Strife: Quest for the Sigil (Veteran Edition)

🗃️ Specifications

📰 Title:	Strife: Quest for the Sigil (Veteran Edition)	🕹️ / 🛠️ Type:	Game
🗃️ Genre:	Adventure & Action	🚦 Status:	04. Released (status)
🏷️ Category:	Adventure & Action ➤ FPS ➤ Fantasy & Sci-fi ➤ Doom 1&2, Hexen 1, Heretic, Strife	🌍️ Browser version:
🔖 Tags:	Action RPG; FPS; Cyberpunk; Horror; Sci-fi; Classic; Strife	📦️ Package Name:
🐣️ Approx. start:	1996-02-23	📦️ Arch package:
🐓️ Latest:	2016-10-23	📦️ RPM package:
📍️ Version:	Latest: (waiting) / Dev: 1b70159	📦️ Deb package:
🏛️ License type:	💰 Commercial	📦️ Flatpak package:
🏛️ License:	Code: GPL-2 / Artwork: Commercial	📦️ AppImage package:
🏝️ Perspective:	First person	📦️ Snap package:
👁️ Visual:	3D	⚙️ Generic binary:
⏱️ Pacing:	Real Time	📄️ Source:
👫️ Played:	Single & Multi	📱️ PDA support:
🎖️ This record:		🕳️ Not used:
🎀️ Game design:		👫️ Contrib.:	goupildb & Louis
🎰️ ID:	14493	🐛️ Created:	2014-12-19
🐜️ Updated:	2023-03-05

📖️ Summary

[en]:	A remastering (native Linux, based on the Chocolate Strife engine) of Strife: Quest for the Sigil (Strife), an adventure game mixing FPS and RPG, in a world ravaged by a virus where a dark religion called The Order has taken over. The Order is made up of cyborgs who forcibly convert humans into their ranks. The player is a member of the rebel forces led by Macil. The objective is to gather all the pieces of a mysterious artifact, the Sigil, in order to eliminate the leaders of the Order.	[fr]:	Une remastérisation (native Linux, basée sur le moteur Chocolate Strife) du jeu Strife: Quest for the Sigil (Strife), un jeu d'aventures mixant FPS et RPG, dans un monde ravagé par un virus où une sombre religion appelée The Order a pris le dessus. The Order est composé de cyborgs qui convertissent de force les humains dans leurs rangs. Le joueur est un membre des forces rebelles dirigées par Macil. L'objectif est de rassembler toutes les pièces d'un mystérieux artefact, le Sigil, afin d'éliminer les chefs de l'Ordre.

🎥️ Videos

🏝️ Trailer: (202xxx),

🕵️ Reviews: (202xxx), (202xxx), (202xxx),

🎲️ Gameplay (SP):

🎲️ Gameplay (MP): (202xxx), (202xxx), (202xxx),

🎮️ Showcase (Mods): Strife Overhaul (v.1.6),

🕸️ Links

📕 Description [en]

The Original Strife is back!

Hailed as the original FPS-RPG game that spawned countless imitators, Strife: Veteran Edition is a love letter to the classic from 1996.

Immerse yourself in this all-consuming epic quest that for the first time combines riveting role-playing adventure with the spectacular Doom 3D engine! -An evil presence has implanted itself in the fabric of our world. Play the role of spy, assassin, warrior and thief as you are lured into the darkest and most perilous adventure of your life. You´ll have Blackbird on your side – a seductive underground agent that will provide you with clues as you encounter progressively more sinister foes. Be strong, and trust no one.

🌍️ Wikipedia (Strife):

Strife (also known as Strife: Quest for the Sigil) is a first-person shooter role-playing video game developed by Rogue Entertainment. It was released in May 1996 in North America by Velocity Inc. and in Europe by Studio 3DO. The shareware version was released on February 23, 1996, while the full version was released on May 31, 1996. It was the last commercially released standalone PC game to utilize the id Tech 1 engine from id Software. The plot takes place in a world taken over by a religious organization known as "The Order"; the protagonist, an unnamed mercenary (sometimes referred to as Strifeguy), becomes a member of the resistance movement which aims to topple the Order's oppressive rule.

Strife added some role-playing game elements to the classic first-person shooter formula, such as allowing players to talk to other characters in the game's world or improve the protagonist's abilities. Contemporary reviews praised these innovations and the story, but also criticized the quality of the graphics and the obsolete engine. Years after its release, the game was retrospectively considered to have been underappreciated in its day, and described as a precursor to games such as Deus Ex.

An enhanced version of the game, Strife: Veteran Edition (also dubbed The Original Strife: Veteran Edition) was developed and published by Night Dive Studios and released on Steam on December 12, 2014.

Gameplay

Strife's gameplay is standard for the first-person shooter genre; the action is observed from the protagonist's viewpoint, and most of the game involves combat with the Order's infantry and war robots. The main character begins with just a dagger, but more powerful weapons, such as a crossbow or a flamethrower can be found throughout the game. The protagonist also has an inventory where he can keep items for later use, such as first aid kits for healing, protective armor, or gold coins.

The game contains numerous friendly or neutral characters with whom the player can converse or trade. These characters often assign the player character missions, thus advancing the plot. If the player fires a weapon while not in a combat situation, it usually sets off an alarm and makes the guards attack the protagonist; however, certain weapons – the dagger and poisonous crossbow bolts – allow attacking enemies stealthily without activating the alarm.

Unlike most other first-person shooters of the time, Strife does not follow a linear series of levels. Instead, the town of Tarnhill acts as a central hub from which the player can travel back and forth between various areas, which stay the same as they were when the player left them.

The player character has two numerical attributes, accuracy and stamina, which can be improved at certain points in the game. The first attribute increases the accuracy of ranged weapons, while the latter increases the maximum amount of health.

Plot

The game is set some time after a catastrophic comet impact, which brought a deadly virus onto the planet. The resulting plague caused deaths of millions of people, while other victims were mutated and began hearing the voice of a malevolent deity. They formed an organization called "The Order" and enslaved the rest of the populace. However, a rag-tag resistance movement, called "The Front", is trying to topple The Order's reign.

The unnamed protagonist of the game is a wandering mercenary, captured by Order troops near the town of Tarnhill. After killing the guards and escaping, he comes in contact with a man named Rowan, who makes him an offer to join the Front. The protagonist receives a communication device through which he can remain in contact with a female member of the Front, codenamed Blackbird. From then on, Blackbird provides assistance and commentary throughout the game. The protagonist heads to the Front's base, where the rebel leader, Macil, sends him on a number of missions in order to weaken the Order. After several acts of sabotage, the Front proceeds to assault the Order's castle; the protagonist, accompanying them in the attack, finds and kills a major member of the Order called "The Programmer". He loses consciousness upon touching the weapon that the Programmer had been using.

The mercenary wakes up in the castle, now taken over by the Front. Macil explains that the Programmer's weapon is one of the five fragments of the "Sigil", a powerful weapon worshipped by the Order. He orders the protagonist to find the remaining four. To this end, the mercenary visits a knowledgeable being called "The Oracle", who reveals that the next fragment is being held by another of the Order's leaders, The Bishop. After killing the Bishop and acquiring the second fragment, the protagonist returns to the Oracle only to be told that the third fragment is being held by Macil himself; the Oracle claims that Macil is a traitor who has been using the protagonist as a pawn in his scheme. At this point, the player must make a decision: either disbelieve the Oracle and kill it, or trust the Oracle and kill Macil. The choice has bearing on the rest of the plot.

Assuming the player trusts Macil and kills the Oracle - acquiring the third fragment - he receives another task from Macil: to deactivate a factory, built on the comet's impact site, where the Order is turning captured people into "bio-mechanical soldiers." Upon completing his mission, the protagonist learns that Macil has gone insane; he returns to the base and attempts to speak to Macil, who declares in his madness that he wishes to free the "one god", then attacks the protagonist. Upon killing Macil, the protagonist receives the fourth Sigil fragment. He then returns to the factory, where lies the laboratory of the Loremaster, another of the Order's leaders. After killing Loremaster and thus acquiring the final Sigil piece, he proceeds to use the weapon to unlock a door leading to the comet's impact site. Inside, he finds an extraterrestrial spaceship. Within the ship waits an alien being known as "The Entity"; it is the one responsible for creating the Order and taking over the minds of mutated people. The mercenary kills it with the Sigil; its death means the end of the Order. He then finally meets Blackbird face to face. She tells him that his victory allowed mankind to create a vaccine for the virus, then kisses him.

The plot takes a different direction if the player decides to trust the Oracle and immediately kill Macil. Once he does so (claiming Macil's Sigil piece in the process), the Oracle dispatches him to the Loremaster's laboratory. Having killed the Loremaster and obtained the fourth fragment of the Sigil, the protagonist returns to the Oracle, who then reveals that it was using him all along in a bid to acquire the complete Sigil, use it to free the "one god", and attain eternal life. The mercenary kills the Oracle and, with all five fragments of the Sigil now in his possession, heads to the alien ship. There he encounters the Entity; however, the being speaks with Blackbird's voice, and implies that it was manipulating the protagonist throughout the game in order to regain freedom and take over the planet. After killing the Entity, the ending sequence is shown, this time less optimistic: the cure for the virus has not been invented and mankind's future is uncertain.

Development

Strife was originally being developed by Cygnus Studios, the creators of Raptor: Call of the Shadows, for id Software. Cygnus Studios was already working on another first-person shooter game, The Second Sword, utilizing the older ShadowCaster game engine by id Software. However, id Software asked Cygnus Studios to create a game based on the Doom engine and requested that the studio be relocated to Texas from Chicago while they were still developing Raptor so that they would be able to develop the new title for id Software. The studio agreed and after relocating, the studio no longer wanted to work on The Second Sword and the title was dropped in favor of working on Strife.

Cygnus Studios worked on Strife for a few months following Raptor being finished. However, soon internal conflicts arose and employees mutinied against Scott Host, the original founder of Cygnus Studios, and he re-located back to Chicago and Strife was essentially cancelled. The mutineers then founded Rogue Entertainment and resumed development on Strife. The shareware version was released on February 23, 1996, while the full version was released on May 31, 1996. It was the last commercially released standalone PC game to utilize the id Tech 1 engine from id Software.

Community support

After the game's official support ended, game engine recreations of Strife were created by Doom source port developers through reverse engineering. Notably authors were Jānis Legzdiņš (author of the Doom source port Vavoom), Randy Heit (author of ZDoom), Samuel Villarreal (author of SvStrife), and James Haley (author with Samuel Villareal of Chocolate Strife). Except for the last, these allow for high resolution graphics modes, better mouselook, and expanded modding capabilities.

Strife was ported to the Commodore Amiga in 2013.

Digital re-release
In 2014 Night Dive Studios coordinated the digital re-release of Strife as Strife: Veteran Edition (or The Original Strife: Veteran Edition), after acquiring rights to the game. Because the game's source code had been lost by Rogue Entertainment, a derivative of the Chocolate Doom subproject Chocolate Strife was used as the game's engine, with its original programmers being contracted to do additional coding for the re-release. The source code of Strife: Veteran Edition was made available under GPLv2 on github.com. The enhanced version of the game was released as Strife: Veteran Edition by Night Dive Studios on Steam on December 12, 2014.

📕 Description [fr]

Une remastérisation de Strife, un jeu d'aventures mixant FPS et RPG permettant au joueur de discuter avec des PNJ, par le studio Rogue Entertainment, remastérisation par le studio Night Dive Studios.
Il utilise le moteur de Chocolate Strife (voir Chocolate Doom).

The Original Strife: Veteran Edition est une remastérisation (native Linux, basée sur le moteur Chocolate Strife) du jeu Strife: Quest for the Sigil (Strife), un jeu d'aventures mixant FPS et RPG, dans un monde ravagé par un virus où une sombre religion appelée The Order a pris le dessus. The Order est composé de cyborgs qui convertissent de force les humains dans leurs rangs. Le joueur est un membre des forces rebelles dirigées par Macil. L'objectif est de rassembler toutes les pièces d'un mystérieux artefact, le Sigil, afin d'éliminer les chefs de l'Ordre.

L'Original Strife est de retour !

Salué comme le jeu FPS-RPG original qui a engendré d'innombrables imitateurs, Strife : Veteran Edition est une lettre d'amour au classique de 1996.

Immergez-vous dans cette quête épique dévorante qui, pour la première fois combine un jeu de rôle captivant avec le spectaculaire moteur 3D de Doom !
Une présence maléfique s'est implanté dans le tissu de notre monde. Jouez le rôle d'espion, d'assassin, de guerrier ou de voleur, attiré dans l'aventure la plus sombre et la plus périlleuse de votre vie. Vous vivrez cette aventure en compagnie de Blackbird - une agent secrète séduisante qui vous fournira des indices tandis que vous rencontrez des ennemis de plus en plus sinistres. Soyez forts, et ne faites confiance à personne.

🌍️ Wikipedia (Strife):

Strife, parfois sous-titré Quest for the Sigil, est un jeu vidéo sur PC sorti en 1996. Il a été développé par Rogue Entertainment et édité par Velocity. Basé sur le Doom engine d'id Software, il ajoute au genre FPS des éléments de RPG et autorise le joueur à discuter avec les PNJ peuplant le monde du jeu.

Synopsis

Strife prend place dans un monde à l'aspect mi-futuriste, mi médiéval qui a été ravagé par un virus et dont un groupe de fanatiques appelé « The Order » (« L'Ordre » en anglais) a pris le contrôle. Un groupe de rebelles luttant dans l'ombre pour renverser les fanatiques contacte le personnage joueur et l'intègre dans ses rangs pour faire de lui le héros qui libèrera le monde. Au fur et à mesure du jeu, le personnage récupère pièce par pièce les morceaux d'une arme appelée le Sigil, l'arme la plus puissante du jeu, un seul morceau de cette arme étant déjà lui seul une arme relativement destructrice.

Système de jeu

Le monde de Strife est constitué d'un environnement cohérent, non divisé en niveaux comme l'étaient les autres FPS 3D de l'époque. À la place, le joueur se déplace dans une ville où les différentes zones restent les mêmes lorsque le joueur les quitte. Ces zones sont interconnectées entre elles d'une façon similaire à celles de Half-Life. Le jeu comprend aussi certaines zones « amicales » dans lesquelles on trouve des magasins.

Le joueur, en parlant aux personnages non-joueurs, peut prendre certaines décisions affectant la suite du jeu (par exemple, on peut à un moment du jeu choisir de tuer Macil, le chef des rebelles, ou de continuer à lui faire confiance), qui peut avoir trois fins différentes.

Même si le jeu apporte de nombreuses améliorations au moteur de Doom, il sort trop tard et ne peut rivaliser graphiquement avec les autres jeux du moment, tels que Quake d'id Software.

Il est aujourd'hui possible de jouer à Strife avec des moteurs de jeu modernisés, tels ZDoom.