Quake's 30th Anniversary Brings A Free 19-Map Brutal Campaign Launch

Quake's 30th anniversary is here, and to celebrate MachineGames has released a new Dawn of the Machine expansion, which includes a full 19-map campaign with an original soundtrack and new Deathmatch map. Dawn of the Machine is meant to serve as a celebration of Quake's history, even with small details like diegetic difficulty selection still being present at the beginning of the game. New enemy variants and a linear structure drive Dawn of the Machine, though, which breaks from MachineGames' past hub-based expansion design.

Compared to the original Quake, Dawn of the Machine also flaunts some Quake 2 graphical features, namely colored light maps, which the original Quake did not have. Each level has a brand-new skybox, and impressions so far indicate that Dawn of the Machine's environments are just as intensely moody.


To access Dawn of the Machine, you will need to be on the current release of Quake, aka the 2021 Nightdive Studios version of the 1996 id Software classic. The game is currently on sale on Steam for 60% off, making it only $3.99, or $11.18 to get the entire Quake series before August 13th. The current Doom + Doom II release, which features a free extra episode with MachineGames-developed content as well, is also just $3.99 right now.

Besides the Nightdive Studios Quake port on Steam and PC Game Pass, the console ports of Quake will also be receiving Dawn of the Machine as a free update. Nobody who owns the current release is being left out of the festivities, thanks to the efforts of id Software, MachineGames, and Nightdive alike. Even the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One console versions will have access to the 19 new maps, and campaigns like Dawn of the Machine can also be played in cross-platform co-op.