At last, Quake II: Heavy Metal 2.0 - the complete revision and remake of Quake II sound effects - is properly launched. Not only does this version feature a massive amount of new sound FX, but it also remakes or improves upon the vast majority of the ones existing in the previous release. The BFG unleashes with a polished thunderous explosion and revs up to match, fixed single shotgun, new railgun with a railgun recharge, even more oomph to the rocket launcher, further refined the destructive cannonade of the hyperblaster, and of course, - the game's items now sound meaningful and pleasing when you pick them up; just to name a few.
Strogg weaponry has powerful audio upgrades as well: now when you face these enemies, you'll hear that they mean business. Heavy machineguns speak well for themselves, just as good as the rockets do, and a barrage fire from a Tank - will sound exactly like it should. Blaster bolts have a flight and impact FX, which makes them sound even more intense as you dodge and hear the projectiles woosh by and hit the walls around with a becoming bang. I have been keeping things low-key, until i could come up with a proper trailer for the mod. And now, here it is:
Strogg voices also underwent a warlike transformation. To achieve that, i imagined how those cybernetic combinations of man and metal would power up for action. Machine parts whirring, weapon systems activating and loading ammunition, motors humming, jetpacks firing, computer systems running checkups and booting and so on. Juxtaposed with various degrees of each Strogg's ability to speak - led me to create a unique and quite impactful soundscape for (almost) every Strogg warrior, giving them some kind of personality and making them sound formidable and imposing. Even when they are taking damage, they can still maintain such image now. Having that said, i still had to make sure that the voices are unique enough for each of the Strogg and one cannot be confused with another. This is why certain voice fx were kept as they were.
Player action fx went through a modification as well: the annoying whimper and jump sounds have been replaced with something that does not clash with the soundscape flow, which to my vision - solely consists of the atmospheric harmony of music, Bitterman's guns and the Strogg. There are many other subtle sound balance touches, where anything too jarring that breaks this atmosphere - is either subdued or silenced.
On the subject of music, Q2HM 2.0 "Technosphere" makes changes to the version 1.4 music sets, altering the metal set quite significantly with new tracks and going for a more of a hard-rock sound. Also, the second set now consists of dark electronic atmospheric tracks, which work with the game just as good as hard-rock does. The metal set will return with a vengeance, not to worry. But that will only happen in the next version. And speaking of the next version: at the moment, mission pack support remains minimal (limited to player guns only), but that will change in the future. Expect the next version to dot the i's and cross the t's for the maxed out audio-experience of entire Quake II saga.
Let's rock-n-roll, Marine!
Enjoy.
I like most of them.
But some of them are a little much, like the health pick-up.
And some of them don't seem to match, like bullet pick-up.
A few gripes like that which will get annoying the >100th time.
If Quake II had a distinct sound for bullet ammo/rocket ammo/plasma ammo - then you can be sure i'd make matching sounds, just like i am doing right now for my upcoming Aeon of Ruin sound/gameplay mod (and just like i did for Doom-3-Bravo, a similar project). Quake II, however, does not have all that - it has just one general sound for any ammo type in the game. And in such cases, the preference goes to the sound that i like best :-) (even though it is an encompassing directive at all times, lol). If someone could reprogram KMQuake2-based variant to include separate ammo sounds, separate item sounds and most importantly: a separate chaingun sound - then i would be glad to continue working and extend the mod to include more effects for such extras. Alas, so far no such luck.
Can this be played with the recent remaster too?
No it can not. Only KMQuake2, Q2PRO or the 3.24 patch.
The "remaster" is not Quake 2, it's just a weird mod.