Strife: Veterans Edition [Switch] Review – A Doom-ed RPG?

Strife: Veterans Edition is a very difficult game to widely recommend. A port of PC title Strife from 1996, this isn’t a title that’s aged particularly well – yet its ambition and scope still shine through.

It’s made using the Doom engine – but this is not Doom. Something we quickly learnt as we went in all guns (well, crossbows) blazing early on, and were quickly thrown back to the start.

Instead Strife requires you to actually talk to the characters milling around, rather than shooting them. This way you’ll slowly build relationships, take on missions, and learn more about the open-world.

Well, it’s not completely open – but it’s still impressive for a game well over twenty years old. The issue is that several titles have since come along that do what it does, but better – for the most part at least.

It’s not quite as deep an experience as it seems of course, as although you can shoot or talk to anyone you ultimately end up taking part in the same missions over the course of the game.

The underlying plot does vary depending on certain decisions you make at key points however, and here is one area where the game still impresses.

Although it starts as a cliched rebellion versus the Order set up it develops into something a bit more unexpected and complex.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8pq6JPPkgEu0026feature=emb_title

Yes, some of the voice-acting is a tad ropey – but it somehow fits with the tone, and actually ends up being quite charming in a slipshod kind of way.

The in-game sprites are reasonably well animated too, and there’s some nice hand drawn art work when you talk to the more important NPCs.

There’s also a pleasing simplicity to everything that might appeal to those put off by modern day first person epics like Skyrim and The Outer Worlds.

The Doom engine works well when it comes to the action segments for instance, offering up gunplay that’s precise and satisfying. It’s all matched up with a great soundtrack as well.

Ultimately Strife is a real time-warp, but one that’s actually quite enjoyable if you go in with the right mindset and a fair bit of patience.

For the low price it’s certainly worth a punt, but those expecting a polished modern-day experience might go away scratching their heads.