One interresting thing about this game is that on Nightmare difficulty, it really IS HARDER than the original Quake II at least for a certain specific part of the game, mainly a little bit before you are in the "mid-game". I dont care what anyone thinks or says. It is harder than the original Quake II. Another thing about this is that the super shotgun is hidden in a secret in early sewer levels. If you do not get it there, you are a little bit ♥♥♥♥♥♥ when you get a bit further, and the gladiator enemy and tank enemies start to appear SIGNIFICANTLY faster than in the original Quake II. One very big positive about the early game tho, is that the grenade launcher is actually quite useful in this game for some reason, which is actually a bigger plus than I expected it to be. I think it has to do with the layout of some the levels here.
I would say this expansion is quite solid all around, and it is quite nice how it quickly ramps up the stronger enemies compared to the original game simply because the game feels different because of this. This is a big change if you are used to the original Quake II. Reckoning also has a great soundtrack, cool secrets and a few powerups that are different from original Quake II.
Now, there is sadly ONE thing about this game that actually does suck, and that is special version of the Gladiators in the late part of the game. The thing is, their weapon is actually WAY INFERIOR to the railgun of the real gladiators. It is easy as hell to dodge their attacks or kite them, BUT the problem is, THEY HAVE WAYYYY TOO MUCH HEALTH! You will spend a decently long time just shooting at these ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ at the end to bring their health down. And the only reason they pose a bit of a challenge is NOT because they are a hard fight in any way at all. It is SIMPLY because you haft to consume SOOO much ammunition just to kill them that you end up being weak because you lack ammo for a lot of your guns. This is very unfortunate indeed.
But until this enemy actually starts appearing and starts completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ up the game, it is is pretty much a blast. I suppose Ground Zero has a bigger problem with the turrets, but I did not actually play ground zero for various reasons.
