I bought this at release in 1997, I even remember playing the beta versions that were published in the lead up, but never finished it. This time I played the remastered version that was released recently. This new version adds a feature which draws markers in the world to show you where you need to go next which is very helpful as I think I spent most of my time lost in the original. It’s a great feature that should get added as an option into lots of old maze shooters.
I was surprised coming back to it that the game had missions, and that you can travel back to previous levels. I’d completely forgotten about it. There’s a coherent story throughout, which is a lot more than can be said for the original Quake. I think this is almost a detriment though since it means that there is little variety in the maps in the game. In Doom you went to hell from military bases, and in Quake it would lurch from sci-fi to fantasy levels. Quake II is entirely on Strogos, and I was pretty bored of it by the end.