Heartening news from Sir Carmack, lord of pixels: preliminary id design discussion about the next Quake game has turned up a hankering to return to the Gothic, semi-fantasy setting and vibe of the original Quake. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty damned bored of bio-mechanical environs and beasts after id Tech 4’s quad-whammy of Doom 3, Quake IV, Prey and Quake Wars, so something potentially a little weirder rather takes my fancy.



Said first person shooting’s papa bear to Eurogamer, “We are at least tossing around the possibilities of going back to the bizarre, mixed up Cthulhu-ish Quake 1 world and rebooting that direction. We think that would be a more interesting direction than doing more Strogg stuff after Quake 4… But we could do something pretty grand like that, that still tweaks the memory right in all of those ways, but is actually cohesive and plays with all of the strengths of the level we’re at right now.”

This isn’t, of course, a confirmation that new Quake is actually happening, but it’s pretty clear talk that id are up for doing it. I know, I know – ‘game developer in considering sequel to successful franchise shocker’ eh? But with Rage due in months and Doom 4 next on id’s plate, it wasn’t a given that a new Quake was in the offing.

Added id biz-boss Todd Hollenshead, “People shouldn’t worry that we’re ever going to orphan or abandon Quake. We are huge fans of the game internally.” What do you have an internal fandom for, readers?

I know I won’t be happy unless they bring back Shamblers.