In the past few weeks, YouTube’s ‘Justin Marshall’ has been sharing brief gameplay clips from the canceled DLC expansion of Quake 4, The Awakening. Those clips had huge watermarks, making it extremely difficult to watch. Thankfully, Justin shared a new 10-minute video that does not have any watermark, allowing us to see what this canceled DLC could offer.
This gameplay video shows early development content, environments, and gameplay elements that were ultimately cut before release. It provides a rare look into what The Awakening could have been and how it may have expanded on the original Quake 4 experience. Some assets and mechanics appear unfinished, offering insight into the development process and the state of the project before it was canceled.
Quake 4 was developed by Raven Software and came out in 2005. It used an overhauled version of the id Tech 4 engine, also known as the Doom 3 Engine.
The single-player mode continued the story of Quake II by pitting the player against the Strogg. Players assume the role of Matthew Kane, a Marine Corporal who has joined the elite Rhino Squad.
For those who want to replay the game in 2026, I suggest using the Hi-Def Mod. This is one of the best graphics mods for Quake 4. In September 2023, Version 3.3 came out, which packed numerous textures and 3D models, brought full shadow map files, and improved the sikk phong shading.
It’s also worth noting that Justin Marshall has implemented DX12 and DX12 and DXR to the official level editor of Doom 3. As such, we may be close to a Path Tracing Mod for Doom 3. This is a game I really want to see with Path Tracing. So, here is hoping that Justin will somehow manage to implement them in the full game, too.
Enjoy and stay tuned for more!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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