Rise of the Triad: Dark War

I remember when this game came out in 1995. I saw some review praising the realism and great gameplay - what a joke. Two years after DooM (and a year after DooM][), Rise of the Triad was game running on slightly modified engine from Wolfenstein3D - levels made from "square blocks", unlike Wolfenstein you could now have parallaxed ceiling of variable height (but the the same height for whole level). So from technical side it was a huge leap back. Graphics were outdated, even when they used live actors to make them and sound effects are .. weak, as if someone was impersonating various sounds instead of recording them. But people don't play games on GOG for their technical inovations, right? What about the gameplay? Well it sucks. It plays worse than aforementioned Wolfenstein, with some cool ideas and some very poor ideas. For example many traps were well implemented, however jumping and picking up ankhs as in some 3D Sonic? Story came from scrapped ideas for DooM (as do names of the PCs) and the level design is one of the worst I have seen. I played the game for some time and yet I could not tell one level from another - they just look so similar. DooM (1993),Duke Nukem 3D (1996), Quake (1996) - they all had their unique feel on many levels, unlike RotT. Some crazy ideas (god mode versus dog mode, shrooms) and pretty violence does not make a good game. RotT is not a complete let-down but there are so many better games that you have no reason to play this one.

It works perfectly, good old memories, I would love this game to support xbox controller but it is ok.

This game is a classic, it's very fun, it has interesting mechanics such as being able to turn into a dog, interesting humor and great gunplay, however, the final boss level is plagued with an issue in which it crashed multiple times when I was about to kill him, it got to the point where I uninstalled the game, and as such it makes playing the game frustrating and joyless.

I find it hard to write an actual review for this game, cause of how sweet it is. To put it into perspective, think of the most over the top movie you've ever watched, and Rise of the Triad is essentially it's counterpart of the FPS genre of video games, if not all video games in general. For me, Robert Rodriguez's 'Planet Terror' comes to mind. Both are excessively violent, super over the top and tongue in cheek, feature guns galore, and did I mention the extreme gore? Basically, I'm just gonna list some of ROTT's insane features, and if that doesn't compel you to buy it, I'm not sure what will. -God Mode, where you turn 10 feet tall, become invulnerable, and shoot explosive projectiles from your hand. -Dog Mode, where you turn into a dog and chew your enemy to death, or emit a sonic bark that makes enemies explode. -Excalibat, a glowing Louisville Slugger that can either: A. Hit enemies and turn them into a pile of mush. B. Send projectiles back at enemies. C. Fire a barrage of explosive baseballs. -Drunk Rockets, I laughed for about 5 minutes when I got this weapon. It's just a rocket launcher that shoots a few rockets in every which direction, stumbling everywhere like a drunk. -Shrooms. Mario took shrooms to get bigger, in ROTT, shrooms make enemies flash colors, the sound begins to echo, the screen shakes, and other trippy effects begin to happen, so basically, the character just uses drugs. There's no benefit, other than lots of laughter. -Soundtrack. An absolute rockin' soundtrack composed by none other than Lee Jackson. Better yet, GOG gives you the soundtrack for free, so you can put it on your iPod or whatnot. I love these guys at GOG. -Humor. The game is just so funny, in so many ways. I'm not even going to take the time to list any, cause you'll be laughing about something within the first minute of play. There's so much more I could list, but I honestly want to get back to playing. The game will take you a long time to beat, since there are over 100 levels, not counting multiplayer, available to you. Count Multiplayer, at least 200. So what are you waiting for? If you're in the mood for a gory, funny, rockin romp through 90's FPS action, get this. I'd also recommend Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, Redneck Rampage, and the Blake Stone series for other FPS's.

After some deliberation, I decided to give ROTT a 5 star, even if some aspect of the game are still up for debate.. but let's talk about in order! First and foremost, ROTT is, well, simply iconic, a doom-like (or more Wolfenstein like, since it was supposed to be its direct successor), with a gameplay PACKED with action ( so much that to make it fair, they give a bullet-weapon with infinite ammo), its soundtrack is probably the most famous of all time ( won several awards, if I am not mistaken) and its multiplayer was the first to have 11 players. The gameplay can be summarized in : choose your character, jump with trampolines, find keys and avoid traps (a huge part in this game) in maps designed from incredible! developers (like Tom Hall), while killing a good variety of goons and cultists with unique and fun weapons to do it (there are 2 upgrades to your starting gun and one slot reserved for the ''special one''). All of this while accompanied with the most ICONIC music to ever grazed the earth, such as ''Hellero'' and ''Going down the fast way'' ( there way too many to mention all of them) : absolute masterpieces for the all the game industry to follow. So, why the insecurity? ROTT suffers mainly for two aspect : the technical part (at least in its time, since all its competitors had superior graphic engine) and repetition and frustration in a long play (although this may be subjective). In conclusion, Rise of the triad : dark war is something to definitely have in your library, both as a retrò gamer, nostalgic fan or someone that just adores good ol' FPS game. So, Let the HUNT begins!