Quake II's Killer Remake Is Out Now For PC And Console With A Bonus Expansion
"But Zak," you wonder, "why would I play this version when I already have Quake II RTX?" Well, my wondering wards, the answer to that question is "you might not." Just like with the original Quake re-make as well as Night Dive's many other re-releases of classic games (including the first two Turok games, nearly every version of classic Doom, Blood, Powerslave, and many, many others), this is an extremely faithful remake—despite porting the game to an entirely different engine known as KEX after its creator, Samuel "Kaiser" Villareal.
Because it is so faithful, what you're getting here is a very-lightly-enhanced version of the original 1997 title. You won't find garish lens flare or post-processing effects here; Night Dive's work on improving the looks of these old games is done with a careful hand. Characters and weapons have improved geometric and texture detail, but remain extremely faithful to the art and design sensibilities of the original release. Shadows and lighting have been subtly improved, but unless you've played the original recently, you're not likely to notice.
Also, being that Quake II RTX is essentially a hack of the original game's source code, getting multiplayer working in 2023 can be a real pain in the butt if you're not just setting up a LAN game. By contrast, KEX engine supports both local and online multiplayer, including full campaign co-op. It even has cross-play on all supported platforms. Best of all, the Quake II remaster includes the original game files, so you can still load up the 1997 quake2.exe or Quake II RTX afterward if you're curious to see the changes for yourself.
