With QuakeCon 2023 now underway, id Software's much-rumoured Quake 2 remaster has finally been made official - and it's out now for Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, PC, and Game Pass.
As with 2021's similarly styled Quake 1 remaster, this enhanced version of the sequel has been handled by retro specialists Nightdive Studios. Its list of additions is extensive too, including enhanced models and cinematics, dynamic and coloured lighting, improved enemy animations and gore, "improved and restored" AI behaviour, new accessibility features, plus anti-aliasing, depth of field, and support for widescreen resolutions up to 4K. And, of course, Sonic Mayhem's original soundtrack returns in all its furious glory.
And as with 2021's Quake 1 remaster, id has put together an impressively generous package, incorporating Quake 2's base game, as well as its two expansions - The Reckoning and Ground Zero - which, between then, bring 33 additional campaign levels and 21 new multiplayer deathmatch maps. Furthermore, it includes a brand-new expansion, Call of the Machine, from Wolfenstein: The New Order developer Machine Games, introducing a further 28 campaign levels and one new deathmatch map.