Preview: Rise of the Triad: Ridiculous Edition
Growing up in the 90s, I’m very familiar with Apogee thanks to their extensive shareware portfolio. I spent many afternoons playing bird of prey And dark timesbut no one compares Rise of the Triads. So of course I was excited to hear that Nightdive Studios was remaking the classic.
For those unfamiliar with the 1995 original (I’ll keep it brief so as not to be an exhaustive review of the original), Rise of the Triads start life as a sequel Wolfenstein 3D, and carry a lot of DNA. A first person shooter, with secret walls to overcome, tons of items to collect, plot structure and of course, a rocking soundtrack. In these respects, it fits well with the style of the time.
However, it improves the formula in many ways. Enemy artificial intelligence has been tweaked to do things like dodge or fake death, and loads of explosive weapons and top-notch power-ups allow you to become a one-man army. Most memorable is the level design. Elements like bouncing pads and floating pedestals added a level of verticality that other FPSs lacked of the time, and progressing your way through fireball and spike trap games is just as important as shooting the enemy. enemy. These are current standards, but go back to the day Rise of the Triads Released in 1995, it was avant-garde, pushing the genre forward.
While the plot doesn’t draw much attention beyond the intro and ending of each episode (basically setting you up on a special mission team to infiltrate a cult’s island stronghold), the That doesn’t mean the text can’t be rendered. The tone is light, with allusions and occasional jokes about item names, system announcements, and levels. This isn’t to the extent that it takes over the game, but combined with the inherent hijinx feature of bouncing pads and dynamite, it makes the game lighter and more quirky.
But that’s enough for a game that’s almost 30 years old, so what about the upcoming remake! So when I launched it, my first thought was, “Wow, did they just add WASD controls and call it a day? This feels like I remember.” Of course, as always, nostalgia makes us all look stupid. Launch the original for comparison, I see the usual remake style. In addition to modern controls and controller support, textures and textures have been improved, and the game now runs natively in Windows, rather than through DOSBox emulation.
In addition, a host of other quality-of-life enhancement features have been added. All three versions Rise of the Triads (Shareware episodes, Dark Wars series main episodes, and “Extreme” episodes) can now be selected from the main menu rather than accessed through the launcher. Support for custom campaigns is also built in now, and although I couldn’t test it properly in the demo, it does integrate with your Steam profile which means using it to play games online instead of messing around with IP addresses and port forwarding.
Most surprising, however, is the addition of a new Chapter 4, “The Hunt Goes On”. Sadly, I was only able to experience one level in the demo, but the level design feels familiar compared to the classic levels of the time. The plot also seems to start from the previous one, with the villain resurrecting in a new stronghold and finding the hero at the door.
All in all, the rough edges could have been smoothed out a bit, but the soul of the game remains untouched. Everything I loved about the original is here, more accessible than ever. For those who already own the original, there’s also easier multiplayer (hopefully multiplayer together) and a brand new episode. I’m looking forward to the full release of the game later this summer.
Apogee Entertainment preview for PC. Screenshot taken by commenter. Featured image of Apogee Entertainment.
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Growing up in the 90s, I’m very familiar with Apogee thanks to their extensive shareware portfolio. I spent many afternoons playing bird of prey And dark timesbut no one compares Rise of the Triads. So of course I was excited to hear that Nightdive Studios was remaking the classic.
For those unfamiliar with the 1995 original (I’ll keep it brief so as not to be an exhaustive review of the original), Rise of the Triads start life as a sequel Wolfenstein 3D, and carry a lot of DNA. A first person shooter, with secret walls to overcome, tons of items to collect, plot structure and of course, a rocking soundtrack. In these respects, it fits well with the style of the time.
However, it improves the formula in many ways. Enemy artificial intelligence has been tweaked to do things like dodge or fake death, and loads of explosive weapons and top-notch power-ups allow you to become a one-man army. Most memorable is the level design. Elements like bouncing pads and floating pedestals added a level of verticality that other FPSs of the time lacked, and progressing your way through fireballs and spike traps is just as important as shooting enemies. enemy. These are current standards, but go back to the day Rise of the Triads Released in 1995, it was avant-garde, pushing the genre forward.
While the plot doesn’t draw much attention beyond the intro and ending of each episode (basically setting you up on a special mission team to infiltrate a cult’s island stronghold), the That doesn’t mean the text can’t be rendered. The tone is light, with allusions and occasional jokes about item names, system announcements, and levels. This isn’t to the extent that it takes over the game, but combined with the inherent hijinx feature of bouncing pads and dynamite, it makes the game lighter and more quirky.
But that’s enough for a game that’s almost 30 years old, so what about the upcoming remake! So when I launched it, my first thought was, “Wow, did they just add WASD controls and call it a day? This feels like I remember.” Of course, as always, nostalgia makes us all look stupid. Launch the original for comparison, I see the usual remake style. In addition to modern controls and controller support, textures and textures have been improved, and the game now runs natively in Windows, rather than through DOSBox emulation.
In addition, a host of other quality-of-life enhancement features have been added. All three versions Rise of the Triads (Shareware episodes, Dark Wars series main episodes, and “Extreme” episodes) can now be selected from the main menu rather than accessed through the launcher. Support for custom campaigns is also built in now, and although I couldn’t test it properly in the demo, it does integrate with your Steam profile which means using it to play games online instead of messing around with IP addresses and port forwarding.
Most surprising, however, is the addition of a new Chapter 4, “The Hunt Goes On”. Sadly, I was only able to experience one level in the demo, but the level design feels familiar compared to the classic levels of the time. The plot that seemed to start from the previous one stopped, with the villain respawning in a new stronghold and finding the hero on his doorstep.
All in all, the rough edges could have been smoothed out a bit, but the soul of the game remains untouched. Everything I loved about the original is here, more accessible than ever. For those who already own the original, there’s also easier multiplayer (hopefully multiplayer together) and a brand new episode. I’m looking forward to the full release of the game later this summer.
Apogee Entertainment preview for PC. Screenshot taken by commenter. Featured image of Apogee Entertainment.