Played this during the free weekend with 3 other friends and we all had a blast. Extremely engaging and addictive shooter, genuinely the only game ever to get me engaged with deck building. The concept of using cards while in an fps gameplay environment is so unique and versatile and the developers clearly put a lot of time and effort into making the game very tightly balanced. Not to mention the 1v1 or 2v2 format and the fact that the game advertises itself as more of a game to play with friends rather than an online experience that depends on servers staying up as long as possible, it doesn't run into the future proofing issue a lot of other multi-player games run into. When I saw the trailers for it I was a little skeptical since it reminded me a lot of csgo or valorant and I really don't enjoy the positioning focused game play experience those games provide, however if you go into this expecting that kind of game that is absolutely not what you will get, friends vs friends is mostly about hectic and often chaotic close quarters combat encounters that focus far more on using your cards at the best times and your ability to track a target. It's certainly a gameplay experience that resonates with an old tf2 player like me more than walking around an empty map for most of the game until I turn a corner and get one shot through a wall 50 yards away.

Full disclosure, this review is about the main game of rise of the triad and not the several expansions added in this port or the port itself. I generally consider myself a fan of New Blood and this port is once again another excellent addition to their catalog of great games, it has basically everything a fan of this game could ever want and about hundred times more than that.

Rise of the triad is an utterly bizarre collection of ideas and concepts haphazardly stitched together in a Frankenstein's monster of a game that only sometimes accidentally stumbles into fun gameplay. Most of this game's enemy roster is hit scan which results in most encounters feeling very unengaging as this severely limits your options on approaching encounters. Not to mention the level design only feels like a moderate step up from that of wolfenstine 3d, while not as monotonous and labrythian as that game was, levels often have a stream of consciousness vibe to them that feel more like the designer was just making them up as they go along as opposed to something that's actually layed out well and feels fun to run though. (Apparently the expansion levels are better but I didn't play them.) Despite this however the weapons for the most part are very fun to use, especially any explosive weapon which the devs seemed to have taken the time to make as spectacular as possible. Which is a pretty consistent theme of the game, rott might not he the most well designed or even competently put together games of the era but it's developer's enthusiasm is made extremely apparent from all the wacky and bizarre ideas they were able to stuff the game with, resulting in a fun and weirdly carefree atmosphere that's admittedly a little infectious. I was not as huge of a fan of this game as I thought I would be after hearing people in the retro shooters community talk it up, however I understand how a game this willing to go crazy with it could stick out in the minds of so many people all these years later. I wish even half the triple a titles that come out today had even half the enthusiasm that rott has.

I live in what is colloquially known as the "Kentuckyana" area, more specifically a groady little tollbooth town in southern Indiana. Pretty much at all times you're about a 30 minute drive a way from a bridge that'll take you over the famous river that catches on fire and into Louisville Kentucky. A lot of people live here in Indiana and work down in Louisville Kentucky or vice versa so most people who spend their lives here can tell you that Louisville is a lot like a second home for us, not to mention I had family over in Portland so I was back and forth over the bridge all the time. I'm also pretty into survival games, I played minecraft a lot as a kid and since then I've sunk a bunch of hours into a lot of the major ones. So I'm sure you can imagine my surprise when I start getting youtube recommendations with titles like "I survived 100 days in Louisville!" or "LOUISVILLE CHALLENGE | part 1"

This doesn't have anything to do with the game I just thought it was funny watching an entire community of people talking about my sorta hometown like it was a poison swamp in a fromsoft game or something. My only disappointment with this game is that the game Louisville looks nothing like the real one, no churchill downs, no belle of Louisville, not even a dizzy whizz. I hope they at least add one of those painted horse statues.