Quake II/Gameplay

Installing and Running Quake II
(Content needed here, but low priority).

Quake II starts with a splash screen of the "id" logo being imprinted on a rusty steel plate accompanied by loud thudding sounds. This is followed by two game demonstration sequences that alternate and loop endlessly. The first is in the Installation and the second is in Pumping Station 1. Both are being played at "hard" difficulty (see below), apparently without a mouse and also without enough skill to stay alive for very long.

Press any key on the computer keyboard or click any mouse button to bring up the main game menu. Navigate the menu with the "up" and "down" arrow keys on the keyboard or numerical keypad and press "Enter" to select one of the five options.

Patching the Game
If you installed Quake II from an original CD-ROM, you should apply a patch to update it to version 3.20. To find the version of the game that you are running, bring down the console and type "version". The name of the patch file is q2-3.20-x86-full.exe, its size is 13,842,432 bytes and its MD5 hash is c5a1c2878c2e88fa576b7afb26b411e4. Web sites that host this file come and go, so use a search engine to locate a current one in your geographical area.



Starting a New Game
To start a new game, bring up the main menu (for example, hit the Esc key) and use the up and down arrow keys to select the GAME option. Press the Enter key and use the arrow keys to select the difficulty level from "easy", "medium" and "hard". Press the Enter key again and an introductory cinematic sequence will begin, showing events that lead up to the action of the game. The running time is three minutes and 30 seconds. When it is complete, the first level (Outer Base) will load and the game begins. If you want to skip the cinematic sequence, at any time press a key on the keyboard or click a mouse button.

Difficulty (a.k.a. Skill Level)
In the manual for Quake II, Id Software states that the easy skill is "... for kids and grandmas". "Most people" are encouraged to play at medium skill the first time through the game. Regarding hard skill, the manual implies at one point that it is "nearly unbeatable", but also says "... we think you should [play at this skill] once you're ready". That was 1997. These days, unless you've not played a first person shooter before, you'll probably want to plunge in at hard. This is the difficulty for which the level walkthroughs here are written (unless otherwise noted). To re-play the game, you might want to increase the difficulty by adopting rules such as not using the Quad Damage or Power Shield "powerups", not using Invulnerability in combat, etc.

According to the manual, the skill setting "... adjusts reaction, health, power and number ..." of the Strogg enemies that you will encounter. At higher settings, the enemies will move more quickly against you, be harder to kill, do more damage to you in their attacks and there will be more of them. Don't be put off by this; by today's standards, hard skill level is very approachable, especially if you make sensible use of the powerups.

Starting a Game at the Console
Games can also be started at the console. This is interesting mainly because a fourth difficulty can be set which is more challenging than hard. Press the key that brings down the console (tilde/backtick on US keyboards). Type "skill 3" to set hard+ difficulty (or "skill 0" for easy, "skill 1" for medium, "skill 2" for hard) and press Enter. Then type "map base1" and press Enter. Press the console key to close the console. The first level will load and start (without the introductory cinematic sequence). If you set skill to 3, your field computer will show the difficulty as hard+.

It is not possible to change the difficulty of a game in progress. If you set a skill level at the console, it will not come into effect until you load a level using the "map mapname" command. If you load a saved game, the difficulty will be loaded along with the rest of the game state.

Using the console, you can start a game at a level other than the first (the Outer Base). Use the "map mapname" command with the mapname of the level you want to play. This is given in the table at the top of the Walkthrough page for each level. For example, to play the Borehole level alone or begin a game at that level, type "map mine2". Don't forget to set the difficulty. Note that you will only have the Blaster and no Armor, Ammunition or other items. Depending on what you're trying to do, you may have to use cheats to give yourself additional equipment.

Loading a Saved Game
To load a previously saved game, bring up the main menu (for example, hit the Esc key) and use the up and down arrow keys to select the GAME option. Press the Enter key, use the arrow keys to select the "load" option and hit Enter again. Alternatively, hit the function key bound to loading a game (e.g. F3). You will see a list of available saved games. The top one has been automatically created when you most recently began a level. The remainder are games that you have saved yourself (see below). Choose one using the up and down arrow keys and hit the Enter key. To load the most recently quicksaved game, don't bring up the main menu, just hit the function key bound to quickload (e.g. F9).

Saving a Game
To save the present state of the game, bring up the main menu (for example, hit the Esc key) and use the up and down arrow keys to select the GAME option. Press the Enter key, use the arrow keys to select the "save" option and hit Enter again. Alternatively, hit the function key bound to saving a game (e.g. F2). Choose one of the fourteen saved game locations using the up and down arrow keys and hit the Enter key. If the location was not empty, the previous saved game in that location will be overwritten and lost. The saved game is identified by the time and date at which you performed the save and the name of the level. You cannot change or add to this information. To quicksave the game, don't bring up the main menu, just hit the function key bound to quicksave (e.g. F6).