Strife: Veteran Edition Review (Nintendo Switch)

Strife: Veteran Edition (Nintendo Switch)
Developed By: Rogue Entertainment/Night Dive Studios
Published By: Night Dive Studios
Date of Release: October 25, 2020
Price: $9.99


Ahhh Strife! Back in 1996, Rogue Entertainment made it's debut with the most ambitious use of the Doom engine yet. Strife hit the scene as the first true story-driven FPS/RPG hybrid. Using a hub system quite similar to Hexen, Strife also added in NPCs, voiced dialog, and actual conversation choices that affect the outcome of the game. Compared to the mindless run and gun action of previous Doom-based games, this was quite a refreshing change. 18 years later in 2014 Night Dive Studios took the original Strife and reworked it into the masterful Strife: Veteran Edition for the PC. And now in 2020, Night Dive has taken Strife yet another step forward in it's history of badassery by bringing this classic masterpiece to the Nintendo Switch.

Right off the bat when you start up Strife: Veteran Edition you're greeted with a delicious crunchy pixelated interface, ripped straight out of the 90's. Night Dive has perfectly preserved the look and feel of the classic graphics presentation, avoiding the missteps that most studios make when remastering older titles. There are no cruddy out of place looking high-res fonts or interface assets here to clash with the pixelly goodness. On top of that the game runs smoothly in 720p both docked and in handheld (though a 1080p docked patch is coming!), and feels fluid in motion, thanks to the port running a customized version of Chocolate Strife. one of my favorite additions is the adjustable FOV, which can help greatly when playing handheld. FOV sliders are an addition that all Switch FPS titles (and console titles in general) could benefit from in my opinion.

Everything that was great about Strife's campaign is intact here from the decent writing, glorious sprawling levels (thank goodness for the automap!), mild RPG elements, an ass-kicking arsenal of weapons to shred your foes with, awesome voice acting, an atmospheric and pulse-pounding soundtrack, and on top of it all a pretty damn good story with meaningful choices and multiple endings to tie it all together. The only thing that didn't make the cut unfortunately is the multiplayer mode. Honestly though in my humble opinion the multiplayer was never that good, and felt tacked on to begin with. The Switch version more than makes up with it with some excellent gyro controls, something that always gives these retro classics a new feel. 

 

The Switch has really become a haven for retro classics lately with the likes of the original Dooms, Doom 64, Duke Nukem 3D and now Strife. Here's hoping that Night Dive gets a chance to work on more retro FPS ports, as it's nice to be able to play them anytime, anywhere. Maybe they could get the rights to do a Serpent Rider Trilogy remaster? Maybe a port of the original lovecraftian Quake, nothing like quad damage on the can! Anyway back on topic, Strife: Veteran Edition for the switch is IMO the best version of it yet. It’ll take on average 8 hours to see the story through, and there’s some decent hidden stuff to hunt for, which is a good meaty chunk of fun for the mere $9.99 asking price. If classic shooters are your thing then you should totally pick it up ASAP, as it's on sale for 25% off until November 8th!