Rise of the Triad (PC)

Here’s a secret: I never played the original Rise of the Triad. I know that probably makes me a sinner.
Can you blame me though? I was four when it was first released. I doubt my parents would have let me run around shooting people before I even knew what videogames were.
Luckily there are companies like Apogee Software and Interceptor Entertainment that felt really sorry for people like me and decided to reboot the shooter for modern audiences. I now see what I was missing out on in the 90s—a time where stories were small or nonexistent, action was fast and violence was exaggerated and borderline offensive. More than anything, though, if games back then were anything like Rise of the Triad, they were a lot of fun and impossibly hard.
That’s the appeal of the old school. Games were infamously difficult, didn’t provide many checkpoints, and didn’t hold your hand even in the earliest levels. Since I started playing late, I’m used to being coddled. As somebody who didn’t touch her first shooter until the first Half Life back on the PlayStation 2, it took me a few deaths and restarts to get the feel of Rise of the Triad. It plays incredibly fast and doesn’t allow much time to breathe. My avatar runs at superhuman speeds and the enemies will empty their clips and reload within seconds. Each level in the single-player campaign is timed and factors into my overall score and ranking at completion. As many modern action games value strategy and stealth over the chaotic raging seen here, it takes some getting used to. The first time I tried to hide from the enemies was definitely the last time.
Despite the hectic gameplay, there’s still time to stop and explore. In fact, it’s encouraged. This contradiction is what sets Triad apart from other shooters, retro-styled or otherwise. Each level features many secret rooms and nooks where you can find weapons, power-ups and coins to increase your score and level up the experience. Those tired of the closed corridor, linear style of modern-day shooters will appreciate these complicated labyrinths where it’s easy to get lost but not impossible to finish. You can take multiple paths through doors and blow holes in the walls. It’s in these rooms where you find the game’s charm in unexpected modes like God Mode, bulletproof armor and the Drunk Missile (some of these are better in play than others).
Triad isn’t just an old-school shooter. It has personality and an absurd sense of humor that’ll draw in new players and maybe even convert them to this new fandom. The enemies explode when shot at, coating you in blood and body parts. If you get the timing right, you can get some eyeballs to the face. It’s not particularly pleasant by any society’s standards, but that’s not what videogames like this are for.