Finally, the time has come for Ray Tracing fans. NVIDIA has just released Quake 2 RTX on Steam for free download. This free version includes the 3 levels of the original, plus Quake 2 RTX is also compatible with the complete game (so that those who own it can experience the whole game with Ray tracing).
Quake 2 RTX was announced during Computex 2019 by Jeff Fisher, senior vice president of Nvidia. As we know, a free version has been made available for all players which contains 3 levels of the game. If you want to have access to the entire single-player campaign and the multiplayer mode, you must have the original version of Quake 2: if you already have it, you will get the game at no extra cost.
Quake 2 RTX offers various improvements, but at the same time imposes limits for the multiplayer mode:
- Due to limited resources for server support, there may be problems trying to connect.
- The multiplayer gameplay experience may vary from the single player.
- Rockets and other objects could disappear in certain pools of water, which were opaque in the original Quake 2.
- Rocket launchers will not be available.
- Mods or custom maps may be incompatible with the game.
The presence of some limitations is not strange, given that it is not a real remaster but a free title offered to test its new RTX graphics cards. The cost of the original version is only $4.99: a great price to see a bit of ray-tracing at work, without forgetting that you have the chance to play a piece of the history of the video game industry.