Rise of the Triad PC game

Fragmaster's article says it all about this underlooked classic:

"ROTT was a game Doomed to failure (in more ways than one). Just take a look at this mini-timeline:

-May 5, 1992 - Wolfenstein 3-D, is released by Apogee.
-December 10, 1993 - id unveils Doom. Millions Spooge.
-October 10, 1994 "Doomsday" - Doom II: Hell on Earth released (Retail only). Ended up to be the best selling computer game of all time with over 1.6 million copies sold.
-December 21,1994 - ROTT 1.0 released.
-December 23, 1994 - id released Heretic, developed by Raven Software.

Now those dates aren't exact, but it gives you a general idea of what was going on at the time. No matter HOW good ROTT was, it was going to be lost in a shuffle. It would have to go head on with Doom. Unfortunately (for ROTT), Doom II was an unstoppable force, with thousands of drooling fanatics waiting for hours in line to get it, take it home, and frag until the wee hours of morning.

But when ROTT was released to the Doom-crazed public, it got fairly good reviews: "Rise of the Triad is sure to have every Doom freak in the world lining up just to drool over it." Said one magazine. "I've played ROTT and it's good. REEEEEEEEEEEEALLY good! Honestly, I can't think of any reason why every DOOM nut in the country won't flock to this game when it's released. It's beautiful, fast and challenging. Rise of the Triad is truly an awesome game." Computer Gaming World raved. Other magazines gave it similar reviews, so-so reviews or just dismissed it as another clone.

But why didn't ROTT have every "Doom freak in the world lining up just to drool over it", as "predicted"? Well, there are many reasons, but I think I can sum it three words:

90 degree walls.

That's right...ROTT had a Wolf3D-type engine (At least, as far as 90 degree walls go). This was a MAJOR reason it didn't catch on. After Doom, this was a step backward.

ROTT wasn't very successful (especially compared to Doom), but since it was a good game that had many features that Doom didn't have (Even features Quake doesn't have...even some Unreal won't have) it developed a small, cult following. Most people ignored it (or didn't know it existed). Or they just dismissed it as a thing of the past after hearing about the 90 degree wall thing. I remember being a newbie on MSN (there was a free beta test period prior to Windows 95's official release) and hearing "ROTT SUCKS!" about forty times a day. If you asked them why, they would say "BECAUSE DOOM RULES!" or something. I wrote a sad little ROTT cheat file on MSN (just codes I ripped off a few BBS's), so if you have a ROTT cheat file buried on your hard drive written by some lamer named TOG_MAN (Hey, it was my Dad's account), you own my first piece of online writing. :)

But for those people that ignored the 90 degree walls...and had access to a LAN...quickly realized ROTT's appeal. ROTT was (and still is?) quite possibly the best deathmatch game of all time."