Originally Released: June 7th, 2014 ------------------------------------------ The guys at Apogee were keenly aware when making this game that there was no way they could top Doom, so instead of going for something with a serious tone they decided to stand out in a different way: By being as LUDICROUS as possible! 8D Also, random level generator and massive array of multiplayer game modes. This wasn't a "Doom-killer" but it managed to co-exist with Doom surprisingly well given the relative simplicity of its underlying game engine. ------------------------------------------ Additional Information and Corrections: * Here's a link for any of you who want to pick up Rise of the Triad on the Good Old Games website: http://www.gog.com/game/rise_of_the_triad__dark_war/?pp=91dfde1d6e005e422f64a59776234f1f4c80b5e4 * Technically, the registered version "Dark War" was released partway into 1995, not 1994, as 1994 was when the initial shareware version was released. Kind of a bold move to offer up the shareware copy before the registered version was even ready to go! :o * It's possible having the player cap at 11 was a reference to Spinal Tap, but based on a more recent (2023) set of tweets from the original devs over on Twitter it seems the real reason may simply have been that 11 players fit best on-screen for the multiplayer score results. :P * There's no cooperative gameplay in the multiplayer mode. I have no idea why they left out something like that but again, I think it's related to the limitations they were pushing and the design of the engine. Then again, the IPX networking support absolutely requires one system be set up as a dedicated server. Basically, while the multiplayer support in the game does have a lot to it, it's also got some unusual quirks. * I've never actually played the shareware version of this game... Turns out the levels in the shareware version are completely different from the levels in the registered version! ...technically. You can actually play the shareware levels in the registered version by choosing the appropriate alternate levels file in the setup program. This is also how you access "Extreme Rise of the Triad", if you installed it separately or if it came included with your copy of the game. (The GOG release does indeed include Extreme!) * Even though the game is split up into episodes you're not allowed to play those episodes out of order like with other first person shooters of the time. * One of the features I didn't mention is that the game actually has some comedically descriptive difficulty selections which are different each time you select your difficulty. Also when you quit, there's various flavours of ways the game will kill you for quitting, accompanied by an appropriate sound bite. ;) * I somehow managed to completely miss capturing any footage of the Dark Staff in action during the regular gameplay, thus I had to go back and use cheat codes so that I'd be able to show it in action. I was thinking of doing that with the Knife, except because enemies are somewhat random it would've been difficult and annoying to find one that would use a net. :/ * I neglected to talk about the "minor issues" I mentioned. One of these revolves around crashes which can be triggered in relation to some of the powerups like God Mode. Although most of these crashes were fixed through patches, a few still linger. There's also a handful of spots in some of the level designs where you can get yourself trapped and have to reload or restart the game. The zoom controls on the automap are also reversed with + zooming out and - zooming in. Again, it's all minor stuff really. ------------------------------------------ Pixelmusement Website: http://www.pixelships.com ADG on Pixelmusement: http://www.pixelships.com/adg Alphabetical Index of ADG Episodes: http://www.pixelships.com/adg/index2.html