First person shooters didn’t used to care about story. Some (Quake included) didn’t really care about single player at all, multiplayer was where the true action was at and that was just fine. Shooters were loud; hard rock played as you mowed down enemies. They were fast, unlike any modern shooter as of post 2007 but perhaps those were simpler times and games such as DOOM and Quake have are products of their time and decade.
Wrong.
If anything in comparison to the majority of most modern shooters games such as Quake 2 are everything they are not. An emphasis on action and gameplay, perfecting it to be fun, enjoyable, timeless, fast-paced action. Granted the single player isn’t what one expects from the campaign of a modern FPS but when the game plays as well as Quake 2 does one simply doesn’t care that the mission is irrelevant or that the hero lacks character and motives.
Quake 2 knows what it is and what you want and delivers in all the necessary areas. It knows of your lust to slaughter enemy soldiers and do battle with others competitively and by perfecting the gameplay (what is truly important in FPS games) it creates a timeless experience that remains as fun today as it did all those years ago.