STRIFE - THE BIG SCORE

[@QuasarEE]

Nightdive guy here. A few comments: The configuration menu runs before the main game loop because of the Doom engine's inability to reinitialize itself meaning that multiplayer game initialization had to be handled before the main loop starts. This was the easiest way to get it done on our schedule. Bad choices ending gameplay that we couldn't work around were nerfed because our QA really didn't enjoy starting the game over entirely. The solution for not setting off the alarm in the Commons is to take an ore back to the beginning of the mines, there's another forcefield and inside it is a device mind controlling the drones in the area. Destroying that device opens the door you pushed that said it was locked. You can then go through that door and it leads directly into the Factory, behind the forcefield you'd have to blow up in the Commons.

[@danielja1832]

Thanks for the insight. Always interesting to hear what makes these games tick, and why certain design choices were made.

[@MarquisDeSang]

The switch version will crash after the console resume from sleep.

[@KingDeeDuhDee]

Nice

[@MithrilRoshi]

Hello fellow dev :D Also nice.

[@Aspartamebraintumor]

Can you release a patch of the game to make the Inquisitor stop endlessly firing grenades at the wall when you are in a separate room

[@TehNoobiness]

11:12 It gets better. There was a demo, and stealing the chalice was the main goal of the demo--and in the demo, the guy gives you your gold right away. So not only were players not expecting this kind of twist, the players who played the shareware version _thought they had already seen this part of the story._ It's a brilliant little bait and switch.

[@RolandTheJabberwocky]

THATS SO EVIL HOLY SHIT

[@ludilka]

Which demo is that? I am pretty sure the demo version of Strife I played is the exact copy of the final game in terms of chalice shenanigans

[@anchorlightforge]

@@ludilka I'm pretty sure this is referring to the Trust No One shareware episode, which is included in the Veteran Edition.

[@ChibiKami]

IIRC giving it to him sets off the alarm immediately but it opens the door to resistance HQ and also a secret hole in the floor near him with treasure inside

[@lobstrosity7163]

I loved that demo. Showed it to my friends and all. Never got hold of the full game though.

[@MathewWalls]

I love how Blackbird is so obviously fan-art of Rogue from X-Men,

[@Bitterman5868]

The hero looks like gambit with a red hair so it is a win-win situation

[@Aspartamebraintumor]

blackbird has an adam's apple tho

[@batarnakdekosse1312]

​@@Aspartamebraintumoreven better

[@THEDONKAGE]

​@@Aspartamebraintumor Brotherman, men *and* women have adam's apples, if that's what you're getting at 😂

[@FentonWenge]

So she's a Rogue-like?

[@GeneralPotatoSalad]

Blackbird's great. Some unused audio files show they clearly had plans for an entire set of situational responses that never got implemented (like one sharply telling you "Go left! OTHER LEFT!" presumably if you fail to follow directions) and a series of responses that seemed to be tied to how much you're killing things. On the low end Blackbird is clearly annoyed. On the high end, she's flirtatious, goes all-in on the double entendres and does seem to be aroused by the excessive violence. (Get a WAD viewer/editor like Slade and listen to VOC212 to VOC220 in voices.wad.) There's also a few files that seem to be loosely following the demo's plot where she seems a bit more expressive in general. (VOC1 and VOC231-VOC237, probably a few more scattered around.) But really, what more could an early FPS protagonist want in a girlfriend? *Feelings?* She likes seeing things die, and he likes making things die. Match made in heaven.

[@asteroidrules]

It seems like they really put a greater emphasis on acting than was common for games of that era. Heck there are plenty of modern games that put less effort into their voice acting than Strife, but it really stands out that a game from 1996 has both good voice acting and a development team who were clearly trying to make the most of it.

[@singletona082]

I went through wit ha WAD viewer once upon a time and just found the whole thing a treat because of all the unused content. Then i lamented nobody seemed to make USE of any of it. Like 'here let's make a wad that finds a use for all this stuff.' Also that 'On your left. NO YOUR OTHER LEFT' could have easily been me in the last slog of the game because that palce was a fucking maze. Kinda wished the sewer dwellers took up residence in the old front base after macil's takeover of the castle. Ya still out of sight but the entire front base area was... genuinely amazing as a map that had lots of areas and secrets and NONE of it is mandatory.

[@TheD736]

It's not often that your cortana-esque partner is just as much of a psycho as the FPS protag

[@RdTrler]

I went and played the "Trust No One" demo. Turns out, that's where you can find those unused lines. It's pretty wild that a demo to a game from 1996 would go so far as to tease the mid-game. Rogue Entertainment was inspired. Too bad they petered out... and while working with Valve, of all things.

[@theoneandonlymichaelmccormick]

This game resembles a playable cult animated movie, like Heavy Metal, Starchaser, or something by Ralph Bakshi. I dig it.

[@FredSpade]

Yeah. The voice acting is very satisfying as well.

[@judgeboony2695]

I always thought it was something reminiscent of a 90s cartoon aesthetic, like Skeleton Warriors and X-Men.

[@theoneandonlymichaelmccormick]

@@judgeboony2695 DEFINITELY Skeleton Warriors.

[@BlackMoonHowls]

@@theoneandonlymichaelmccormick That was the shit my dude.

[@BlackMoonHowls]

Ever hear of Jim lee's Wildcats, or Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, what about Dinosaucers? Biker Mice from Mars? @@judgeboony2695

[@Cyberphile]

You can stealth your way into the factory by stabbing the explosive with your knife, as long as you manage not to damage the guards with the explosion, you can get in without alerting them.

[@ghoulbuster1]

Punching explosive bombs is the peak of stealth gameplay.

[@Ickarichi]

I randomly found your salt and sanctuary lore through yesterday then I randomly find you here? Funny how that happens kek.

[@Cyberphile]

@@Ickarichi Small internet, haha. Thanks for watching my stuff.

[@Synthonym]

poison crossbow is also silent

[@SpaceSkeletonDragon]

@@Synthonym Right, but you don't want to waste that ammo on statics, it fucks guards up quite nicely.

[@Crocogator]

I love this game. Where a big mean guard will spend a paragraph threatening you and the only dialogue option is the default 'leave'. Except in Strife? The default is "Thanks, bye!"

[@LonelySpaceDetective]

Similar thing another game did: The risible point-and-click adventure Hopkins FBI has "I have to go." as the general leave option. Only in Hopkins's case, it's actually _voiced._

[@dragoneye6229]

Macil: "Then die in shame and dishonor!" MC: "Thanks bye!" Me: "Well we ARE a mercenary and they are cheery about getting into fights IRL so this checks out."

[@Crocogator]

@@dragoneye6229 *gets gunned down* T-T-Thanks... B...Bye...

[@Jokoko2828]

@@LonelySpaceDetective I do wish more people played Hopkins FBI, the game is deranged.

[@brendanhinderliter6627]

I always rather liked the art style behind Strife. The whole Techno-Feudal vibe really felt unique and set it apart from it's contemporaries at the time, which were mostly futuristic or fantasy. Also, full voice acting in a Doom engine game? I can almost imagine how impressive it seemed back in 1996.

[@georgeoldsterd8994]

Don't forget that Doom 2 technically has voice acting as well, with the Icon of Sin.

[@brendanhinderliter6627]

​@@georgeoldsterd8994True, but it was a one-time thing in Doom 2. The rest of the game was mostly stock sound effects, grunts and screams. Strife however has full voice acting in its world to such a level that it oozes personality and charm. Every character has something to them that amounts to more than just "Oh, he's a zombie, and he is moaning for hunger". From the smug, rather dodgy feel of Harris, to the stern and commanding demeanor of Macil, the voice acting in Strife is IMO one of its biggest strengths.

[@quint3ssent1a]

Strife artstyle was incredibly good. The protag on game's cover has a GIGACHAD CHIN (GIGACHIN, if you will.)

[@brendanhinderliter6627]

​@@quint3ssent1aOut of all of the heroes from various Boomer Shooters, Strifeguy is one of the most chaddest of them all. Not to mention Blackbird is literally Rogue from X-Men.

[@singletona082]

If this had come out even a few months before instead of literally right between Duke and Quake. But alas. The Programmer had to go and cause Strife.

[@alexanderrahl7034]

"They destroy our women and children." its very jarring to hear that line, and not hear Ross say "our _women_ !" lol

[@UwBuis]

Weoamen!

[@SongsandActs]

I said it out loud when Civvie didn't say it.

[@HC-qc5rp]

Real recognize real

[@theslamdancekid]

Lifelong STRIFE too

[@UwBuis]

Animals!

[@ScottHost]

Little known back story. ID basically paid for the development of my game called Raptor Call of the Shadows. Strife started as my game and I wound up trading the rights to Strife for the money owed on Raptor and I moved back to Chicago. . ( short version of story )

[@youmukonpaku3168]

I knew I recognized the name Cygnus from somewhere. Raptor is a ton of fun even now.

[@ScottHost]

@@youmukonpaku3168 I am making a new Raptor and about to Release an updated Demonstar ( game I made after Raptor ) Dropped the Cygnus name it was too common.

[@belowthestoneofficial1476]

there it is

[@ScottHost]

@@belowthestoneofficial1476 I dont believe it

[@Aspartamebraintumor]

how much of Strife was developed when you left the project?

[@daemonofdecay]

First Ross and now Civvie. This game deserves all the attention.

[@fnot804]

Ah, that explains why I seen the video on this game already.

[@Sceptical_Giraffe]

Ross? Which youtuber are you referring to?

[@koshomanka]

​@Sceptical_Giraffe ross' game dungeon. Channel is called Accursed farms.

[@Emsarrev]

@@Sceptical_Giraffe Ross from Accursed Farms, he covers a lot of incredibly niche games in his "Game Dungeon" series: www.youtube.com/@chilledsanity

[@bigslim7777]

Years ago...? Like, this was inevitable, it WAS going to happen 🙄

[@timothymckane6362]

2:13 - 2:32 We need 9 uncensored hours of Civvie explaining each of those other FPS Doom-like games.

[@RogueSceptile]

Uncensored hours or uncensored images?

[@Satanic_Dude]

@@RogueSceptile I'll admit i'm intrigued to know which game has the barbarian banging that goblin, you know for uh, research

[@skeletonmemelord7779]

yeah, honestly. i'm not even sure what some of the games shown during that time frame are. especially the one in the left of the last part of the segment. what the fuck even is that? edit: oh jesus christ, i just found out what that is. it's a game called SLOOTER! i guess HDoom isn't the only hentai Doom engine related thing i know now.

[@saloz9483]

@@skeletonmemelord7779 LMAO I thought that was just a fake image. I looked up the name you said and just wow.

[@a.k.aorangepenguin5032]

@@saloz9483 shall i ask for the forbidden knowledge

[@psychotripnerdstuff]

I love Strife. I wish this game led to a whole generation of shooter role-playing games, with the choices of Baldur's Gate, and the action of retro shooters. And, as long as I'm dreaming, I'd like a pony.

[@mistermeow527]

In a way it led to Deus Ex so it helped lay that first stone.

[@blakecasimir]

There are some HUGE action RPG mods for GZDoom, including Abysm, Inquisitor 3D, and Ascension. Highly recommended!

[@MinscFromBaldursGate92]

Nice to see a fellow BG fan.

[@Sorrelhas]

Don't ask for ponies on the internet

[@lionocyborg6030]

Something like a modern Pathways into Darkness including both a Night Dive remaster (for Windows & Linux, Mac already has one) and a full remake of that game ala System Shock Enhanced Edition & System Shock R would rock. The closest we have to those sadly is the Marathon sourceport port of PID for the former and Nightmare Reaper for the latter. Of course, PID meets the Binding of Issac Repentance would be super awesome.

[@LonelySpaceDetective]

41:58 Fun fact: Getting the Berserk effect from collecting all three Talismans was inspired by a bug in the original DOS game, that allowed taking out an Inquisitor with a single punch in _very_ specific circumstances. In fact, with enough Stamina upgrades plus Berserk you can actually do that without the bug with a good enough damage roll. Also, the messages you get when picking up the Talismans are ripped straight from DOOM 64 when you pick up the Demon Keys.

[@Matt-md5yt]

Lmao one punching an Inquisitior

[@ozrithclay6921]

No one expects the spanish inquisition! And no inquisition ever expects a berserk punch!

[@Veladus]

OG One Punch Man

[@bloodrunsclear]

'You gotta break a few eggs to kill everybody! Or...something.' - NPC from Strife

[@Ribbons0121R121]

For those who don’t know The bamboo room is a reference to an ancient torture method where they tie a man above bamboo and it grows so fast that it goes straight through them

[@GmodPlusWoW]

I thought it involved bamboo skewers under the fingernails, but getting Dragon's Tooth'd by bamboo sounds so much worse. Even if the bamboo doesn't turn you into a plant-zombie.

[@professordetective807]

@@GmodPlusWoW | Given the Department's usual methods, it could very well be BOTH...

[@thecandlemaker1329]

You could say he's been bamboozled.

[@mgg7756]

XD'nt

[@TheMeekMingeMaster]

yep it was both, it didnt grow so fast, just over a few days it would shoot, so for every hour of every day once it dug into you youd slowly feel it dig deeper towards your head till you died@@professordetective807

[@arandomday3530]

Incredibly based of Romero to help the Strife devs fire their terrible boss and found a new studio to make Strife

[@singletona082]

So would you say he made The Programmer his Bitch?

[@atomiclemon77]

Man, I kind of feel sorry for Romero every time I hear this referenced. Poor guy. With him for life.@@singletona082

[@bluebay0]

@@singletona082 Just look at that grin, who wouldn't want to be Romero's bitch?

[@GuyDude-hk8uy]

"I didn't play a lot of RPGs, I still don't. I'm an instant gratification kind of gamer" Fuck yeah.

[@Damienx247]

Strife's storyline sounds like story of Taarna from the first Heavy Metal movie converted to an fps.

[@YTsux100pct._of-the-time.]

I can't even tell you how many female RPG characters I've named either Taarna from Heavy Metal, or Aviendha from the Wheel of Time. Male characters are always named Dredd.

[@markosofranic3905]

@@YTsux100pct._of-the-time. As in Judge Dredd?

[@YTsux100pct._of-the-time.]

@@markosofranic3905 of course. Love me some Judge Dredd. Comics and the movie from a few years back.

[@viewtifuljoe4412]

@@YTsux100pct._of-the-time. "Dredd, Do you need backup?" "No."

[@TheRealNormanBates]

@@YTsux100pct._of-the-time. I _KNEW_ you'd say that.

[@hoborg98]

So, if Macil was exploiting the rebellion to gather Sigil pieces, does that mean the Front was just a... front?

[@BestCupid]

Your profile picture with this comment is so damn perfect

[@lordguy5]

So those who want to know, 2:32 top left corner, SLOOTER is the name.

[@JeffHikari]

Unfortunately the dev behind that one gave up when they realized they couldn't make a ton of money from it. A shame, really.

[@Mrmbag0703]

@@JeffHikari yeah, but idk what he expected honestly. still sucks.

[@atarijaguarfan7893]

get that game to SsethTzeentach ASAP i need to see him have a mental breakdown and speedrun a porn game again lmfao

[@JO-db7cm]

I was wondering why there was seemingly random porn added to the pile.

[@skeletonmemelord7779]

OH... that's what that is. jesus christ

[@skotters]

When my family got our first pc back in 96, it came with a crap load of CDs to tinker with, one of which was called "Launch". It was like a digital internet magazine subscription that had interactive links and videos everywhere and our copy also came with a demo of Strife... I loved that demo so much and nobody really knew about the game then. Glad to see it get covered here!

[@Rountree1985]

Lmao I remember Launch. I’m pretty sure I had one that included a Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 demo.

[@juliovictormanuelschaeffer8370]

Civvie, you can't run forever from Chex Quest. We've been waiting that review for years!

[@bansheebacklash3730]

"Don't smoke cigarettes kids!" (immediately lights cigarette) One of my favorite things about watching Civvie's videos is that little moments like that could really be him, or it could be part of the keyfabe. Its impossible to tell.

[@Cattierhornet66]

There was a meme in the earlier videos where civvie chain smoked cigarettes. His voice was lower then. Like way early vids, doom movie and land of the dead. I assume dog stoped smoking since then resulting in a different tone of voice. Good callback to the oldies

[@RdTrler]

35:57 Funny thing, when I got to that part where you have to blow up the forcefield with the explosive ore... I "stealthed" it by punching somebody and having them blow up the ore (and me) with it. It worked and I kept the town from getting violent on me.

[@BroBurg445]

I feel like the 6 hour list of GZdoom games not including Ashes 2063/Ashes Afterglow is a great opportunity to tell you to play that. Play that. For real, it's fantastic.

[@Fredbob392]

Ashes is amazing, fills the good post apocalyptic game hole in my heart that's been wanting ever since New Vegas

[@MrSoopSA]

Thank you so much for this review, Norton.

[@kropela]

Why Norton?

[@Matt-md5yt]

The antiVirus?

[@TrinSpin]

@@kropela I presume it's referring to Norton Mapes, the guy from FEAR

[@kropela]

@@TrinSpin Thanks!

[@MrSoopSA]

@@TrinSpin Norton Mapes is also the guy from this review. (Please don’t kill me Civvie I’m just foolin’.)

[@brain_drops]

Im a younger dude, 22. But I've got a great appreciation for older games and such. So i like using this channel as kind of a crash course in boomer shooters that we're beyond my time. Thanks for suffering Civvie

[@GeorgeTsiros]

Check out Descent (the new one is called Overload), Terminal Velocity, Ballistics and maybe Pyrotechnica. They're not boomshoot and except for the first, they're not even particularly good, but for a short list of early 3d games that are relatively unknown, it will do. \m/

[@SentinalhMC]

@@GeorgeTsiros You are literally the only person I've ever seen mention Ballistics. That game trolled the hell out of me as a kid when I bought it second hand with its installer progress going to 600%

[@GeorgeTsiros]

@@SentinalhMCha! maybe the data was corrupt or the installer didn't like the OS verrsion? Anyway, did you manage to play it?

[@SentinalhMC]

@@GeorgeTsiros Oh yeah I played it a bit, didn't really like it but I think I only paid like $5 for it.

[@PaulC-Drums]

Hell yeah bro, one of my favorite games of all time. Knew Civvie would do a video on this eventually. I want a modern remake of this game SO badly.

[@jeffreytripoli]

Every two weeks for the last five years i check back here to see if this will be the week you cover Strife. This game has meant a lot to me over the past 25+ years and it's so gratifying to see my favorite KZbinr cover it -- even if you've been dogged for years about it. Thanks Civvie!

[@Arimmus]

I love this game, I bought it when it first came out in 1996-97. I played it until I broke it. then I bought another copy. I ligit squeed when i saw he finally did it. Thank you CV-11 For your work and dedication to this game's memory.

[@adiadiadifere]

I absolutely love this channel, a fellow 90's PC owner and this format works really well, I'm grateful to have found this channel and am grateful you post this content. Thank you

[@elijones7926]

So, you CAN steal the chalice. After the mission for the coupling and talking to the gov for the last time, go back and swipe the chalice but dont go to harris or near the bar. I always took to to the abandoned front base (after they left) but stashed in the entrance side room (before the front leaves).

[@Patton1944]

Holy crap, is Blackbird the first ever adjutant type, "always connected to you through coms," type character? Like Cortana or Hunnigan.

[@anchorlightforge]

I think Walter Bascom technically beats that by about a year? In FPS games there's not many others that come to mind but I feel like if you're willing to include a few other genres there might be some other CD-ROM era games with a comms advisor character.

[@RdTrler]

@@anchorlightforge TekWar's Walter Bascom doesn't exactly count. His lines weren't playing over normal gameplay, and instead they played like you got back to base and he was debriefing you. And also it was Capstone, the pinnacle of entertainment. TekWar might've been the first FPS to do a lot of things... but it also didn't give its ideas the time of day, so why should we? If Blackbird wasn't the first ever, she was certainly the one to inspire the likes of Cortana.

[@jamesgrose510]

SHODAN is the antagonist, so I'm not inclined to call her a supporting character to the player

[@Phobos_Anomaly]

I'd argue the various AI in the Marathon trilogy come close, though of course that's through text terminals - but very similar.

[@InternetHydra]

One of the true underrated old fpses, even taking into account the wonkiness and flaws. Strikingly innovative yet largely unknown by gamers at its time let alone now. EDIT: And uh yeah speaking of flaws, why would Nightdive take out some of the softlock options but not the really big one? If I remember, the governor is mandatory for progression at some point but that sidequest locks out the needed dialogue.

[@awakeandwatching953]

Ii had the demo from pc zone on cd.. played it loads but never got the full game.. might have to change that now

[@DiceDsx]

They did remove that softlock: if you take the chalice and talk to the Governor, he will have you knocked out and dragged back to the start of the game. You can then go back to him and he'll behave as nothing happened, allowing you to continue without having to start over.

[@InternetHydra]

@@DiceDsx That's a good change... as much as the curmudgeon in my brain grumbles at the softening of the game, the logical part admits they didn't really add much and would probably cause steam refunds nowadays... at least the original version is still an option.

[@ramonandrajo6348]

They are not good at their job.

[@ramonandrajo6348]

@@InternetHydra Nightdive are not good at their job.

[@skaruts]

From the perspective of a teenager playing this in the 90's, this game was a complete blast. It was all very new and fresh, and mostly unprecedented. The RPG elements, the dialogues, the missions, the scenery, the stealth-ish, the choices you could make, everything was so engaging. And then that battle in the castle. It was epic. No other game had ever placed me inside a whole big ass battle with lots of NPCs shooting at each other, while I was just one among them. It really made me feel part of something much bigger. It gave life to the whole revolution thing: it wasn't just me doing missions, there were many other people doing their parts. I decided to kill Macil at some point, and played the rest of the game that way. Kept a save game there, and later played without killing Macil. The game has quite some replayability, I think.

[@HuffdrewPaint]

Kissinger AND a Civvie Strife video. Good-ass day.

[@theduchyofmilanball3157]

Kissinger is dead? Finally, kept the devil waiting didn't he.

[@Zenlore6499]

I’m impressed with this game! It feels like something that should have been made years later, creatively speaking. Was not expecting it to be so close to Quake in age!

[@cruelangel_94]

I was waiting for this review! It was one of the first FPS I played along with Doom II.

[@grownreserected7935]

As a kid born in the late 80s, I grew up playing DOS Apogee games on my parents' Windows computer. Getting a good look at all these games from this Era, with the witty and humorous content Civvie11 gives hits my nostalgia button that other channels don't. So I appreciate your work, Civvie11.

[@Jasmine__135]

VERY common misconception about the Doom Engine: It DOES have a concept of height, it tracks it constantly, sourceport or DOS, it uses all 3 dimensions. This is why you can *fall* in Doom, the infinitely tall monsters are to lower memory usage, the lack of vertical mouse-aiming was because Carmack didn't like the Y-sheering that was commonplace at the time (see Duke3D) not that any of this matters, but education is important and I am tired of people thinking Doom is not as 3D as it actually is :3

[@-Zakhiel-]

When people say it's not 3D, they refer to the fact that the rendering is not fully in 3D, not that the game doesn't have a Y axe. There are plenty of old arcade games wich have length, depth and height but you wouldn't call those games 3D. Because they weren't. You can for exemple have a top down 2D games with height (rooms over rooms, objects going under or above your character...), they're still 2D games (or are you sayin' that a game like Link to the past is 3D).

[@EnjoyCocaColaLight]

truth.

[@Jasmine__135]

​@@-Zakhiel- no i mean its a full 3D engine. there are values stored for X,Y, and Z axis inside the code. room-over-room is not what makes a game engine "3D" its whats people can use to say their engine is better than the other ones.

[@DoomRater]

The problem isn't that it doesn't track it. It's just that for some intents and purposes it's completely IGNORED. Actors are commonly INFINITELY TALL for these some reasons.

[@Claymann71]

You are _technically_ correct! *The BEST kind of Correct.* _That just raises more questions!_

[@Legather]

I was there, I was there the day Civvie finally did Strife. Had a demo of Strife from some PC magazine and I played it over and over and over again, waiting for the full game. Easily one of my favourites, Quake didn't even get a glance. To this day I take the sewers and catacombs happily knowing I get the Castle battle, forgotten human sacrifice temple and underground alien space ship in return.

[@Rountree1985]

Was the CD called Launch?

[@Legather]

@@Rountree1985 I don't think so but there's nearly 30 years of dust on that memory. It was probably from a magazine like PC Gamer UK or a contemporary.

[@tomcruiiseship9461]

Pc demos kicked ass back in the day.

[@chris92945]

Strife: Its like Hexen meets Daggerfall but it doesn't make you wanna kill yourself.

[@georgeoldsterd8994]

I played both Hexen and Daggerfall, neither made me want to kill myself. :D

[@AstralPhnx]

And with 100 times more sewers

[@brendanhinderliter6627]

Pro Daggerfall when Civvie?

[@afd19850]

Hexen wasn’t that bad lol

[@salmon_wine]

@@afd19850 Hexen + daggerfall absolutely would be though You'd travel into a new province, go into your first dungeon, and at the end find a switch "1023 switches left to find..."

[@Niskirin]

YESSSS, I have been waiting 3+ years for you to make this video after you teased it. Finally it is time. Time for LIFELONG STRIFE!

[@Ezergil]

YES! Finally Strife! This game deserves some recognition

[@raccoononymous]

"But Harris promised me money!" After shooting your way through multiple assassination attempts, your character might still not understand that he has been betrayed. I laughed out loud at this.

[@jeromyschulz-arnold2632]

Thank you Civvie! I love this one too. And yeah, miss me with the sewers, catacombs, and endless metal mazes of the end game. The first third of this one is far and away the best part. Spaceship makes up for it in terms of ambience. 😊 again thank you for the early Christmas gift!

[@KarlStolls]

I find it highly amusing that they narrated and drew proper ending slides for both the bad and less bad endings, and the good ending is literally "and then they fucked, the end." Anyway, excellent spotlight on a classic. Was late to the party on Strife myself, but I'm still impressed by how much new ground it broke for what the Doom engine could do. You can see where the team's reach exceeded their grasp or they fell back on standard FPS design, but as a complete package it really shines, and there's just not a lot like it for the time period. And hats off to the Nightdive people for the work that went into the re-release; 'push button, play game' launchers are extremely helpful for giving old titles a second chance at an audience.

[@theytkjaper9668]

civie being happy is the gift i needed today

[@ThePsychoRenegade]

Have been waiting for this for years since the Game Dungeon.

[@BlazingOwnager]

Strife is like a movie made in the 90s that was panned for feeling like it was from the early 80s on release, but after 20 years, people look at it and go 'well it was a pretty good early 80s movie made in the 90s.'

[@EagleEye517]

Idk why it reminds me of that low budget Mad Max-like movie from 1989 called Cyborg, featuring Van Damme and Vincent Klyne. Probably because of both themes being post-post apocalyptic

[@seethe639]

This is one of my favorite games, i played the demo to death as a kid, then i played the original, then i played the vet edition. And this is really the most honest review, i remember that excitement when going for the castle, i also thought it was the end and that's part of the charm of this game - you think "damn, that was a good game... fun times" and THEN it actually opens up for you. I still remember how awed i was.

[@boilerhousegarage]

I remember an ending where Blackbird/Shana goes silent and the One God thing talks to you in her scrambled AI voice which made it seem like she was the baddie all along, but that doesn't make sense with the good ending. I assume that happened when you kill Macil before the Oracle?

[@Synthonym]

It's what happens if you miss the spectre in the Ruins, it gets loose and infects her

[@QuasarEE]

Implies either one of two things. The first would be that on the bad ending path she gets compromised at some point in your quest. The other possibility means you're actually Frenching with the One God at the end of the game. Since they never made the planned sequel, I guess we won't know. Unless we do one ourselves sometime at Nightdive I guess, but that'll be our take on it and not whatever was planned originally (maybe I could ask the original devs sometime if I get the chance).

[@Aspartamebraintumor]

​@@QuasarEEyou should make a patch to remove Blackbird's adam's apple at the end of the game

[@kingalphawerewolf]

Absolutely make it turn out your new significant other is the one god. Build upon the foundations of sucker for love! @@QuasarEE

[@Africa893]

​@@QuasarEEyou should make a patch that gives you a hammer with a camera inside!

[@stefano-sellone82]

Whenever I come to watch one of your videos, I put a like and THEN I start watching it. I already know I'll laugh for the entire duration. 🤣

[@KeiNova]

I don't think I'll ever get bored of these videos.

[@ProfessorAragorn]

I've been waiting for Strife. Thank you Civvie. I appreciate the blueballing in the leadup. Also - can't get enough Peter Lorre references.

[@KingAbiku]

Well we all know where the “Most Replayed” portion of the video will be, what have you done Civvie! ****2:31****

[@Kyrkby]

Now if only someone would provide people with a name.

[@georgeoldsterd8994]

@@Kyrkbyyeah, for science!

[@nathanielgeorgen2924]

Slooter

[@nathanielgeorgen2924]

You're welcome

[@endig4501]

Abandoned project because the solve dev was banking on an obscure indie nsfw game to somehow be their cash cow, and barely marketed it. Wouldn't bother.

[@salmon_wine]

YES FINALLY I'VE WAITED FOR THIS VIDEO FOR SO LONG

[@ThommyofThenn]

This game is legendary. Im glad you did a 50 minute film on this because i will savour it like cancer mouse relishes uranium-rind welsh cheddar. And yes civvie episodes are film. Edit: as a film nerd, i've seen a ton of Bogart's movies and a lot of them are really entertaining. If you like noir type movies with rapid fire witty dialogue I recommend you try some of his stuff. "The Maltese Falcon," "Treasure of Sierra Madre" and "To Have And Have Not," which many would rate his finest work, if not some of the greatest works in American 20th century cinema

[@Sorain1]

I'm pretty sure at least the first two of those are in the top 100 films list. (A lot of them.)

[@mattpotts995]

Thanks for the great episode! I didn’t have many shooters for my PC growing up, but Strife was certainly one of them, and I adored exploring this game. It felt so new for its time, with the choices and possible story beats to hit. So much fun.

[@Spootprime]

Hell yeah! i still remember beating this game back in the day. what an interesting piece of tech, too.

[@kungfuskull]

I was gifted this game as a kid... before i had a CD drive. So it was just this tantilizing mystery for years.

[@arkgaharandan5881]

did you also knew you can talk to the starting enemy at your celli in the beginning of the game?

[@robotorch]

Jeez, I was an FPS hound back in the 90s, subscribed to all the magazines, and read all the popular gaming sites but I don't remember this one at all. What a revelation! Thanks for the retrospective!

[@LordOfCrabz]

STRIFE?!?! SO THIS IS THE BIG REVEAL BEFORE PRO PAINKILLER?! I cant wait :)

[@danielvulchev4269]

Same FINALY!

[@Tall_Order]

Back when this game first came out, I expected it to be a doom clone and I just ran around unaliving everyone and getting swarmed by soldiers and having merchants close down their stores because a psychopath was on the loose.

[@axelprino]

I kinda wanna read that "autobiography" now, specially if it's mostly just a massive lore-dump with Civvie's iconic sense of humor.

[@rashadnagi7531]

New Civvie on my lunch break! Hell yeah.

[@darthcinema4262]

Probably one of the best games on the Doom engine and very innovative. Thanks Civvie

[@Brogboolius_Maximus]

I haven't watched yet, but you did it, you beautiful bastard! YOU FINALLY DID IT!!!

[@BalmoraBabe]

Wow, the bots guarding you have really gone soft, that beating at the beginning was rather forgiving

[@asteroidrules]

Been basically waiting for Civvie to play this since I found this channel. Ross did a great video that convinced me to play it myself, really great for when it was made and super glad its finally gotten some attention.

[@Taldaris]

Strife is a pretty underrated gem, glad it gets some attention finally!

[@aram-2119]

Im super drunk, but civvie, you are one of the best KZbinrs ever and personaly made me laugh and smile and happy in my worst times love you man love and watched every video of yours since the start

[@rcblazer]

Can't wait to get my copy of Sewers, Rats, and Robots.

[@singletona082]

Civvie. As someone who found this game on some random forum after poking about old doom based games in the mid 2000'sout of sheer boredom? Thank you for getting around to covering this. Now to bug mandalore gaming til he covers it. :) FUnny thing is? You can just run up to the warden and shank him in full view of everyone and alarms won't raise. Unfortunatley even if yo udo ther'es one of those alarm sector tripwires that you have to pass through on the way in so... stealth is SADLY worthless here. Over the years i have considered seeing what it would take to just remove those and see what happens. There is a back way to the crystal that is simi-stealth in that you can walk up to the thing and start shooting at it. and there's an alarm til you get to the loading zone. There is no alarm after the laoding zone if you didn't trip one. The run up to the programmer has a lot of these thigns. IT's where they put the most care into little details like that. This first hub area, and the hub area near the end, though I find it less interesting even though there is way more detail. You can avoidthe backtracking by finding the guy you have to shank first. It's only really doable on a second playthrough or blind luck, but it's possible.

[@redavatar]

I played a demo of this way back and quite loved it. For years I tried to hunt down the game but it's pretty rare and goes for a pretty penny. I snapped up the Nightdive version when it was released and had a blast playing it back then around Christmas. It was the perfect retro game for me to play during Christmas holidays. I can't believe it's been 9 years judging by my Steam review from 2014 ...

[@lazydesmond8240]

Finally! I've been waiting for this episode forever.

[@SnapJack42]

Re: Avoiding setting the alarm in the Commons: I always just skipped going through the front door by taking the detour. In the mines, there's a door that leads to a back entrance in the factory. A bit tedious to head through, but beats trying to fight through the Commons, which I never felt was worth it.

[@Bluezure]

Boy I sure do love engaging with the algorithm. Especially with my favorite Correction Facility assigned entertainment man, CV-11

[@meekaboo_]

the way the oracle's mask slips off and reveals the skull is pretty rad

[@Umqualquerporra]

12:55 Look at Civvie throwing shade about the sound of someone's first GAME when his first TWENTY VIDEOS sound so good.

[@dard2240]

2:30 this is as close as we can get for Civvie to talk about Touhou.

[@alkemyst337]

Great video, Civvie! Hearing the Army Song at the end made my eye twitch.

[@KamiJoJo]

This is still one of my favorite id Tech games, it feels just right to have this mixture of RPG elements in an FPS as early as 1996, surprisingly good voice acting for what games like Resident Evil were already a joke in this department during the time, only limited by the sample rate that most DOS games could handle but still keeping the charm. While the sprite work of this game can have some recycling from already existing Doom assets, the cartoon-ish art style and smooth animations mixed with a serious tone of the narrative is a perfect fit for the typical world dominating oppression, we wouldn't see something like this until Half-Life 2 released with the similar storytelling of a rebellion's struggle against an alien assault that also transformed citizens into troops.

[@CoralCopperHead]

Except unlike HL2, Strife is good.

[@Kyller3030]

@@CoralCopperHead is examined life(of gaming) still making game videos?

[@databattlesz]

I really enjoyed this video, thank you.

[@BaurRavenblack]

I remember having a great first impression of this game. Its complexity for the Doom engine captured me immediately, the gimmick of the super weapon's ammo being the Player's health pool is at the very least interesting, and the voice acting (like all of it) is easily one of the best put into an FPS. However, Strife does have a sub-par arsenal and a basically stand-in inventory, which probably caused the game to be largely lost across time and memory. Not to mention it came out in between the Duke and Quake.

[@recordatron]

This was one of those games I played when I was younger that always stuck with me and felt special to me. It felt so ambitious and the narrative at the time kept me guessing and the scope just felt so much more vast than most Doom engine games at the time. Thanks for covering it and I'm glad you enjoyed it for the most part.

[@galaxycamerata]

I don't know how you manage to time out the EXACT time it takes for people to consider skipping forward a little bit when a joke runs its course and then make a joke with Ax3 and H4mmer about it, but you are very good at anticipating what people are gonna say or do in response to a gag and it always takes me off guard. I think for Strife, what I adore is the little set dressing that goes into the character design and how worn down everyone and everything is. Like, the main character's left glove has a seam coming loose. Helps the entire thing feel more lively.

[@Doddleran]

This video was indeed very entertaining, the sewer count really made it so much better. That it got increased multiple times just made it even better. I am going to share and like this with all my friend.

[@ns6438]

Is Katie still editing these? Did she find the picture in the top left corner of the screen at 2:31? Edit: Katie is indeed still editing these.

[@KingLich451]

what in the god damn

[@Mantis47]

Hey, it's from a Gzdoom game, so it counts!

[@Drayg0]

I bought this, been sitting on a shelf.. I think I actually have to play it, sorry but I gotta dip out on this video for now.. thanks for the content!!

[@erykrejner2528]

It's fun to watch a Civvie video and watch the live likes count go up. Started to watch 1 hour after the upload - 800 likes. At the end of the watch time 1,8k likes. Simply magical.

[@Matt-md5yt]

That update thing is cool

[@benroxknox]

Hats off for the use of the Army Song at the end. Hilarious

[@rorysimpson8716]

It's my least played Doom engine game, too. It played more like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel where you could get softlocked very easily.

[@yankee1921]

Haven’t watched a Civvie video in awhile, looked through my recommended and saw this, yelled STRIFE! And clicked

[@velocilevon]

If my memory serves me right, if you set off the alarm in town, which makes enemies infinitely spawn, you could talk to the guy (wasn't his name Bill?) that shows you the passage to resistance's hideout, and he'll turn it off, somehow. Not really useful, since you can easily avoid setting off the alarms in the first place, but can be an option if you haven't saved in a long time (you'd have to be a madlad to do that though) and screwed up accidentally. With commons you do have to kill everyone there if you intend to keep using the stores. The way they designed the sigil weapon's "improvements" really confuses me. It's actually perfect on either level one where it drains only 4 HP and makes lighting strikes on a small area, so firing a few shots around a huge target can make a short work of it, or level 2 or 3 where it drains juust a little bit more HP, but sends out a simple projectile attack that deals nice damage and, most importantly, allows you to be at decent distance away, which is important with all enemies in this game, whether it's hitscan or not. Instead, thanks to the constant "upgrades", not only you're always trying to figure out how to use this weapon properly because you most likely didn't use it at all and it already has a new attack, but projectiles on higher levels keep acting in strange ways where it deals huge damage and would've, theoretically, dealt even more, but they just throw out the smaller projectiles all over the place, so that's always wasted damage potential for more HP consuming, thank you very much. Fully upgraded sigil is total ass, it deals overkill amounts of damage for a whopping 20 HP. At least it still allows you to keep your distance, which makes final boss piss easy because if you're pretty far, he doesn't attack at all lmao, but switching to lower level sigils would've been a nice option.

[@eclipserepeater2466]

It seems sort of thematic that the stronger the sigil gets the more quickly it kills you. I mean it is a sinister sentient artifact which drains your life force.

[@TheIpwnkyle]

This is up there with Metal Gear Solid when it comes to pioneering honest to god GOOD VOICE ACTING! Holy shit, this game is almost 30 years old and the VA is actually pretty damn good!

[@RyanMclain]

Strife is freakin great.

[@KingLich451]

Absolute banger

[@ColonelZoren]

Look... can i say that htis may be the best video civvie (and katie) has ever done?