By The PickleBandit
Screenshot captured by User:Ben_2082, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15579986
Quality of Life Improvements Make Nightdive’s 2023 Update Friendly to Older Gamers
In the context of the time it was released, I could see that Quake II must have been a narrative improvement over its predecessors Quake and Doom. Instead of the basic key-and-door flow of progress, the player must complete objectives in a large and coherent world. However, the extra geologic and architectural details are clouded by a sense of uniformity and repetition in storytelling environments that become tedious and confusing after a long foray on Planet Stroggos. Even though 1997 is still a decade away from the brown-everything aesthetic of the mid-2000s, an aging gamer can’t help but get lost on this map of red, grey, and sepia madness.
Thankfully Nightdive Studios included the most useful tool in the game. It’s not a power-up, it’s not a graphic improvement, or FPS boost. It’s a compass. Press the Q key and a circle with your item inventory appears. Along with quad-damages, rebreathers and ammo bandoliers, there is a wonderful green arrow icon. Select the green arrow and a trail of green arrows will indicate the way you need to go for your next objective. For a person like me who has limited time for play sessions, this goes a long way to make the experience less of a chore. Quake II and Nightdive’s wonderful expansion Call of the Machine is still full of Id’s classic “F-you moments” e.g. sudden enemy spawns and death traps. However, the inclusion of the compass as well as save states make this trip back to 1997 better the second time.
-P.B.
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