Gameplay questions

[thenodger]

I have some questions about the gameplay of Quake 2 enhanced. I play on Nightmare and have beaten the main campaign and The Reckoning without using mid level saves.

- Parasite attack being practically unavoidable, even at long ranges, because it shoots out so fast without a telegraphy, and can track your movement perfectly. Is this normal (I play at 240FPS)?
- Enemies having x-ray vision. Very often I can move out around a corner from a gunner, then a few seconds later move back round that corner to the gunner firing grenades at me, it started the attack before I was visible to it. Is this normal?
- Silent enemies. Whenever the game puts enemies behind me in a gunfight, I practically cannot hear them, no alert sounds when they first see me, and their attack sounds usually just blend in with the rest of the gunfight. Is this normal?
- Sometimes hitscan attacks will hit me despite me circling around the enemy, most common on enforcers, doesnt really happen with gunners. Is this normal?

Thanks in advance, I'm just very confused because when this remaster first came out, there was a steam discussion where loads of people were talking about how this game is so easy and that they deathlessed the entire main campaign on Nightmare first try, but I'm easily surviving most combat encounters, while sometimes my 100hp can drop to 30 in about 2-3 seconds despite me running laterally to all the enemies.

[FixbotWill]

Originally posted by thenodger:

- Parasite attack being practically unavoidable, even at long ranges, because it shoots out so fast without a telegraphy, and can track your movement perfectly.

the Parasite probe attack did indeed change. it's got a much longer range than before, and can target someone at a higher/lower level of elevation (which it really struggled with before). It IS possible to dodge it, but it requires quite careful timing; basically you need to change direction at the correct moment when the probe launches. Either strafe one direction then be ready to change direction, or stand still and be ready to start strafing.
if you can dodge it and the probe hits a wall, the Parasite gets stuck for a moment while it shakes itself free - generally enough time to kill it if you have a decent weapon equipped.

- Enemies having x-ray vision. Very often I can move out around a corner from a gunner, then a few seconds later move back round that corner to the gunner firing grenades at me, it started the attack before I was visible to it. Is this normal?

Gunners gained a suppression fire ability (they could do this in Ground Zero, but the remaster basically adds it to all Gunners). if they lose sight of you, they can fire a few volleys of grenades in the general direction of where they last saw you. If you take cover while fighting a Gunner, it's best to wait behind cover a while until the suppression volleys have stopped - unless you have a different angle from which to attack.

Tanks and Iron Maidens can do the same tactic (Tanks fire a single volley of rockets/blaster, Iron Maidens keep firing a rocket at infrequent intervals)

- Silent enemies. Whenever the game puts enemies behind me in a gunfight, I practically cannot hear them, no alert sounds when they first see me, and their attack sounds usually just blend in with the rest of the gunfight. Is this normal?

Not sure about this one.

- Sometimes hitscan attacks will hit me despite me circling around the enemy, most common on enforcers, doesnt really happen with gunners. Is this normal?

Yes - Strogg machine guns and chainguns generally got a bit of an accuracy boost against strafing players. You can still dodge most of it but you can expect the occasional hit now. The exception is the Super Tank/Beta Class Super Tank whose accuracy got much worse; it used to be deadly accurate at any range, but now it can (mostly) be dodged by strafing.

[Unseen]

On the topic of silent enemies I’m not sure if that’s actually a thing or our minds playing tricks on us. I also have noticed enemies in all kinds of other games being incredibly sneaky when attacking you from behind. I’m not saying they enter stealth mode and start sneaking either. Could just be a perceived thing, or maybe it has to do with general range or awareness. It’s very easy to hear something if you are looking right at it. Many times I’ve suddenly been hit in the back, shot or whatever and never had a clue through sound or otherwise that something was behind me.

[thenodger]

Thanks TombKingsWill, your reply really helps!

Originally posted by TombKingsWill:

Originally posted by thenodger:

- Parasite attack being practically unavoidable, even at long ranges, because it shoots out so fast without a telegraphy, and can track your movement perfectly.

the Parasite probe attack did indeed change. it's got a much longer range than before, and can target someone at a higher/lower level of elevation (which it really struggled with before). It IS possible to dodge it, but it requires quite careful timing; basically you need to change direction at the correct moment when the probe launches. Either strafe one direction then be ready to change direction, or stand still and be ready to start strafing.
if you can dodge it and the probe hits a wall, the Parasite gets stuck for a moment while it shakes itself free - generally enough time to kill it if you have a decent weapon equipped.

This is exactly the strategy I was describing - I practised this 1-on-1 in a larger than average arena in the main campaign's unit 2, and it was usually impossible to react to, the only way I could consistently avoid it was to get in rhythm with it, direction switching at regular intervals, but this would be impossible in a usual fight, and if it breaks rhythm, then I always got hit.

I guess parasites will just have to be a priority target for my rocket launcher!

[FixbotWill]

Cover is still viable against a Parasite; of course it needs line of sight to launch its probe, so you can do peekaboo-style attacks (Railgun is probably the best option). Ducking behind cover once the probe has attached will also cause the attack to cease, so you'd take less damage if it did hit you.