Rise of the Triad

Rise of the Triad is a fast, old-school first-person shooter that trades restraint for speed, weird weapons, and a lot of movement. By our assessment, what it does best is keep the player in motion while turning the level into a messy sprint through enemies and traps. That gives it a very particular texture: loud, loose, and happy to be less polished than the modern shooters that came after it. The downside is obvious if that style does not appeal to you, because the whole game lives or dies on its roughness and its arcade feel. It belongs to the early PC shooter tradition more than to tactical or story-heavy gun games. Rise of the Triad is a blunt, energetic relic, and it keeps its focus on speed over precision.