XSp.

Rise of the Triad (ROTT) is the one FPS I never conformed that it never got a proper sequel, because it was VERY AWESOME!

I don’t know how many trends it started, how many innovations it introduced to the genre, but there are several remarkable stuff I remember from this game.

First a little history: The original idea was that Rise of the Triad would be the sequel to the Wolfenstein 3D series. The game is also from Apogee.
But later in development they realized the game got so many different elements it became an original title.
One of the complete versions of the game even had a “Wolf3D” map:

ROTT was released not much after Doom, so it goes back almost 15 years!
Still, it had several elements ahead of it’s time…
– Enemies did stuff like: dodging rockets, pleading for their lives, stealing the player’s weapon and faking death.
– Levels had stuff like jump pads, platforms, destroyable objects, glass walls and lamps/lights, moving “lava walls” and rolling blade traps. Those traps would not only cause damage to the player, but also to enemies. Violence and gore also went a level up, with Gibs (exploded enemy pieces) flying close to the screen sometimes (ocasional eyeball) xD

– As for weapons, bullet types like dual pistols, projectile like rocket launchers, an awesome flamethrower that would shoot a wall of fire that burned all enemies in it’s range, and magical weapons like a wand that shoot energy

– Special itens – it had a Mercury Mode, which enabled the player to fly, a God Mode/ God Hand, made the character invincible shooting magic balls that would instantly kill and bounce on enemies (similar to the dark energy ball on Half Life 2), and finally, get this, a DOG mode, which transformed the player in a dog… and it had it’s own level with hilarious music.

– Aaaand the music. It was considered by some the best music set on a fps back then.
Dunno if it’ll work ok on a modern computer (this is a DOS game after all, maybe it’ll need DOSBox), but you can get the original demo (or buy the game) at Apogee’s Rise of the Triad original webpage!