''Strife'' (also known as ''Strife: Quest for the Sigil'') 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 pl ...
role-playing video game
A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...
developed by
Rogue Entertainment
Rogue Entertainment was an American computer game developer based in Dallas, Texas, which was active in the late 1990s. It was founded by Rich Fleider, Steve Maines, and Jim Molinets in 1994. Rogue Entertainment's office was in the same buildin ...
. It was released in May 1996 in North America by Velocity Inc. and in Europe by Studio 3DO. The shareware version was released on February 23, 1996, while the full version was released on May 31, 1996. It was the last commercially released standalone PC game to utilize the
id Tech 1
id Tech 1, also known as the ''Doom'' engine, is the game engine that powers the id Software games ''Doom'' and '' Doom II: Hell on Earth''. It is also used in '' Heretic'', '' Hexen: Beyond Heretic'', '' Strife: Quest for the Sigil'', '' Hacx ...
engine from
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: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and ar ...
. The plot takes place in a world taken over by a religious organization known as "The Order"; the protagonist, an unnamed mercenary (sometimes referred to as Strifeguy), becomes a member of the resistance movement which aims to topple the Order's oppressive rule.
''Strife'' added some role-playing game elements to the classic first-person shooter formula, such as allowing players to talk to other characters in the game's world or improve the protagonist's abilities. Contemporary reviews praised these innovations and the story, but also criticized the quality of the graphics and the obsolete engine. Years after its release, the game was retrospectively considered to have been underappreciated in its day, and described as a precursor to games such as ''
Deus Ex
''Deus Ex'' is a series of role-playing video games, set during the mid 21st century. Focusing on the conflict between secretive factions who wish to control the world by proxy, and the effects of transhumanistic attitudes and technologies in a ...
''.
An enhanced version of the game, ''Strife: Veteran Edition'' (also dubbed ''The Original Strife: Veteran Edition'') was developed and published by
Night Dive 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 Ente ...
and released on
Steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...
on December 12, 2014. ''Veteran Edition'' was also released on
Nintendo Switch
The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...
and
Amazon Luna
Amazon Luna is a cloud gaming platform developed and operated by Amazon. Luna was announced on September 24, 2020, with early access available to subscribers by invitation beginning on October 20, 2020. In its early access state, Amazon Luna ...
on October 25, 2020 and September 29, 2022, respectively.
Gameplay
''Strife''s gameplay is standard for the first-person shooter genre; the action is observed from the protagonist's viewpoint, and most of the game involves combat with the Order's infantry and war robots. The main character begins with just a
dagger
A dagger is a fighting knife with a very sharp point and usually two sharp edges, typically designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon.State v. Martin, 633 S.W.2d 80 (Mo. 1982): This is the dictionary or popular-use de ...
, but more powerful weapons, such as a
crossbow
A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an elastic launching device consisting of a bow-like assembly called a ''prod'', mounted horizontally on a main frame called a ''tiller'', which is hand-held in a similar fashion to the stock of a long fi ...
or a
flamethrower
A flamethrower is a ranged incendiary device designed to project a controllable jet of fire. First deployed by the Byzantine Empire in the 7th century AD, flamethrowers saw use in modern times during World War I, and more widely in World ...
can be found throughout the game. The protagonist also has an inventory where he can keep items for later use, such as
first aid kit
A first aid kit or medical kit is a collection of supplies and equipment used to give immediate medical treatment, primarily to treat injuries and other mild or moderate medical conditions. There is a wide variation in the contents of first aid ...
s for healing, protective armor, or gold coins.
The game contains numerous friendly or neutral characters with whom the player can converse or trade. These characters often assign the player character missions, thus advancing the plot. If the player fires a weapon while not in a combat situation, it usually sets off an alarm and makes the guards attack the protagonist; however, certain weapons – the dagger and poisonous
crossbow bolt
A bolt or quarrel is a dart-like projectile used by crossbows. The name "quarrel" is derived from the French word ''carré'', meaning square, referring to their typically square heads. Although their lengths vary, bolts are typically shorter an ...
s – allow attacking enemies stealthily without activating the alarm.
Unlike most other first-person shooters of the time, ''Strife'' does not follow a linear series of levels. Instead, the town of Tarnhill acts as a central hub from which the player can travel back and forth between various areas, which stay the same as they were when the player left them.
The player character has two numerical attributes, accuracy and stamina, which can be improved at certain points in the game. The first attribute increases the accuracy of ranged weapons, while the latter increases the maximum amount of
health
Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...
.
Plot
The game is set some time after a catastrophic
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...
impact
Impact may refer to:
* Impact (mechanics), a high force or shock (mechanics) over a short time period
* Impact, Texas, a town in Taylor County, Texas, US
Science and technology
* Impact crater, a meteor crater caused by an impact event
* Impac ...
, which brought a deadly
virus
A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea.
Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1 ...
onto the planet. In the resulting plague, millions of people died, while other victims became mutated and began hearing the voice of a malevolent deity. They formed an organization called "The Order" and enslaved the rest of the populace. However, a rag-tag
resistance movement
A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objective ...
, called "The Front", is trying to topple The Order's reign.
The unnamed
protagonist
A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...
of the game is a wandering
mercenary
A mercenary, sometimes also known as a soldier of fortune or hired gun, is a private individual, particularly a soldier, that joins a military conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any o ...
, captured by Order troops near the town of Tarnhill. After killing the guards and escaping, he meets a man named Rowan, who makes him an offer to join the Front. The protagonist receives a communication device through which he remains in contact with a female member of the Front, codenamed Blackbird. From then on, Blackbird provides assistance and commentary throughout the game. The protagonist heads to the Front's base, where the rebel leader, Macil, sends him on a number of missions in order to weaken the Order. After several acts of
sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...
, the Front proceeds to assault the Order's castle. The protagonist, accompanying them in the attack, kills a major member of the Order called "The Programmer". He loses consciousness upon touching the weapon that the Programmer had been using.
The mercenary wakes up in the castle, now taken over by the Front. Macil explains that the Programmer's weapon is one of the five fragments of the "Sigil", a powerful weapon worshipped by the Order. He orders the protagonist to find the remaining four. To this end, the mercenary visits a knowledgeable being called "The Oracle", who reveals that the next fragment is being held by another of the Order's leaders, The Bishop. After killing the Bishop and acquiring the second fragment, the protagonist returns to the Oracle, only to be told that the third fragment is being held by Macil himself; the Oracle claims that Macil is a traitor who has been using the protagonist as a pawn in his scheme. At this point, the player must make a decision: either disbelieve the Oracle and kill it, or trust the Oracle and kill Macil. This choice affects the rest of the story.
If the player trusts Macil and kills the Oracle (acquiring a Sigil fragment it was holding), he receives another task from Macil: to deactivate a factory, built on the comet's impact site, where the Order is turning captured people into "
bio-mechanical soldiers." Upon completing his mission, the protagonist learns that Macil has gone insane; he returns to the base and attempts to speak to Macil, who declares in his madness that he wishes to free the "one god", then attacks the protagonist. Upon killing Macil, the protagonist obtains his Sigil fragment. He then returns to the factory, where lies the laboratory of the Loremaster, another of the Order's leaders. After killing Loremaster and thus acquiring the final Sigil piece, he uses the Sigil to unlock a door leading to the comet's impact site. Inside, he finds an extraterrestrial
spaceship. Within the ship waits an
alien being known as "The Entity"; it is the one responsible for creating the Order and taking over the minds of mutated people. The mercenary kills it with the Sigil; its death means the end of the Order. He then finally meets Blackbird face to face. She tells him that his victory allowed mankind to create a
vaccine
A vaccine is a biological Dosage form, preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease, infectious or cancer, malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verifie ...
for the virus, then kisses him.
The plot takes a different direction if the player decides to trust the Oracle and immediately kill Macil. Once he does so (claiming Macil's Sigil piece in the process), the Oracle dispatches him to the Loremaster's laboratory. Having killed the Loremaster and obtained his fragment of the Sigil, the protagonist returns to the Oracle, who then reveals that it was using him all along in a bid to acquire the complete Sigil, use it to free the "one god", and attain eternal life. The mercenary kills the Oracle and, with all five fragments of the Sigil now in his possession, heads to the alien ship. There he encounters the Entity; however, the being speaks with Blackbird's voice, and implies that it was manipulating the protagonist throughout the game in order to regain freedom and take over the planet. After killing the Entity, the ending sequence is shown, this time less optimistic: the cure for the virus has not been invented and mankind's future is uncertain.
Development
''Strife'' was originally being developed by
Cygnus Studios, the creators of ''
Raptor: Call of the Shadows'', for
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: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and ar ...
.
Cygnus Studios was already working on another first-person shooter role-playing game, ''The Second Sword'', utilizing the older
ShadowCaster
''ShadowCaster'' is a first-person role-playing video game developed by Raven Software.
It was published in 1993 by Origin Systems after Electronic Arts acquired them. A CD-ROM version was released in 1994, featuring two additional levels with ...
game engine by id Software.
However, id Software asked Cygnus Studios to create a game based on the
Doom engine
id Tech 1, also known as the ''Doom'' engine, is the game engine that powers the id Software games ''Doom'' and '' Doom II: Hell on Earth''. It is also used in ''Heretic'', '' Hexen: Beyond Heretic'', '' Strife: Quest for the Sigil'', '' Hacx: T ...
and requested that the studio be relocated to Texas from Chicago while they were still developing ''Raptor'' so that they would be able to develop the new title for id Software.
The studio agreed and after relocating, the studio no longer wanted to work on ''The Second Sword'' and the title was dropped in favor of working on ''Strife''.
Cygnus Studios worked on ''Strife'' for a few months following ''Raptor'' being finished.
However, soon internal conflicts arose and employees split off from Scott Host, the original founder of Cygnus Studios, and he re-located back to Chicago and ''Strife'' was essentially cancelled.
This group of employees then founded
Rogue Entertainment
Rogue Entertainment was an American computer game developer based in Dallas, Texas, which was active in the late 1990s. It was founded by Rich Fleider, Steve Maines, and Jim Molinets in 1994. Rogue Entertainment's office was in the same buildin ...
and resumed development on ''Strife''.
The shareware version was released on February 23, 1996, while the full version was released on May 31, 1996. It was the last commercially released standalone PC game to utilize the
id Tech 1
id Tech 1, also known as the ''Doom'' engine, is the game engine that powers the id Software games ''Doom'' and '' Doom II: Hell on Earth''. It is also used in '' Heretic'', '' Hexen: Beyond Heretic'', '' Strife: Quest for the Sigil'', '' Hacx ...
engine from
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: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and ar ...
.
Community support
After the game's official
support ended,
game engine recreation
Game engine recreation is a type of video game engine remastering process whereby a new game engine is written from scratch as a clone of the original with the ability to load the original game's data files such as music, textures, scripts, shad ...
s of ''Strife'' were created by Doom source port developers through
reverse engineering
Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompli ...
. Notably authors were Jānis Legzdiņš (author of the
Doom source port Vavoom), Randy Heit (author of
ZDoom
The present article is a list of known platforms to which ''Doom'' has been confirmed to be ported.
''Doom'' is one of the most widely ported video games. Since the original MS-DOS version, it has been released officially for a number of operatin ...
), Samuel Villarreal (author of ''SvStrife''), and James Haley (author with Samuel Villareal of
Chocolate Strife). Except for the last, these allow for high resolution graphics modes, better
mouselook, and expanded modding capabilities.
''Strife'' was ported to the
Amiga
Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...
in 2013.
Digital re-release
In 2014
Night Dive 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 Ente ...
coordinated the digital re-release of ''Strife'' as ''Strife: Veteran Edition'' (or ''The Original Strife: Veteran Edition''), after acquiring rights to the game. Because the game's
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 wo ...
had been lost by Rogue Entertainment, a derivative of the
Chocolate Doom subproject ''Chocolate Strife'' was used as the game's engine, with its original programmers being contracted to do additional coding for the re-release. The source code of ''Strife: Veteran Edition'' was made available under
GNU GPL-2.0-or-later on
github.com
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 system, bug tracking, software feature requests, task man ...
. The enhanced version of the game was released as ''Strife: Veteran Edition'' by
Night Dive 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 Ente ...
on
Steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...
on December 12, 2014. ''Veteran Edition'' was subsequently released for Nintendo Switch on October 25, 2020, and for
Amazon Luna
Amazon Luna is a cloud gaming platform developed and operated by Amazon. Luna was announced on September 24, 2020, with early access available to subscribers by invitation beginning on October 20, 2020. In its early access state, Amazon Luna ...
on September 29, 2022.
Reception
''Strife'' received quite positive reviews upon its release. Reviewers took note of the novel gameplay: unlike most previous first-person shooters, such as ''Doom'', the player must cooperate with friendly characters in ''Strife'', while killing everyone in sight ends badly. Some reviews praised the story, but the reviewer in ''
Next Generation'' criticized it for being too linear and the choices being illusionary.
The voice-acting in the game was generally rated positively; in particular, the voice and personality of Blackbird was praised by some reviewers, with
GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
's Tal Blevins describing her voice as "by far the sexiest thing to ever resonate from my computer speakers."
''Strife''s graphics were overall rated poorly. The reviewers criticized the game for using the obsolete ''Doom'' engine, which they considered especially jarring when compared to more modern games such as ''
Duke Nukem 3D
''Duke Nukem 3D'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by 3D Realms. It is a sequel to the platform games ''Duke Nukem'' and ''Duke Nukem II'', published by 3D Realms.
''Duke Nukem 3D'' features the adventures of the titular Duke Nuke ...
'' or ''
Quake''. However, the hand-drawn illustrations which appear during dialogues and
cutscene
A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward the ...
s were generally considered to be of good quality. Some reviewers doubted the novelty of the gameplay, pointing out that similar ideas were already used in e.g. ''
CyberMage: Darklight Awakening''. Limiting the player to a single
savegame
A saved game (also called a game save, savegame, savefile, save point, or simply save) is a piece of digitally stored information about the progress of a player in a video game.
From the earliest games in the 1970s onward, game platform hardw ...
slot was also criticized, especially since making a wrong decision could make the game
unwinnable
A no-win situation, also called a lose-lose situation, is one where a person has choices, but no choice leads to a net gain. For example, if an executioner offers the condemned the choice of death by being hanged, shot, or poisoned, all choices lea ...
.
Years after its release, retrospective reviews of the game were more positive. The reviewer of
jeuxvideo.com recommended ''Strife'' for first-person shooter fans. Two articles about the game were published on the
PC Gamer
''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...
website. Richard Cobbett described the game in his "Saturday Crapshoot" series; he considered ''Strife'' to be an underappreciated game, but believed that it had not aged well. Paul Dean likewise concluded that ''Strife'' did not receive the attention it deserved back in its day, and encouraged readers to play the game. Both journalists compared ''Strife'' to the later ''
Deus Ex
''Deus Ex'' is a series of role-playing video games, set during the mid 21st century. Focusing on the conflict between secretive factions who wish to control the world by proxy, and the effects of transhumanistic attitudes and technologies in a ...
'', a more commercially successful attempt to combine the first-person shooter formula with role-playing elements.
References
External links
Strife Veteran Edition GPL Source Releaseon
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, continuous ...
* {{MobyGames, id=/strife
1996 video games
Amiga 1200 games
Doom (franchise)
DOS games
Nintendo Switch games
First-person shooters
Linux games
Video games developed in the United States
Video games set in castles
Video games with 2.5D graphics
Video games with digitized sprites
Doom engine games
Windows games
Amiga games
Open-source video games
Commercial video games with freely available source code
Post-apocalyptic video games
Sprite-based first-person shooters