Quake Champions’ latest character is Ranger, the protagonist of the original Quake from 1996, publisher Bethesda Softworks announced today.
The space marine didn’t actually have a name in the first Quake game; players referred to him simply as “Quakeguy,” following the convention of “Doomguy” from id Software’s other first-person shooter franchise. It wasn’t until 1999’s Quake 3 Arena that a character resembling the Quake protagonist showed up again, this time named Ranger.
Trent Reznor, frontman of Nine Inch Nails, provided the voice for Ranger in the original Quake. Reznor isn’t returning for Quake Champions. A Bethesda representative told Polygon that Ranger is voiced in the game by Jim Ward, a veteran voice actor whose most prominent video game role is Ratchet & Clank’s Captain Qwark.
In Quake Champions, Ranger appears with his usual brown and yellow armor. His active ability is the Dire Orb, an item that he extracted from Shub-Niggurath at the end of Quake. The Dire Orb allows Ranger to teleport around the game world. It will damage an enemy if it touches them, and if Ranger doesn’t actually teleport to its location, it will eventually explode. Ranger’s passive ability, Son of a Gun, confers a 25 percent reduction in the amount of self-damage he takes.
Ranger will be the key champion in Quake Champions. It will launch as a free-to-play game with permanent access to Ranger alone. Only players who buy the Champion Pack — the de facto full-price version of the game — will also receive all of the other heroes. Free players can use Quake Champions’ in-game currency, Favor, to unlock limited-time access to the other characters.
For more on Ranger, check out the trailer above. Quake Champions is currently in a closed beta on Windows PC.