Ion Maiden publisher 3D Realms is working on a new Quake engine game (Updated)

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Old FPS engines are all the rage.

Ion Maiden is a brand new first-person shooter about a former Global Defense Force recruit on a mission to murder an evil transhumanist mastermind. Which is pretty cool, but what's cooler is that it's built using the Duke Nukem 3D's Build engine — an engine going on 22 years of age. It's in Early Access at the moment, but according to the Steam reviews so far it's very good.

The game is headed to consoles next year through a collaboration between Ion Maiden publisher 3D Realms and 1C Entertainment, but buried in an email announcing these plans is another, more interesting fact: The companies are also working together on "a new unannounced FPS based on the original Quake engine".

That's all the information that's available: there's no name and no release window, but the prospect of a brand new game in id Software's pioneering engine is very exciting indeed. Interestingly, the last game to use the original Quake engine was the little-known 2005 top-down schump Silver Wings. But the engine also powered better-known games such as Hexen II, Malice and X-Men: The Ravages of the Apocalypse.

To refresh your memory, here's the original Quake trailer, come to visit us from 1996:

Update: The post originally said that "the team behind Ion Maiden" is working on the Quake-based project. Ion Maiden developer Voidpoint clarified that it is not involved in the new game, however. The partnership is between 1C and Ion Maiden publisher 3D Realms—and no, the irony of 3D Realms, famed for being the company behind the Build engine, making a new game in the Quake engine is not lost on us. 

Shaun Prescott
Shaun Prescott
Australian Editor

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.