Below are user reviews of Quake 2 and on the right are links to professionally written reviews.
The summary of review scores shows the distribution of scores given by the professional reviewers for Quake 2.
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    User Reviews (1 - 11 of 51)
    
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            Still QUAKEing after all these years
            
                4
                Rating: 4, 
                Useful: 10 / 13
                Date: April 09, 2004
                Author: Amazon User
            
            Although it's been out and about for nearly five years now, I've yet to encounter a 3D first-person shooter game that's quite as fun to play as Quake II. Whenever I get the urge to cut down hordes of fugly cybernetic aliens, I throw some mood music into my CD-ROM player (my personal recs: MegaDeth's "Countdown to Extinction" album, ICP's "Riddle Box", and just about anything by White Zombie / Rob Zombie), select my settings, and fire this bad-boy up! Pretty soon I'm cuttin` the bad guys down left `n' right with every bit of ordnance I can muster! Sure I take a few hits here `n' there, and even get killed at least twice on each level when playin' the "medium" difficulty setting. But thanks to my using the "Save Game" option every twenty paces, I can get the massacre goin' again and hardly miss a beat! And with the help of the drop-down status display (press F1 to raise and lower this feature), I'm kept up to speed on how many enemies I've killed on a particular level as well as the number remaining, how many of the goals I've accomplished for that level, and the number of swag-filled secret areas I've uncovered. Fair warning, though: be sure the coast is clear before you use this feature, as enemies will take advantage of your "downtime" by tryin' to kill ya dead!
Speakin' of secret areas, levels, and such: while I stumbled upon quite a few hidden things by accident the first time `round thanks to an occasional stray shot, I decided to cheat a bit to find the ones I'd missed before by checking out a few resources on the internet, including www.gamewinners.com/DOSWIN/blquake2.htm. This particular site also lets ya in on such cheat codes as unlimited ammo, invincibility, and enhanced armor. Er, not that I need to use such codes to totally kick @$$, of course...
But despite the carnage o' fun I've had playin' Quake II iover the last few years, there are a few downsides that bum me out a little. While I'm not too hip on not being able to hold onto more than two of each kind of power-up item (e.g. Quad Damage, Invincibility, Environmental Suit) on the "medium" difficulty setting, I gotta admit it does give me an incentive to use the power-ups I have more wisely. I'd also have preferred the enemy combatants not be quite as predictable in their movements and reactions to my presence, as I've gotten a bit too good at ducking and/or otherwise eluding the shots they fire at me. Another downside to Quake II is that I become nauseous when I play it for long stretches! You know you're a mess when you need to pop a couple Dramamine before you play a freakin' computer game...
Anyhoo, I don't know why some yahoos say that video games like this will make the people who play `em actually go out and massacre every livin' thing they see. Heck, I've been playin' this bad-boy ever since it came out, and I've never developed any such urges whatsoever...
 SATAN, THY DARK LORD AND MASTER, COMMANDS THEE TO KILL, KILL, KILL
Whoops-- time for me to take the "happy pills" the nice orderly  just handed me...
`Late
        
            
Still the standard-bearer of the gaming realm
            
                5
                Rating: 5, 
                Useful: 7 / 8
                Date: March 14, 2004
                Author: Amazon User
            
            Quake 2 is much more than a game; it's a gaming phenomenon.  This game set the standards and provided the very engine of hordes of first-person shooters (as well as less kill-or-be-killed oriented games) that followed in its wake.  It took online gaming to new heights with its plethora of multiplayer options.  Gamers the world over designed their own maps and created their own online worlds in which to raise havoc against the Strogg hordes as well as their best buddies.  Some seven years after its release (in 1997), Quake 2 is still more than capable of brazenly stealing one's entire day, weekend, week, and beyond.  Quake was great fun, mind you, but there you were on defense, trying to defend your planet against these mechanistic aliens who decided that humans would make great raw material for new cyborgs (although some lucky individuals would of course find their ultimate fate in the form of exotic ingredients for certain Strogg gourmet delicacies).  In Quake 2, you take the fight to the Stroggs, by gum; you smear their guts across their own walls; you add a little chaos to the uglified place they call a home planet, and you make those soldiers pay for having dared attack Earth; before you're done you bring Makron himself, the biggest and baddest Strogg of them all, to his knees before terminating him with extreme prejudice.
Those Strogg are wily, though.  Oh, we all thought it was a good idea to secretly follow the brutes back to Stroggos through their black hole-generated gateway; they'll never see us coming, we said, and we'll be on them like white on rice before they even have time to blink a bio-mechanical eye.  We were wrong.  The Stroggs took out a majority of our pods before the invasion even got started, but you made it to the planet's surface - albeit way off target.  You'll have a little help from HQ in terms of your missions, but it's pretty much up to you alone to somehow infiltrate and destroy the enemy.  You'll see stuff here you never saw in Quake - new monsters, much smarter enemies (the Stroggs actually learned how to duck), more puzzles (albeit of the find button and push it variety), and - best of all - more carnage.  When you get one of these guys down, you'd better make sure he's dead; a guy with no legs can still shoot a gun.  
Some of these infernal puzzles can be frustrating at times, but just about any player can play this entire game in single-player mode and come out victorious (given enough time and saved games); then, once you start thinking you're all big and bad, you can play at a higher difficulty level.  You'd better be good before challenging your friends to some multi-player mayhem; when you're ready to go online, though, you'll find countless multi-player options at your disposal.  The world's pretty much your oyster when it comes to multi-player options, ensuring that Quake 2 will be played and played some more for a long time to come.
        
            
You must play this game!
            
                5
                Rating: 5, 
                Useful: 6 / 7
                Date: December 12, 1999
                Author: Amazon User
            
            This is the quintessential first-person shooter.  There are vary few people that can honestly say they haven't enjoyed this game.  With a 3D card, the game goes into a new level.  The multiplayer is the best you can  find.
        
            
A very good first-person shooter
            
                4
                Rating: 4, 
                Useful: 4 / 4
                Date: May 26, 2000
                Author: Amazon User
            
            I love first-person shooters, but recently I've had a few disappointments.  The "Wheel of Time," for example, needs some well muscled computer hardware to run decently, and my computer is just too wimpy.   Also, Wheel of Time features a story with cut scenes that seems to detract  from the game rather than enhance it.
Quake II was no disappointment,  however.  It runs well on my Pentium 266.  Also, it's a good, old-fashioned  shooter that allows the player to blast and blow up one's enemies in a way  that's almost artistic.  The enemies are powerful but conquerable, and the  levels are interesting with pretty fair graphics.
To sum, Quake II is a  very good game that deserves it popularity.
        
            
The best game ever, but uses every ounce of your computer.
            
                5
                Rating: 5, 
                Useful: 5 / 7
                Date: January 01, 2000
                Author: Amazon User
            
            I've been playing this game now for 18 months, and it is the best.  The 3D graphics engine is incredible.  It is expandable.  I use the Capture The Flag version that I downloaded.
Note: This game is for emotionally stable people.  If a nutcase plays this game, look out.  It is very lifelike and  you can see the guts on the floor, so its not for children.
You better  have a good computer, though.  For good output, you need a video card like  the 3Dfx Voodoo3 2000, and a P-MMX 300 w/ 64 MB of ram.  For perfect  output, with no gitteryness, you need a PIII600, 3Dfx Voodoo3 3000, 256-MB  of ram, and with ANY multiplayer game, the better your connection, the  better.  56k is starting not to cut it anymore.  Oh, and the sound card  doesnt really matter, as long as you have one.  Just know this before you  purchase this, because this game might seem bad if you use it on the wrong  computer.
Overall - The best game if your computer can handle it.
        
            
Classic
            
                5
                Rating: 5, 
                Useful: 2 / 2
                Date: July 30, 2003
                Author: Amazon User
            
            A great game in its time and a true classic today. It's THE game to have for cyborg killing, big weapon shooting, ultra macho, adrenaline pumping, super violent action. Great for single player and multiplayer fans alike. No FPS library is complete without this game.
        
            
W          O            W
            
                5
                Rating: 5, 
                Useful: 2 / 2
                Date: January 07, 2000
                Author: Amazon User
            
            This game is increadably fun. I find my dad playing it. My mom even likes to watch me play it! (despite her hate for "splatter games".)   i have spent hours and hours playing this ever since i got it. nothing  compares. this game is an idle for all those other crappy clones of this.  let me put it this way: the day i got this game, my grades have dropped  atleast 1 or 2 grades because of it. its all worth it trust me. its also  funny when 2 guys are shooting at you and one of the guys bullets hits the  other guy and they start killing each other its way cool and i have seen  battles taken place by the enemies. the AI is great and the guns in this  game are way cool. I WONT EVEN START ON MULTIPLAYER!  it is so fun  that u just have to giggle to yourself. when my friends come over for  sleepovers we stay up all night playing this game on the internet. it  supports 32 players per game and.......wow!  buy this game!  but i warn  you, your grades will drop!  :)
        
            
Excellent game, even surpasses Quake3 Arena on some fronts
            
                4
                Rating: 4, 
                Useful: 2 / 2
                Date: April 17, 2000
                Author: Amazon User
            
            What can I say but, wow.  First off, for all you potential buyers worried about your specs, don't.  I'm running a pentium 166 MHZ MMX with 128M of ram, and while it clips somewhat at higher resolutions, this game still  runs smoothly and efficiently.
And as for the game itself, a true marvel.   The single player cops (and improves on) the Hexen idea of doing away with  the "gets-old-fast" linear function of kill monsters, find key,  open door, move to next level.  And as for creepiness?  Definitely not in  as high supply as in the original, where the music alone had you ever on  the lookout for a fiend jumping out of a window ready to lob your head off.   But who can't feel when you enter the processing plant, and walk past the  machinery where your comrades are being dropped into the bio-vats, and you  hear there screams, just a little sickened, and a renewed rage to complete  the game and bring down the Makron?  The weapons are standard fare, my  personal favorite being the return of the BFG (I thought sadly missing from  the original Quake).  And kudos to iD for softening the power of the  rockets.  It infinitely increases the fairness of deathmatch, knowing that  you aren't at the ultimate mercy of some highly trained eye w/a weapon that  will always kill you from 100 health with 1 shot dead on.  And as for  deathmatch improvements over the last quake, superb... definitely more  evenly matched and more interesting (especially with actual weapon models  now, as opposed to just 1 weapon model and the axe in the original)
My  only complaint is that certain enemies have (on rare occasions)  malfunctioned, they stop going after the player and just run in place, or  back and forth, and even shooting them doesn't get them after you  again....but as I said, this happens once in a blue moon, so not a real  detractor.  And they DO have a much more evolved AI.  In some levels,  they're even set to run away from you at first and lay ambush at a later  spot, in the sneakiest of ways.  And as for excelling over Quake 3 arena,  the mission based style, while minorly cliched (the "Save the human  race from the horrifyingly cruel aliens" routine), is far better than  some boring slugfest with a bunch of bots, which is all Quake 3 provides,  showing that id has extended its middle finger to single player gamers and  given multiplayer fanatics all the cards.  Shameful.
Even so, Quake 2 is  worth the money, and great for all those who don't have a system to meet  Quake 3's EXCESSIVELY demanding requirements
        
            
fun..for about 20 min
            
                3
                Rating: 3, 
                Useful: 3 / 5
                Date: May 29, 2002
                Author: Amazon User
            
            I liked this game a lot but the only drawback was tha i have windows xp and w/ windows xp the graphics really [were bad]. It totally took away from the gameplay. If you're looking for a really good shooter go try Ghost Recon. but otherwise quake 2 is pretty good for the money. Be warned xp users their is a fluke in this games graphics for xp. It worked better on my friends 98 than on my xp so something is up. If anyone knows how to fix this graphics problem please write it into a review
        
            
Is Q2 really a sequell?
            
                5
                Rating: 5, 
                Useful: 3 / 5
                Date: June 10, 2005
                Author: Amazon User
            
            QUAKE 2 ROCKS!!!!! It really has nothing to do with Quake 1, so I don't know how it's a sequal. The whole objective thing is a lot more fun than "kill anything that moves". 
If you are really squemish when you see guts fly, you still could probably get this, as the gibs don't compare to Quake 3 Arena
I will now assault your mind...
!!!EMAG SIHT YUB  TI EVOL LLIW UOY  !!YUB YUB YUB!!
        
        
       
    
    
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