Quake II

"Quake II PSX - Not only a techical feat, but one of the best PSX games"

Ah, yes, Quake II. I'm doing the N64 and PSX reviews on the same night, so you all can see how they stand up. The PSX didn't get a port of the first Quake. It was then thought impossible, even with Lobotomy doing an outstanding job on the Saturn version (another review for another time :P). So when Quake II came around, it was out of the question. But a little known developer known as Hammerhead did the impossible. Very seldom is an advanced game not only proven possible on low hardware specs, but taking it above and beyond is nothing short of godly.

As a change from the N64 review, we'll start with the negatives first. Since, there's few. There's 19 levels in this version, when the PC has a whopping 39 levels. The game is still quite long, with about 8-10 hours of gameplay. There's a few level changes, and there are a few loading hallways that load the next part of the level into memory (hey, it's only 2MB of RAM), but the load times are kept to a minimum. There's slight graininess to the graphics, but nothing too serious. And lastly, the joystick look is quite sensitive, with no option to change the sensitivity.

Okay, the negatives may or may not matter to you that much. Let me get into the real meat of the review and you'll see that the positives easily outweigh the negatives.

First of all, the graphics. Bloody, freaking amazing. The PSX only has 2MB of RAM, and the animation is so fluid, and no sacrifices are made (with the possible exception of the Enforcer's beheading, which may be a glitch). The framerate never drops, even with the hyperblaster firing. They even added such graphical treats like lens flares on all lights. The graphics have a slight graininess to them, but are for the most part quite sharp.

Now, the levels. There's 19 of them, which I said. The game retains the original's hub structure. There's just half the hubs. They also added the first level of the N64 as an intro level. With the low memory, there's a few load rooms where the next part of the level is loaded into memory. This may annoy some people, but it's a small sacrifice. The levels have changed a bit. Some with parts missing, and some with parts added. It's odd. But it keeps everything fresh with the new secret areas.

The sound is great, with the original music. And the original sound. Not much else to say.

Now, for the control. It does digital, mouse look (which I have yet to try) and joystick look. The sensitivity is quite high. It may take a white to get used to. This, I feel, is the only real flaw of this game. But after about 10 minutes, you get used to turning on a dime. The higher sensitivity means you can whip your gun around quite fast, but it'll take practice. There's no real button setup. You can either set the left or right stick as look, with the buttons or d-pad respectively to move and strafe. L1 and L2 are weapon up and down, and R1 and R2 are fire and jump.

Multiplayer (4 player with the multitap) is a freaking blast. At least the little I played it. I'm a self proclaimed single player gamer. There's no lag, and is very smooth. How they did it, I'll never know.

This game runs very fast, keeps the adrenaline rush of the PC intact, and all with minimal RAM. The game brand new was bargain bin prices ($19.99) so you'd be a fool not to pick it up. I'd give it a 10, if it weren't for non-customizable controls, and the missing hubs. The loading hallways may influence your purchase as well. Needless to say, it blows away the lackluster N64 Quake II.

So buy this game if you can find it. Unless, of course, you can play the PC or XBox 360 versions. ;)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/26/06