''Rise of the Triad: Dark War'' is a
first-person shooter
First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the p ...
video game, developed and published by Apogee Software (now
3D Realms
3D Realms Entertainment ApS is a video game publisher based in Aalborg, Denmark. Scott Miller (entrepreneur), Scott Miller founded the company in his parents' home in Garland, Texas, in 1987 as Apogee Software Productions to release his game ' ...
) in 1995. The player can choose one of five different characters to play as, each bearing unique attributes such as height, speed, and endurance. The game's story follows these five characters who have been sent to investigate a deadly cult, and soon become aware of a deadly plot to destroy a nearby city.
Its remake was designed by
Interceptor Entertainment
Slipgate Ironworks ApS (formerly Interceptor Entertainment ApS and Slipgate Studios ApS) is a Danish video game developer based in Aalborg, founded in 2010 by Frederik Schreiber.
History
Interceptor Entertainment was founded in 2010 by mana ...
and released by Apogee Games in 2013. The
shareware version of the game is titled ''Rise of the Triad: The HUNT Begins''.
The game began as a follow-up game to ''
Wolfenstein 3D
''Wolfenstein 3D'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software and FormGen. Originally released on May 5, 1992, for DOS, it was inspired by the 1981 Muse Software video game '' Castle Wolfe ...
'', but was soon altered and became a stand-alone game. It includes both single-player and multi-player functions, allowing individuals to connect with other gamers and tackle missions as a team. It is powered by a modified version of the ''
Wolfenstein 3D
''Wolfenstein 3D'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software and FormGen. Originally released on May 5, 1992, for DOS, it was inspired by the 1981 Muse Software video game '' Castle Wolfe ...
'' engine and it was supposed to be called ''Wolfenstein 3D II: the Rise of the Triad''. The idea was scrapped by
id Software
id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: game programmer, programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer T ...
and Apogee Software bought the license of that game.
Gameplay
Like most early first-person shooter games, the single-player mode's objective is to collect keys in order to proceed through the
levels. Occasionally, special tactics and simple problem-solving skills are required to reach locations. Although most levels are fairly linear, there are some maps which have multiple exits.
The player chooses between five characters: Taradino Cassatt, Thi Barrett, Lorelei Ni, Doug Wendt, and Ian Paul Freeley. The characters differ in three characteristics:
hit point
Health is an attribute in a video game or tabletop game that determines the maximum amount of damage or loss of stamina that a character or object can take before dying or losing consciousness. In role-playing games, this typically takes the f ...
s, speed, and accuracy. Taradino Cassatt is the only character available in the shareware version of the game and has average statistics: average hit points, average speed, average accuracy.
Certain enemies can beg for their life if they take enough damage, or fake their death. Some enemies dodge the player's attacks, while others lie on the ground to ambush the player. Other enemies can shoot nets to restrain the player, or steal and use weapons from the player. There are also four
bosses. All enemies are
digitized actors, mostly played by Apogee employees and their friends and family.
On random occasions, there are an especially large amount of
gibs produced when an enemy is killed, presenting the player with a "Ludicrous Gibs!" message. The amount of gibs can be controlled through the options menu, which allows the player to set the graphics to various levels of goriness, from completely bloodless to extreme.
There are 13 weapons in the game, divided into three groups: bullet weapons (using infinite ammunition), missile weapons (using limited ammunition), and magic weapons. The missile weapons constitute the bulk of the arsenal, and usually have a wide area of effect. Magic weapons, like missile weapons, hold limited ammunition. Players can carry a total of four weapons at once: all three bullet weapons (a single pistol, dual pistols, and a submachine gun) and either a missile or a magic weapon.
Only one
power-up can be active at once, and power-up effects last for a limited time.
Jump pads catapult a player in the air. By stepping onto one, the player character is propelled straight up, while by running up to it the player character can make long jumps. Jump pads are often required for getting past certain obstacles or reaching a ledge to retrieve a key. They can also be used for collecting powerups and bonuses.
Destructible objects such as ornaments or plants may block secret doors. If light poles and firepots are shot, the area dims. Glass can be shattered by shooting or running through it.
Bonuses are awarded for various achievements whenever a level is completed. Examples are picking up all the missile weapons in a level, using all the healing items, or ending a level with minimal hit points remaining.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer mode (called COMM-BAT in the game) allows up to eleven players simultaneously. Each can have separate uniform colors, but in team mode, teams are defined by uniform color.
There are nine multiplayer modes. These include a standard
deathmatch mode, and the similar "Score More", which assigns different points depending on the weapon and way that a kill was done. Other modes consist of collecting or destroying as many triad symbols as possible. There are a few "tag" multiplayer modes, similar to the
children's game
This is a list of games that used to be played by children, some of which are still being played today. Traditional children's games do not include commercial products such as board games but do include games which require props such as hopscotch ...
, where a player must tag another player or moving symbols. There is also a "Hunter" mode, in which a "prey" player with no weapons has to be hunted by the rest, and a
capture the flag
Capture the flag (CTF) is a traditional outdoor sport where two or more teams each have a flag (or other markers) and the objective is to capture the other team's flag, located at the team's "base", and bring it safely back to their own base. ...
mode. Options that can be set for a multiplayer game include player attributes, and whether or not health refills, missile weapons, or traps are spawned.
Plot
A team of special operatives, known as the HUNT (High-risk United Nations Task-force) is sent to
San Nicolas Island
San Nicolas Island ( Spanish: ''Isla de San Nicolás''; Tongva: ''Haraasnga'') is the most remote of the Channel Islands, off of Southern California, 61 miles (98 km) from the nearest point on the mainland coast. It is part of Ventura Cou ...
to investigate deadly cult activity taking place in an ancient monastery. Their boat, the only way back, is destroyed by patrols, and the team soon learns that the cult plans to systematically destroy nearby
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
. The operatives, now unable to return whence they came, are then left to fight their way into the monastery on the island, and eventually put a stop to the cult's activities.
During its early stages of development, ''Rise of the Triad'' was initially meant to serve as the sequel to ''
Wolfenstein 3D
''Wolfenstein 3D'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software and FormGen. Originally released on May 5, 1992, for DOS, it was inspired by the 1981 Muse Software video game '' Castle Wolfe ...
'', titled ''Wolfenstein 3D II: Rise of the Triad''. The presence of the
Walther PP
The Walther PP (german: Polizeipistole, or police pistol) series pistols are blowback-operated semi-automatic pistols, developed by the German arms manufacturer Carl Walther GmbH Sportwaffen.
It features an exposed hammer, a traditional double-a ...
pistol, the
MP 40
The MP 40 (''Maschinenpistole 40'') is a submachine gun chambered for the 9×19mm Parabellum cartridge. It was developed in Nazi Germany and used extensively by the Axis powers during World War II.
Designed in 1938 by Heinrich Vollmer with in ...
submachine gun, the
Bazooka
Bazooka () is the common name for a man-portable recoilless anti-tank rocket launcher weapon, widely deployed by the United States Army, especially during World War II. Also referred to as the "stovepipe", the innovative bazooka was among the ...
, and the outfits worn by the enemies allude to
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
and imply the original aforementioned intent for the development of ''ROTT''.
Development history
Original concept
''Rise of the Triad'' began its life as a follow-up to ''Wolfenstein 3D'' (though it reportedly shares some similarities with Hall's "Doom Bible", which laid out Hall's conception of the video game ''Doom'' and even shares the name of one of the protagonists). The working titles of the game were ''Wolfenstein II''
and ''Wolfenstein 3D: Rise of the Triad''.
It was to use the same game engine code as ''Wolfenstein 3D'', and have new levels, art, and characters. The artwork took around six months to do.
As the game was getting into deeper development, project leader
Scott Miller was contacted by
John Romero
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
, informing Miller that the project had been cancelled. Miller suspected that this was because
id Software
id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: game programmer, programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer T ...
did not want to draw the spotlight away from their upcoming game, ''
Doom
Doom is another name for damnation.
Doom may also refer to:
People
* Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed
* Daniel Doom (born 1934), Belgian cyclist
* Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitcher
* ...
''.
In order to keep as many of the numerous game assets the team had already created from going to waste, Tom Hall came up with a new storyline which still incorporated the Nazi themes seen in the Wolfenstein series.
According to the Apogee website, the original storyline was the following:
After the fall of Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
, the true powers behind him have drawn into seclusion, planning their next strategy for world domination. Three large corporations guided Hitler as a puppet, and now plan the subjugation of the planet to their organization, the Triad. Their new plan: having developed nuclear weapons and new V-3 rockets to carry them, they plan to get a stranglehold on the world with the threat of Armageddon
According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Armageddon (, from grc, Ἁρμαγεδών ''Harmagedōn'', Late Latin: , from Hebrew: ''Har Məgīddō'') is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies ...
.
Engine
The engine is an enhanced variant of the
Wolfenstein 3D engine
''Wolfenstein 3D'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software and FormGen. Originally released on May 5, 1992, for DOS, it was inspired by the 1981 Muse Software video game ''Castle Wolfenst ...
. The level design uses 90-degree walls and unvarying floor and ceiling heights in individual maps, limitations that are vestiges of the Wolfenstein 3D engine. However, the ''Rise of the Triad'' engine also includes features not possible with the original Wolfenstein 3D engine, such as elevation, panoramic skies, simulated
dynamic lighting
Computer graphics lighting is the collection of techniques used to simulate light in computer graphics scenes. While lighting techniques offer flexibility in the level of detail and functionality available, they also operate at different levels of ...
, fog, bullet holes, breakable glass walls, and level-over-level environments (made possible by "gravitational anomaly disks", suspended objects that collectively form stairs, floors, etc.). The level layouts were created with Tile Editor version 5 (TED5), which was also released with "Extreme Rise of the Triad" for users to customize their own maps.
[Apogee Software September 1996 Catalog, Page 7.]
Developers of Incredible Power
The team behind ''Rise of the Triad'' called itself The Developers of Incredible Power (DIP). Its name was created by
Tom Hall
Tom Hall is an American game designer best known for his work with id Software on titles such as '' Doom'' and ''Commander Keen''.
Career
Hall attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he earned a B.S. in Computer Science. In 1987 ...
, the lead designer of ''ROTT''. Other members of DIP included Mark Dochtermann, Jim Dosé, Steve Hornback, Chuck Jones, Nolan Martin, Tim Neveu, William Scarboro, Joseph Selinske, Susan Singer, and Marianna Vayntrub. ''Rise of the Triad'' was the only game released by DIP. A second game that was planned, ''
Prey
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...
'', never took off, but its title and parts of the original design were eventually recycled by
Human Head Studios
Human Head Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer located in Madison, Wisconsin.
History
Human Head Studios was founded in October 1997 by a group of six developers formerly from Raven Software: Ben Gokey, Chris Rhinehart, Paul ...
. The team was disbanded, and some of the members worked on the bestseller ''Duke Nukem 3D''. Others started their own companies or left the computer games business. Scarboro died from an asthma attack in 2002.
Cut elements
Several planned elements were cut from the game, including female versions of certain enemies, like Low Guards, Strike Force soldiers, and the Overpatrol. Originally the game was going to load both sets of guards into memory, then determine randomly which to place at each appropriate point. This had the side effect of making memory requirements much higher than normal for the time, so in order to conserve performance, the alternate versions of the enemies were removed. Stills of the alternate enemies can be seen during the credits, as "actors who were cut from the game". Other cuts survived, like the ROTT Reject Level Pack (stages that were cut) and some artwork (some can be found on the CD). There is a motion capture session that was not used in the final game, but can be found online.
Release
Game releases
As most Apogee games, the game was distributed as
shareware, with the first episode released for free. The shareware episode, which contains ten original levels, is titled ''Rise of the Triad: The HUNT Begins''. This version has some limitations, including the ability to play only as Taradino Cassatt, and the availability of only four of the multiplayer modes. A "Deluxe Edition" of the shareware version, marketed in retail by LaserSoft, contains three extra levels, and three extra multiplayer levels that are not available on any other version.
There were several versions of the full or paid game, which included three new episodes. The floppy disk and CD versions both contain 32 game levels for the three new episodes, with the CD version containing more multiplayer levels. Site License version contains several multiplayer levels, and allowed the game to be played in multiplayer mode in up to 11 different computers in a single network, without each requiring a different copy of the game.
In 2009, ''Rise of the Triad'' was released on
GOG.com
GOG.com (formerly Good Old Games) is a digital distribution platform for video games and films. It is operated by GOG sp. z o.o., a wholly owned subsidiary of CD Projekt based in Warsaw, Poland. GOG.com delivers DRM-free video games through it ...
through
DOSBox
DOSBox is a free and open-source emulator which runs software for MS-DOS compatible disk operating systems—primarily video games. It was first released in 2002, when DOS technology was becoming obsolete. Its adoption for running DOS games i ...
, making it compatible with
Microsoft Windows,
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...
, and
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
.
On September 6, 2020, during 3D Realms "Realms Deep 2020" livestream, the game was shown running on
Nintendo Switch and confirmed for other modern platforms for a 2021 release.
Expansion packs
On July 25, 1995, Apogee released a ''Reject Level Pack'' as freeware online. This pack was a collection of multiplayer maps deemed unsuitable for the original release. Some of these were serious attempts at levels (one even attempted to recreate a popular deathmatch level ((1-5) from ''Doom''), and some were not (like one played inside the popular character
Dopefish). The final level of the pack causes the game to crash intentionally.
There was an official retail add-on level pack released by Apogee for ''ROTT'' entitled ''Extreme Rise of the Triad'' also released in 1995. The add-on was produced by two key members from the original team, Tom Hall and Joe Siegler. Generally the maps produced in this add-on are considerably harder than the original game's maps due to tricks that Hall and Siegler had learned in the editor since the release of the original. It also includes some user made level editors, a random level generator from Apogee, maps, and sound files. The levels were released as
freeware
Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for t ...
on September 1, 2000. The remaining materials on the ''Extreme ROTT'' CD were released as freeware online as part of a "ROTT Goodies Pack" on February 15, 2005.
There were a few other level packs released from Apogee, including ''Lasersoft Deluxe Shareware Maps''. They are identical to the released shareware packs, except that they include six exclusive levels. After Lasersoft went out of business, Apogee released these levels in October 1999.
Another was a level called "Wolf3D", which was done by Siegler as an exercise to see if he could replicate the level geography from ''Wolfenstein 3D'' in ''Rise of the Triad'', as ''Rise of the Triad'' uses the same basic game engine. The level copies the complete level geography from Episode 1 Level 1 of ''Wolfenstein 3D''. Some of the adjoining levels were added, but not completely.
The final release from Hall and Siegler was the "Ohio RTC" pack. This is a four level multiplayer pack which was designed for a group in Ohio that was holding a game tournament called 'BloodFest 96'. After the tournament was over, the pack was released online for everyone.
The final level to be released by anyone from the original team was one level done by Siegler called "You & Spray" (Spray was an internal nickname given to the NME boss character by the developers). This was done by Siegler as a gag in 1998, mostly as a personal exercise to see if he could remember how to still use the level editor. After mentioning its existence online, Siegler was cajoled into releasing it in November 2000. It was posted for download at the ''Rise of the Triad'' page on the Apogee website.
Source code
The
source code
In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the w ...
to ''Rise of the Triad'' was released under the
GNU GPL-2.0-or-later on 20 December 2002. Fans of the game ported it to
AmigaOS
AmigaOS is a family of proprietary native operating systems of the Amiga and AmigaOne personal computers. It was developed first by Commodore International and introduced with the launch of the first Amiga, the Amiga 1000, in 1985. Early versions ...
,
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...
,
Mac OS
Two major famlies of Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc.
In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the "Classic" Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system, rebranded "M ...
,
Xbox
Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the ...
,
Dreamcast
The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, Nint ...
,
PlayStation Portable,
Nintendo DS (homebrew) and 32-bit versions of
Microsoft Windows. This has led to the game being included in the
Fedora software repository, which downloads the free
source port
A source port is a software project based on the source code of a game engine that allows the game to be played on operating systems or computing platforms with which the game was not originally compatible.
Description
Source ports are often c ...
engine used as well as a free installer which downloads the shareware version's data.
Remaster
3D Realms announced that ''Rise of the Triad'' would be remastered for
Microsoft Windows,
Nintendo Switch,
PlayStation 4, and
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
at their Realms Deep 2020 event. It is scheduled to release at a later date. At Realms Deep 2022, this was announced as ''Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition'', developed by
Nightdive Studios
Night Dive Studios, Inc. (doing business as Nightdive Studios) is an American video game developer based in Vancouver, Washington. The company was founded in November 2012 by Stephen and Alix Kick, former video game artists for Sony Online Ent ...
and published by
Apogee Entertainment
Apogee Entertainment, formerly Apogee Software, LLC, is an American video game publisher based in Rowlett, Texas. The company was founded by Terry Nagy in 2008 after he acquired the rights to the name and logo from Scott Miller and his company ...
and
New Blood Interactive
New Blood Interactive is a video game publisher. Founded by Aaron Alexander, Kreyg DeZago, and Dave Oshry in 2014, the company originally developed virtual reality games that were never released. In 2016, New Blood turned to publishing, first r ...
. It will be released on the aforementioned platforms, as well as
PlayStation 5 and
Xbox Series X/S
The Xbox Series X/S are home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. They were both released on November 10, 2020, as the fourth generation Xbox, succeeding the Xbox One. Along with Sony's PlayStation 5, also released in November 202 ...
.
Reception
Scott Miller estimates that the game eventually sold around 110,000 copies.
A reviewer for ''
Next Generation'' assessed that ''Rise of the Triad'' is an entertaining but ultimately undistinguished ''
Doom
Doom is another name for damnation.
Doom may also refer to:
People
* Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed
* Daniel Doom (born 1934), Belgian cyclist
* Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitcher
* ...
'' replica which fails to rank with the best of the genre. Remarking that the game "has its own style but never strays far enough from the ''Doom'' herd to fully break free", he gave it three out of five stars.
The
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
version was not very well received and has
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
and
GameRankings scores of respectively 49/100
and 49.00%.
Remake
In 2009, Scott Miller said that ''Rise of the Triad'' would be
remade.
Gameplay footage of the new ''Rise of the Triad'' was revealed at
QuakeCon
QuakeCon is a yearly convention held by ZeniMax Media to celebrate and promote the major franchises of id Software and other studios owned by ZeniMax. It includes a large, paid, bring-your-own-computer ( BYOC) LAN party event with a competitiv ...
2012. The game was designed by Frederik Schreiber and his company
Interceptor Entertainment
Slipgate Ironworks ApS (formerly Interceptor Entertainment ApS and Slipgate Studios ApS) is a Danish video game developer based in Aalborg, founded in 2010 by Frederik Schreiber.
History
Interceptor Entertainment was founded in 2010 by mana ...
and was released on July 31, 2013, through
Steam and
GOG.com
GOG.com (formerly Good Old Games) is a digital distribution platform for video games and films. It is operated by GOG sp. z o.o., a wholly owned subsidiary of CD Projekt based in Warsaw, Poland. GOG.com delivers DRM-free video games through it ...
.
References
External links
Official website*
*
Source Codeat
GitHub
GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continu ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rise Of The Triad
1995 video games
Action-adventure games
Apogee games
Commercial video games with freely available source code
DOS games
First-person shooters
Games commercially released with DOSBox
IOS games
Linux games
MacOS games
Nintendo Switch games
PlayStation 4 games
Sprite-based first-person shooters
U.S. Gold games
Video games developed in the United States
Video games featuring female protagonists
Video games scored by Bobby Prince
Video games scored by Lee Jackson (composer)
Video games set in California
Video games with digitized sprites
Video games set on islands
Windows games
Wolfenstein 3D engine games
Xbox One games
Multiplayer and single-player video games
Multiplayer null modem games
Video games about cults