Quake 2 is setting a new gold standard for remasters that's leagues ahead of other "conversions"

The sudden release of a remastered edition of Quake 2 had been rumored for some time, but the final product has delivered a range of enhancements and options that go well beyond what we've come to expect from other retro rereleases.

The remastered edition of Quake 2 launched on pretty much every modern platform, with crossplay across all of them. The game supports each platform's peak graphical capabilities, all the way up to PS5 and Xbox Series X's oft-forgotten 4K 120FPS modes. It even supports mouse and keyboard on consoles, so you can get the authentic original experience without a gaming PC.

New graphical effects are fairly modest - there are improved lighting effects and updated models - but there have been some notable upgrades to the underlying game logic. This version of Quake 2 now has a 40hz tickrate, up from the 10hz of the original. In short, that means the game is now checking for and reacting to your inputs four times more often, which should make high-level play feel dramatically more responsive. There are also AI upgrades to make enemies a little more dangerous with improved pathing and new attacks.

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This package also features pretty much every bit of Quake 2 content you could ask for, from the original expansions to all the levels from Quake 2 for the N64. The developers pulled the levels from what's technically an entirely different game on N64 and ported them back into proper Quake 2. On top of that, modern Wolfenstein dev MachineGames has created a brand-new expansion called Call of the Machine for this release.

That's the above, but here's the beyond: the developers at id and Nightdive have also released the entire source code for this remaster for public access on GitHub, which means modders are going to have a leg up in both making general-purpose mods and keeping the game in shape for modern hardware as technology progresses, even if the official rights-holders aren't building further remasters. The original Quake 2 source has been out for many years - releasing source code was once an id Software tradition - but offering open access to the work done on the remaster is still worth celebrating.

But the most important part is this: the Quake 2 remaster also comes with the unaltered original version of the game, so you can see it just as it was back in 1997 without any modern conveniences. That's essential for preservation of both the game itself and its classic mod scene, but there's an added consumer-friendly benefit, too, since you get a free upgrade to the remaster if you already own the original game on a digital PC storefront.

It's tough not to compare this package with the recently announced release of Red Dead Redemption on PS4 and Switch, which has left fans disappointed with the prospect of paying $50 for a lightly-updated conversion of what is, admittedly, still a genre-defining classic. Meanwhile, Quake 2 - another genre-defining classic - has managed an absolute love-letter of an upgrade that pays tribute to every part of the game's legacy, and it only costs $10. Maybe it's unfair to expect that level of care in every future classic game remaster, but I know I certainly want it.

It's always a good time to revisit the best classic PC games.