What are the Quake mission packs and are they worth getting?

[Dweller Dark]

I've heard some things about the Quake 1 & 2 mission packs, but I don't really know if they're worth getting or how they affect the "story" of the Quake games. I think I might be able to get some more games soon, and I've looked at the mission packs but I have no real opinion on them as I haven't played them at all or know much about them beyond their existence.

[Murdoch]

Lol story? Overthinking a bit there but they are fine. Little of significance happens.

 

Quake

 

Scourge of armagon: worth it for the soundtrack alone.

Dissolution of eternity: not as good but decent enough for the time. More new weapon and enemies i think from memory. 

 

Quake 2

 

The reckoning: decent but not especially memorable.

Ground zero: mixed bag. Levels are solid and more new enemies and weapons. Dickish gameplay though. New grunt with the laser weapon is a pain in the ass and i am not a vindictive person but i sincerely hope whoever created the turrets spends eternity in the tenth level of hell strung up while demons poke them with sharpened sticks.

[printz]

I hated the soundtrack of the Quake 1 mission packs. It was too repetitive and none as original as NIИ's. Also both mission packs have practically the same music style. The video game CD music age was really dorky because it was limited by the soundtrack space, so in practice you had very little music, repeated ad nauseam throughout the whole game. I just turned it off and went happy to just listen to the ambient noise, which is great in itself.

 

Gameplay-wise, if you liked Quake, you will love its mission packs. They're both superior in level design, with more variety and challenge. They also feel complete, unlike original Quake which felt like it was missing content in the later game. I find both packs equally great. Scourge of Armagon has more new stuff to show off, while Dissolution of Eternity is more organic and evil.

[Gez]

If you get any game from the Quake series on GOG, it comes with its full set of official expansions and CD images of the complete soundtracks:

• https://www.gog.com/game/quake_the_offering
• https://www.gog.com/game/quake_ii_quad_damage

It's pretty cheap, too, and if you want cheaper you can wait for the Spring sales.

 

The maps themselves are obviously not up to the level of quality of something like Arcane Dimensions, but they're still pretty good.

[Spie812]

They're exactly what you'd expect from an expansion pack for Quake. Some new levels, some new weapons, some new enemies, etc. I played through Scourge of Armagon just the other day, actually, and I thought it was pretty great. There were a few more vores around than I would have liked, but the levels were otherwise fantastic. The new enemies and weapons add a neat bit of variety. They are definitely well worth checking out.

[Dweller Dark]

I've heard they work with Quake 1 & 2 sourceports, but which ones?

[Gothic]

For Quake 1, my choice of port is Quakespasm Spiked. For 2 I use Yamagi Quake 2.

[Dweller Dark]

7 minutes ago, Gothic said:

For Quake 1, my choice of port is Quakespasm Spiked. For 2 I use Yamagi Quake 2.

 

I use Mark V for Quake 1 and Yamagi for Quake 2, are those compatible with the mission packs for each?

[Doom-X-Machina]

7 hours ago, Murdoch said:

i am not a vindictive person but i sincerely hope whoever created the turrets spends eternity in the tenth level of hell strung up while demons poke them with sharpened sticks.

That's some poetic shit dude

[Sergeant_Mark_IV]

Scourge of Armagon is amazing and arguably superior to the base game.
gnore that stupid "fight" with Shub-Niggurath, THIS is how the game should have ended. This episode should had been included to the base game nowadays and serve as the real ending.
Dissolution of Eternity is bland and boring. Avoid it.

[Dweller Dark]

2 minutes ago, Sergeant_Mark_IV said:

Scourge of Armagon is amazing and arguably superior to the base game.
Dissolution of Eternity is bland and boring. Avoid it.

 

So, Armagon and both Quake 2 packs then?

[Sergeant_Mark_IV]

3 minutes ago, DavetheDoomguy said:

So, Armagon and both Quake 2 packs then?

You should only get Quake 2 packs if you absolutely loved the base game and desperately needs more levels. I don't find them memorable.
But Armagon is a very safe purchase. Follow Gez advice and get the full pack on GOG.

[Gez]

1 hour ago, DavetheDoomguy said:

I use Mark V for Quake 1 and Yamagi for Quake 2, are those compatible with the mission packs for each?

All Quake ports should be compatible with all official expansion packs for their game.

[Dweller Dark]

4 minutes ago, Gez said:

All Quake ports should be compatible with all official expansion packs for their game.

 

How do you get the ports set up with the expansions?

[Rudolph]

They are all good and worth playing at least once. I do not remember having an issue with Ground Zero's Turrets, as I generally find all of Quake II to be rather easy even on the hardest setting, but I do recall being disappointed with the ETF Rifle, as it is basically just Quake 1's Nailgun, only not as useful. 

[Gez]

50 minutes ago, DavetheDoomguy said:

 

How do you get the ports set up with the expansions?

Launch the port with the -hipnotic command line parameter for Scourge of Armagon, or -rogue for Dissolution of Eternity. For Quake II, it's -xatrix for The Reckoning and -rogue for Ground Zero.

 

On most ports you should also be able to just launch the game directly as normal, and then open the console and type "game hipnotic", "game rogue", "game xatrix" as appropriate to load the relevant pack and switch to it. Technically you can play Quake, the SOA, then DOE in one sitting without having to close the port between each pack.

[cambreaKer]

the expansions are kind of little sequels to quake 1. you should absolutely get both Scourge of Armagon and Dissolution of Eternity, they're both great in their own way.

[Master O]

14 hours ago, Murdoch said:

Lol story? Overthinking a bit there but they are fine. Little of significance happens.

 

Quake

 

Scourge of armagon: worth it for the soundtrack alone.

Dissolution of eternity: not as good but decent enough for the time. More new weapon and enemies i think from memory. 

 

Quake 2

 

The reckoning: decent but not especially memorable.

Ground zero: mixed bag. Levels are solid and more new enemies and weapons. Dickish gameplay though. New grunt with the laser weapon is a pain in the ass and i am not a vindictive person but i sincerely hope whoever created the turrets spends eternity in the tenth level of hell strung up while demons poke them with sharpened sticks.

 

Oh god, those freakin turrets!

 

@DavetheDoomguy https://github.com/dosbox-staging/dosbox-staging/wiki/Sourceport-Links-for-Classic-DOS-First-Person-Shooters   Use Quakespasm for Q1 and Yamagi Quake 2 for Q2.

 

Edited January 30, 2021 by Master O

[[McD] James]

I enjoyed both the Quake 1 mission packs, even though they're not on par with a lot of the stuff on Quaddicted, and the only thing about them that really stands out in my mind is the dragon you have to fight in Dissolution of Eternity.

 

I've played through The Reckoning and thought it was just okay. Doubt I'll ever bother with Ground Zero.

[Dweller Dark]

I managed to get Scourge of Armagon and got that working with Quakespasm, thank you guys for helping me out with that. Though, is it recommended to play Blood via BuildGDX or the Kex Engine?

[Gez]

While most of the problems have been ironed out in Fresh Supply, there still remain enough issues that people would generally recommend using BloodGDX, NBlood, or Raze instead.

[D4NUK1]

Fresh Supply works good if you want a out of box experence.

[Dweller Dark]

45 minutes ago, Gez said:

While most of the problems have been ironed out in Fresh Supply, there still remain enough issues that people would generally recommend using BloodGDX, NBlood, or Raze instead.

 

Is BloodGDX part of BuildGDX currently or it's own separate thing? If it's the former, I'll probably use that since it consolidates 3 of my games into one port.

[xvertigox]

My view is that official expansions for retro games are always worth getting, regardless of quality. Mods released in a games heyday have special significance IMO.

 

@DavetheDoomguy If you're looking to consolidate ports check out Raze.

[Dweller Dark]

16 minutes ago, xvertigox said:

My view is that official expansions for retro games are always worth getting, regardless of quality. Mods released in a games heyday have special significance IMO.

 

@DavetheDoomguy If you're looking to consolidate ports check out Raze.

 

Is Raze functional for Duke, Shadow Warrior, and Blood right now? 

[xvertigox]

Just now, DavetheDoomguy said:

 

Is Raze functional for Duke, Shadow Warrior, and Blood right now? 

 

Sure is, I've played all 3.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[boris]

The weapons in Dissolution of Eternity always felt more like baby's first steps in QuakeC than something professional. The Paint quality modified textures for them don't really help.

[ReaperAA]

Quake 1's expansions are definitely worth getting, especially Scourge of Armagon (which I enjoy more than the base game). Dissolution of Eternity, while not better than the 1st expansion, is still solid.

 

Quake 2's expansions are a mixed bad in my opinion. The Reckoning is okay but not very memorable. Ground Zero has some really neat levels and good aesthetics but is bogged down by obtuse progression and some really annoying enemies.

[CorianderCastor]

At least Rogue was kind enough to give you hidden power shields before boss battles.

 

Hypnotic (Ritual) had developers from Wraith Corp. SoA is pretty cool. Laser gun is rather nice too.

[Murdoch]

On 1/30/2021 at 10:47 PM, printz said:

It was too repetitive and none as original as NIИ's.

 

 

I found that while the original soundtrack certainly suits the game, apart from the theme that plays with the first demo when you load the game, the soundtrack was bland and uninteresting on it's own. It needed the game to go with it to make it work. Put the two together, perfect. But would I listen to the soundtrack on it's own? Apart from the theme, hell no. The SOA tracks on the other hand all sound very structurally different to me (to a point, there's a common composer there clearly) and sound like actual songs. The original just doesn't do it for me. It just sounds like a bunch of orchestrated noise. But hey that's cool, everyone is different.