Quake II: The Reckoning

On Friday afternoon, Activision and Xatrix Entertainment came to the GameSpot News offices to show us the latest build of the first official Quake II expansion pack, The Reckoning.

Reckoning takes place in the same world as Quake II, but you begin your journey outside the compounds in a land of harsh geography. After having your defective pod crash-land, you'll meet the native Gekks, creatures that shoot and continue to ooze poison even after you destroy them. This brings an interesting dynamic to the game since you can lose health by stepping on poisonous body parts.

As you get closer to the more mechanized levels, you discover levels rich in new puzzles and organic textures. Early on, a cave shows off the attention to detail - as you walk through you hear the wind blowing and see the dark and slightly glowing textures above and around you.

Later on, secret areas hide and reveal themselves in new ways, puzzles fill areas, and three new soldier classes help branch out the original Quake II by giving the soldiers a new laser and a blue-colored hyperblaster to ruin your day.

The crew at Xatrix, being die-hard Quake II players, has optimized the new levels by making sure that the levels load quickly as well as by making sure that there is very little slowdown when racing through levels. You can see the enthusiasm as Xatrix's chairman and CEO, Drew Markham, shows off the new levels and his favorite feature: enemies who get mad at one another and blow each other away in front of his eyes.

New weapons are also included in the pack. The Phalanx Cannon sends two quantum accelerated magnesium slugs side-by-side racing at anything set in your sights. The two Phalanx slugs are powerful but balanced by a space between them that makes it possible for you to completely miss an opponent but give it a scare as it hears the shots zing by on both sides of its head.

Deathmatch fans looking for another choice weapon for classic rocket arena action are going to like the Ion Ripper. The Ripper uses the same energy as the hyperblaster but emits a burst that ricochets off walls much like weapons in Forsaken. Nailing enemies in hard-to-get areas can be accomplished by bouncing these shots off opposing walls and into the faces of enemies.

Finally, the Trap can be left in a room and will activate when a creature approaches - it'll tear it into bite-size pieces.

So far, Quake II Mission Pack: The Reckoning looks like it is going to be a great bonus to anyone who owns Quake II. As it develops further, look for additional news from GameSpot and GameSpot News.

This is shaping up to be an add-on made for and by Quake II addicts.