Posts Tagged ‘rise of the triad’
Apogee Software and GoG Are Giving Away Rise of the Triad
Today at 4:00 PM GMT (that’s 12:00 PM EDT and 9:00 AM PDT for those who need it easy) game distribution site Good Old Games is giving away Rise of the Triad for the first 30,000 people who request it. Now what’s funny to me is that the press release says they’re giving away the 2013 version of Rise of the Triad whereas I would have assumed it would be the original The Dark War version from 1994 but who knows, for now I would trust it’s the newer (and better) game. After the first 30,000 go it’s still going to be available at 80 percent off, which is a steal for that game. As my review in the link will explain, if you want the 90s brought back to life with modern controls and graphics, this long 20+ hour FPS with a campaign and frag-fest multiplayer is a gem. If you want to be prepared, you may want to zip over to the site, make a username if you don’t have one already, and be signed in and ready to refresh your browser at the golden hour. It’s free, what have you got to lose. Also if you’re curious to read up on what started life as the sequel to Wolfenstein 3-D, feel free to check out our historical context article on the development of the original.
Podcast: NADC – Not Another Doom Clone
This week Fred is flying solo and discussing the origins of the Doom clone. Named for early first person shooters, a little startup company called id Software created a reboot of Wolfenstein that eventually led to a demon slaughter in hell known as Doom. From there the flood gates opened and it seemed everyone had a game where you ran around and violently killed legions of enemies.
Review: Rise of the Triad (2013)
Release Date: 07/31/2013
Developer: Interceptor Entertainment
Publisher: Apogee Software
Platforms: PC (Windows-based only)
Availability: Digital Download Only
Services for Distribution: Steam (online DRM), Good Old Games (DRM-free)
Price: $14.99
Please Note: This is for the 2013 release. The review for the original 1994 title Rise of the Triad: Dark War can be found here.
It seems like more and more games are being rebooted from the past, specifically the mid 1990s, and given new life for today’s audience. Of all the games that probably didn’t need to be brought back, Apogee’s Rise of the Triad is high on the list. Let’s face it, the game wasn’t that good, most people didn’t play it, and save for coining “ludicrous gibs” it’s a title best lost in nostalgia. From the initial announcement I’m thinking “why are they doing this?” Well as it turns out this updated Rise of the Triad does the one thing I never expected: re-creates a classic “Doom clone” with all the dated gameplay style and features intact. It’s like the last 20 years of first-person shooters (FPS) never happened and now we’re back with a fast paced, tough as nails, rocket launcher frenzy with awkward controls and heavy metal music. It’s jarring at first and my initial hour made me want to put this title away and never think about it again – I had spent more than an hour trying to complete the first level, how was I ever going to overcome the entire game? Once I overcame the initial hurdle of figuring how to adjust for 1995 shooter gaming I was rewarded with a crazy, addictive title that just shouldn’t exist today. I’m quite happy it does.
Rise of the Triad Historical Context
Rise of the Triad is more significant than it initially seems in the annals of first-person shooter (or Doom clone) history. In fact, had it remained under its original title, Rise of the Triad: Wolfenstein 3D Part II it would probably have more awareness and fall under the pantheon of id titles still garnering praise on Steam and Good Old Games. Due to several disputes that arguably are the direct result of John Carmack, a co-founder of developer id Software and lead in milestone shooters Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake, the project was terminated in 1993 to avoid clashing with upcoming title Doom. This led to several disputes within the developer of Doom, id Software, and the planned publisher of Doom and previous publisher of several other titles, Apogee Software.
In the beginning there were two companies: developer id Software and publisher Apogee Software. For the most part Apogee was better known as its later developer 3D Realms, the team responsible for Duke Nukem 3D and originally Prey. Before that all happened, Apogee was making its money publishing id Software’s earliest successes including Commander Keen and Wolfenstein 3D. Apogee utilized the plan of “shareware” to market games, which is a method of giving people approximately 25-33 percent of a game to try out with the option to purchase the full game if interested. John Romero, the then lead designer on Doom at id Software, canceled Rise of the Triad and John Carmack decided to have id self publish so Apogee ended up not publishing Doom. id Software’s co-founder Tom Hall (Carmack and Romero were the other founders) left id to join Apogee. Apparently Hall had concern over the amount of violence and gore in Doom, a project he assisted greatly in creating. Ironically a year later when he completed work as lead designer on Rise of the Triad for Apogee, it would have even more blood and gore than Doom, including a random occurrence where an enemy would explode into gory giblets and “Ludicrous Gibs!” would appear on the screen.
Review: Rise of the Triad: Dark War (1994)
Console: PC/DOS, Mac
Released: 1994
Developer: Apogee
Publisher: Apogee
Digital Release? Yes – PC/Mac (Steam/gog.com), iOS
Price: $3-$5, depending on digital distributor
Please Note: This review is based on the original 1994 PC game, for the 2013 updated version, our review can be found here.
In 1994 the first-person shooter was rampant. Like today, you just couldn’t look over a rack of games without a large number of the genre present, although at this time they were simply known as “Doom clones“. Ironically, one of the craziest of these titles, Rise of the Triad (ROTT), was played by almost no one unless you were like me and relied heavily on free shareware titles. People keep thinking they’ve played it, but once I start describing it quickly discover it’s a different game. It’s basically a Wolfenstein 3D-like title, which makes sense because it started life as the sequel, and focuses on graphic violence, crazy traps and platforming, and plenty of different explosive weapons. You play as one of five members of spec ops group H.U.N.T. (High-risk United Nations Task-force), each has a value of 1-5 in either strength and speed that balances to the same total amount for each. It’s not as diverse as it sounds in terms of character class, but it allows mild adaptation to your play style. In the game H.U.N.T finds itself trapped on an island after a rescue boat gets destroyed and your goal is simple: kill.
Gaming History 101 