Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition is a welcome sight indeed
Back in the ’90s, I was a big fan of first-person shooters — or, as they were known then, “Doom clones“. And there were a lot to choose from; everyone wanted to ride the coat-tails of id Software’s 1993 success story. One of my favourites was Rise of the Triad, a 1995 release from Apogee. While technologically inferior to Doom, Rise of the Triad offered something genuinely unique amid a sea of other copycat titles, and it’s always retained a place in my heart ever since.
Which is why I was so delighted to hear that the resurrected Apogee brand, New Blood Interactive and Nightdive Studios, master of the remaster, were working on bringing Rise of the Triad back. And we’re not talking a reboot like they attempted in 2013 — though that was good fun also — instead, we’re talking a polished-up version of the original game, ported to today’s consoles and modern operating systems, rendered in resolutions of up to 4K and running at a deliciously smooth, slick and speedy frame rate.
For the uninitiated, Rise of the Triad began its life as a follow-up to id Software’s Wolfenstein 3-D, the game that popularised (though didn’t invent) the concept of the first-person shooter. Originally intended to be a first-person shooter set in World War I that took itself at least moderately seriously, something evidently broke in the developers’ minds partway through development, and it morphed into something far more ridiculous and wonderful.
The retro weaponry and digitised sprites in classic World War I uniforms remained, but added to the mix were mysterious cultist monks, fearsome robots, death traps that would make Indiana Jones think twice about leaping into the fray, a wide selection of devices that launched exploding things at enemies in various creative ways, the ability to turn into a dog, the ability to turn into God, a magical baseball bat and plenty more besides.
Despite coming out after Doom, Rise of the Triad’s origins as a Wolfenstein 3-D follow-up are obvious in the way its levels are constructed. Rather than being drawn out as texture-mapped polygons with height maps as in Doom and the later Build engine games such as Duke Nukem 3D, Blood and Shadow Warrior, Rise of the Triad retains its precessor’s grid-based system, with levels being built up of obvious textured blocks — albeit this time around with the ability for variable height walls and ceilings, as well as simulated “outdoor” environments.
Consequently, the levels felt more abstract than realistic — and it’s clear that the original developers knew this, because they leaned into the fantastic angle by drawing inspiration from 2D platform games. Rise of the Triad allows you to not only charge around on the ground at high speed, but also make use of floating platforms and lifts to reach high-up areas — and if you want to nab all the game’s collectibles and secrets, you’ll need to take full advantage of these features around the levels.
Back when Rise of the Triad originally released, it drew some criticism for this relatively primitive handling of a 3D world compared to its contemporaries, but today it makes a nice change — and it fits well with the game’s frantic gameplay. Not only that, it makes modding the game much more accessible, since you don’t need to understand anything about drawing polygonal maps or how these shapes are extruded into quasi-3D environments — you simply slap some blocks down in a suitable arrangement and you have a level ready to go.
Rather pleasingly, the upcoming Ludicrous Edition of Rise of the Triad is set to ship with a level editor, meaning that newbies and veterans alike can jump right in to creating their own new stages for the game. At the time of writing, it’s not clear how (or if) these will be distributed to others, but odds are good that the Steam version will support something like the Steam Workshop facility. It remains to be seen if the console ports will feature some sort of in-game sharing system.
Regardless, Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition looks set to be a very good time indeed — and if you’re not familiar with the original version, this will be a great means of experiencing it for the first time. There’s no concrete release date as yet, but you can wishlist the game on Steam to stay up to date with the latest happenings — and the game’s set for release on Switch, PlayStation and Xbox platforms as well as PC “soon™”.
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