E3 2016: Quake Champions A Blast From the Past

If there was one thing that could be labelled as the biggest surprise of the night, it would be the unexpected return of Quake. Initially hitting shelves in 1996 Quake became one of the quintessential forefathers of the modern first person shooter. A lot can be traced back to those grimy, alien filled corridors. Well now it’s back.

Quake Champions it would seem is intending to rebuild the arena FPS. The teaser that was shown didn’t provide much, but what it did provide was something familiar, yet brand new. The weapons shown used, were old favourites, ones we’d come to know time and time again via their use throughout the Quake series.

Two of the champions face off in the arena

They’d been gussied up, given a fresh coat of pixels and unleased back onto the screen, and they’d brought friends. Each of the titular “Champions” was given a snippet of screen time. Each one varied and distinct, coinciding with what the follow up speech confirmed.

The game is set to feature a “unique cast of warriors” it’s assumed this will mean each will have their own select set of abilities and skills, a thing hinted at during the teaser as a character teleported around the arena, and another character appeared from seemingly nowhere.

Along with the teaser Tim Wilits; the studio director of ID Software, provided us with some juicy technical information for the upcoming game. Running at 120Hz and featuring unlocked frame rates, if it holds true it’s a phenomenal achievement. As seemed to be the pattern with this year’s Bethesda conference however no other information besides the short teaser was available, just a footnote stating that more will be shown at Quakecon in August.