Cult shooter Quake II is getting a free Ray Tracing treatment next month

Connoisseurs of first-person shooting rejoice. The legendary Quake II is making a return into the modern age by featuring cutting edge technologies. Courtesy of Nvidia, Quake II RTX is going to be made available for absolutely free for everyone on the PC next month, June 6th. Check out the game trailer to see the impressive enhancements in action!

For being one of the most important FPS games ever created and being one of the granddaddy’s of the genre, in recent years it has been tragically quiet around the Quake franchise. Developer Id Software tried to reboot the franchise by creating a pure competitive multiplayer entry in the vein of the legendary Quake III but Quake Legends failed to make any notable impact in the multiplayer shooter scene. The last we heard about it, Bethesda announced to do away with loot boxes. Likely to infuse the game with new life but once again, it didn’t help much.

As such, fans of the franchise have been likely been among the most disappointed in gaming. The last major Quake installment is a long 12 years ago and with a semi-failed reboot, the outlook isn’t great. So, it comes as an even bigger surprise that Quake II is going to land in the spotlight once again. Originally released in 1997, Quake II marked a major jump in terms of 3D graphics and still stands the test of time with its brutal gameplay and rocking soundtrack.

Nvidia has been prominently spearheading the introduction of real-time ray tracing into games with their recent RTX graphics cards. As a rather performance-intensive rendering technique, not many games have adopted it, so it came to Nvidia to promote it by creating Quake II RTX. A fully ray traced version of the cult shooter.

Owners of the full version of Quake II will be able to install Quake II RTX and experience the entire game in a glorious new make-over, while everyone else will still be able to play an enhanced shareware version for free.

Here are the recommended system specs to enjoy Quake II RTX:

Quake II RTX Minimum System Requirements