Strife: Veteran Edition

I owned a retail copy of Strife. I consider myself fortunate to have enjoyed the game when it spearheaded the inclusion of RPG elements, player-controlled speech, and story-driven missions into the still relatively young genre of first person shooters. That being said, I think it can be difficult for people who got into gaming after Deus Ex popularized those things to appreciate how experimental and innovative Strife was for its time.
Strife wasn't just a marvel in video game design; it presented its players with fun and challenging action, and a compelling narrative. Those things still hold up well to this day, and so I was intrigued when I learned that Nightdive Studios had remastered the game and published a "Veteran Edition" of it.
When Strife had initially been published in 1996, it looked dated because it was built atop id Software's Doom engine. Quake was id Software's next title, and it was set to be published about one month after Strife hit shelves. It was obvious that Quake was about to take visuals in first person shooters to a whole new level. The previews that were available to the public regarding Quake's appearance and its polygon-based 3D engine likely overshadowed the attention that Strife would have otherwise attracted. Strife managed to gain a small cult following, but myself and much of the gaming press contend that it deserved a lot more sales and fame than it received.
When playing the Veteran Edition of Strife, the game retains an aesthetic that makes it simultaneously appear dated yet intriguingly distinct. Nightdive has given players access to many visual and auditory options that they can natively enable or disable, as well as modern keyboard controls and mouselook functionality. These improvements don't just make the game super accessible to modern gamers; they completely eliminate the need to run Strife through source ports. Strife now looks better than ever before, with bright colors, improved lighting, and overblown gore effects that I found quite startling - even when compared to games as over the top as Rise of The Triad.
From what I understand, a multiplayer mode had been planned for Strife, but never ended up getting patched into the original game. Although I am pleased to report that Nightdive has added it to the Veteran Edition, I can't speak to its quality. That's because I've never been able to find another player since I tried to take the game online in 2025. In spite of that, I feel pleased knowing that the potential to easily take Strife online exists thanks to the native matchmaking that exists in the Veteran Edition.
Strife's single player campaign has also been expanded upon a little bit. There isn't a lot of new content, but I really appreciate what was added. These new areas and challenges made Strife: Veteran Edition a joy to play more than a decade since I last experienced - and beat - the original version of Strife. I ended up discovering things that seemed completely new to me, but that might have everything to do with me having forgotten about them.
One thing that set Strife apart from all the other games that had been based on the Doom engine is its heavy emphasis on story, with new missions unfolding during game play. Many of those missions depend upon crucial decisions that the player makes within the game - either through his/her words or actions. The Veteran edition is true to the original by preserving those things. However, it mercifully gives players the change to fight their way out of a predicament they can put themselves into early in the game. It is quite possible that some players gave up on Strife because of it, being frustrated that the game 'allowed' them to get themselves into an inescapable situation. (In defense of how the game had originally been designed, the game's motto is "Trust no one", and the situation I referenced is one that reinforces that motto.)
Strife's music is serviceable. It's nothing to write home about, nor it is terrible. As with other remasters designed by Nightdive Studios, you have the choice of listening to an arranged rendition of the original tunes. The game's sound effects and voice acting are unchanged, but I think most players will be very happy with that - as both of those things are excellent, even by modern standards. The only exception I can think of are the Templars, which have a habit of repeating a noise that is as obnoxious as it is robotic. I suppose Nightdive could have added voice acting for inconsequential non-player characters, but I'm not going to hold the absence of that against the company or this product.
Should you play Strife: Veteran Edition? If you like first person shooters, I'd say you'll likely enjoy this title. It feels distinctly old school, yet is simultaneously quite different from the vast majority of first person shooters from the 90s. You won't get far trying to use violence against everyone and everything you meet, and succumbing to a desire for violence and aggression means you likely won't be able to appreciate the plot and how it is central to the places you can go.
If you're someone who likes a good combination of combat, exploration, and critical thinking, I think you may enjoy this game. Even if you played the original version of Strife, like I did, I still recommend playing Strife: Veteran Edition. If you enjoyed the original and haven't played it a while, I bet you'll like the Veteran Edition at least as much as the original - if not a fair bit more.

After struggling through a string of bad games this was a refreshing one. I was a bit hesitant because I like modern FPS, I like late 90 FPS like Unreal or Half-Life but early 90s it starts to lose me. Doom was fun but I wasn't wild about it, Wolfenstein 3D I didn't enjoy, though Chex Quest, Rise of the Triad, and Dark Forces are fun. So where did this fall?

Despite being an older, non3d engine, this felt like a 3d game. Mouse moves freely, the game's length is about perfect. No map made some levels like the sewers feel annoying but these levels are all fairly small so easy to navigate. Fully voiced important npcs was nice. The weapons were all fun, though the 'shotgun' is treated as a end game weapon and I'd much rather have had a shotgun than the grenade launcher which was very encounter-specific due to bad range. The sprites at a higher elevation were immune to weapons besides the rifle or crossbow-- I had a few times where I shot a bazooka at a flying enemy to have it instead auto correct to blow up a civilian. There's secret passageways that connect all levels together, had it been a modern game it'd be a open world. There was minimal platforming and what it did have was fun, I think that was a product of its game engine. It just didn't do platforming well and the game's devs were well-aware of the limitations of the game engine.

Overall, I feel like Strife is a game that was made too early. It's got all the hallmarks of a modern great FPS. Had it been made 10 or 20 years later it would have been known as a great game like Bioshock or FEAR. Instead when people think of great 90s FPS, including the ones I listed above and System Shock or Marathon, no one really thinks of Strife, and I think that's a shame. It lacks memorable enemies like Nazis, demons, or monsters that say Rise of the Triad, Doom, or Serious Sam used. But it has a fun story and worth checking out.

Probably the most underrated one from the classic, commercially licensed doom engine games. There are definitely some annoying sections (even more so when paired with respawning robots on the hardest difficulty), and the maps range from fairly detailed and open ones to just indoor mazes and corridors. But overall a very enjoyable journey with rewarding secrets (even more added in this Veteran edition), some stealth elements, some great dialogue, definitely a step-up from the Heretic/Hexen games in this matter.
Hoping for a remaster for the upcoming 30th anniversary of the game!

For boomshoot enthusiasts only, cause everyone else will be bored and frustrated. Don't buy the assault gun, you get a free one a few minutes later.

I only got to play the Demo from a PC Magazine CD back in the day. This has been a complete joy to play again!

this game falls under the "alright" category for me, the movement is kinda clunky but hey the game was made 20+ years ago so i guess it makes sense. it's not bad tho.

pretty awesome game, could be a little frustrating at times, but the overall vibe, artwork, and soundtrack carry it. would deff recommend