Strife: Veteran Edition

I only discovered Strife thanks to Ross Scott’s excellent Game Dungeon episode, and what a hidden gem this turned out to be! Starting with nothing but a knife and trying to take down guards with guns is a bizarre introduction, but once you push past that rocky start Strife becomes a memorable and thoroughly enjoyable experience. The level design is excellent, with most levels feeling more like genuine locations than abstract mazes. The weapon variety is interesting, the combat feels fair, and the game even allows for stealth kills with the knife or poison crossbow bolts. The comic‑book‑style story presentation and NPC interactions adds an additional layer of personality. One of the most enjoyable aspects is exploring areas before alarms trigger, giving you a brief sense of being undercover and letting you learn the layout before the inevitable firefight. It’s hard not to imagine how other shooters of the era could have benefited from similar design ideas. For example, Star Wars: Dark Forces would have been incredible with mechanics like disguises, NPC interactions, or the ability to explore an Imperial base before triggering combat. And Strife accomplishes all of this in the Doom …

she strifes in my veteran until i'm edition

Play.

This game is neat as a time capsule, and has some novel concepts that likely inspired later great games, but the clunky gameplay (with autoaim it can be impossible to hit enemies and even with it off can be annoying to hit, too many hitscan enemies with not enough health means you're taking frustrating "health taxes" constantly) it doesn't match the fun or replay ability of games like doom or especially not quake, or the concepts and gameplay that would be used in Deus Ex. I'm glad I only paid $2 for this museum piece.

one of the best boomer shooters ever made. the first time rpg elements were incorporated into a shooter. everything about this game is great. i never understood why doom became so popular when this was 70x better.

Strife is an interesting look at what FPS RPGs looked like 20+ years ago when the genre was first starting to be formed. For an early entry, it's impressive at what it was trying to do and what it does well. A large, connected open world with side quests, shopping systems, and upgrades that you get throughout the game. It's narrative has some simple choices that for the time weren't common in FPS titles. That being said, even with Nightdive's enhancements the game is still clunky at times and it's resource management system begins to fall apart towards the end of the game when levels become resource syncs without any gold or shops nearby to restock. This is especially harsh considering the final two levels of the game are notoriously difficult slogs with the final boss requiring health pick ups to beat as health is ammo for the only weapon able to kill it. Looking at other reviews, this seems to be a sticking point for the final areas of the game, and I feel as if it's because these levels don't share the design the rest of the game has. They're full on Doom levels where Strife doesn't fit for it. The ending is a sticking point because it relies less on you performing well and mo…