Rise of the Triad (2013)

Sub-par graphics, buggy, poor voice acting, and boring gameplay. On the highest setting the game constantly keeps crashing, and when it doesn't crash, it can't get me invested enough to want to play it. The sense of humor is childish (an that's coming from someone who really likes Shadow Warrior), exasperating rather than funny. The gameplay doesn't make the situation better: enemies hit you from great distances, and goo like finding them: they might even be three pixels of a forehead peeking out from behind a wall. Weapons are uninspired, as is the action. The game is challenging, but not as a result of the AI, which is awful. Some enemies stand there, not noticing you, despite the fact that you're shooting at their buddies in the same room. The graphics glitches make the whole thing frustrating: sometimes an enemy will suddenly appear right by you, in-your-face, and the next second he's at the other corner of the room. The collectible coins make the situation worse, as the enemies can see you through them. Now, if the damage indicator only worked as it as supposed too... Some glitches make this game play like an early beta, for example when aiming through your sights you sometimes get smooth animation, at others it just skips the animation. You also have other low-budget production issues such as a gibbed enemy, who continues screaming three seconds after being blown into oblivion, but that's a non-issue in light of all the others.

I never played the original game, so don't have any nostalgia for it or a hankering for a simplistic shooter. Most FPS are pretty straightforward of course, but this one is as simple as it gets. To some people this is a plus point, to me it makes for a "meh" experience. The first issue with the game is that it moves much too fast, even with the slowest character I was running around at speeds that gave me a headache as the slightly garish scenery spun around. But, this is the wrong definition of "fast paced" - DOOM (2016) is fast paced, and it moves a lot slower than this, yet the action is more intense because enemies don't stand there like braindead muppets. It's the right side of tricky and challenging, whereas here you might move like greased lightning but it isn't frantic when it comes to the shooting. Is it fun (ish)? In small doses it's okay, as long as you don't care for challenging AI, interesting level design, good voiceover work (it's awful here), good music, or top notch graphics. Because this has none of those things - it's a cheap and relatively cheerful game, that has had just enough effort put into it to not be totally awful, but not enough to be anything more than mediocre. The guns are all bog standard, and the only thing it really has going for it is some amusingly shonky physics and gore. The Shadow Warrior remake, despite being a bit flawed, was somewhat better than this and had more personality as well. This kind of straightforward run and gun just doesn't do enough for me though, and I prefer the likes of Bioshock, Singularity and Wolfenstein - where there's a good story and setting, or exciting weapons / powers. ROTT is a budget release, that's clearly evident in the presentation (which is rather lacking) and in its execution. If you like simplistic shooters, or can't afford something better, then there's worse games to play, though that's not much of a recommendation.

I recommend new Shadow Warrior over this

I cant believe how disappointed I am in this game. The enemies (gray) are so difficult to see against the background (gray) you have to run through a level, get shot up and on subsequent replays you have some vague ideas where the bad guys are. You don't think voice acting would be bad enough to make the experience worse - but it is. Sounds like it was recorded in a bathroom. I've a tad addicted to gog.com and have purchased many great games and a few stinkers. None have disappointed me as much as the new Rise of The Triad. Worst gog purchase ever. And its not against gog! This is just an awful awful awful game. Saying its a remake of a classic is one thing - but when its sooooo much worse than the original its hard to imagine what the devs were thinking (except for, quick, rush this POS out the door). So sad. :(

My only complaint with 'Rise Of The Triad 2013' was some clipping. Also, I liked the original because it was fun and ... ORIGINAL. Still nobody has done one quite the same. Finally, one thing I did not like about the original is it was butt-ugly pink and pixellated; I often could not see a damn thing because of the awful artwork and engine -- kind of why Doom buried it I think. And it was worse this way than Wolfenstein 3D (that I still enjoy in it's original version), graphicially speaking. But the gameplay was fun: even frustrated I would find myself continuing and making progress, like a good game should be. So far, I am done with the 1st episode and have only appreciation for the creators efforts and it is a fine addition to my library. Thanks GOG.