Bethesda has slowly been revealing and rolling out new heroes for Quake Champions every so often over the past few weeks, while the game’s currently-ongoing closed beta rages on. Today, at long last, they revealed that the next hero to be added to the game will be the familiar face we were all waiting for: “Ranger”, or as more people may know him, “Quakeguy” from the original Quake over two decades ago.
Ranger made his debut in 1996 as the playable protagonist of the original Quake. Back then, he was voiced by Trent Reznor, lead singer of American rock band Nine Inch Nails; according to Polygon, Bethesda has confirmed that this new iteration of Ranger will be played by Jim Ward, voice actor of dozens of characters from video games and animated TV shows, most notably Captain Qwark from Ratchet and Clank. While Ranger has definitely been brought into the 21st century through a major graphical overhaul for Quake Champions, his armor, big muscles, and even bigger guns bear an undeniable resemblance to his earlier, more pixelated days.
In Quake Champions, Ranger is the “Slipgate Marine”, a highly mobile character with the active ability Dire Orb and passive ability Son of a Gun. The Dire Orb is a projectile that Ranger can shoot out and then teleport to, allowing him to dodge attacks, reach tricky areas, and even “telefrag” unsuspecting enemies. Additionally, the Dire Orb can hurt any enemies it makes contact with and, if left unused, it will explode, damaging all foes in the blast radius. His passive ability, Son of a Gun, reduces the amount of self-damage he takes by 20%, allowing him to Rocket Jump more frequently and further boosting his mobility options.
Ranger will be the official free-to-play hero of Quake Champions – the only champion able to be permanently owned by players who don’t spend a cent on the game. The rest of the game’s roster of champions can be individually unlocked for temporary use using in-game currency, but will only be permanently available to players who buy the game’s Champion Pack (the actual retail price of the full game).
You can sign up for the Quake Champions PC Closed Beta at Quake.com.