Not just another Doom clone
The 90es saw the release of Doom, which gave birth and popularize to the FPS genre and spawn a myriad of FPS clones, at first glance Strife, which use the Doom engine, is such a clone. However a deeper look will reveal that Strife has a number of innovations that make it stand from the rest of the FPS crowd.
The first thing is that the game is happen is a world map, where you will be free to go where you please rather than traveling through different levels. Another innovations is the number of RPG elements that is incorporated in the game, you will be giving missions to fulfill by the rebel leader, you could talk to the NPC in the game world, purchase weapons, ammunition and medkits and after each successful mission you could upgrade your health and fire accuracy. You could also have infiltration mission, where you need masquerade as an enemy soldier to get to your objective rather than just firing at everyone around you.
Another thing the game stand out for is the plot, while very cliche and generic it does play an important role in the game and allow you to make several plot choices that would change the course of the game and the final ending. You also have a sidekick which talk to you from a comm link and give useful advices as well make some sarcastic comments on your situation from time to time, I find this to add very much to the character of the game.
While the world design are good and easy to navigate, the enemy variety is somewhat limited and they tend to be boring, as well as most of the bosses who also tend largely to be the same. The auto aim at some of the weapons is not that good and while it understandably for an old game I'm feeling that Night Dive should have fixed it as part of the control modernization that they implemented.
In conclusion, Strife is an uncanny entry is the FPS genre, that was sadly overshadow by Quake which release is about the same time, highly recommended to those who want to play a 90es FPS with it own uncanny character.
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