Install the Ultimate Quake II Patch to restore the Sonic Mayhem soundtrack.

As for the gameplay, it's alright for a 90s PC expansion made by a different developer. The new weapons are a lot of fun to use, but the last few stages can become really tedious having to wittle away at numerous beta class gladiators around every corner that have energy shields and beefed up health. It's not a problem if you're speedrunning, I guess, but in my opinion they tend to slow normal gameplay down because there are so many of these punching bags to go through near the end of the game; not hard, but somewhat boring. The standard Strogg guards are now equipped with hyperblasters, ion rippers, and Warhammer 40K style red laser flashlights that are suprisingly accurate and damaging, unlike the 40K Imperial Guardsman's lasgun. The railgun or rocket launcher makes quick work of them at long range when you get it, though.

TL;DR 7/10, it's alright, worth playing at least once

Let's get down to the Nitty Gritty. Quake 2 is, if you've read my other review, my favorite first person shooter of all time. So naturally Xatrix's "follow up" to Quake 2 had a lot to live up to. Did it deliver? Well mostly yeah.

Don't get me wrong though, this is in no way better than the base game. In fact there are many issues that makes this expansion frustrating to play through.

Firstly though, the Units in this expansion are not set up the same way as the base game. In the base game every Unit acted as a central hub with branching levels that you complete to change the hub. (Example is the Power Plant from the base game) this expansion does not do that same structure though. Once you leave an area you are most likely not going to return. As a massive fan of the way Units were handled in the base game this disappointed me. There are moments where the game does this (Unit 3 mostly retains the original style) however most of the time it is linear progression. Don't get me wrong, you can still go back to prior levels, but there is no ingame incentive to do so.

The levels overall are okay. I found that visually this expansion was much more boring than the base game. In the base game you had caves, a blue tinted security complex, a power plant, and a fancy city (The Palace). All of those look visually different. However here it is mostly the same naturalistic brown and green textures that you start the game with. Although I will say that Unit 4 and Unit 5 are vastly better visually. One thing that got under my skin constantly is the doors. Now this sounds like a silly thing to complain about but, the Base game had this signature knack for having different doors for different areas. The palace had a grand red and gold door, the power plant had a powerful neon red door with a silver metallic finish and the warehouse had square caution doors to help move boxes. In this expansion though sometimes it felt that there was not enough variety in the doors throughout. This again got better in Unit 4 and Unit 5 but for the first four Units you have visually similar doors that feel off model when opening them. Again this sounds dumb, but it's one small issue that helps show the overlaying issue with the expansion's level design. There was nothing really wrong with the level designs themselves (except for one major issue I'll get to later.) And the Strogg Freighter level is absolutely fantastic.

The new weapons are fun. The Phalanx Particle Cannon is so satisfying to use (although a bit finicky if you're used to the Rocket Launcher) the Ion Ripper isn't bad either, however I found the bounceback features of the projectile to not really come in use do to the bullets seemingly going in random acute directions that do not help you get the upperhand as intended. The Trap is way too rare to find. Throughout my playthrough I found a whopping TWO of them. They are powerful but are too rare to make note of.

Similarly the new power up, Dual Fire Damage, is great. It is the polar opposite of what Quad damage does. Instead of multiplying your damage output it instead doubles your firing rate which makes easy meat out of some of the new enemies.

The new enemies are a mixed bag. Every enemy has it's problems that makes them either a chore to fight or underutilized. The best new enemy is the Gekk, similar to the Mutant in Quake 2 this enemy is a "natural animal" of the Stroggos planet. Its Gibs glow yellow which is a really neat effect. The Laser Guard, which shoots a constant laser that WILL hit you no matter what you do is frustratingly unfair and made me want to just quit the game on multiple occasions. The Repair bot is pointless, I forgot it even was an enemy until I was writing this review. It is similar to the Flyer enemy, except it's black. It's not that they are necessarily bad ideas for enemies, it's the fact that they are placed extremely sloppily in the levels. For example the aforementioned Laser Guard is a literal hitscan enemy whose laser gets you instantly on sight. The bigger issues about this is that the enemy is usually placed in far away ledges or very odd angles (See Unit 4 and Unit 5 for your share of unfair Laser Guards) The Beta Class Gladiator has way too much health for how many of them appear in the game and I found myself desperately running around them as to not waste ammo. Don't get me started on the final boss. It is a lazy recycle that has no lore backing up why it happens. I know Quake is not a very story heavy game. But it's like if Roman from Uncharted 1 suddenly came back in Uncharted 3. It makes no sense and really takes you out of the game. It's not like the boss was much harder anyway, the Beta Class Gladiators are much more difficult than the boss which makes it even that much more pointless.

So, Quake 2's first Official Mission Pack, how is it? It was okay. There are things I loved (The Strogg Freighter level for example) and things I COULD NOT STAND (Laser Guard) I'd say atleast give it a crack to see if you enjoy it. I know others prefer this over Ground Zero, but I still prefer Ground Zero as its levels are more varied visually and it is overall a much more interesting and fair (to me atleast) expansion pack. I'm giving it a very light "Yes".

If you like QUAKE II then you will like this expansion pack. You get your moneys worth with this expansion, it took me about 7 hours to finish! Plus the ending bits were cool and challenging. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoyed QUAKE II.
8/10
(If you can't launch this mission pack you will have to right click on QUAKE II and select properties. Then click Launch Options and type in: "+set game xatrix" (without the " " ). Then launch Quake II and it should launch this expansion.)

The best addition to the best game. I recommend buying and playing.

It's all right. If you loved Quake 2 and lusting for more, definitely go for it. Unlike Quake 2: Zaero and Quake 2: Ground Zero, It doesn't have expansive levels but difficulty level is sane and player isn't insulted with constant sentry turrets. A nice addition, nothing more.

Don't bother to play the ancient version that Steam serves; instead play it via a proper source port like Yamagi Quake II.

https://www.yamagi.org/quake2/

Disclaimer: I am giving this Mission pack a recommend because there is no "meh" button. If I had to give it a score I'd give it a 5/10 because it adds extra content and the price is not that bad.

I never got to play the mission packs as much growing up so each time I do a playthrough of Quake 2 there are still things that I forget when doing the Mission Packs. When comparing The Reckoning with the base game (Quake 2) the design is sub-par. Yeah, the extra levels, different enemies (I do like that the enemies are more challenging), and the extra weapons are enjoyable it just doesn't give me the thrill I get when playing the base game. The level design is pretty repetitive where in the base game there is a bit of variety when progressing through the game that keeps things fresh. I found some of the enemy placements to be too predictable, especially when I don't even remember the mission packs as much I can easily figure out that there is going to be some enemies behind me as soon as I progress to a certain point in the level. It just gets boring a little more than halfway in.

If you loved Quake 2 like I do then I do recommend this The Reckoning Mission Pack purely for the extra content and challenge but it is definitely not a necessity and quite forgettable.

Again, "Meh"

Synopsis:


The Reckoning Is a expansion pack for the 1997 smash hit Quake 2. The expansion adds a couple of new weapons, ranging from the Ion Ripper which bounces projectiles against walls in a similar fashion as Unreal's Razor Jack and then the always fun to use Phalanx Particle Cannon which shoots dual explosive energy orbs which explode on impact and have a small AOE blast.

Most of the stock enemies had reskins into more powerful variants such as the Gladiator which instead of his normal Rail gun mount, instead now has a triple shot Phalanx Cannon. Another new enemy are the swamp mutants which look like large insectoid primates.

Be warned however if your going to play on Nightmare! difficulty, it definitly will test your skills over the ease of Vanilla Quake 2's nightmare setting. But if your looking for a challenge you have come to the right place.

Overall The Reckoning is a highly enjoyable expansion pack for Quake 2 and if you enjoyed the base game you will definitely have a blast with The Reckoning.

Xatrix Entertainment’s Quake II: The Reckoning is, somehow, a meaner, angrier, redder Quake II, superior in a few significant ways, but with weaknesses that are all its own.

Despite id’s hoopla about wanting to create a more story-driven series than the original Quake, this first mission pack does little to expand upon the framework established by your first—and triumphant—visit to Stroggos. You’re again part of a strike force that’s decimated before it can set about its work, which here involves infiltrating a Strogg moon base and destroying it—the Strogg being a race of biomechanical monstrosities hellbent on war or the creations of that nasty Sid kid from Toy Story, depending on how you feel about the ugly designs.

I think it starts off well. You land on Stroggos itself, but in the wilderness that surrounds the facility you’re meant to penetrate. Given the extensively industrial nature of the planet, the Strogg’s influence on the land and its occupants has proven a profoundly negative one, polluting all it touches.

We got a brief glimpse of such mutant creatures in Quake II, but here we’re quickly introduced to the Gekk, a bio luminescent pack of semi-intelligent beasts lurking in the swamps that line the Strogg encampments. They’re the first thing to come at you, with the Strogg blasting at you from behind the safety of a laser grid.

It’s pretty fun, setting the scene nicely.

The structure of the game involves digging farther and farther into Strogg territory, with some twisting paths and dynamic objectives that cleverly utilize previous environments without feeling like you’re doing too much in the way of back-tracking.

The lack of a map still presents issues with navigation, though, and too much of your progression relies on poorly relayed goals and sometimes incomprehensible environmental details. It is both sloppy and clunky in this regard, which is sadly a feature of Quake II’s general design.

The combat survives relatively intact, only it’s now much, much harder (or perhaps I inexplicably got worse between play-throughs?). I often struggled to conserve ammo and was regularly low on health, forced to scour each level as thoroughly as possible in the desperate hope of surviving the next encounter. There’s some really bruising moments here, especially when you encounter beefed-up versions of the original enemies coated in shielding.

There’s probably too many such “beefed-up” variants of original enemies and not enough in the way of “new”. The additional weapons are a bit of a mixed bag, which sees the inclusion of a second plasma rifle, another explosives launcher, and, the worst of the lot, a ‘trap’. When deployed the trap will suck enemies into its orbit, obliterating them—and you if you’re not careful. I like the idea behind it, but it’s just so haphazard to use as to be almost pointless. Too powerful for smaller enemies, too weak for bigger ones.

But as far as expansions go, you could do worse than The Reckoning. It’s relatively lengthy and succeeds in being less repetitive than Quake II, with a generally stronger mission structure to hold it all together. It does hinge on you wanting more of Quake II, though, and that, well...at £2.49, I say why not, but I was a bit exhausted by the end of it. I suppose you could just not play them back-to-back like I did?

Love all the Quake series,just getting back into PC gaming at the age of 51.

- Nothing special
- Even the boss is same as original

Verdict: Forgettable