Playing Quake Expansion Pack 2

[Wazat]

While I never got my hands on the first expansion pack, I did buy & play through the second one years ago (with cheats on because I sucked so much). I didn't like it at the time because I felt the weapons were "lazy". For example, lava nails are reskinned nails with higher damage and a new sound, and mods had cluster grenades long before the expansion came out.

Well... I started playing through it again this weekend on a whim. I'd just worked an 18.5 hour day (after a week of 12 hour days, after a week of 10 hour days) and I was pretty fried. I wanted something new, or something nostalgically old. So I turned my room upside down looking for the expansion.

I have to say... I'm impressed. For all my lobbying against it years ago, I'm pleased to see I was dead wrong.

First of all, I like the weapons set. They increase my ammo capacity and damage output of course, and add to the whole resource management thing that Quake centers around. But they also WORK well and look good. Though the art replacement and programming are super simple -- often just a damage increase and a skin swap -- it works wonders on my psyche to pull out my lava nailgun (of which I've usually collected 200) and just unload them on a swarm of fiends and hell knights. It's not just that they're powerful, it's that they burn. BAM BAM BAM EAT IT, PUNK!!!! HISSSSSS!!!

And the cluster grenades and rockets seem to work well. The rockets cover a wide spread, and the grenades scatter over a wide area. I suspect the grenades would suck in multiplayer, but they work rather well against monsters (except the dang fiends).

The level design is quite nice, and memorable I might add. The first few levels are burned into my memory and I still remember sections of them after all these years. I sure like some of them better than the original quake levels. And the new electrical traps, pendulums, and saw blades are not dumb gimmicks, I've decided, but really damn cool. They're also fun to coax monsters into.

I wasn't impressed with the start level though. All that professional work and yet the place you start looks... awkward. O_o The rest of start looks nice though.

I've only gotten a few levels down memory lane (level 4 or 6 or so and I died right at the end, lol), but I think I'm going to make time to charge through the rest, guns-a-blaz'n. I did this with original Quake a few years back (playing through with a fresh outlook and no cheats) and loved it, and I suspect I'll feel the same way with this pack too.

I'm glad I gave the pack a second chance. Here's to nostalgia vindicated.

(and btw, playing it in Darkplaces FTW )

[leileilol]

[Lardarse]

The grenades work best when you don't do direct hits, btw

[Dr. Shadowborg]

SoA is better in some respects, but the buzzsaws, pendulums, and multiposition elevators were nice. The multi-grenades suck. (This is why the next version of hellsmash's grenade launcher grenade explosion is very much different from the prior version...)

[mh]

[Wazat]

[Wazat]

[Dr. Shadowborg]

MH: I agree for the most part, though SoA has some rather cool foes, and the base theme fits given what Armagon turned out to be. (Not to forget the SpikeMines and Cyborg Scorpions =P)

Wazat: I did away with separating grenades entirely in favor of multiple successive explosions generated in random directions and distances from the center of the explosion. (Uses frik's mathlib.qc mathlib_randomvec();) It actually works quite well, and is particularly fun to bombard frikbots in deathmatch.

[Wazat]

Dr. Shadowborg: Lol! Sounds good.

Update: I've finished the first episode, now onto the second. ^_^

[Wazat]

W00t! I finished it last Wednesday. It's been fun, and I still think my only real grievances are the earthquakes (which were thankfully rarely used) and the fact that the cluster grenades did turn out to be pretty useless. The cluster rocket was pretty decent, but only the ogre was able to use cluster grenades effectively. Sometimes I could fire the cluster grenades in the air and get them to split over an enemy's head (or cluster of enemies).

I have to say, one thing I liked the most about this expansion over regular Quake was the abundance of distinct boss battles. From the "guardians", to the mini-chthons, and finally the flying dragon, I had a lot of fun handing out ass whoopings to the best the forces of evil could throw at me. And being the pathological ammo conservationist that I am, I had plenty of cells, multirockets and lava nails to unload on the bosses.

Original Quake's idea of a boss battle was a creature that was impossible to kill in any way except solving the puzzle (lightning pillars and buttons for chthon, and telefrag for shub), and occasionally throwing a shambler or two at me. It's cool to have the occasional puzzle, but when I'm going into the ultimate showdown with my enemy I want to kick his ASS on a very personal basis. That means unleashing a mercilous rain of cluster rockets and lava nails upon it and its minions and then spitting on the remains. I didn't get to spit on shub, and she ate all the nails I fired at her and kept coming. :/

Though honestly it's pretty cool to defeat the ultimate enemy in the game with the ultimate attack, the telefrag.

One more thing I'd like to mention: I love the double-barrel shotgun! I used to hate it and favored just about anything else I could find on the higher numbers, but in single player it's one tough SOB. I get a ton of shells (50 shots assuming no refills found along the way) and lots of damage per shot as long as I'm not sniping with it. The nailgun, too, proved to be a very excellent staple weapon. Things change in single player against enemies that aren't moving 60 miles per hour. The super shotty is very useful!

Sadly, I used the boomstick and various flavors of nailgun so often I often completely forgot about my two lightning guns. The split lighting didn't seem all that useful (doesn't even kill a zombie), but the normal lightning cannon usually came out when a shambler reared its ugly head, though even then I often forgot and used nails instead. And near the end of the second episode I finally trained myself to use my rockets! Turned out pretty effective when I wasn't blowing myself up. 2 rockets to kill an ogre, 3 around corners.

So... Here's to revisiting nostalgia.

[Lardarse]

[Wazat]

[Lardarse]

[Wazat]

[Lardarse]

Shouldn't your sig be "Masochistic Squirrel" then, not "Sadistic Squirrel" ?