This was apparently supposed to be the sequel to Wolfenstein 3D, but it really only retains the three-firearm loadout and the fash baddies. The grenade guys and the monks are some of the most annoying enemies that I've encountered in a boomer shooter, as their earsplitting grunting can only be avoided if you splat them with explosive weapons—you can only hold one of those at a given time, an element that distinguishes this game from other contemporary titles in the genre. There's some interesting uses of verticality and one really good boss fight against NME, a robot equipped with a bottomless arsenal of explosives. Other than that, Dark War is a bit messy. I played it via the Nightdive port.

i really appreciate how Rise of the Triad disregards anything that an FPS "needs" if it deems it unimportant for its own premise. like Amid Evil, ROTT has an especially fitting structure for the episodic format. each of the five (counting the shareware one) feel completely different and self sufficient, and they all share the same team of designers! oh, and the lack of detailed geometry doesn't take away from the playful dungeon-like levels that jump from huge canyons full of soldiers to robot-filled dark and clausthrophobic halls. it has variety.

instead of complex 3D layouts, ROTT has jump pads, moving traps of many kinds, shiny metal platforms of differing heights, floating emblems that can be destroyed by being shot, an abundance of locked push walls (yes, locked secret walls!) that ask you to step on invisible pressure plates to open them, the works. those are only some of the more common environmental tools present here. they're very weird for this kind of FPS but also intuitive!

you dance around levels while carefully peeking corners as to not get shot by the many hitscanners and solve the puzzles required to progress. it's so divorced from trying to balance action and exploration like how ID did with DOOM that there are even levels almost entirely made out of wacky puzzles. it can get really fun if you don't mind the visuals being just as unusual as the gameplay loop. at many points during my playthrough, i laughed out loud at the absurdity of the pranks pulled on the player and the disregard for traditional level structure. i get how it can get repetitive for many people if you focus on the shooting, but i see the enemies and guns here more like another set of traps that the designers play with. as soon as you figure an encounter out, it'll likely not give you that much trouble when retrying it, which can also be said about the obstacle courses and puzzles.

i really liked ROTT! it has a magnectic feeling that i usually get only while playing FPS games that don't mostly depend on the strength of their combat.

//i played ROTT through the Ludicrous Edition port but logged the OG version because this review is about the original maps. when i get through the new campaign present on the remaster i'll likely give my thoughts on it on its page. ^-^

Rise of the Triad is certainly the spiritual successor to Wolfenstein 3D but so... so much worse.
Dark War starts off with a really satisfying arsenal and a large selection of power-ups, some of the best weapons found in a 90s first-person shooter for sure. Enemies are various and explode in an impressive amount of gibs, truly more than satisfactory for a 1995 shooter.

Unfortunately, it's all taken back by the worst level design we've seen since Hexen, under no circumstance should anyone ever attempt to copy Wolfenstein's level design, not only that - they managed to make it even worse and times as obtuse as Hexen.

The story behind Rise of the Triad is when Apogee licensed the already outdated Wolfenstein 3D engine to make a video game. Tom Hall, fired from id Software following a dispute with Carmack over design philosophy, immediately started working with Apogee on what would become "Rise of the Triad: Wolfenstein Part II". At the time, Doom was released, and Rise of the Triad was running on an outdated engine that lacked any z-axis for height differentiation, without the programming expertise of Carmack, stayed outdated by the time of its release far into 1995.

It's truly a shame because in all other aspects Rise of the Triad was a competent avant-garde game, with interesting enemies, satisfying weaponry, all taken back by the absolutely nonsensical map design of Tom Hall. Don't get me started on the gravity pads, why are they all over the place? They're a mess to navigate, nobody wants to deal with it. I guess they were trying to add some verticality or platforming to their shooter but did nothing to alleviate the eyesore.