It's really just Doom with a different paint job, but that's not a bad thing.
I'm going to keep the meat of the review fairly short, I'm assuming there aren't many people who don't know what a quake game is about. You kill stuff, move to next room, repeat. Good times. But playing the game did take me back to a better age of gaming, so let's talk about that.
First, before I say anything else, how about that ending huh? Wow...I don't even know what to say about it really, other than it was colossally disappointing. I mean jeeze, all that hard work for a 2 minute cutscene and THE END in giant block letters? Good lord that's bad. Like...Hollywood bad.
Then again, only a fool would pick up an ID software gaming looking for engrossing story. Sure, the ending is godawful, and the storyline is thin at best, but everything in between is just great.
I am somewhat sad that I never got to play Quake 2 on the pc back in the days when it was first released, I can only imagine the way it must've felt when it was cutting edge, but the game's engine has actually aged rather gracefully, fine wine that it is at this point. It is at it's heart just doom in a different engine, but some great things made their first appearances here, such as the levels being connected areas separated only by brief load times, mission based gameplay, reactive AI. Sure, it all seems rudimentary now, but 10 years ago it was likely amazing.
And it's worth mentioning that it seems rudimentary now because a lot has been built off of it. Half life for instance.
Overall, the game is still great, probably still the best in the series, if not one of the better first person shooters of all time, and now that it's on steam there's really no reason not to play it if you haven't already and you like a good old meaty action flick shooter every now and then.