Rock, Paper, Shotgun

I defy anyone to wake up on a Monday morning, bleary-eyed and unsure as to the state of reality, and plunge their face directly into a developer diary for the Rise of the Triad remake. It starts with an Apogee logo, which made me think I’d journeyed back through the decades as I slept, and contains men talking about ‘immersion’, ‘level design’ and the ‘adventure feel’ provided by ‘spinning blades which can chop you into pieces’. Four bewildering minutes, which is precisely what I’d hope for from the resurrection of ROTT. Brace yourself for a video where everything, from designing an environment to discovering a secret, happens at the speed of the past.

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Rise of the Triad is one of the last games anyone expected to spring back into the spotlight via what will go down in history as the year everyone finally decided necromancy was kind of cool, but it’s actually not doing half-bad for itself. Sure, it’s another retro revival shooter, but the immaculately coifed folks at Interceptor seem to understand exactly what powered the original: total lunacy. There were dog modes and magical baseball bats and castles and jump pads and flame walls. Modern shooters pretend to make sense – even when they really, really don’t. Not so with ROTT. Watch the Interceptor gang explain the method to their madness – with words and not guttural howling noises, somewhat surprisingly – after the break.

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So let’s have a look at this, Internet. I am a nerd for development process, so watching the time-lapsed video (below) of Interceptor CEO Frederik Schreiber building part of a Rise Of The Triad level is an early-morning delight. The remake, which was announced at QuakeCon, is due by the end of the year. You can have a read of Nathan’s interview with said CEO just here. It’s quite entertaining.

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