Game:

Quake II (1997)

Duration: 9:29

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I said that, didn't I? "Oh, later on I'll probably be kicking myself for not playing on Hard+ instead of Hard." Not just because I took the Makron down in about fifteen seconds, either (and they definitely knew that people could and would bring a quad and invincibility into the fight), but because the game didn't pose much of a challenge. Quake II just plain feels really easy.

The main factor is that a lot of enemies aren't much of a threat. Compared to the placement and use of Mancubi, Revenants, and Barons and (if you want something closer chronologically) Shamblers, Tanks in Quake II were trivial to deal with. What's more, a lot of enemies like Enforcers and Iron Maidens took so long to attack that dodging in time wasn't even an issue, and damage from attacks was weirdly low even on Hard.

This isn't one of those "it's not as good as other games because it's easy" things so much as a "it could've been a lot better if more care were taken with level and enemy design because as it stands it's closer to a shooting gallery than a game proper." Initially I pooh-poohed people who said that Quake II lacked the verve and style of the first game after John Romero and the others left id Software, but after playing it again they've got a point. It's probably worth giving Quake a second try in a different frame of mind to see how it compares, but there's like a 1 in 230 chance of that happening with any new playthrough so I wouldn't hold my breath.

All of this would've been said during the credits normally but, well, no credits.

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