Review

Rise of the Triad

Nostalgia is often seen as a great “tool” used to sell entertainment media. It’s one of the reasons we are seeing so many remakes and reboots in the gaming industry today. What people fail to realize is that nostalgia is a double edged sword. On one side it can cut through the sequel ridden gaming landscape, offering fond memories and classic gameplay. On the other side, revisiting the source of our nostalgia may reveal to us that many of our past gaming experiences only seemed pleasant because we had not yet been exposed to better  game design; it can cut real deep when an old game fails to live up to the hype it once carried. Rise of the Triad (ROTT), developed by Interceptor Entertainment, unfortunately falls toward the latter end of that sword.

In ROTT gamers play as a member of HUNT (High-risk United Nations Task-Force). Their latest mission has them exploring an island fortress in hopes of taking down an evil Triad group comprised of Nazis. Right, so the story doesn’t make any sense, but that’s not the point. The point of the game is to offer up frantic action, absurd weapons, and over-the-top everything – essentially the elements that can be found in most old school shooters. And on a basic level, Interceptor Entertainment did a great job emulating those features. Within seconds of playing I reverted back to older tactics; I’d opt to strafe in one direction while shooting in another as opposed to hiding behind cover. Running to grab a health pack (in this case tasty porridge) instead of relying on an auto-heal made firefights intense. Also, rocket jumping up to a high platform before laying waste to enemies below always equated to a good time. Then there is the thick layer of cheesiness that covers everything from the campy vibe to the silly dialogue. Hearing one-liners pulled straight from an 80’s action flick was a treat.

With all that said, what bothered me about the game was that instead of making a modern version of ROTT, the developers created the same game from 1994 just with better level designs and somewhat updated graphics. Now before you roll your eyes, I know that the point of creating this remake was to give gamers an old school shooter. Obviously it’s only going to appeal to a certain group of gamers. The thing is, I’m actually part of the target audience. I cut my FPS teeth on Doom and continued to play games like Duke Nukem, Serious Sam, Quake, and others back in the day. The difference here is that some of the old stuff that I liked in the past doesn’t work with newer games. Take the speed for instance. ROTT moves extremely fast compared to other shooters; it’s like I’m wearing rocket boots or something. While that worked in the past, moving super-fast now through tight corridors made me dizzy on more than one occasion. I don’t know if this is because of the upgrade in the graphics (this doesn’t happen when I play the older version) or not, but I had to limit my playtime  for fear of tossing my cookies.

Another thing that doesn’t work is the game’s AI. Back in the day it was ok for the enemies to stand in one spot and shoot at you. That’s not the case today. For one, it can be tough to see where you are getting shot from. Since the enemies blend in to the background, it can take a couple trips around a courtyard while getting shot at before finding the adversary. Add to this the fact that the Nazis have impeccable aim and you can start to see how this could become frustrating. To be fair, not all the enemies you encounter stand in one spot. Some will run at you, emptying their magazines before running up and taking your weapon from you. Still, most of the time is spent figuring out who’s shooting you and from where. The stand and shoot tactic also doesn’t work nowadays because it’s too easy to run through the opposition. I’ve been battling hordes of enemies that move and react to my actions for years, making it quite easy to dispatch the foes in ROTT.

Then there is the overall lack of polish. For whatever reason, I often found myself getting stuck in the environment, unable to move. I’d strafe to the left or right to avoid incoming fire and get trapped in the wall or behind a barrel, with the only way to fix it being to restart the checkpoint. Additionally, the HUD doesn’t work as it should when it comes to indicating how I’m taking damage. It would depict incoming fire from in front of me when in fact I was being blasted from behind. This of course, would further confuse me when I was trying to figure out where the shots were originating from. When I did find my attacker, depending on where I was standing, I’d shoot at them only to hit an invisible wall. At first this wasn’t an issue as this happens all the time in modern shooters. What frustrated me are the times when an enemy is clearly standing a few feet away from an object, yet my bullets are still being blocked by said object. They’ll be right out in the open and I’d have to walk around to avoid hitting this transparent barrier – oh but they can still shoot me of course.

Now I must stress that Rise of the Triad isn’t a bad game. A lot of the elements that I didn’t enjoy were placed in the game for a reason. Speeding through levels, getting kills, racking up points all in the name of fun – these elements gives the decision to include a frenzied pace and weak enemy AI some merit. As I stated earlier, I understand the point was to create a true to form remake. I just personally didn’t enjoy the old school mechanics as much as I’d hoped. The difference between games like Serious Sam 3: BFE and this one is that BFE was made in a way that it emulated the best of what old school shooters had to offer without bringing along the problems that plagued them. It still offered the hyperactive in-your-face craziness of old, but it also added a modern treatment to its design philosophy.

Even if I really enjoyed the way the game played, it’s still hindered by bugs. Which is a shame because a lot of fun could be had here; the level designs are much better than the original and are filled with secrets, it controls well, and the multiplayer isn’t bad. Speaking of which, the mp modes like DM, TDM, and Capture the Flag offer up some exciting moments as dedicated servers make sure there isn’t much (if any) lag. These modes also feature leaderboards, stat tracking, chat rooms, a spectator mode and more. With extra modes coming by way of free DLC, playing with others is one of the best reasons to load the game in Steam!

I’m sure fans of the original will be able to overlook everything I complained about. Plus, the price of admission is low and I’m sure a patch or two could iron out some (all) of the bugs. That said, you should proceed with caution because, as of right now, there are better old school remakes out there!