Interceptor just released a remake of the classic Rise of the Triad today! I had already pre-ordered the game earlier so i got to install it right away. Also, if you had pre-ordered the game you got the original Rise of the Triad for free as well.

If you don't know what Rise of the Triad is, it's a very classic First Person Shooter built on the original Wolfenstein 3D engine. it was released by Apogee back in 1994. It was originally planned to be called Wolfenstein 2: Rise of the Triad.

I've only played it for about an hour but here's what i think so far:

Since it's built on the Unreal Engine you can expect a lot of similarity in the way it performs. It's got great visuals and performance, i maxed everything out and it's smooth as hell on 60 fps. However it's got the usual physics/collision issues you get with unreal engine games. the more complex the graphics and models, the more clunky the collisions with them are. most of the environment is static so you can't interact much, even a flag i tried to walk passed acted like a brick wall. i get stuck on the edges of things often.

As for the game itself, it's very true to the original. Linear level progression in episodic form, it's got the moving platforms, the coin collecting, secrets and tons of great weapons. However it uses a limited weapon inventory system, you get a pistol, a machine (both have infinite ammo) and 1 explosive weapon with limited ammo. The enemies can also steal your explosive weapon and use it against you. This is really the hardest part about the game so far. Since if they grab it and shoot a rocket at you, there goes half your life, and the heals are small and far apart. However if you keep your distance, it's pretty damn easy. (i'm playing on Hard right now) The enemies are just soldiers that have either a pistol or machine gun (unless they steal your big weapon) They usually die in 2 pistol shots, or a few machine bullets, the explosives usually have to him them directly or it won't do much to them, causing you to end up using more explosives than you would if you used the machine gun. (also rockets hit obstacles too easily, even if it doesn't look like it should)

The level design is pretty classic as well. It's interesting, it's got switches, moving platforms, exploding barrels, a lot of Doom-like elements really. (i even found a BFG easter egg lol) However i have one complaint about the level design. it's very narrow. Not too linear, it's got a few alternate paths and secrets but the width of the spaces is pretty small so even though you move really fast, you don't have much space to move. Add the clunky collisions into this design and it can get pretty annoying just to move around and getting stuck on everything. The moving platforms barely work. if they come down from above onto your head, the camera will freak out. While your own one, if there is another platform above you as it's rising, it will push you off of the moving platform, this gets frustrating and takes a few attempts just to get up on the next damn platform.

Overall the game is pretty fun though. my only concern is how easy it is, which is completely unlike the original. I expected it to be ball-breaking hard, so i started on Normal but it was too easy. I switched to Hard and didn't even notice a difference. I'm only on the 3rd level but still i expected some challenge on Hard at least. I'll continue to play and see if it gets any more difficult, i would expect it to. The enemy AI is pretty simple, a bit too simple for a game of this realistic visual quality. The only attempt at adding difficulty i noticed was that you cannot save within a level. This means if you die, you gotta restart the level over again. That's a bit repetitive but i guess it does make it harder. It'll also stop me from quick-saving every 2 seconds (which i do in Doom/quake way too often and definitely makes the games easier) so you do have to be more careful in this game. The main reason they probably did this was because of the online co-op being such a big focus of the game.

Also i don't know if it's just me but i have difficulties playing realistic looking games with a lot of complex models. It feels like sensory overload, there's just so much to look at and it's very difficult for me to find my way around and stay focused on the action. I even have trouble finding the damn enemies, it feels like they're so tiny compared to the vastness of the graphics. It's even worse on this particular game because of how fast you move, i feel almost motion sick but the high frame rate and the fast movement. I think Serious Sam 3 and Painkiller got it right with keeping the player movement quite slow. The higher the quality of graphics, the more stress it seems to put on my mind when looking at it. Fast is classic, and fun but it just doesn't work well with these complex graphics. Maybe that's just me though.

Well that's it for now. I'm off to play some more. I just wanted to spread the news around about this game, we don't get a whole lot of classic shooters anymore. The game is available on steam right here for $14.99 (USD)

Rise of the Triad (Steam)

Edit: Update: there is no online co-op at all. Online servers are not connecting either. It is death match only for multiplayer.