A rating has appeared for Quake II Remastered in Korea.
As reported by Gematsu, Korea’s Game Rating and Administration Committee has rated Quake II Remastered an 18 rating, which simply means that the game cannot be played by anyone below 18 years old.
The rating does not confirm what platforms the game will appear in, but if Quake Remastered is an indication, this will once again be coming to all active platforms again. So expect to be able to buy this game on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC. It will probably even hit GOG and Epic Games Store alongside Steam.
We do already know that Nightdive Studios is busy at work making remasters of the games in the Quake franchise. There hasn’t been any news that Nightdive has stopped making these remasters, or gave this project to another studio. So of course, it’s reasonable to expect that this will be another 1990s FPS remaster from Nightdive.
An unwelcome effect from this ongoing project is that several Quake games got delisted from the market. This is supposedly only a temporary delisting, as the games will have to be repackaged to match the release of the remasters. It still came across as strange and unexpected, because other companies didn’t do the same when they remastered their old games.
In any case, Gematsu reports that id software will likely announce Quake II Remastered in this coming QuakeCon 2023, dated for August 10 to 13, 2023, in Grapevine, Texas.
Now, Quake Remastered was released to mark the 25 year anniversary of the original Quake. Quake II was originally released in December 9, 1997, so there’s still a few months for Nightdive and id software to announce Quake II Remastered in time of its own anniversary. Of course, QuakeCon will fit in that time frame just fine.
The original Quake II is perhaps not as fondly remembered as Quake III Arena and Quake III Team Arena, and not as well remembered as the first Quake, but it is an influential and important game in its own right.
Its biggest impact on the industry is likely the fact that Quake II’s engine was licensed to use in so many other classic 1990s shooters. That includes the first Half-Life, but also SiN, Anachronox, Heretic II, Daikatana, and Soldier of Fortune.
In the meantime, if you happen to have an RTX GPU, you can play Quake II RTX for free now, available on Steam and GOG.