Quake Adds One More Massive Free Expansion to Celebrate Turning 30

Contrary to what the young'uns might say, life really does begin at thirty. Just look at Quake! Celebrating its 30th anniversary yesterday, among the QuakeCon announcements was the surprise release of Dawn Of The Machine, a lengthy, extremely polished new expansion for the classic FPS. Plenty of new enemies, 19 new levels, and some fun mind-bending twists. Either reality is falling apart, or Ranger (Quake's otherwise-unnamed protagonist) isn't doing so well, brain-wise.

Developed by MachineGames (developers of the new-generation Wolfenstein games, as well as the recent excellent Indiana Jones And The Great Circle), Dawn Of The Machine is what happens when you give people three decades to hone and refine their craft on a single game, with generations of improved modding tools and engine enhancements. If you want to dig into the technical side of things, William Judd over at Digital Foundry did a great deep dive on the nitty-gritty details, but I want to speak a little about the experience, from the little I've played.

While I'm only a few levels deep into Dawn Of The Machine, this is exactly what I'd hope for in a modern Quake game. That mixture of high-tech, retro industrial, and Lovecraftian spooky ruins is right on the money. Sometimes several of those themes happen at once, as you'll be sliding between realities unpredictably. Echoing Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, you also begin this campaign weakened, with only 50 maximum health, restored 10 at a time by picking up floating Ranger heads. Grisly.

This plays into the big twist of the expansion, which I'm thrilled to explore as I play further. The story is designed to loop, with rune-keys collected later in the game opening up new routes on earlier levels, and those health upgrades designed to help carry you through the escalating challenges as you dive deeper. Stepping things up over the previous free Quake expansions in the remaster, this one also features several new enemy types (including exploding bomb-dogs and ogres with rocket launchers) and some fun new tools to clean them up, such as a magical lightning axe and the return of the ricocheting laser cannon.

As an old-school Quake-head, I couldn't be happier, and my enthusiasm is only dulled by the fact that original Quake developers Id Software were gutted by Microsoft's 'reboot' layoffs recently. Thankfully, MachineGames (based in Sweden) are currently unaffected. That aside, the timing is also great - yesterday we launched a showcase of the best retro FPS games to start with, including both the ageing classics and the best of the new generation. Of course, Quake was included, and now even further deserves its place in the pantheon of all-time great shooters.

The Dawn Of The Machine expansion is completely free, included in the Nightdive remaster of Quake, which just happens to be going cheap right now. Usually £8/$10 with a 60% discount running until August 13th. And don't forget that for the past decade, Quake's mod scene has seen an amazing renaissance. Check out our retro FPS guide on where to start!