So yeah, it's been awhile. And by awhile, I mean close to 20 years since the last time we played around in a new Rise of the Triad game. Now that I've had a chance to get my hands all over it and chatted with developer Interceptor Entertainment, it seems like Triad is on the right track to create a fast-paced, violent, and hilarious game that's every part of the classic Triad that I was hoping for.

A Lot Can Happen in Six Months

"We were approached by Apogee and they wanted to license this game to us," says CEO and Creative Lead at Interceptor Entertainment Frederik Schreiber. "We were all Doom, Wolfenstein, RotT, Duke Nukem fans, and RotT was on the list of things we wanted to do sooner or later. So we've been in development for six months now."

"No! No! Please don't shoot!"

In just six months Interceptor has completed work on much of the framework of Triad's single-player campaign, comprised of 20 levels and four boss battles that are all inspired from the original. Of course that helps when it's being built off of familiar Unreal Engine 3 tech, but also because much of the fundamental identity of Triad has already been established. Unlike some recent classics that have gone through the reboot process (like Syndicate), this new Triad is sticking with its old-school shooter mentality instead of trying to invent something new.

"Yes, this is a reboot," explains Schreiber. "It's based on the original as much as one can without having the flaws of the original. We kept all of the weapons and characters, all of the same bosses, but of course we've had to make some revisions to make it more modern."

And boom goes the dynamite.

A lot of this modern design, as you might expect, goes into massively updating the original maps of Triad that are by today's standards quite dated. But the team at Interceptor is also quite proud of their painstaking work to recreate these original maps as much as possible. So much so that on a Saturday panel at QuakeCon they'll show the new and the original Triad running side-by-side, as if to punctuate the fact that they're huge fans and are paying attention to the legacy of the original.

You Ready for a Bit of the Old Ultra-Violence?

And of course part of the appeal of the original that's definitely making its presence felt is the high level of brutal (and hilarious) violence that includes some over-the-top body dismemberment. This ensures you've got limbs and heads flying in all directions when a rocket firmly lands in the crotch of an enemy soldier. And while the violence is fun, and definitely a hallmark feature that needs to be here, the real core of Triad's single-player is about your score.

Eat wall of flame, evil doers!

"Every time you hit someone with a weapon, you get points," explains Schreiber. "So if you managed to kill three people with a rocket launcher, you get a multiplier. The faster you finish a level the more points you get, but if you find secrets you also get points. So you have to figure do you want to speed run through a level or do you want to find secrets?"

Like an updated and fast-paced Quake III Arena cousin.
All of these scores and stats will be shared over a global leaderboard. So depending what category you want to go for, that's where the strategy of picking between the five different playable characters comes into play. That's because they each have their own specific stats that carry into Triad's campaign, like one character being faster than others but with less health, and so forth. So it looks like there could be a high level of re-playability for the single-player portion of Triad.

Rise of the Triad Arena

Even though something like co-op could be a great addition to Triad, Schreiber says it was something they discussed, but it would have pushed the project back. "We want to focus on the core aspects of RotT rather than trying to cram features in. We want to get this out to the fans faster and add additional content later for free, like additional multiplayer maps."

That's one hell of a headshot.

And right now multiplayer is being put through its paces on the show floor at QuakeCon, some of which I was able to play in some fast 3v3 action. This is where Triad feels less like the classic game, but more like an updated and fast-paced Quake III Arena cousin. Rockets and bullets flying all over the place, jumping pads, quick respawns -- I was loving it. And with the final version of Triad promising 32 player multiplayer maps, it looks like I've got a new multiplayer arena shooter to keep an eye on. Just don't expect this to be submitted to MLG for any official competitions. As Schreiber told me, they're not concentrating on creating a balanced multiplayer experience -- just a chaotic and fun one.

So What Happens to Duke Nukem 3D: Reloaded?

Some of you may already know that Interceptor Entertainment established its creative roots by working on a remake of the original Duke Nukem 3D. Unfortunately that project has been put on hold due to a dispute with Gearbox. And now that they're working on Rise of the Triad, I was curious to know where that leaves Duke Nukem 3D: Reloaded.

It's a dance off!

"At first we were trying to solve the dispute with Gearbox, but it was looking like it wasn't possible," explains Schreiber. "So we decided to put Reloaded on the shelf and start working on this instead. It doesn't mean that Reloaded is cancelled, but that ball is in Gearbox's hands. If they decided that they want to do that game again, we'll definitely go back and develop that as well. But right now it's all about Rise of the Triad and that's been our primary focus for the last six months."

It doesn't mean that Reloaded is cancelled, but that ball is in Gearbox's hands.
Right now Triad doesn't have a firm release date but it's roughly 55% complete and aiming for later this year. It's also going to release for a very fair $15 and will ship with full modding support and will work with Valve's Steam Workshop.

"We really don't want to release RotT and just leave it behind. We want to continue to build on it and support it for a very long time. Build our own levels, do our own things with it. We don't believe in making games that you release and then go onto the next thing, and then just let the game do its own thing. We want to continue evolving it."


Spy Guy says: I guess if you're going to tap a developer to remake an old school shooter, you want to grab one that has working on remaking Duke Nukem 3D over the last two years. Seems like the right match on paper. What do you think?