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.

[@VandalVanWilder]

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

[@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

[@DONKINDONUTS]

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

[@FentonWenge]

So she's a Rogue-like?

[@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

[@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.

[@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...

[@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!

[@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

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@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

[@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.

[@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..."

[@bloodrunsclear]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@HuffdrewPaint]

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

[@theduchyofmilanball3157]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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!

[@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).

[@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.

[@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!_

[@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.

[@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.

[@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!

[@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.

[@LordOfCrabz]

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

[@danielvulchev4269]

Same FINALY!

[@kungfuskull]

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

[@cruelangel_94]

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

[@rcblazer]

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

[@ThePsychoRenegade]

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

[@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!

[@BalmoraBabe]

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

[@Bluezure]

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

[@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

[@KeiNova]

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

[@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.

[@dard2240]

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

[@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!

[@theytkjaper9668]

civie being happy is the gift i needed today

[@arkgaharandan5881]

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

[@Spootprime]

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

[@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!

[@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. 🤣

[@Taldaris]

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

[@salmon_wine]

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

[@ArkVogel]

On a side note, the Guncaster mod is fully compatible, including the ending scene.

[@garuelx8627]

Welp time to PAAAAAARRRRTYYYYY!

[@FightingForceSoulless]

THE BEST game on the Doom engine. Hexen is impressive, sure, but Strife is Hexen on steroids, and much much more impressive. I would love to see a remake or a sequel. This and Blood man...

[@Hemostat]

I really like that the Oracle was just a skeleton in a mask and youve been just talking to the cosmic horror

[@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.

[@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!

[@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?

[@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.

[@AmstradExin]

This game proved John Carmack right to me about stories in FPS games like Doom.

[@gulbones5687]

Wasn’t that Tom Hall?

[@georgeoldsterd8994]

@@gulbones5687or John Romero?

[@gulbones5687]

@@georgeoldsterd8994 I’m sure Romero pushed the gameplay to be fast paced combat with less investment in story

[@AmstradExin]

@@gulbones5687"Story in a game is like story in a porn movie... Its not that important" -John Carmack (Because I completely lost the plot in this game after a while)

[@XenoSpyro]

@@AmstradExin Carmack didn't predict that gaming would become an effective medium to tell stories with. Some of the most popular old games are stories. Dark Forces got 3 sequels. Half Life popped off and spawned a whole Valve-verse. Wolfenstein. Do I even need to bring up Diablo? Pure slaughterfests easily run stale. It's almost like Carmark was wrong or something.

[@Shocklift]

Those enemy death animations are sick as hell

[@cdcdrr]

Hearing the voice actors hamming it up to classic Hollywood cellulose almost makes you forget that voice acting at this stage was either a novelty (Duke Nukem) or a curse (basically all KZbin Poop). It makes the player just a little more entertained when the actors give off that vibe that they're having fun with the role.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

Such were the voice acting and occasional dubbing in the 90s and early 2000s.

[@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.

[@briancoulombe4517]

28:23 dang. We rarely get a chance to reference that skit from Monty Python.

[@piotrchmielewski4817]

That "The Bishop" bit caught me completely off guard XD

[@briancoulombe4517]

@@piotrchmielewski4817 I was thinking it and then they went and did it

[@piotrchmielewski4817]

Same here@@briancoulombe4517

[@TheFlowersOfNaivety]

Dude imagine if you had played this as a kid! It was so tough but so innovative! Nothing like this would come out for quite a while!

[@HOUCEMATE]

Now I finally know why I was never able to progress in this game as a kid: the Harris betrayal. I never realized I could simply not kill the guy and just go do something else. When you're given a mission you go do it and that's it, I thought. Like the concept of a side quest was completely alien to me. I remember being weirded out by the dialog options, too. Being able to decline a mission? Huh? What am I supposed to do then? So yeah anyway, it would always end up with me getting blown to pieces in the governor's office. Soft-locked due to not reading dialog boxes and not thinking for myself. Honestly, it's brilliant design-punishing the player for blindly doing what they're told. That's such a huge shift from what we'd gotten used to in video games up to that point.

[@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

[@TheCanelaFina]

This is the last wildcard Civvie burned before reviewing painkiller. Civvie will have to dig deep in the trash container from now to review something memorable

[@RyanMclain]

Strife is freakin great.

[@KingLich451]

Absolute banger

[@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!

[@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.

[@walteracevedo5105]

To put in perspective on quality, Strife and Thief are only 2 years apart.

[@techmouse.]

I feel no shame in admitting I never made it very far into this. It was unplayable. I would have to be locked in a jail cell with nothing but this game for years before I could find the time or patience to even get half way through it. Oh, _now_ I understand this channel.

[@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 ...

[@dopey473]

Last time I heard of this game was on Ross' Game Dungeon, completely forgot it existed until now which is a shame since it's really a unique game.

[@rashadnagi7531]

New Civvie on my lunch break! Hell yeah.

[@Brogboolius_Maximus]

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

[@ohuckabee]

Civvie has made a Strife video. I can finally rest. EDIT: Main reason I hold a torch for this game is because, if I turn my head ninety degrees to the right at this very moment, my eyes fall upon the Strife install CD in its original jewel case. Child me knew that this was a Doom engine game, somehow, and obtained a copy of it. But you can tell it was kind of obscure because of how little the Doom modding community used its sprites and textures compared to Heretic and Hexen, or hell, even Quake. EDIT 2: For reference's sake, the Mauler's primary fire uses 20 cells and is Doom II's supershotgun (20 hitscan pellets and all), but fires faster than the regular shotgun. The napalm grenades are the equivalent of a Doom barrel exploding six times a second for twenty seconds, while also spawning secondary exploding barrels during that duration. Also, the Inquisitor? That big robot that looks like it would replace the cyberdemon? 1000 HP, same as a Baron of Hell. EDIT 3: There's also a secret bad ending (which was in the DOS version of Strife) that you can get if you level warp directly to the last map and beat the final boss. Which sounds like a weird way to get a bad ending, but I figure it's a "cheaters never prosper" sort of thing.

[@Aspartamebraintumor]

If the Mauler is comparable to the super shotgun and the Inquisitor's HP is comparable to a Baron... why does the Baron take 5 super shotgun blasts while the Inquisitor can be downed by just two or three standard Mauler blasts?

[@alicorngummy3894]

This game was 3D Fallout before OG Fallout. Thanks Civvie, now I might have a chance in completing this sometimes confusing game.

[@sloppyzowe]

Thank you for making life worth living.

[@mortmortmort8908]

"how bout I pay you and you get a pop filter?" what a sick burn

[@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.

[@tasoth]

When I first played it at the end with the Blackbird reveal, I legit thought it was going to be another trap/trick and be a set up for a sequel.

[@theoffensivelemon2515]

I've been waiting for this.

[@shemsuhor8763]

>when I was 14 I too used to think that chasing skirt was the ending. Then I realized that 2D > 3D, and now I have wizardly powers the likes of which not even eldritch god-king Carmack can comprehend.

[@Zontar82]

game was amazing, the music the interactivity, the light rpg elements...i loved it so much back in the day

[@Ashurion-Neonix]

Strife was definitely a hidden gem for me

[@dragoneye6229]

Yay my favorite old FPS game. Don't know why but I love everything about this game. Just wait until the Cyber Mage: Darklight Awakening crowd finds your channel Civvie. You will understand pain and suffering then.

[@Aspartamebraintumor]

funny you mention it, cause both Strife and Cybermage were my first PC games in 1996. I only beat Strife. Took me 21 years to beat Cybermage

[@Akiba_Ch]

God yes, love me some Strife

[@sonofeyeabovealleffoff5462]

Watching Civvie 11 cures my depression, he makes me laugh so hard.

[@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.

[@alkemyst337]

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

[@h.p3st]

oh you can´t imagine how long i was waiting , that you tackle this game

[@IronnMan35]

One of the gems i played through several times back in the day. It was so novel and fun, mixing a little bit of rpg with first person shooting. I liked the art style, the voices, the music. Shame you didn't let us hear the creepy ambient sounds of the alien spaceship and he final boss's comment at you when it sees you. All in all, fun review though, and well deserved for this game.

[@bouncingbluesoul5270]

I'd love to see a Strife 2

[@IAmCaligvla]

The one thing that ticks Civvie off about the setting is the characters' accents and not the fact that a medieval society knows what viruses are?

[@SolomonWayze]

Sweet! Another boomer shooter to add to my list. Cheers Civvie!🎉

[@tree_alone]

Lol I was just thinking "gee I hope civvie is okay" and he uploads right around when I went to bed. Now I got something to watch when I get home from work.

[@ManthonyHiggs]

Strife is the game that Hexen (cursed be it's wretched name) wishes it was. Sidequests, optional areas, stats to increase, currency and shops... easily one of the coolest games I've played. I love the comic book art too, every cutscene is a treat.

[@onionman8668]

Now that ive seen this game i see where the ashes 2063 got most of its inspiration

[@Bibbly53]

Strafe is such a good game.

[@schar1024]

Strafe is okay. But good for the price you can get it for. Strafe is the game your parents accidentally gift you for Christmas when you where asking for Quake 2.

[@browninplay]

Ahh yuss I have been waiting for you to cover this for a loong time, criminally underrated game - and very fun to play with some doom mods still today

[@rodakscreens]

The Oracle sounds like the ghostly voice in Thief