90s Game polished and for new systems - great!

This game is absolutely incredible! Thanks to this improved edition a game that is basically running on the ORIGINAL Doom engine looks and plays brilliantly.

There is a huge amount of gameplay and great locations in the game, as well as some great decisions to make along the way.

I really can't recommend this enough!

Ahhh Strife! Back in 1996, Rogue Entertainment made it's debut with the most ambitious use of the Doom engine yet. Strife hit the scene as the first true story-driven FPS/RPG hybrid. Using a hub system quite similar to Hexen, Strife also added in NPCs, voiced dialog, and actual conversation choices that affect the outcome of the game. Compared to the mindless run and gun action of previous Doom-based games, this was quite a refreshing change. And now 18 years later Night Dive Studios has taken this amazing classic, and given it the kind of re-release that quite frankly I wish could be done for every Doom-engine game!

Right off the bat when you start up Strife: Veteran Edition you're greeted with a plethora of options, ranging from enhanced music to widescreen views, FOV, bloom, and all the other trimmings. You want delicious crunchy pixels? You got it! Smoothed filtering your kinda thing? It's there too! Night Dive Studios has replaced the "vanilla" doom engine with a massively reworked version of the hit source port Chocolate Doom. Despite the source code for Strife being lost to the ages, they have managed to completely reverse-engineer the game, and bring it perfectly into the modern age.

Everything that made Strife what it is is completely intact here, and it all holds up very well considering the game's age. From the games stealth elements to its vicious deathmatch mode, this package is just dripping with juicy goodness. The original manual, town map, and field guide are all included as .pdf files, and the Roland SC-55 soundtrack is present as ogg files. Speaking of music, if you want to experience the oldschool synthesizer charms of retro Adlib sound, you can turn on OPL3 music in the sound settings.

As if all of the above wasn't good enough, Night Dive has also augmented Strife: Veteran Edition with a set of trading cards, badges and achievements. They are also planning further additions such as a "capture the Chalice" multiplayer mode, and better automapping. If only id Software would hire Night Dive to give Doom, Heretic and Hexen this kind of epic overhaul. Those games sorely need it as the janky Dosbox setup they have on Steam is just not pretty. Strife: Veteran edition is a shining example of what happens with a game company is passionate about both the game at hand, and giving their customers the best experience possible.

10/10

Strife on steam = instant purchase.
This game blew my mind when it came out, and this port/update is incredible.
the port is well done, I havent had any issues with mouse lag (one of the other reviews mentioned it)
all the extra graphical options are welcome, but to be honest I'm running it without the high quality renderer, because the chunky pixellated style just looks wicked to me.

The gameplay is awesome, and modern FPS games could learn a thing or two about level design and mission structure from strife.

Only an hour or so in, and I've already found a couple secrets I missed when I was a kid!

One of THE Best Doom Engine Game EVER!

Strife is incredible. It's EASILY the best game released using Doom Engine. It feels almost like an earlier version of Deus Ex with its post apocalyptic cyberpunk inspired setting that has you running around a city hub taking & completeing jobs for various NPC in the game while finding, earning, & buying upgrades for your character & his arsenal. Its a damn shame it had to drop a month before the likes of Quake. Thanks to this almost no one has ever heard of it, and it was doomed (no pun intended) to launguish in relative obscurity never recieving the recognition it deserved. Believe it or not, this is the game that pioneered interactive AI allies & ingame storytelling in an FPS, things Half-Life was later was credited for. This truly is not only the best Doom Engine Game but also one of the greats forgotten gems of all time.

With a source port this awesome there's no excuse to not play Strife. It's kind of like Deus Ex before Deus Ex even existed. What you get with this game is an open world which lets you interact with lots of different NPC's and kill lots of bad guys with rocket launchers and machine guns. The puzzles and design is a bit like Hexen but much less confusing. Easily one of the best shooting games of the 90's and something every FPS fan should play.

Full video review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu3CGEcRl8U&feature=youtu.be

Strife was one of the last games made on the Doom engine, and it really shows off the strength of Carmack's engine really well.

Unlike Doom, in Strife your objective is not to kill everything in sight and find the level exit. The game is built more like an RPG with mission based objectives. You play as a wandering mercenary who joins the resistance toward a corrupt government of cyborgs known as The Order. All of the characters in the game are really memorable and really well voice acted. It also features multiple endings, and overall the story is really engaging. Especially for a game released in 1996 with comic book cutscenes.

Strife also features hub levels like Hexen, where you revisit a central town location regularly to purchase ammunition and health items prior to a mission. The game also takes place in an interconnected world similar to Metroid. Where you can backtrack to prior mission areas if you so desire to uncover secrets you might have missed. Later on in the game the levels get much more sprawling and the level design in general gets more unique.

Strife is one of my favorite fps/rpg games. While it wasn't the first one to try the concept, it was probably the first one to do it really well. It's a very enjoyable and simple game to play and if you're a fan of games like Deus Ex and System Shock I guarantee you'll like it.

This re-release also includes the original WAD files that Strife shipped with back in 1996. So if you're not a fan of this particular port of the game, you can copy those into your favorite Doom source port like gzDoom or Skulltag. Happy hunting.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=355314412

Back in the 90's when First Person Shooters were gaining the most momentum there was an abundance of ingenious and ambitious usages of the legendary Doom engine, and while titles like Quake and Duke Nukem were the most talked about at the time there was one debut title from the great Rogue Entertainment whose mechanics influenced an emergence of now familiar and relied on mechanics. Strife finally marks its comeback in a more modern and accessible package for both fans old and new.

Most importantly, this is an incredibly solid port that is consistent with the quality you'd expect from Night Dive and then some. All modern resolutions are included here as well as graphical improvements in the form of dynamic lighting, bloom, and customizable motion blur. Controls have been tweaked to fit the playstyle of modern shooters, and objectives now glow with a circle on the minimap creating a much smoother and seamless quest hunt. Night Dive Studios has given Strife all of the needed customization to allow players of any background enjoy the game however they please, be it in its original intended form or with all the new bells and whistles.

An extraterrestrial meteorite strikes your planet, unleashing a mysterious virus ravaging the brains of those it infects. Society has been split into two, the infected who have become cruel and barbaric rulers over the uninfected and powerless civilians. You are one of the uninfected who have banded together to create their own rebel community and fight this infected authority that reigns over your lives known only as The Order.

Strife features a large and detailed town hub unlike any FPS before it due to its population of many colorful, grizzled citizens and their connected questlines with fully voiced dialogue trees, the exploration within this community feeling fluid and engaging even after all these years. Here you've got all the staple establishments used throughout the RPG medium. The tavern provides you with side quests to perform for cash as well as tidbits of valuable info that comes at a price, the hospital sells valuable potions to heal during combat, and the weapon and armor shop sell the valuable equipment needed to advance through the harder levels found throughout the world.

Once you've met up with your underground resistance group of rebels the game opens up, as you take quests and carry out important mission from the various NPCs you'll find scattered around the sprawling town. Different strongholds and hidden corridors throughout the outskirts of the town play host to these missions following classic FPS action, and will reward you with scavenged loot and money in the form of quest rewards to purchase new equipment or much needed medical kits before delving into newer, harder territory.

While it certainly isn't the first FPS/RPG hybrid to ever be created, I feel it was the best original attempt to really get it right with a user friendly combination of addictive RPG progression within a fast and furious world of Doom-like violence. Fans of the engine and of the era in general will be drawn to the reminiscent visuals and their application to a unique fantasy world, an extremely pleasant departure from the usual bleak and gray environments we're used to from shooters of that period. The nostalgic Roland powered music is especially delightful here, and takes an extremely adventurous turn in composition.

tl;dr
If you've never played Strife there is no better time to discover and enjoy a legend, and if you're an old fan of Strife this is the perfect excuse to go back and experience it again in its most polished form to date.

Strife was originally released in 1996 on a modified doom engine, it was unique for its time because it combined elements of RPGs with dooms run and gun gameplay. The result was a cult classic that has garnered fan projects and restorations, but sadly it was forgotten amongst the other big PC games like Duke Nukem 3D and Quake. Until this re-release I was convinced many forgot about Strife, thankfully I was wrong as the devs who ported this cared very much about the game. Strife: Veteran Edition is thankfully not just Strife shoved in with dosbox, it is an actual port based mainly off of the Chocolate Strife source port. It contains the original IWADs and the ability to play it as it was in 1996. It also adds a large amount of modern new features and customization options. An optional bloom lighting system and motion blur have been added along with objective/damage indicators and weapon recoil. I'd easily recommend this version of Strife to anyone looking for a good action game, its a very unique experience and this port only enhances it.

The original version of this game is one of the few first-person shooters I have in its original big box in my classic game collection shelves – and the reason is simple: it's just overwhelmingly good! Why?

Well, the game was way ahead of its time, back in 1996. Just think of it as a mission-based, story-driven "Doom"-clone with an open world. This description still doesn't do the game full justice, but it's a good way to at least categorize it.

I've re-played the original game during the Christmas holidays in 2010 and thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. The comic-style artwork and the voice acting really reminds me of the style of the classic adventure game "Beneath a Steel Sky", the faction of The Order feels like a high-tech version of the Hammers from the "Thief" trilogy (by the way: "Thief 2014" doesn't exist...) and the open world has a very unique feel to it. It offers a nice opportunity to experiment a bit with choices and outcomes. Getting your secret "underground rebellion missions" via in-ear radio feels really immersive, too!

Thankfully, this updated Veteran Edition doesn't change the original too much. Just a very comfortable new Full HD engine with complete mouse look, high quality textures, dynamic lighting and bloom and a rich variety of options to customize the game to your liking. Oh, and Steam achievements, too.

This was an instant buy – and I wholeheartedly recommend this game!
Go buy it. It's WELL worth the asking price!