Rumors of a Quake remaster in honor of the game’s 25th anniversary are all true. What the ESRB rated and Bethesda accidentally teased in the QuakeCon 2021 schedule has arrived as a remastered version of the original 1996 classic first-person shooter.
We have Nightdive Studios to thank for this remaster, which is now available on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via the Microsoft Store for just $9.99. A next-gen version is apparently "coming soon," and will be a free upgrade for PS4 and Xbox One owners. Bethesda didn't say what exactly this next-gen Quake will entail, but hopefully it'll include some ray tracing just like Quake II RTX.
But back to the current Quake remaster, you can expect better models with a few more polygons to them, improved lighting and shadows, up to 4K resolution on supported platforms and screens, anti-aliasing and depth of field support, as well as all previous expansions ever released for Quake. That includes The Scourge of Armagon, Dissolution of Eternity, and Dimension of the Past mission packs, as well as previously released mods and missions such as Quake 64.
On top of all that, MachineGames (makers of the Dimension of the Past DLC) have even created a brand new expansion: Dimension of the Machine.
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"In the deepest depths of the labyrinth lies the core of lava and steel known only as The Machine,” reads the new expansion’s into. “Crusade across time and space against the forces of evil to bring together the lost runes, power the dormant machine, and open the portal hiding the greatest threat to all known worlds—destroy it… before it destroys us all."
It wouldn't be Quake without multiplayer, and this remaster has got it in spades. First, there's online and local co-op to play through the main campaign with up to four players, and yes, there's couch co-op with four-player split-screen. Online PvP multiplayer is up to eight players, with local deathmatch up to four-player split-screen. Cross-play is available on all platforms.
If you've got a Game Pass subscription, you'll be able to download and play the remastered Quake now, and if you've got Game Pass Ultimate you can even play it on xCloud. The Switch version gets motion control aiming, and there's no word on what's going on with the Steam version, but the price is suspiciously still $9.99 even though every other Quake game has a hefty discount. One suspects the same upgrades are coming to the Steam version, but we'll have to wait for official confirmation. [UPDATE: here's your confirmation.]
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