Adrian Carmack considers Quake II one of his favorite projects, partly due to how well development went from start to finish, in contrast to the first game’s frazzled development.
This was definitely the Carmack era, where tech and Carmack’s own design interests tended to shape each project, but this initially allowed projects to come together much quicker. Romero himself has said that with him gone, nobody was left to challenge Carmack on important decisions, and there seems to be some truth to that. Shortly after Quake was done, Romero left id Software to found Ion Storm, and this marked a major culture shift for the company. Screenshots taken were made with the source part Yamagi Quake II.
