Quake II PSX

Note that this article refers to the unofficial community project for the PC, not the original Playstation port of Quake II.

Quake II PSX is an unofficial community project that recreates the Playstation port of Quake II in the 2023 re-release of Quake II for the PC. It contains a full recreation of the Playstation single-player campaign, modernised and rebalanced, including support for co-operative play. It also includes thirteen deathmatch maps from the Playstation, updated models and behaviour for the Arachnid and Guardian, as well as a number of other bug fixes and balance tweaks.

Download link

Trailer

Single-player campaign[]

All twenty levels in the Playstation single-player campaign are included, although co-operative play is possible in Quake II PSX. The intermission cutscenes inbetween the game's five mission units have been recreated. Nightmare difficulty is also available, which wasn't the case on the original console port.

A number of balance changes and bug fixes have been made, including:

Missing enemies in Security Complex, Powerplant and Research Lab have been fixed (certain enemies would not spawn into the level correctly, preventing the player from achieving 100% completion)
Inconsistent difficulty settings in Guard House, Grid Control, Waste Disposal Area, Research Lab and Gravity Booster have been fixed (due to an oversight, the strongest enemies would appear on Easy difficulty rather than Hard difficulty)
No infinite-ammo chaingun or monster "stunlock" bug
Power-ups are collectible rather than being instant-use
A rework of the secrets; for example, an Environment Suit is added to Toxic Waste Dump to allow the player to reach the secret area beyond the slime channel safely, and the various items previously available by rocket jumping can now be reached in other ways that don't require the player to take damage
A complete rework of the area in which the Guardian is fought in Gravity Booster
A rework of the room in which the Hornet is fought, preventing the player from simply walking past the boss to the exit

Arachnid and Guardian[]

The Arachnid and the Guardian are two Strogg that were originally introduced in the Playstation port. They didn't exist on the PC until the 2023 re-release of Quake II, and a single Arachnid was included in the Call of the Machine campaign; however, they did not receive a graphics update at the time, and only minimal attention to their behaviour for balance purposes. Quake II PSX gives both of the Strogg a complete overhaul, providing them both with brand-new models (including pain skins for when they are down to less than half health), and a complete rework of their behaviour:

Arachnid railgun damage restored to 50, to match the original Playstation port.
Arachnids in the Quake II PSX campaign receive a health boost to 1500, matching the Arachnid in Call of the Machine
Arachnid no longer susceptible to infighting
Arachnid gains a new behaviour that may happen if the player repeatedly dodges its railgun shots: the Arachnid performs a threat display and then delivers a volley of three very accurate shots.
On Nightmare difficulty, the Arachnid may summon up to two Stalkers during its threat display mentioned above.

Guardian receives a health boost on the higher difficulty settings and in co-operative play; its base health is 2500, but this increases to 3750 on Hard, 5000 on Nightmare, and 5000 in co-operative play.
Guardian's hyperblaster fires a volley of at least eight shots at 3 damage per bolt; the bolts have the ability to predict a player's movements, thereby making them difficult to dodge by strafing.
Guardian's laser cannons are much more likely to be used than they were in the original, and fire a volley of four hits at 15 damage each. They can be dodged by strafing, but on Hard and Nightmare difficulty their pre-fire animation is considerably faster.
Guardian's kick damage increased to 80, has a greater range and is much more accurate.
Guardian gains a new attack behaviour: a volley of four heat-seeking rockets that can fire around cover, dealing 20 damage apiece if they hit directly. The rockets can be destroyed by the player's weapons fire.
On all difficulty settings except Easy, the Guardian can react to certain power-ups used by the player by activating a Power Shield for itself.
Guardian no longer susceptible to infighting

Deathmatch[]

All twelve of the original Playstation deathmatch maps are included, plus a thirteenth map "Frag Tower" which was cut from the original Playstation release. These levels can be played in Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, and bots can also be used.

Compatibility[]

It's possible to load the Quake II PSX mod and then play any of the five main single-player campaigns in the 2023 PC rerelease (Quake II, The Reckoning, Ground Zero, Quake II 64 and Call of the Machine) which will allow those campaigns to be played with the various bug fixes and balance tweaks mentioned below. To do so, the player should start a game of Quake II PSX and then bring up the console (usually with the ` key), select their chosen difficulty setting with one of the following commands:

skill 0 for Easy

skill 1 for Medium

skill 2 for Hard

skill 3 for Nightmare

Then, use one of the following commands to skip to the starting level of their chosen single-player campaign:

map base1 for Quake II

map xswamp for The Reckoning

map rmine1 for Ground Zero

map q64/outpost for Quake II 64

map mguhub for Call of the Machine

Bug fixes[]

A large number of bug fixes to general Quake II gameplay are included, such as:

fixed a bug that caused the game to crash if an Infantry turret driver was revived by a Medic/Fixbot.

fixed a bug that caused a revived monster to get stuck cycling their animations when revived by a Fixbot
fixed a bug that meant a Medic/Medic Commander sometimes remained idle even while taking damage from the player
fixed a bug that can cause a Medic to get confused and think he's a Medic Commander, causing him to keep trying and failing to spawn reinforcements
fixed a rare issue that could cause flying monsters to keep drifting in the wrong direction until hitting a surface
fixed visual issues with the BFG10K's laser sparks and its interaction with glass surfaces.
fixed an issue with players being "telefragged" by item spawns
fixed an issue with the tracking logic of heat-seeking missiles, allowing them to better seek their firer's original target

Balance changes[]

update to the movement behaviour of most flying enemies (Icarus, Daedalus, Technician, Hornet and Fixbot) allowing them to move more like flying enemies, sometimes backing away from an approaching player and not just getting into melee range and staying there for no good reason.
in addition to the above, Icarus and Daedalus have been further tweaked to allow them to move more dynamically around their target once in close quarters combat
Berserker's two basic melee attacks have had their "knockback" effects reversed, so the upward spike swing knocks the player back more - this is more true to the original Quake II
Grenade Launcher and Prox Launcher now benefit from the "double damage if the Strogg is unaware of the player" bonus other weapons benefit from, if a direct hit is achieved. However, as a balance consideration, Hand Grenades still do not.
Hand Grenade, Grenade Launcher and Prox Launcher projectiles now deal full damage if striking the monster directly, instead of dealing damage according to the distance between the impact and the monster's center, which made them comparatively ineffective against large enemies such as bosses. This change allows for more consistent damage regardless of the size of the monster
Prox Launcher projectile damage reduced to 60 (from 90), in accordance with the above change, allowing them to deal roughly the same damage as before against smaller enemies, as well as that same amount of damage against larger foes
Rocket Launcher and Phalanx now correctly deal the "knockback" effect on a direct hit.