For the last month and a half i have been investing a lot of time and efforts in the development and testing of this mod. Hexen, perhaps, is my LEGO, but Quake II is my star-crossed game. For years i have been displeased with either its OpenGL renderers or its sound design - and while pondering which one is worse - i could not enjoy the ultra-polished, top notch gameplay, that i knew Quake II had right from the start.
Many years forward, and someone told me: "hey - what you are looking for - is there, and in several iterations, to say the least!". New software renderers, which gave great detail and incredibly vivid, rich with rusted-metal-shades presentation of the game's universe (as opposed to OpenGL's plastic-bag-over-monitor-shtick) - and there was colored lighting too! In software! And way way better looking than any
of those so-called "advanced" ports with so-called"HD" textures. After testing it for 2 minutes - i was already hooked for life. For me it was a direct time-travel back to 1997 - and this time, i had the right tools in my hand, and i knew what my next step should be...
...to cure the other black plague of Quake II - its abhorrent sound design. And so i went into action, working on it daily: envisioning, designing, refining and testing all the new sounds for Quake II, using every imaginable resource i could think of. But i also had a secret ace up my sleeve: every sound i divided into sub-segments.
For example: rocket launcher sound segments - 1)ignition 2)explosion 3)missile flight 4)ammunition feed 5)booster FX - five different micro-parts for one sound, which i would then mix up in a recording software. With this approach i got to some really neat and very powerful effects. 90% of the new SFX are made EXACTLY in this manner.
The mod also provides two alternate music sets - both for Quake II original campaign and Reckoning / Ground Zero mission packs. Quake II set consists of traditional heavy metal and some ambient tracks.
Mission packs use softer sound, hard rock with some atmospheric touches and more ambient tracks. If you have always wondered how Quake II would sound in a full metal blaze of guns and proper oldschool glory - look no further: this interstellar war is already here.
The best part is not even the mod, - it's the ETA: 16.9.2020 That's right - less than a week away!
Sounds are great, music is not in my humble opinion. Will gladly use that part of the mod, so how about a modular release?
No prob, bro. You will be able to download just the sound section,
or the music section - separately, or a single archive with everything. There are almost 20 tracks in 2 sets, you can switch things around if you want. But, yes, - this music was brought with the strong affinity for the traditional heavy metal. Way older than Q2. My favorite :-)
Overall, I really like this sound pack. It sort of reminds me of an old Quake2 soundpack titled "The TronicSound-TC for Quake2 by Tronicmind" (q2tsndfull.zip), but I prefer this sound set. The only sound I really didn't like was the Gunner's hissing alert sound - that sounds more like what I imaging the Parasite monster would sound like.
Thanks! I am glad you are enjoying the heavy metal blast of power :-)
You're right about the potential Parasite sound: i was conflicted if to give it to the Gunner or the Parasite. Gunner won the lottery, cause his original sound was annoying me. However, someday when i upgrade the mod with more sounds (at least partially)-
Parasite will finally get exactly this sound, while i'll make something more cybernetic (or robotic) for the Gunner.
A note that i forgot to include in the readme, even though veteran
Q2 players probably would figure it out anyway: when playing Ground Zero / Reckoning mission packs - the mod file needs to be copy-pasted into xatrix/rogue directories AS WELL. Otherwise the mission pack guns
will not use the new SFX.
Hey. New and improved Q2HM launches this April!
Gunner now speaks his own new and unique machine language :-).