Voodoo

     

            The most important point of this blog for me is to give myself proper appreciation and knowledge of my favorite gaming genre through historical context that may have been lost to me at the time and/or without this exercise.I had difficulty articulating the massive, yet now almost expected jump Quake II gave over other 1997 releases in such a short time. It's not hyperbole yet the quality standard for games was the expectation of technological marvels one after the other by 1998 and that expectation was reinforced by the reality of the 1990's tech boom. id Tech 2 impressed as much as id Tech 2.5 while having what Rare or Iguana Entertainment did impress in different ways in between. Unreal embodies more than anything the era to which created it. Unreal is as we all know the name suggest is unbelievable. Coming right after Quake II on this blog and roughly 6 months from id Tech 2.5's debut in late '97, Unreal astonishes me. 1998 was here and with it Epic Games debut FPS Unreal to show us video games could truly have no limits. 

                     Unreal and Epic Game's Unreal Engine feel like the watershed moment for video games that every medium experiences where technology is serviceable enough for neigh any vision.  Playing this blog and hosting games of a wide range of quality has shown me limitations in both design and approach that the technological canvas imposes on the creators. Unreal Engine is the living life blood of what makes Unreal the game it is. There's a time old discussion of game play and graphics and how the lion share of creative effort and engineering should be split between the two. However it's very important to understand that the vision for Unreal the game is made possible with the Unreal Engine. 

        The game features massive levels unlike that of any FPS I've played before with vistas going off for what feels like forever with no fog to mask the lack of rendering like seen on N64 games. Loading screens in Unreal ,unlike Hexen or other idTech based games, don't have to hide behind doors but let the player clearly see where they are going as the game takes a moment to load.  The effects work though boggles the mind and really flexes the kind of things Video Add In Cards can accomplish. Glass and water distort in creative and translucent ways I've not seen an FPS game until now. Bullets and explosions are either rendered with polygons or have the best sprite effect use I've seen. Physics make chunks of meat float in the water, bounce the player like Quake does with explosions or to my great surprise have rope like elements bounce at times. Bloom lighting and colored lighting look much better than what was seen in id Tech 2.5 and still have a dramatic effect on me with the presentation simply not possible in even simple scenes without it. The dynamic lighting however in Unreal Engine is what gives the game atmosphere, tense game play areas that are free to play with light and darkness like I could only dream of when playing DOOM II. The lighting is incredible and completes and already incredible visual package. It seems the lighting effects more surfaces and smaller details in both color and dynamic ways than seen with id Tech 2.5.

           The tech impresses and ignites my love for realtime rendering. While the games that would do that for me in real life came much later if I was who I am now in 1998 it would likely be Unreal that would be my "Crysis" moment. It wasn't long ago I was blown away by the level of interactivity, lighting and texturing available in Build Engine games like Duke Nukem 3D. However some 1.5 years later Unreal is a jump so large I lack the worlds to describe. The thing about this era is clear to me is that there was no singular "Crysis" moment. DOOM II, Hexen, Duke Nukem,Quake, Golden Eye, Turok, Quake II and now Unreal all felt like the entire expectations and reality in which games are created and played fundamentally shifted in expectation and quality. 

            Unreal's beauty however is not just skin deep. Unreal has left me with awe in my impressions and memories with the game. Moments that are truly timeless and will always stick with a gamer.  Crawling out of a typical post Quake FPS level with awesome dynamic lighting to suddenly walk out and find yourself in a valley with a water fall that you jump down to. Its a monumental moment for the genre. Some of these moments are serene and beautiful existing to only breathe life into this living world the player is part of. Some offer to heighten the incredibly tense combat moments playing with light sources and darkness in a way that forces the player to adjust their senses. The introduction to Skarrj using dynamic lighting and a great sound track to near through the player into a panic attack as they fight for their lives.  Some other moments just make your jaw drop and heart race for other reasons such as a slith being smart enough to follow you after pushing you off into the water where it sims faster and attacks stronger. Easily one of my favorite and most surprising moments in the game. These kind of enemy surprises or environmental immersion haven't really came across in an FPS game before on this of quality, interactivity but also just immersion and drawing the palyer into a believable world which may be Unreal's only ironic part when it comes to naming. This isn't to say Unreal isn't short on charming gimmicks. A health plan that the longer it grows the more health it gives you shows off the engines geometry transformations well but also gives the world a little charm. Natives smart enough to guide you to hidden treausre should you keep them alive are neat ways of just seeing how Epic Games had the freedom to really toy with these actors and elements while structuring a level. Unreal is far less rigid feeling that past FPS games because of this and has an almost more simulated feel to it in place.

       While immersion and scope are clearly where Unreal stands apart, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and Epic Games largely borrows from the id design bible. Its very a "Quake Clone" as much as Dark Forces or Duke Nukem where "DOOM Clones".  The game is fast paced falling in the same speed bracket as Quake II though still not as extreme as Quake I or Blood. A large host of weapons fit the typical roster with attempts by Epic Games to make Unreal's Quake like arsenal more unique unto itself. Some of the attempts are fantastic and match the similar efforts of 3D Realms in differing the arsenal of the FPS while not straying too far from the golden design standard of id Software. Guns like the Flak Cannon are wholly unique and possibly my best take on "what can we put in the shotguns place" problem. The spread and range along with using physics to bounce the shrapnel around an area and blast enemies into chunks is one of the most satisfying weapons I've played in an FPS game. The rail gun is a straight Shadow Warrior rip off and I'm fine with as its extremely useful and rewarding on Unreal's fast and highly animated targets something neither Shadow Warrior or Quake II gave you. 

                        

       Aside from the stand outs though Unreal's weaponry is pretty lack luster especially coming onto the stage after Quake II or Blood. The Stinger is a poor and less satisfying machine gun that largely works on damage sponge enemies as crowd control is rarely a thing in Unreal's combat loop. Enemies tend to appear in few numbers and move around areas more than games before it. The dispersion rifle does cool things with its upgrades and changing form, again technically very impressive, however it simply stays useless much like the coolly named enforcer pistol. The Rocket launcher functions like Quake however another oddity exist the 6 barreled fire stick weapon. It shoots basically short range motors with its alt fire function showering the enemy with all 6 of them albeit much less accuracy. It's cool however largely useless as campaign maps rarely give you the room to attack highly mobile targets with blast rate weapons. All in all Unreal is not up to the standard id Software or 3D realms has set in gun play. It's fun and excited at its best times and rather mediocre the rest of the time. 

                          Much of the gun play shortcomings in Unreal are due in part to the less than stellar level design. While these areas are beautiful and fun to explore they are met with several short comings and less than stellar qualities about them. The most egregious problem with the level design its break the expected rule of having an fast paced FPS  giving the player plenty of movement options. I found myself all too often caught on geometry when fighting enemies or just lacking space to use various weapons on such a consistent level I wondering why they gave them to be to use in the first place aside from suicide. In fact because of the high mobility of enemies the rail gun became my go to weapon and was so much better suited for combat I had a hard time switching for reasons other than ammo. It's also worth noting that the single player pacing of this game is very slow with a slight Turok focus on getting around large levels, pressing buttons and soaking things. This approach helps Unreal exploit its best qualities however the choice to very slowly trickle out new additions to the arsenal of the player severely killed in interest in a way Quake II did not by albeit still too slowly feeding me more weapons and enemy types. 

            While the gun play loop of Unreal is fairly mediocre It's enemy design shares the same mixed bag approach. It's here I feel Epic Games thought this was more clever than how it worked out in actuality. See there's little enemy variation and they appear in about the same frequency as Quake II. It creates for a quickly stagnant combat progression as the game goes on these elements age the fastest. Again I have to mention the slow roll out of fun weapons to the player as that would have mitigated the problem. Quake II's weapon set for instance seems in part response to a similar enemy variation problem Unreal faces. It makes me wonder playing all these games together if its a design trend or lack of 3D processing capabilities because nothing has reached DOOM II levels of throwing enemies on screen and I miss mowing down a hoard. While being blow to bits and blood flying and floating is very nice in Unreal I still give the carnage and brutality edge to id Software and this comes down to a personal blood lust preference if you will not that Unreal is a lesser game because of it. Much like how Virtual Fighter or Dead or Alive of the time didn't need to be Mortal Kombat. 

                           

        Immersion is a tricky and usually toxic word to use in game discord. Often immersion is used as a marketing gimmick or a hot take critique about some picky rendering or design choice. Unreal has humbled me and brought warmth back into my jaded opinion on the use of that word however. As I am about to use immersion to praise Unreal a great deal and while its highly subjective in its own right to assert immersion as being a quality of a game I can focus on the objective ways in which it accomplishes this for me. Unreal easily has the best use of music in a FPS game. The ambience and wonder it creates breathes so much life into this physically large and densely detailed digital world. It seems to contextually play tracks based on encounters and locations and really gives this alien world exploration impression that is haunted and beautiful while full of life and wonder. Luckily Epic Games seemed to be keen on their prowess here and built large parts of the level deigns and game play loop around simplistic puzzle solving that forces the player to for a brief moment soak it all in while still being challenged. Turok did this well mechanically and maybe even a littler better but seeing it all together in Unreal Engine is a step far above what was possible on N64 in mid '97.Breaking character here I will say this is an obvious major inspiration for Halo Combat Evolved and what would be the crashing onto Halo and the ambience of that game while on the ring, including a dynamic sound track that wouldn't be for 3 more years though. 

                              Unreal has this massive connected world and it's the closest I think a FPS game has came to a truly load free open world. Sure there are loading screens but where they are placed and how far apart the player must see them is truly wild to see especially coming off of Quake II which handled that much worse in id Tech 2.5 despite going for the now trendy Hexen II take on connecting shooter levels. We are seeing the industry at this point have a keen move away from the more arcade mentality that DOOM II set out and a more cohesive set and set of actions akin to Gold Eye or RavenSoft's games. Epic Games had a big challenge that Raven, Iguana and others had also encountered, that was how to make these massive labyrinths intuitive and navigable. Quake I did this likely the best one by having much smaller levels, an easy out, but adopting a more roller coaster mentality where the player literally just had to keep walking into trouble to find his way out. Quake II and Hexen II used a lot of text updating the player with a small focus on visual clues. Visual Clues to guide the player in the right way in a massive area with multiple ways by sometimes changing the environment from the way it looked on a previous pass through or having interesting lightnings and objects or more directly offering a carrot to the player in the form of ammo or health. These games all clumsy struggled with this problem and while I found Quake II the most intuitive its interesting to see how Unreal does what I feel a worse job overall while doing many of the individual elements better. Unreal easily grabs the players attention with visual ques much better, things are just more interesting to look at the the art direction of the game is a large step up over what id Software last put out, Epic is able to do this with much larger scenes with more complex environments to allow objects to exist purely to be interesting to look at. The design and combat carrot mechanic work really well. Much better than Blood and with far less pace breaking and disorienting platforming Turok gave us. However again it's Epic Games lacking level design that allows areas to easily get extremely confusing, switches and goals not always easy to track and some down right hard to do so. It's more a pain akin to Hexen II though the pace and style of that game fit a slower less intuitive design and in some ways would could argue RavenSoft wanted that challenge to exist. No such clever trade offs or intentions are found in Unreal.

        Going into Unreal has been such a pleasure. Its a very well made game that always steps out on its best foot first. Immersion, world building, a few wacky guns and some stellar enemy engagement. All these strong characteristics earn it, its spot among the greats. In 1998 this game was astounding and I'd say its still awe inspiring even to this day blog or not. I found the gunplay and game play while having great high moments largely unsatisfying compared to 3D Realms or Id Software as well as the all too frequent mediocre combat areas and level design. Epic Game's Unreal however still creates plenty of mind blowing magical gaming moments both for the industry and the genre. Gaming memories that last a life time because they impressed, sparked joy, or wow'ed you like DOOM did back in the day. Its the most immersive and beautiful FPS game to date ('98). The bright colorful alien world mixed with grimy temples and broken off world tech created a much needed fresh top notch experience for the genre. Unreal astounds and drops jaws but it also creates a magic world to be a part of and I'm filled with memories and love of it. Move over id Software, as of this day Epic Games had earned the right to sit beside you. 

Circa 1998

                       

              

      1997 itself justified the conextual nature of this blog entirely on it's own. 97' was a year so pivotal and important for the genre it's certainly not lost through a historically lens but the year's perception shattering effect has to truly be experienced first hand. The parallels of the technological and cultural revolution the 90's hosted expressed itself fully in video games and particularly the FPS genre as of late. Technology had been integrating itself into daily life for some time however now it was accessible, programmable, and affordable in ways just dreamed of years earlier. This era was the platform of creativity and why the past "year" of this blog hosted the most diverse, large and high quality spread of FPS titles by an almost unfathomable magnitude. In a few short years we've went from 3D Realm's explosive use of interactive environments married with the genre pioneering movement efforts of id Software only to have the perceptions of what is possible in a video game changed by both console releases like Turok and Rare's GoldenEye and later year PC releases, by Lucas Arts, Raven Software, even with contributions by id Software besting itself at its own game. 

                                  The visceral nature of the genre has always attracted both fans and skeptic DOOMs day preachers. By this time in the blog id Software had already become the major source of controversy and violence from video games was certainly on the lips of many politicians, pulling the genre into a cultural blood bath with lasting stigma far beyond to present day 21'. Graphics had become unbelievable in months. Just in a 12 months we went from Quake I to Quake II and the jump is stunning. The mix of pixel art powered Build Engine games like Blood and Shadow Warrior stood just as tall in their more traditional design choices as the new pioneers such as GoldenEye or Hexen II. The gulf visually and in interactivity however staggering in a way the present world of tech and rendering could never show. It's a phenomenon unto itself that all these drastically different approaches to the same video game genre, with just as varied choices of technological canvases to work with, existed in the same 12 months. While the take away in knowledge and appreciation of these individual titles is precious the context of what a stunning year unfolded and changed the FPS genre forever is the lesson that must be brought across in this blog. Because 1998 for gamers at the time started in a state of pure shock. 

                           1998 would be unreal. 1998 meant nothing was off the table. Nothing was impossible for both Video games as a medium and FPS as a genre. The bringing of advanced and portable technology would soon bring us into the sci-fi future dreamed about for so long. It's important to realize culturally much of this technology was new and not viewed as need or complementary to every life style. Something even the best game engines like id Tech 2 and Lucas Art's in house engine had to deal with. Home computers where often extremely limited in their rendering prowess and machines built more in line with the needs of gaming prohibitively expensive. However by this point in the blog (98') PC's had exploded in power and the rampant spread of the "video add on card" market played a key role in allowing experiences like idTech 2.5 powered Quake II or drastically better versions of games like Dark Forces II. Even a console like the Nintendo 64 proved it was a capable in home 3D FPS machine. The proliferation of capable realtime 3D hardware was going to allow content creators to do things unimaginable, I mean just look at Quake II. Hardware wouldn't be the only major thing to change gaming this year as Microsoft would release one of the most important OS releases as of yet with Windows 98.

                The major design shifts start appearing. Hexen II and Quake II showed off level design where each level felt physically connected to the other. Movement had evolved to take into account physics with rocket jumping and more. The genre had clearly not just evolved but expanded. Rare had introduced a more cinematic flare that we would see id Software bring to a more fast paced traditional formula. I think this point in the genre really does feel like limitless possibility. Tech was growing and being accepted at an unfathomable rate and with it flexibility of design. While the entries in this blog get scale upwards in work they also continue to yield much joy and appreciation for the times. I'm very much interested in reliving 1998. Through he lens of a now 29 year old gamer who was then just 7 playing Pokemon on his N64. Google would be founded in 1998. The Titanic would create movie history. MP3 players would start to take off as portable music devices along with the iMAC's debut. Brittany Spears and Nsync ruled the charts. 1998 is here.

Ozymandias

           With Quake and DOOM, id Software pioneered their own brand of game play and created a video game genre. First Person Shooters by the end of 1997 and the release of Quake II had become a somewhat wide genre filled with comic relief, pop culture references, fantasies, a variety of game play and visuals. This competition and variety of choice on the market however did nothing to temper id Software's thirst to push the genre and their own game play brand forward. Quake II certainly does this however it also has a delicacy id Software games lacked before when it comes to refinement. Quake II is a well oil, smooth running, great sounding machine of a video game. It is the id Software game play brand started in DOOM  in its most balanced and precise form yet. This blog's chronologically linear path give me an appreciation for these watershed moments like Quake II. It may seem almost cliche both in this blog and in 1997 to say id Software has done it yet again. It may sound repetitive to say Quake II looks unbelievable visually and the awe of its visceral feedback is just as much shock as any other id release so far. However all these things are true. Quake II embodies everything this genre has worked for up until the end of 1997 and it feels good. 

                   If there was ever a "blockbuster" video game until now it was Quake II. DOOM had its cult following termed phenomenon, and Quake felt like it achieved that as well but Quake II feels like a full on polished, massive budget, expected to be awe inspiring kind of product. The game stuns with a full motion video of sci fi marines in drop pods invading an alien planet setting the stage for your war of revenge after an previous unexpected attack on earth. It has nothing to do with Quake I and depending on the level of information access I had at the time in 1997 this may have been confusing to me though I quickly adjusted to the fantastic gritty sci fi story that reminds me very much of Star Ship Troopers in premise. The addition of this in an id game is welcome and really feels that blockbuster feel and expectation I had for a game of this caliber after the "year" this blog has had with 1997. My war with the Strogg quickly felt personal from the botched landing of the marines in the intro video. 

          Id Software's calling card is fast ground breaking rendering. Throughout the past year of 1997 in this blog I've seen some incredible examples of real time rendering for FPS games and video games as a whole, a welcome refreshment after so many sprite based games. Despite id Tech 2 being just a year old these new technological improvements in both software and hardware in the PC space where not lost on id. Quake II's version of id Tech 2 heavily focused on the user having a discrete 3D accelerator card to assist the CPU in rendering complex 3D games. This hardware was new yet quickly became extremely popular and common enough. With this id Tech 2 now has colored lighting! Walking past different colored lights now cast a light the correct color onto the player or enemy. The dynamic lights in general are significantly improved over Quake I. A tremendous increase in polygon count makes it by far the most detailed game I've seen ('97) including the best textures. Quake II and the improved hardware 3D accelerated id Tech 2 is a tremendous leap for video games in visuals and stuns as much as any of id Software's previous releases. If it's cliche its because John Carmack earned it by now. Because this jump is  so big I will refer to this version of the engine as the id Tech 2.5 Engine. Id Tech upped everything including the violent visceral feedback id is known for with enemies having chunks of meat and metal fly from them as you shoot away their health. The depth the colored lighting allowed and the freedom artist had with so many polygons creates environments unrivaled in Quake II.

                                

             Visuals aside the bedrock of Quake II to me and what really stuck with me is how smooth and well functioning all it's game play mechanics work with one another. It really is harmonious in a way I don't feel id Software had achieved with their trade mark game play formula. What I mean by previous statement is that the game play of Quake II, all the weapons, enemies, ammo, and movement feel like they work together and off one another in a practical and rewarding way that serves the game play. Everything has a purpose and feels like its there to compliment everything else mechanically. Blood is probably the only other game on this list I would hold is such regard when it comes to such a refined game play formula. Refinement in Quake II comes at the cost of some of my favorite things Quake I did. Qualities such as Quake I's breakneck speed and chaos that often could result in a less that satisfying death but fascination all the same. One fault I find Quake II with is it's power fantasy rarely allows for frustration from the player and its something that brings life to id encounters I severely missed from previous games. Not to say however that the "feeling"  of Quake and id Software games isn't alive and well but it lacks that always near death tension previous DOOM and Quake games gave us. 

                                                Quake II's symphony relies more on its weapons set than it does it's enemy encounters. DOOM II in this blog is praised for such a great set up of enemy and weapon dynamics. Quake II unlike Quake I and DOOM, offers a weapons heavy balance over enemy variance however the gain of this trade off is each weapon is very unique and has its specific purposes. Its more inline with the 3D Realms approach and I feel its the most enjoyable yet balanced weapons set id Software has presented in a game though Quake II does not satisfy in enemy variety like Quake I and not in enemy encounters like DOOM II. Quake features a pistol much like DOOM however it's dynamic light is a first for video games and cool to see its largely a useless weapon and I fault the game for using more for a graphics gimick than anything else. The shotgun in addition to the pistol is pretty much useless. Again once the incredibly satisfying super shotgun is found its never used again, the super shotgun however being incredibly satisfying in effect and sound across the variety of situations the game gives the player, its an id Software Specialty. The machine gun is fun with it's upward fire overtime but again largely useless after the chain gun is acquired though not completely. The chain gun is where Quake II's arsenal becomes more unique and satisfying to use, an expect in crowd control and going faster and faster until it runs out of bullets the chain gun is a pleasure. Hand grandees work as a slow and physically projected object of explosive quality and only exist for any real purpose because the grande launcher now sadly does not explode on impact a severe set back from Quake I and while the grenades often become satisfying with the tighter areas of level design Quake II offers they are not the most satisfactory. As I get to the toned down rocket launcher of Quake II  you may wonder why I even enjoy its weapon set and its because so far the balancing changes create for a more, if less chaotic, enemy encounter than the first game and I feel that flow is ultimately more satisfying in its accomplished pace and compromise. The rain gun however is a new and incredibly precise and powerful weapon. Used even more than my rocket launcher it feels like the rapid precise and powerful weapon a fast game like Quake II has been dying for. Its fits the game and encounters well and is a joy to use. The hyper blaster essentially is the plasma rifle from DOOM and is a poor replacement for the nail gun in Quake I. The BFG 10k. Now a id Software brand item the BFG is as insanely satisfying. The BFG 10k excels at its purpose which is last minute critical crowd control. 

       I go into such depth on Quake II's weapon set cause it really is the meat of the game play sandwich and where most of the joy of playing the game stems from. Quake II is a harmonious symphony of butchering your enemies in elegant yet enjoyable ways that tantalize the player in a manner the FPS genre was made to do. Id Software at the end of 1997 was not concerned with watering itself down with the times as much as embracing itself and its brand of violence as part of the times. The Strogg of Quake II present a satisfying, and by this point in history ('97), very id Software brand of horror and game design fun. The Strogg are human and cybernetic monstrosities controlled to destroy humans. Using the parts of your fallen comrades in machines and literal meat grinders, the Strogg are gruesome and fit the id Software tropes. The strogg also fall into the id Software design mold mostly set by Quake I and DOOM II before it.  Though the enemy set while enjoyable and cool is one of the less satisfying elements of Quake II over time.

                                     The enemies of Quake II really hone in on the strengths of the FPS encounter that has been established in the genre across multiple studios. Some enemies fly and suppress, some charge, some tank, some heal or shield yet all are made to be blow to bits by certain weapons belonging to a specific category or in Quake II's example a specific weapon itself. While DOOM II, DUKE,  or even Turok had enemies with particular weaknesses, Quake II centers itself around a rock, paper and scissors game play mentality between enemies and weapons in the game. Quake II's combat loop is not only rewarding but satisfying in the sense a rhyme game or timed thing would be. 2+2 always equals 4 in Quake II and you can always stitch together these different combat rhymes for an extended good time in the game. Moments of this kind of satisfactory height and fulfillment in power fantasy aren't rare while not being all too common. If anything Quake II's biggest fault is that the game is almost too well paced. The ramp up of combat and intensity is present but it lacks the ability to just adjust you quickly to chaos as Blood did or to learn a complicated yet rewarding system as DOOM II. Quake II takes it's time giving the player the full arsenal and presenting them with a full set of enemies, this was so egregious that found the pacing to be borderline boring at first especially in comparison with what I expect from id Software and Quake. When Quake II gets it's legs and speed about it, Quake II soon joins id Software's other efforts in terms of carnage though I miss the funneled rapid chaos of the first game the more tempered approach of the sequel was more satisfactory long term when realizing how cohesive the overall game felt instead of being divided into individual levels. Quake II takes a note from id Software's kin Raven Software. Like Hexen II, Quake II using id Tech 2.0+ has a conjoined over world. Each level and area is joined by the player physically traversing the area even if through gated load screens. Some areas of Quake II are only joined in more or less cinematic form yet much of the game is physically joined in a very impressive manner. Quake II's level design while never reaching the lows of the worst parts of DOOM II or Quake I, rarely hit the heights of Quake I. Quake II instead focuses on presenting a stage and grounding the player though the new geometry density can be hard to navigate and the speed run  race feeling of levels all but eliminated. I can't help but feel a little tired of the setting as well. While traversing across the planet Strogg the environments largely look the same and grow a bit samey despite the luster of id Tech 2. 5.

         Overall I found Quake II to be a huge departure in feeling from previous FPS games because of its more linear and constricted approach to what are still very much Quake levels. Because of Quake II's updated objectives, connected levels and item collection borrowed from the likes of Hertic and Hexen the shooter aspects feel more grounded in this set stage. Quake II feels like a proper adventure you'd find in a Hollywood war movie and I think that is what id Software was going for. The design choices and changes in Quake II are not just from the id Tech 2.5 engine. The new weapon placement on screen, conjoined level design, slower paced enemy encounters and player speed all are deliberate in taking the player on a top notch action adventure FPS video game. This set stage along with an near perfect weapons set makes for not just a super fun and visceral game like id Software is known for but also for immersion which I don't think we've seen on this level in the FPS genre ('97). Quake II pulls away from the arcade influence carried in from DOOM II. Its a pretty big change up and I welcome it. For the genre it's huge. I think id Tech 2.5 is the first engine that's had the ability to create and FPS like this with a cohesive story and world. In late 1997 this would have been enough to astound me all while setting a new pipe dream expectation of having a cohesive world to enjoy a start to finish grounded FPS campaign. Quake II isn't just remarkable in being a very polished and extraordinary product on its own right but because of the implications the game and id Tech 2. 5 have for what can be achieved by not just video games but the FPS genre specifically. Shooters may be able to tell more than just an 80's action movie premise after all? Maybe not as despite all this, this is what Quake II does. The implication of it's more safe narrative roots doesn't make it any less ground breaking especially from a company that brought us the demon killing simulator. 

                Quake II as a sequel is a mixed bag and as a FPS game innovative and incredible. While I miss the chaos and fastness of Quake I paired with it's speed run mentality the welcome trade off is having a coherent story, setting and game to play with Quake II. On this blog i criticized the fist game's mixed bag of confused settings and somehow even less coherent story than DOOM II. Quake II may play slower and be more "cinematic"  but Quake II is still a farcry from Golden Eye or being anything other than a product of the id Software DNA. Quake II provides the most satisfactory and engaging while immersive campaign of any shooter on this blog yet including id Software's own best of the bunch. Backed by the best weapon set and balance yet from the studio and Quake II is a FPS genre lover's dream. While there are clear things I'm interested in seeing from the genre presented in narrative with games like Dark Forces II or with platforming level design like Turok or with cinematic movie magic like Golden Eye, Quake II stands alone as the undisputed king of genre relying only on tropes from it's own medium to create an enriching and full FPS experience. 

                       Quake II is incredible and edges its way despite its trade offs as being my favorite game on the blog yet. As cliche as it may be to say id Software struck gold yet again and that is a joy I'm not ashamed of. Id Software is second to none when it comes to honing in the serotonin releasing elements of a genre they themselves crafted. Id Tech 2.5 Engine shows the incredible leaps hardware and software of the late 90's was offering. By the end of 1997 the genre, games and real time rendering had changed and Quake II embodied the best of all these traits. 

                                    

                               

The Force is mostly strong with this one.

 

                 Rare's freshman installment in the FPS genre brought Bond to life in video games, showing just how far modern real time rendering technology could go in realizing a beloved world from another medium. Star Wars has already seen not only its introduction to video games but the FPS genre in this blog. With Dark Forces 1 I found the game severely lacking  in presentation and that presentations' ability to give me a proper Star Wars experience. In the years since 1995 however the evolution of not just rendering technology but also FPS game design and 3D art had not been lost on Lucas Arts. With Dark Forces II my inner Star Wars Flame ignited along with my joy of a well designed FPS. 1997 has been by far the most expansive and exciting year for this genre by far and I'm happy to say Lucas Arts' pleasantly surprised and excited me with this FPS. 

                As a fan of Star Wars who can remember the before prequel times of the franchise getting into my 1997 character wasn't hard at all. The franchise had been for over a decade spreading itself across multi media in various forms and spin offs all naturally gravitating in some way around Episodes 4-6. They inherit the visual and audio tone of the original films and both Dark Forces games where no exception. A severe problem I had with the first Dark Forces was Lucas Art's artistic and engine limitations that just made parts of the game hard to navigate and distinguish. Lucas Arts to my pleasant surprise remedies this in the sequel. 1997 has seen video games torn between the new realistic 3D worlds ushered in by Super Mario 64 and Quake. Dark Forces II's new engine would choose the path of the future. The introductory level instantly pleases the type of fan I was at the time and would be for this blog. 

                       The cyber grunge look of Star Wars original films is well in tow with blacks, greys, neon's and all kinds of sparks and yellow lights on buildings stretching miles below or above. Artistically the game carefully recreates Star Wars environments with an impressive amount of real time rendered, textured and lit perspective correct polygons. While its not as impressive as what id Tech 2 has managed in the last year it does the job more than good enough when paired with its beautiful and exciting use of sprites with these polygons. While we've seen some sparks etc as sprites in these high end 3D games as far back as Quake, Dark Forces II uses them liberally as blaster shots and gun blast, explosions p[aired with great animated textures on water and along the walls. The engine takes ques from Build Engine allowing signs to be shot and start sparking or certain things to animate into a destroyed mode though the destruction is far behind Hexen II or even Build Engine games in the past entries of this blog. Lucas Art's new engine and great attention to art really bring Dark Forces II to life in a way the last game in the series just could not even begin to.

                        

  Dark Forces II starts in a very standard cold metal cyber grunge area typical of Star Wars circa '97. The first level introduces you to your high stakes returning character with a live action recorded video along with a very 90's low budget Sith Lord. Its heavy on the cheese but as a fan and gamer I find this awesome. I thoroughly enjoy the introduction FMV and the use of FMVs for cinematic presentation in this game. It's something I haven't seen much on this blog. Instantly Dark Forces II gives you Star Wars content in a familiar way. The rendered game matches up well with the FMV and quickly had me blasting in this well created world. The first level of the game largely sets the context for the pace of the gameplay. It uses the art and technology to show off and immerse you in a Star Wars environment. Largely doing this with art and things off the more linear and segmented path your on. Later the game does some great and innovative design choices of pushing you in the direction of progress on these linear paths, sometimes literally pushing you. Dark Forces II's game play pacing is more direct by being linear and slower than most shooters this past year. The FMVs create a very cool extend Star Wars universe story and reward for game progress. The combat is an order of magnitude above the first game in the series in my opinion. All the mentioned positive qualities and attention to detail create a fully established and thought out Star Wars shooter experience. Achieving what the first game didn't in my opinion and that is worth reason for Star Wars to exist as a FPS game and how video games and this particular genre would make for a great new Star Wars experience unique unto itself,Dark Forces II is that game and I found it very exciting for that reason. It's not as extreme in its hyper focus as say Golden Eye this year ('97) has been but it is more akin to Turok or Shadow Warrior in showing you things and presenting areas with plenty of dressing. 

        While Star Wars in its current ('97) state has a more limited known arsenal that requires some imagination for a full FPS game arsenal Lucas Arts did not disappoint again. The two base blasters you get early on had me worried at first. One with a more accurate slower fire and one with a fast rapid less accurate fire had simple variations on the same weapon, a long range equivalent of DOOM or Quake's shotgun vs Super/Double Barrel Shotgun in effective use difference. The cross bow allowed a more powerful albeit slower shot and the grenades make an effective comeback. Dark Forces II's slower pace means the fun 3D bunny hopping not just in id's games but also game like Turok makes the guns a bit of a drag still and only serviceable because out of minimal fun and franchise fan service.I do not wish to sound like I do not appreciate or in this case think franchise fan service in game design is not a good practice or a reason for something existing in game design. I think Dark Forces II and Golden Eye 007 prove that  these games have every right to exist if nothing else as a smart and functional way to experience the fantasy of one of these franchises.

The experience mentioned is hard and almost never pulled off without an established franchise and few counter examples exist in this blog. The nuance of all this comes back into game play as a great example of what I'm talking about with Dark Forces II's implementation of the light saber. Drenched in lore you obtain a light saber with expected combat qualities. Lucas Arts was smart to essentially treat it as a gun in the fact the user just has to fire it. It auto blocks and reflects shots with I'm guessing some kind of hit scan solution and then you slice and dice through enemies and environments alike with the fire button. Also in the 90's my favorite light saber color was green and depending on the day still is so bonus points for that Lucas Arts. All this immersion and Star Wars fantasy fun is sometimes brought to a haul by what I would consider less than what I've come to expect in quality level design ('97). The highs of Dark Forces II's level design such as many well placed secrets and secret areas, intelligent if forced ways of moving the player along an area only to have them be able to loop back around after making it out of a forced path like often used water currents will do. paths are not always intuitive however and the attempt at more id Software style "got ya" moments usually fell short for me. 

          The complete package of Dark Forces II is one that excited me and I'm extremely glad was part of this blog. I find it so important in a year ('97) already stacked with important games in the genre. After Rare set the standard for how a first person shooter could immerse and create a video game foreign franchise Star Wars in my opinion has a great redemption story for me. Playing Dark Forces II has also reminded me of the biggest take away so far of 1997 and that is of the variety of experiences the FPS genre can now provide ('97). Star Wars Jedi Knight Dark Forces II is a fantastic Star Wars experience and a good FPS experience, a game franchise now that really shows the growth marks of a genre.