Quake’s Free 30th Anniversary Expansion – Dawn of the Machine
What’s New
To celebrate Quake’s 30th anniversary (and timed with QuakeCon), id Software and MachineGames released a full free expansion called Dawn of the Machine.
It includes:
- A complete 19-map campaign
- A brand-new original soundtrack
- One new Deathmatch map
- Hidden secrets and a dedicated episode hub
- New enemy variants (twisted versions of classics like the Rocket Ogre, Demo Dog, and Blood Shambler)
- New weapon variants (including the lightning-infused Super Axe and a ricocheting Laser Cannon)
Story Premise
You play as Ranger, trapped in a dimension of endless illusion where he’s been forced to relive the same violent cycles for what feels like lifetimes. The goal is to find and destroy The Nightmare Machine to finally break the time loop.
Who Made It
The expansion was developed by MachineGames (the studio behind the modern Wolfenstein games and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle).
Internally it was handled by a group of employees who call themselves “Quake Club” — people who make Quake maps in their spare time.
This is their most ambitious episode yet (they previously made Dimension of the Machine and Dimension of the Past).
Availability
It’s a free update for owners of the 2021 Nightdive remaster of Quake and is available right now on:
- PC (Steam + Microsoft Store)
- Xbox Series X|S / Xbox One
- PlayStation 5 / PlayStation 4
- Nintendo Switch (and Switch 2 via backwards compatibility)
- Game Pass / PC Game Pass
(Note: Not available on the Epic Games Store or GOG versions.)
Digital Foundry and others have already praised it as a high-quality, authentic celebration of classic Quake that balances nostalgia with modern mapping techniques.
