Rise of the Triad: Dark War

The Good
First and foremost, ROTT is an extremely fun game. It's a straightforward first-person shooter with a lot going for it. Many of its weapons are very original and generally fun to use. Humorous touches are everywhere, especially in the sound effects. The game's 40 or so levels are usually longer than those in most other first-person shooters released in the early '90s. The music, while not always completely fitting, is well composed. I have not had a chance to try out the multiplayer mode, but with the wealth of game types and levels available to choose from, I'm sure it's a blast. Plus, there's just something about this game that makes it terribly addictive...

The Bad
The ROTT engine can best be described as a mix of Wolfenstein and Doom, with some strange results. While the levels are more interesting and memorable than those in Wolfenstein, they're a lot less interesting and memorable than those in Doom. "Level" would be a better description for these than "area" or "place". On the other hand, they do play pretty well. The color pallette is pretty drab, and the game doesn't include a huge number of textures. Also, some of the enemies are pretty easy, while some are much too tough (for example, the grenade-throwing, machine gun-toting officers who can take 10 times the damage of most other enemies). While there are a large number of weapons at your disposal, you'll end up using the dull machine gun most of the time because of its unlimited ammunition capacity. Too bad.

The Bottom Line
Most people have forgotten about Rise of the Triad, which is a shame, because it's so much fun to play. It's not Doom, but it's almost as addictive. The shareware version is available all over the web- give it a shot.

The Good
Originally conceived as the sequel to Wolfenstein 3D, the production shifted into a unique project some way through. Although it uses an exponentially-enhanced Wolf3D engine, you'd never be able to tell -- the graphics were some of the best of their time, beating Doom in a lot of regards.

The gameplay featured several playable characters, each part of a super-elite A-Team type of task force assigned with eliminating a cult of Nazi-like crazies. The AI was world-class for its time -- enemies duck, roll, play dead, and steal your weapons. The sheer array of destructive weapons is enough to keep anyone entertained -- heat-seeking missiles, firewalls, fire-and-forget energy balls, and several others make this one of the best shooter arsenals ever created. Campy humor permeates the games: fantastic gore and exclamations of "Ludicrous gibs!" reward the player for well-aimed missile attacks; the characters dress in costumes for different holidays; psychedelic mushrooms are featured as a power-up, causing the player to become disoriented and see colors.

Where other games of the time took themselves seriously, Rise of the Triad made the FPS seriously fun.

The Bad
The overall campy tone of the game meant that it lacked suspense in some areas where it would have benefited. A lot of the levels start to get repetitive, and considering the sheer number of them, it gets a little boring. Although there are five playable characters, there is no discernible difference in playing one over the other. The textures can be bland at times, and some of the sprites are altogether too cheesy (see end boss El Oscuro's grimace of pain).

The Bottom Line
One of the many legitimate games that fell victim to the "Doom-clone" curse; it's been done before, but never this fun and this destructive.

The Good
Rise of the Triad was originally being made by Apogee(now more well-known as 3d Realms) as a followup to the game that really began the FPS genre(though itself wasn't the first), Wolfenstein 3d. However, the development soon changed and Rise of the Triad was changed to become it's own game...and that was a great thing!...where as today, Wolfenstein 3d simply isn't really much fun anymore, being far too repetitive, Rise of the Triad is done with just the right amount of imagination, surreal atmosphere and lack of seriousness that it still is a fun game even today, if you don't mind the dated graphics.

One of ROTT's more "popular" features was an un-equaled amount of gore for it's time. However, the gore is done in a delightfully cheesy way, with such features as blowing an enemy up causing blood 'n an eyeball to fly at the screen followed by a comment at the top such as..."Ludicrous gibs!" However, if anyone is disturbed by this cartoonish by today's standards violence, they can easily turn it down.

Despite the fact that this game is too old for actual jumping to be a possibility, Rise of the Triad could almost be considered by me as a first-person shooter that doubles as something of a platform game. This is because of a variety of circular pads that jumped you up, floated or acted as either elevators or "trains", referred to as "gads". Fun features from this are splattering enemies(who can use the gads too) by falling on them, and the fairly unknown REAL origin of "rocket-jumping".

As said before, Rott's humorous and surreal atmosphere really adds to the game, and you can just see the fun the designers had, even using their voices and likenesses for some of the game's enemies, yelling strangely funny things such as "Eat lead!" But seriously, what other computer game can you not only fire a variety of guns, but also use a baseball bat, and not only have a power-up for GOD-mode, but also DOG-mode?...Any it is a very...different...god-mode, where you become 10 ft. tall and emit entity-like groans as you throw power-balls!

The Bad
Rise of the Triad actually uses the same, but much more advanced, technology as Wolfenstein 3d. This means that while there is now many areas where you are under the sky instead of the same old ceiling height all through, a larger "pallet" of colors, and some more interaction with the environment...there is NOOOO tilted or angled walls. This is the only really major thing that kept ROTT from the fame it deserved. Damn...

The Bottom Line
Even with limited technology, Rise of the Triad is still a very unique and fun game that should be highly suggested to fans of the classic older first person shooters...if they haven't played it already...