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KVELLER

What do you think about Strife?

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No one seems to talk too much about this game, and I'd like to know what do you guys think about it.

 

Personally, I don't like it that much. The fact that it has RPG elements and voice acting is really cool, but it doesn't seem to have the same flow of the rest of the classic Doom engine games, in part because the game is filled with hitscanners.

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When the game came out I tried and tried to play through it but kept getting stuck early on and had no idea how to move past whatever it was. I guess I was just too young to grasp what I needed to do, or the game bugged out? I have no idea but found it to be kind of difficult. Never went back through it. 

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Just now, Lvangundy said:

When the game came out I tried and tried to play through it but kept getting stuck early on and had no idea how to move past whatever it was. I guess I was just too young to grasp what I needed to do, or the game bugged out? I have no idea but found it to be kind of difficult. Never went back through it. 

You can actually screw up your playthrough if you do a certain side mission. Maybe that was the case?

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I liked it, but it feels outdated. I think it was released in 1997, and while I love idTech 1 games, I can't help but feel that it looked like it was released five years too late.

The game is okay, but I didn't like how you can soft-lock the game by shooting a shop-keeper. At least give me a game over or something.

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I tried to get into it. I played through the entire thing from start to finish and it never really clicked with me. I think the more I played it, the more it reminded me of Hexen when I played through it and not in a good way. :\

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It's incredibly flawed, particularly because of how the weapons are too underpowered, or too obtuse to handle. The weakest of enemies take too long to kill, and there's an over abundance of hitscanners. The result is a game that is a slog to get through because you're almost always taking pot shots at bullet sponge enemies from behind cover. Still though, I don't hate it. I think that the sprite work is vastly superior to Doom's, and I like how ambitious it was for the time.

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I love Strife. It's one of the two main id Tech 1 games I've actually played to completion (counting Ultimate Doom and Doom 2 as the same...), where Heretic and Hexen just feel like a slog to me and I lose interest rapidly.

 

The RPG-like elements brought major and real appeal to it, and I never found myself bored all the way to completion... actually I've played the game to completion to get all the different endings, to boot :P

 

As for the make-the-game-unbeatable-side-quest being mentioned: Strife Veteran Edition changed it, so it doesn't result in an unwinnable game, at least not by default (there's an option to reenable the behavior, and it has the unmodified vanilla IWADs if you want to play it completely old school in Chocolate Strife).

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I like the voice acting (except for your sidekick voice, found her annoying.), for a game from 1996, the voice acting really stands out. Compare it to the voice acting in say, an Origin Systems game like the early Wing Commander's or Ultima 8, or even System Shock. Strife's VO has passion behind the roles. I dig the setting, a dark age with pockets of technology. That's also really cool.

 

Everything else? Ehhhh...

 

I found the weapons really boring, and Strife has probably one of the weakest most wimpiest rocket launchers I've ever used in a game. The enemy is also kinda boring to fight, and boring to look at, and the levels are just... boring, and sometimes can be down right annoying, like the sewer. Even with the map I found it easy to get lost. Also, it really is a "fuck you player" move to make the game unplayable early on without even telling you if you do what looks like a normal mission for someone early on. Not good game design. All in all, didn't enjoy it much, and didn't care that I got the bad ending.

 

I recommend Ross's videos on Strife if you haven't seen them.

 

 

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I tried to beat it back in 2010 on ZDoom and got halfway through and promptly stopped for whatever reason and never went back. That should tell you how I feel about it.

Well no, I've yet to grab the Veteran Edition, which does look nice admittedly with the updated renderer and post processing effects and such which, combined with the pixel art I find really attractive. I still think its the weakest of the id Tech 1 engine lineage of games though, even if it is the most advanced.

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While I haven't finished Strife yet (I am a bit after getting the first Sigil part), I think I can have an opinion on what the game feels and plays like.

 

Strife for me is a hidden gem. I admire the things they achieved, just by using Id Tech 1. The voice acting is great, especially for a game of that time, the NPCs are fun to talk to and the whole game narrates a good story, in a believable and full of life world. And there is no hand holding, which can be good or bad, depending on the player's preferences (I loved that you get briefed about your mission and then you have to do the searching by yourself).

 

But I have a few complaints about the game. First, it has many hitscanners, which can be tiring. Second, the rifle feels underpowered and it takes many bullets to kill the enemies (even though I burst fire with it). Third, I seemed to not have that much ammo on the fourth difficulty, at the mission where I need to face the Programmer.

 

However, in the end I remember Strife for the things it did right and I can't wait to finish it.

 

And @Piper Maru, I suggest at the very least that you try the game, in order to form your own opinion about it. FPS RPGs are an interesting combination of elements and I think that people can easily love them or hate them, depending on how much they like the combined elements and on what percentage each element can be found in the game. 

If I tell you that I like the game, you can't be sure if you will like it or not. Proof for that is this whole thread.

 

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For yall complaining about underpowered weapons: you are supposed to upgrade them. I swear most of these weapons become Doom-like quality more upgrades they get.

 

I think the only problem was the dual grenade launcher thingies, one could easily wreck himself, but it can be all solved when one checks himself first and slows down and stops, or starts strafing to sides or back.

 

It is a FPSRPG after all.

 

I, as well, think of it as a perfect game. Would give to my kids one day 10/10.

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i've tried to play through it, but i've always lost interest in it pretty shortly.

 

i don't think it is because i think the combat is boring, it's acceptable. apparently the later guns get really ridiculous and close to overpowered, so if you'd play it far enough, you'd get successively stronger. but the uninteresting gunplay does bog it down quite a bit in the early part. you can still have guns that do exciting things in the beginning of the game, you know!

 

the leads aren't exactly obvious either and got me stumped on several occasions, and if you steal the Chalice, you've automatically lost the game, the game just doesn't tell you that. i can't really comment on the story other than that, since i didn't play too far into the game, but the plot is definitely the game's strongest point.

 

the biggest thing that sets it back for me though, are its sounds and music. the sound-design is very bland, not quite as bad as Heretic, but the guns lack impact when fired (which with the weak starting stats makes the guns feel very flaccid compared to Doom), the enemies don't sound all that threatening, and KLANG KLANG KLANG.

the music though, is really bad. it's incredibly boring to listen to. the compositions could work if they were more fleshed out, but things like the town theme sound really empty and lifeless. the only songs i like are the intro and resistance base theme. everything else sucks. i actually had a thought of recomposing the entire game's soundtrack to make it better, but it's not really something i'm all that interested in doing.

 

maybe i should try it again, though. after all, i hadn't finished Hexen until last year.

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You dont REALLY need to buy to know how strife, there is a demo version for free. Actualy you need to stole chalice in demo for win to win it.

 

For me the game is good and very hard, aside it it introduces a very diferent gameplay, but if you like constant action like doom, you can try few mods in doomworld for strife it make it very like doom gameplay.

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14 hours ago, Piper Maru said:

I've never played Strife. Is it something you guys would recommend?

If you enjoyed Hexen, you might like it. The gameplay is similar as it uses a hub to get to levels similar to Hexen's 

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6 hours ago, Doominator2 said:

If you enjoyed Hexen, you might like it. The gameplay is similar as it uses a hub to get to levels similar to Hexen's 

I didn't really like Hexen all that much. Maybe I'll have to give Strife a pass.

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Hexen has obscure puzzles. Strife is much more straightforward. That's one reason to play it.

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Among the mixed opinions, I'm quoting the review that I wrote for Steam review section.

 

Quote

"Give you a hint. When I stop talking to you, you leave."

 

In my honest opinion, Strife is one of the most underrated games back in mid-90s. Unlike other first person shooters of the same age, like Duke Nukem 3D and Quake, this one is an excellent combination of first person shooter and role playing game. Despite of its Doom engine, you have lots of NPCs to interact, to ally with in order to fight against the enemy, or even to trade with your gold for their merchandises. Every major dialogue with those characters is also come with voices, performed by earnest voice actors. This boosts the game experience with its story and progression in a really good way. Speaking of the story, it also has multiple endings, affected by the choice you make during the progression. Those elements are definitely something that you couldn't see from the first person shooters back in mid-90s, and they make this game really unique.

 

Action is pretty much something that you might expect from the game with Doom engine. You also have inventory system from other FPS like Heretic and Hexen, so you can stock your powerups and use them whenever you really need. What makes this game more unique is the stealth system. Enemy soldiers in the same sector won't attack you until you do something suspicious. That being said, you can kill the enemy acolytes with your slient weapons, such as poison bolt, and you won't sound the alarm. Though some enemy mechanics don't give a $hi+ about the stealth system and attack you, which is a little bit annoying. But who cares, since it's more fun to mow down the enemies with your assault rifle. This game also has upgrade systems for your accuracy and health, just like a level system of other role-playing games.

 

What makes this game even better is this HD remastering. Now you can enjoy this game with modern elements like proper mouse aiming, better lighting effects, and perfect compatibility for your modern gaming setting. It even has objective assistant on the automap to help you find the location of next objective, which is really useful to navigate those maze-like levels. Speaking of level design, this game uses hub system like Hexen, making various levels into one giant open world with lots of explorable areas.

 

In overall, this is a forgotten gem from 1996, a something that ahead of the time. It is not a perfect game, but it's definitely something different from other mediocre first person shooters. A solid 9/10 stuff for me.

 

"Fight for the front and freedom! Move out!"

 

 

And yes, I also did enjoy Hexen, despite some flaws like confusing puzzle progression and 4 weapons limit per class. But between Hexen and Strife, my vote goes to the latter one.

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Whenever I saw water I groaned in pain knowing the shitty navigation nightmares ahead, and that feeling was never wrong the whole game..

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Commercially speaking it was too little, too late. The game just seemed old compared to the competition.

 

It was an interesting concept for its time and from today's point of view as a retro game definitely fares better.

The main issue is how badly the quest system was implemented and how easy it is to break by not playing the intended route. It might be an interesting project to completely redo the gameplay using all of ZDoom's features to do it right.

 

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7 hours ago, Graf Zahl said:

The main issue is how badly the quest system was implemented and how easy it is to break by not playing the intended route.

That reminds me when I was playing and I was offered the choice of stay with my current leader (Macil?) or the Oracle. First I saved (because choices ended up being terrifying with the previous experiences)

 

Spoiler below:

 

and after seeing that both wanted to kill me, I said "Fuck it. Let's kill both of them"

 

Guess what. I was stuck once again. If it wasn't for that save...

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Also fixed in Veteran Edition. If you manage to do that, a special event will be triggered that is new to SVE.

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Just now, Quasar said:

Also fixed in Veteran Edition. If you manage to do that, a special event will be triggered that is new to SVE.

That's going to be interesting...

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