TL;DR
- What it is: Apogee’s 1994 FPS designed by Tom Hall, originally planned as Wolfenstein 3D II
- Platform/Price: GOG / Steam — around £4, DRM-free
- Dad Filter verdict: Buy Cheap — a strange, loud, funny FPS with a genuinely good open-source afterlife
- One thing to know: Apogee open-sourced the code under GPL in 2002 — the modding scene is still active
New to TurboGeek Gaming? Start with the Dad Filter manifesto to understand how I review games — as a 46-year-old dad with two boys aged 10 and 7, not as a professional games journalist. Then check the Gaming hub for every review.
What It Is
Rise of the Triad is a first-person shooter designed by Tom Hall and published by Apogee Software in shareware form in December 1994, with the full retail release (Dark War) in February 1995. It ran on a modified version of the Wolfenstein 3D engine — which by 1994 was already looking dated compared to id’s newer Doom engine — and it ran slightly too fast for its own good. You pick one of five characters with different hit points, speed, and firing accuracy. You fight your way through 32 levels of a Mediterranean island hideaway belonging to the Triad, a murderous cult. You collect keys, find secret floors, and enjoy wildly varied weaponry including the Drunk Missile, the Flamewall, and the spectacularly named Hand of God.
The backstory matters. Rise of the Triad was originally going to be Wolfenstein 3D II. Tom Hall pitched it, id Software got cold feet on the sequel, and Apogee kept the licence and reshaped the game into its own standalone product. That is why it feels like an awkward middle child — visually a step behind Doom, mechanically a step to the side of Wolfenstein, tonally halfway between either and a Saturday morning cartoon. In 2002, Apogee released the source code under the GNU GPL, which is why source ports and modern rebuilds still exist.
Why This One Matters To Me
In 1994 I was not supposed to be playing FPS games at all. I was 14. The family PC had a CD-ROM drive that was exciting enough that being allowed to sit at it to use Encarta felt generous. Doom was already infamous. Rise of the Triad was the one that slipped past the moral-panic filter in some households precisely because it was weirder. Ludicrous weapons, exploding dog-shaped enemies, a character who could turn into a flying monk — it was harder to point at and be horrified by than Doom’s corridors of gore.
Playing it now is jarring. The engine is uncomfortably fast — your character sprints without pressing any key — and the screen-shake and gore effects are deliberately over the top. The music is relentlessly upbeat. The cutscenes (such as they are) include the character spinning around a floor tile. None of it is subtle. All of it is funny if you are in the right mood.
And in the right mood, it is a deeply satisfying shooter. The level design is more varied than Doom’s. The hidden floors reward exploration. The weapons have actual personality — the Firebomb does not behave like the Rocket, the Heatseeker does not behave like the Drunk Missile. Modern boomer-shooters like Dusk and Amid Evil owe more to Rise of the Triad than they do to Doom, and you can see the DNA clearly.
My boys watched me play for about five minutes, decided it looked silly, and went back to Fortnite. The PEGI 16 rating is not a joke — the gore is cartoonish but present — and this is not a family game in any sense. But for a dad who remembers shareware CDs on the cover of PC Gamer, it is a warm slice of 1994 you can get for less than a pint.
The Dad Filter
Worth Full Price?
Buy Cheap. Rise of the Triad is available on GOG for about four pounds and on Steam for roughly the same. It is DRM-free on GOG. There is also a free source port (wintfp, XTRogue) which works with a user-provided data file.
Four pounds is nothing. If you have any curiosity about the 1994 FPS era — beyond the well-trodden Doom / Quake / Wolfenstein canon — this is the one to grab.
Kid Appeal
Low. The gore is cartoonish but explicit. Enemies explode, you get showered with cartoonish body parts, the in-game gibs are extremely visible. This is rated PEGI 16 in the UK and rightly so. Do not show it to small children.
Older teens may find the period humour endearing, but they are unlikely to choose it over any modern FPS. This is a dad game.
Parent Tolerance
Medium. The frenetic pace, the screen shake, the relentless chip-tune music — all of this is an acquired taste. In short 20-minute bursts, it is invigorating. For longer sessions it can be exhausting.
The level design is good enough to sustain interest, and the weapon variety keeps combat fresh. Just do not expect to play for an hour without a headache.
Family Play Value
Solo only. Rise of the Triad has a multiplayer mode — COMM-BAT, on LAN or by null-modem in its day — but it is not the main draw and the infrastructure to play it today is non-trivial. Treat this as a single-player experience.
The source-port community keeps the game alive for modders and single-player completionists. That is the extent of the social element in 2026.
Time Respect
Good. Levels are self-contained and you can save anywhere. Modern source ports remove the few quality-of-life friction points that the original shipped with. A session can be anything from five minutes to an hour, depending on how committed you are.
No microtransactions, no live service, no daily login. Boot the game, play, quit. That is the pattern.
Replay Chances
Medium. The five-character campaign offers some variation, as each character has different stats. The hidden levels reward exploration. The modding community has produced a steady stream of new content over the 20+ years since the code opened up.
For most dads, one run through the shareware episode plus dipping into the full Dark War campaign will be enough. It is not a game you will play for years, but it is a game you will pick up every few years to remember why 1994 PC gaming was glorious.
The Verdict
Buy Cheap. Rise of the Triad is a cult 90s FPS that has been kept alive by genuine enthusiasm rather than nostalgia marketing. Apogee opened the source code twenty years ago and the community has repaid the gesture. GOG and Steam both sell it for peanuts. The level design still works. The weapons still feel great. The engine still runs on anything.
It is not the best FPS of 1994. Doom is better. Quake (1996) would go further. But Rise of the Triad is the one with the clearest personality — the weird one, the one that would not happen if Tom Hall had gone a slightly different direction. That personality is why it still has fans and mods and source ports.
Not a family game. Not trying to be. But a terrific 45 minutes for a dad who remembers CD-ROM shareware and wants to feel 14 again without the homework. Pick it up on a sale. Play it once. Remember why you liked FPS games in the first place.
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- TurboGeek Gaming Hub — Every review, guide, and parent resource in one place.
- The Dad Filter Manifesto — How and why I review games as a dad, not a gamer.