The type of FPS games which “Rise of The Triad” (2013) takes inspiration from, comes from an era before I got into shooters. Most notably, my very first FPS I recall playing was COD 4: Modern Warfare & while I hold that game in high regard I am also aware of the criticism surrounding that series & what direction it helped steer the FPS genre into. That being overly linear & heavily scripted games that generally fell into being very easy to play & it being seen as an overall downgrade.

Despite this lack of experience with “older” shooters I’ve always had an interest in trying some FPS games which play more retro. Especially when observing franchises such as Doom/Wolfenstein holding onto the formula & new indie games such as Dusk/Ultrakill that seem to embrace an older approach too. However instead of spending money for a game I’m uncertain to even like I looked through my steam library to see if I already owned something from a bundle which could be my first dive into a more “retro shooter” & “Rise of The Triad” seemed to be the closest thing to it.

After having played through it, I’ve come to the conclusion that ”retro inspired shooters” is a game type I want to try more games from… However it’s not because “Rise of The Triad” won me over, it's because I felt extremely constrained of having a decent gameplay loop stuck in an experience that ran out of ideas ½ way through & then decided to overcompensate with enemy spam & gimmicks that disappear as quickly as they’re introduced.

And it's a shame because shooting is pretty damn solid! It has some punch on every weapon & the arsenal you’re given is quite creative (explosive type & “special”-type being standouts) It’s really enjoyable to shoot in the game. Thus it’s disappointing as the game progresses you end up getting increasingly limited in ways to take enemies down. Because they become armored (bullet sponges) immune to anything that isn’t explosives, matrix like acrobats & so on!
I started dreading encounters during late stages because I knew I could overcome every enemy type like I had done 5 dozen times before, but when you have to unload a whole clip of ammo into each enemy before they‘re defeated it becomes tedious more than anything.

And this is not even addressing the technical issues, which also are plenty. Had to reset different stages probably 5-6 times during its 5 hour runtime due to being soft-locked or stuck on terrain. There’s also a less daming issue of looping sound effects if a sound is playing as you finish a stage (like if an enemy is shooting a gun right as you complete a level you’re gonna hear that until next level loads)

Nothing super game-breaking is present, but I do feel it speaks for “Rise of The Triad” (2013) as an overall package. It’s a game that has some nuggets of potential, but it's just a bogged down experience - both from a technical standpoint, but also just in terms of polish. I did have moments of fun with this game in spurts when it wasn’t technically janky & if enemy spam was on the milder side briefly, but it overall left me wishing for a more cohesive experience.