Quake II, PC

id Software’s 1997 release Quake II is as much a quantum leap from the first Quake, as Doom was to everything else around at the time.

Quake II is faster, leaner, and meaner than its predecessor. The dark, Lovecraftian themes have been replaced by a science fiction angle this time, and all the weapons and monsters have been changed too. Very little remains from the original Quake.

This time you’re fighting an alien race called The Strogg by launching a counterattack on their home planet. You play a Marine called Bitterman who is on a mission to find and take out the Strogg leader, The Makron.

What makes Quake II really stand out from the crowd though are the precise gameplay mechanics. Shooting an adversary with a Railgun from a distance is still a revelation. Quake II was also one of the first games to make multiplayer deathmatching simple to set up and play, with an easy-to-use client/server setup for local network and online multiplayer games.

Quake 4, which came out in 2005, is a direct sequel to this game.