Quake 1 score while some nice ambient music, doesn't fit the game *at all* and would feel more fitting in something like Silent Hill. These are super fast paced, adrenaline filled blast em ups so having super subtle ambient music really doesn't work. Sonic Mayhem knew exactly what Quake was and make a fantastic shredding metal soundtrack.
- The enemies are more interesting and fun to fight. Not only is the beastiary in Quake 2 much larger then Quake 1, but the enemies are much more interesting. You've got enemies that duck and avoid your gunfire, they take visible combat damage as you shoot at them and they have more complex AI behaviors.
- The weapons are more fun in Quake 2 (except for the Rocket Launcher, Quake 1 wins that one). I mean: Rail Gun.
- Actual boss fights!

I literally just finished re-playing through Quake 1 and it's expansions and Quake 2 and it's expansions on Tuesday. Overall Quake 2 was a lot more fun.

I literally feel like I read this post in Bizarro World. Better Level Design? More Interesting Enemies?? Better music??? Better weapons????

Somebody wake me up, please.

Well to be fair he's not wrong on some aspects and does a good job at explaining briefly his points. While I think I prefer Quake 1 overall due to the fantastic ambiance and the way the levels (episodes) are layered out, I much prefer the weapons, the music and the enemies of Quake II. I also enjoy the hubs with multiples sections unlocking other sections (a bit like metroid and its back-tracking) but I do believe the levels get a bit tedious and uninspired on the second half of the game.

Both games are amazing in my opinion.
 
Quake 1 SP
Quake 2 MP

This is the right question for me. Quake 1 SP is a joy to play. Regardless of how many years have passed, it is still superb. Plus the artstyle is superb.

Quake 2 has a good campaign but doesn't come close to Quake 1. But multiplayer was superb. Still remember well how many hours I spent playing Quake 2 in LAN Parties back in my school.
 
Quake 2 > Quake 1 for me
Quake 1 > Quake 2 for my dad

We don't talk. Fuck him.

jk but the preference is true
 
Quake 1 was awesome as a single player game and had an awesome style..

I will never forget the fun I had playing Quake 2 on LAN partys, though...
 
Quake 2 for multiplayer.
Quake 1 for single player.

Played unbelievable amount of hours online on Quake 2.
There for it's the winner for me.

Think that was one of the first online MP I played and it got me hooked.
(UT took the crown from it though)
 
Quake 1 all the way. Everything about this game was awesome. Still has one of the greatest soundtracks of all time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVOHTGYoM6E

Those were good days, when the game disc could be put in your CD player so you could just listen to the soundtrack.
 
I loved Quake because is much more horror focused, but Quake II has a better fast action gameplay (and a super fun multi).

My favourite is still Quake, but are both awesome games.
 
For me it's Quake2, it came out shortly after I got my first PC and I still think Q2DM1 is one of the best multiplayer death match maps. I spent hours playing with gladiator bots. Also played online but didn't like the lag with my 28.8k modem. So i stuck to bots.
 
Quake 1 is aesthetically better, Quake II is mechanically better.

I sort of hope if they do a new single-player quake game they go back to the many worlds multi-hub structure - and you could even have QII's world as one of those settings.
 
So hold up if I want to get Quake 1+2, should I get them from GOG or Steam?

when it comes to old games, always GoG. Some older games on steam used to be absolutely horrible to run or to mod, on steam they usually just include a dosbox with the client, while gog screws around with the settings on older dos games to make them run ok. At least to my knowledge.
 
I never got into Quake II. It's funny to see this thread pop up now, though, because I was thinking about the sound design in the original Quake maybe 20-30 minutes ago and remembering how awesome some of the item pick-up sounds are. What's the best way of playing Quake now? I remember using Tenebrae to enhance the graphics a long time ago, but I don't think it's maintained anymore.
 
Quake 1, all day, every day, in every single way. Well, I will say Quake 2 multiplayer was really, really, really good, but the aesthetic, the music, and the levels in Quake 1 demolish Quake 2.
 
Quake and Quake II are like the video game equivalent of the Alien and Aliens movies. Both awesome games but for very different reasons.

With that being said I get way more nostalgia for the first game.
 
I never got into Quake II. It's funny to see this thread pop up now, though, because I was thinking about the sound design in the original Quake maybe 20-30 minutes ago and remembering how awesome some of the item pick-up sounds are. What's the best way of playing Quake now? I remember using Tenebrae to enhance the graphics a long time ago, but I don't think it's maintained anymore.

I just played through Quake 1 using Quakespasm in 4k. Looked and played great.
 
Quake II single player was pretty crap, though that soundtrack was pretty rocking. Game had amazing multiplayer balance and maps though. The mods were out of this world at the time, too. I remember I used to play a crazy RPG mod that had all sorts of spells and equipment and loot and everything could be leveled up by using it and there'd be epic glowing versions of the bosses just roaming around the DM maps. I still love the Q2 engine for all its weird jumping physics, too.
 
I think it's pretty widely agreed that Q1 had better single player and Q2 better multi, so whether people preferred 1 or 2 will mostly come down to which kind of gaming they prefer.
 
I think it's pretty widely agreed that Q1 had better single player and Q2 better multi, so whether people preferred 1 or 2 will mostly come down to which kind of gaming they prefer.

thats only agreed in the parallel universe gaf resides in where Quake 1's shitty, mindless, unstructured and randomly thrown together levels which came from friction inside id is better than the superior in everything Quake 2, which actually had a focus on singleplayer and some of its elements predate Half Life even.

And Quake 2 didnt had better multi, it was slower and lacked air control, so many many people hated it at first with a burning passion.
 
It was weird...

I hated quake 2 multi at first....

- the gibs were so weak compared to quakes kinetic and stylized explosions.

- the rockets were sooooo slow.

- laggy mp in the beginning

- shitty blaster!

- thresh wasn't playing it!

Then I slowly got used it, and began to love it! Especially after getting a voodoo card. The rail guy and I became one! Great mods like rocket arena were great!

I liked it so much that when quake 3 came out, I was disappointed. The rail gun spiral was gone :/

You had jumps you could only make if your game ran at 80 fps or whatever. Lame!!
 
It was weird...

I hated quake 2 multi at first....

- the gibs were so weak compared to quakes kinetic and stylized explosions.

- the rockets were sooooo slow.

- laggy mp in the beginning

- shitty blaster!

- thresh wasn't playing it!

Then I slowly got used it, and began to love it! Especially after getting a voodoo card. The rail guy and I became one! Great mods like rocket arena were great!

I liked it so much that when quake 3 came out, I was disappointed. The rail gun spiral was gone :/

You had jumps you could only make if your game ran at 80 fps or whatever. Lame!!

Man, I love love love the rocket launcher and railgun in Quake 2 multi. So, so fun. The slow rockets were all kinds of fun where you could fire off a shot to the side and lead them into it. The satisfaction of a perfectly timed shot and forced error was glorious.
 
I remember reading about Thresh going to id and they were trying to figure out why the rockets in Q1 felt faster, and double-checking the code said the speed was exactly the same.

Then Carmack (or Romero, or someone) finally figured it out and it was because Q1 spawned the rocket some distance in front of the player.

That aside, Q1's sound design was also a lot more raw. The explosions basically distorted, the monster grunts and environmental sounds were rugged.

Q2's explosion sounds like a controlled fart in comparison.
 
Quake 2 always for me. Singleplayer was fun enough, multiplayer was the best shit ever. Rocket Arena 2 all life.
 
The fact this thread is only 86 replies makes me think oldGAF is too busy with family or something, haha.

I want to know how to get DK2 VR solutions working om the CV1, so I can play Quake 2 in VR. Now THAT would be a blast.
 
The fact this thread is only 86 replies makes me think oldGAF is too busy with family or something, haha.

I want to know how to get DK2 VR solutions working om the CV1, so I can play Quake 2 in VR. Now THAT would be a blast.

I saw the thread earlier and thought considering Q2 better than 1 was a joke..
 
Quake 2 is better mp, Quake 1 is better sp.

If you look back at the franchise, the original was really the only one that really went with the Lovecraftian thing. They should get back to that, have the Doom 2016 dudes take a stab at it.
 
Quake 2 is the best mp experience of any fps.
Yes the gameplay is even better than quake 3 (while this is also good)

Double jump, long jump, other things. Edge map is perfect.
hqdefault.jpg


Yet this game was so good because of bugs. It was never men to be to do double jump or long jumps.
People who played this as hardcore on pc, do understand why.
Also do understand why console can never be hardcore when it comes to fps mp games.

(Don't care about the single play mode)

Create much worlds with worldcraft. Played also much mods.
autoaim hack was lame. etc...

edit
Quake 1 all day honestly.

I like the music better even tho Q2 soundtrack is good too but i prefer the art design and the worlds you play in Q1, the guns feel better too.

There were enough mods skinpacks etc.. available. Also this game (q2) wasn't about gfx, but about gameplay
 
Quake 1 all day honestly.

I like the music better even tho Q2 soundtrack is good too but i prefer the art design and the worlds you play in Q1, the guns feel better too.
 
I prefer Q1's soundtrack, schizophrenic visual style, monster selection, and chapter-based mission structure. I prefer Q2's weapons overall, though. Q1 has the best rocket launcher, no question. But both of Q1's shotguns feel much weaker than Q2's shotgun, Q1's lesser nailgun becomes redundant once you get the better one (unlike Q2's machine guns, which have tradeoffs), and I prefer the railgun over the lightning gun.
 
I loved Quake 1, played sooo much of it! But then I could never get into Quake 2 no matter how much I tried. I miss the oddly cool almost medieval themes and creatures from the original.

There was just a brilliant unique charm to Q1 that was missing from Q2 to me.

It's a really weird feeling to go from enjoying a game that much to not being able to care about the sequel at all.
 
Quake 1 is an excellent game whereas 2 is merely a very good one.

1 is a nearly perfect single-player game with a highly unbalanced multiplayer that nonetheless hinted at perfection.

2 has... too many negative qualities to list but brought in some things that defined what Quake would become, like the railgun and The Edge, one of the best multiplayer maps in the series.

We're not talking about the elephant in the room, and I'm not sure why, as I'd rate Q3A above both of them and it's not really all that close.

As an active Quake player (yes, some people do still play Quake) I think most people would pick 1 over 2. The far more contentious debate is between 3 and 1, or, more specifically, between 3 and QW. Also, many Quake diehards consider CPMA to be the series' peak, and there are still others (like myself and some strong duelers) who think that QL's weak rail and more challenging rockets constitute a notable improvement over Q3A.

There are also like ten people still playing Q2 every day, so there's that.
 
Top Bottom