RAVEN SOFTWARE - A Forgotten FPS Pioneer

[@FlamingAirplane]

Fun fact: Raven Software offices and id Sofware offices were at one point right down the street from each other, that why for most of their early games they used id built engines.

[@SaltyOctopus]

Yeah! I should've mentioned this. Thanks for sharing.

[@gibfactory]

I really dig this format of video. I had always heard of Raven studios, but could never place my finger on it, and this video sums up exactly why! Very interesting, and entertaining information. Also made me happy to hear you mention Wolfenstein Enemy Territory. One of the very first multiplayer games I ever played, and I sunk hours into it every day after school. Eager to see some more Dev Dive videos in the future!

[@SaltyOctopus]

Wolf ET was such a great game. I wish I played more of it back in the day. I was too deep into Quake 3. Thanks for watching as always. I appreciate you taking the time!

[@SimplyBetta]

Informative deep-dive! 😊

[@SaltyOctopus]

❤

[@HolyMarmot]

While I never played Quake 4, imo, Raven made the best Star Wars game. Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast, and then Jedi Academy was the best multiplayer SW game. I do have a soft spot in my heart for both Hexen games, I was a little kid when I played those.

[@doomniel]

Excellent! Heretic forever!

[@GrammatonDryad]

This was a cool video. Entertaining and informative. My exposure to Raven was actually Singularity, but I did know they worked on some of the CoD titles. I actually liked Singularity a fair amount, but it wasn't very popular and I picked it up years after release so I never got to try out the multiplayer part of the game, but I had heard good things. I wasn't into shooters in the 90's so it was cool to see and learn about Hexen/Heretic and the history of Raven in general. Great work on this!

[@SaltyOctopus]

Hey Gramm! Thanks for checking it out. Glad you enjoyed it! I never played Singularity but it looks underrated for sure.

[@knight13117]

Awesome video, from the footage to the history to your insider knowledge as an artist for Junction Point. Subscribed - best of luck with this channel, I think it will really grow.

[@SaltyOctopus]

Thank you friend. I really appreciate comments like this. Welcome to the channel!!

[@bradpatten8690]

Great to see someone give this studio the praise they deserve. They made some of the best Xbox 360 games. Singularly is still great. Really good video.

[@SaltyOctopus]

Thank you! 😊

[@optchurch1402]

Not ashamed to say it but quake 4, wolf 2009 and singularity are some of my most cherished and favourite games of all time. I have so much love and nostalgia for them and that includes Star Trek elite force too. Wonderful games

[@derelict85]

Cool video!

[@SaltyOctopus]

Hey thanks bro. I've been meaning to check your stuff out too! I will later today. Thanks for watching.

[@DJLizardon]

Great video! Raven games are pretty rad, still wish we got a Singularity 2 :p

[@SaltyOctopus]

For sure haha. Thanks for watching and the comment.

[@Gunnar-Peterson]

Hexen and Heretic were two of my favourite games growing up

[@grainydaney]

Great video. I had no idea Raven was such a staple

[@SaltyOctopus]

Yessir thanks Dane. Good to see you. Hope you're doing well!

[@grainydaney]

@@SaltyOctopus I’m doing great man 🖤 loving all your new content

[@Deadforge]

I recently beat and loved Singularity

[@SaltyOctopus]

Great game Underrated for sure

[@AlternateKek]

RavenSoftware used to be one of my favorite devs till they got cursed to work on Call Of Dooty

[@SaltyOctopus]

Hahaha right?

[@shaymcnee2136]

yo this is lit

[@SaltyOctopus]

🔥🔥🔥

[@Deadforge]

I love Raven, and they also make some of the best CoD campaigns such as Cold War.

[@ZuGineeris]

What music did you use for this video? It sounds quite Kevin Schilder-esque. Great video by the way! Heretic has had a special place in my heart since I was 7. Now I'm 31 (good lord how did that happen?) and it still doesn't seem to be going anywhere

[@squidgaming7216]

I always found it weird that Activision bought out Raven Software. Activision never even brought any of their games of life no remasters or sequels or anything. ID Software should have acquired them, would have made more sense. However I will say with MS buying out activision, it does bring all these games under 1 roof now, considering i think wolfenstein was owned by zenimax media (which ms owns that now as well), so I will be a little more hopeful that ms will revive some of these games.

[@SaltyOctopus]

For sure man. You bring up some great points. Who knows, maybe with all the success of games like Dusk and Amid Evil we will see some more old school titles coming back.

[@tuanas458]

I noticed the FPS difference when Warzone Caldera and Warzone 2 came out. It was weird because you can tell immediately skill difference in the FPS mechanics.

[@AlternateKek]

Not sure why Wolfenstein 2009 was considered a flop its literally my favorite wolfenstein game.

[@SaltyOctopus]

Yeah. It was a good SP game but I think all the issues I mentioned in the vid caused problems for Activision at launch... Financial flop in their eyes 😔

[@-GameHacKeR-]

For me it's solder of fortune, first game I played from them was heritic

[@PatrickLipo]

Not bad but you misrepresent a lot of the cause and effect behind the scenes in this video. Raven had 2-3 projects running at a time since around 1993, Activision didn't force Raven to do third person games, and we really wanted to push into consoles and further explore genres . Wolf and Singularity had a lot of overlap, and in fact Soldier of Fortune was originally intended to be a Wolf game but Gray Matter got the gig first. Respect for having worked in the industry (most people doing this sort of historical don't know what it's like), but I hope you can find knowledgeable sources for your next video, whomever it's on! Have a cool day!

[@SaltyOctopus]

To be fair, the sources I found did not go into that type of detail, as I wished they would. I feel like this video is more of a "on the surface" look at what was going on at the time. Any misrepresentation is purely accidental and while I could've gone into more detail on certain things, tbh with you I did not want to make the video longer than it already was. Regardless, thanks for the feedback as this was my first video I made like this and I will try to do better next time. Thanks for watching and the comment.

[@PatrickLipo]

@@SaltyOctopus I enjoyed the watch! Keep ‘em up!

[@Cynical709]

sof2 i loveeed that game was theonly game besides t2 i would play at the time

[@SaltyOctopus]

I've never played the SoF games. They're on my to do list to pick up and check out!

[@Cynical709]

@@SaltyOctopus double helix was the best one. The multiplayer was fun too

[@StevenJShow]

0:34, Well... No. More like they are FORCED to do that.