Rise of the Triad
There are 2 options to follow when a developer decides to do a remake: either it remains true to the original, including (the quite possibly dated and obsolete) gameplay or it gets modernized to today’s standards becoming only slighty reminiscent to its predecessor. The best way to go of course is the successful combination of the 2, something like Doom 3 . The creators of Rise of the Triad chose the first option with all its benefits and risks and while it can’t possibly compete with present day story-driven FPSs, mainly due to the unique nature of the original game, it still manages to remain an enjoyable first-person shooter.
– Real player with 37.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best FPS Old School Games.
If DOOM (2016) and Shadow Warrior (2013) could be comparable to the success of Shovel Knight by how they deviated from the guidelines of the old-school FPSs, choosing instead to resonate the nostalgic memories into a new game, then Rise of the Triad (2013) is a case of where it adheres entirely to the classic formula with graphical differences. Some might argue that this is to the detriment as the original Rise of the Triad wasn’t without its own share of issues the reboot inherits.
As someone who enjoys the shattered expectations that ROTT brings to old-school FPSs, it has always baffled me how this game never got wide acceptance in spite of its flaws. If people can accept what kind of old-school FPS experience it wants to be, and not what people assume from these games, there is a great experience to be had that keeps true to what people love about these old-school FPS. It’s not a perfect game nor is the foundation it is built upon without its issues; however, most complaints about the gameplay come across as misunderstanding the niche appeal of ROTT and how it manages to stand itself out from the other FPSs of the past as well as the present.
– Real player with 27.4 hrs in game
Shadow Warrior
Story of a demonic incestuous affair that is uncovered by her older brothers and you can kinda guess the rest.
🔸Shadow Warrior’s story is well-written for a AA game. You are in control of Lo Wang, an assassin who is hired by a powerful Japanese magnate to buy an ancient katana -Nobitsura Kage- from a collector for 2 million dollars. However as you may expect, things don’t go as planned and Wang tries to take the katana by force, then he finds out Mr. Mizayaki -The collector- is in contact with a demon named Hoji.
– Real player with 50.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best FPS Swordplay Games.
For some reason I decided to go for all achievements in this game, so I had to complete it both on insane and heroic difficulties. Was it worth it? No. Was it fun? No. Was it entertaining? Sort of. But let’s take one thing at a time.
Shadow Warrior 2013 is a remake of a semi-popular old school shooter of the same title. Though I cannot really call this game a remake, because remake usually means a piece that is largely refined to fit modern standards and audience but keeps its original nature. I cannot say that this game doesn’t have anything in common with the original but it also stepped quite far from it. First things first, the gameplay was changed to fit modern shooter standards: most of creative things like using enemy’s head as a major weapon, nuclear rockets, demon heart that creates a copy of you, etc were discarded. They were changed with mainstream pistol, uzi, shotgun, crossbow, and demon heart now just acts as instant-kill bomb, enemy head became an optional thing, which is mostly useless. The shooting itself is very odd: you do not really feel any impact, there is a regular lack of ammo and some weapons are too OP over the others. However, the developers tried to expand the gameplay by adding magic and sword fights. I cannot say that these are bad but they are also far from perfect. Sword acts more like a bat that you have to punch enemies with rather than a blade that slices through them, on earlier levels you tend to run out of ammo and have to poke foes for ages with it, sword techniques are interesting but there is too few of them for the whole game. As for the magic spells, it adds some variety to the gameplay but, just like with sword skills, there are too few of them. Only 2 combat spells, which basically do the same thing – stun enemies – healing, and protection, which you will unlikely use at all if you play casually. The game is also very overloaded with upgrades. Instead of a tree or gradually opening skills you are instantly given 9 different progression screens for the character + 1 for each acquired weapon. Should I say that nobody’s gonna spend 20 min of just reading each and every description? Because of this, I personally missed a useful skill of resurrection just because I skipped reading another bunch of text. If those screens were introduced in the first 3-4 levels instead of the very first one it wouldn’t hurt the gameplay at all but made the introduction to the upgrades much smoother.
– Real player with 44.4 hrs in game
Thief
Thief is an Action/Adventure/Role-Playing/FPS (First Person Sneaker) game, set in a Victorian Gothic world but, with primitive electric lights and machinery typical of the early 20th century, as well as some unique and very imaginative devices. The characters are a blend of aristocracy, soldiers, commoners and beggers, some with British accents and, some who sound like they came from the streets of Brooklyn. The theme casts a hint of paranormal hope in a disease-ridden city of despair. The player is a thief named Garrett, who lost his female counterpart, Erin, in an accident which resulted in Garrett’s near death. After his recovery, amnesia swallowed most of his memories of the past year. So begins his search to find out what happened to him and, to learn Erin’s fate.
– Real player with 1322.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best FPS Stealth Games.
I really wanted to like Thief - and so, in a way, I did. But it helped not to think of it as a Thief game but rather more Batman - if Batman couldn’t fight and also was a relentless kleptomaniac.
The game is a quick eight chapters, some better than others. For example, one takes place in a brothel, and is so predictable with its silly attempts to be lurid that it’s laughable. Another takes place in an abandoned asylum and is actually unnerving. The deeper into the game you go, though, the more pat the levels are, the less finished they feel, and the less engaging they are. And the less you care because the character development is so lackluster, and the dialog so poorly written, that you cannot get involved in the story, even if you want to.
– Real player with 161.0 hrs in game