The player enters these circumstances under the guise of a wandering mercenary whose displeasure with The Order has led him to offer his services to The Front. With The Order's significant numbers, advanced weaponry, and zealous methods, The Front could not afford to openly combat their adversaries until the conditions were right, and so its operatives maintained the utmost secrecy, hiding in the shadows and gathering arms and recruits where they could be found while also gathering any information that could possibly give them an edge against their oppressors. It was from this realization that the resistance movement known as The Front came to be, a desperate gathering of citizens hoping to wrest The Order's influence from the lives of the populace by force. Unfortunately, it became ever more apparent with the passage of time that The Order's influence was all-pervasive, and that if left unchecked the last remnants of humanity would simply be hunted to extinction or converted into mindless servants. The Order quickly seizes control in the wake of the viral epidemic.įor a time, those who suffered under The Order's persecution thought of little else save survival or escape from their bonds. The unafflicted were forced to submit to The Order all aspects of life would eventually come under Order control, even procreation, and The Order's violent and indiscriminate ways led the remaining survivors to hide what few healthy women and children that remained below ground, as far from The Order's reach as could be mustered.
Those who could hear the voice began to look down upon those who could not, and before long they formed The Order, an organization devoted to achieving the goals of The One God, no matter the cost.
Not all that were afflicted by the plague would die, but those that didn't laid claim to hearing a voice within their heads, a voice which they were compelled to obey. In droves, People mysteriously began to fall sick, and millions would soon perish in a massive viral outbreak which coincided with the comet's arrival. In a time before, the world had been peaceful, even idyllic, though this reality was abruptly shattered and replaced by one far more bleak the day a solitary comet collided with the planet. The events of Strife take place within a world stricken by disease and oppression. This version was later released for the Nintendo Switch on October 25, 2020. In addition to new modern graphical options (such as widescreen support and dynamic lighting), an updated user interface, and updated controls, this version features adds some of the original game's incomplete features (such as a Capture the Flag mode and objective markers on the map) along with a new secret quest (with a new secret level). The enhanced re-release was developed and digitally published by Nightdive Studios on Decemfor the PC, Mac, and Linux. One notable release is the 2013 "2.0.0" release of Chocolate Doom (which preserves the "look and feel" of the original), which was used as the base for an official enhanced re-release known as Strife: Veteran Edition (or The Original Strife: Veteran Edition, as the trademark then belonged to S2 Games).
As the Order enslaved the remaining populace, players take control of an unnamed wandering mercenary seeking to join the rag-tag resistance movement, known as The Front, in the town of Tarnhill.Īs it is the only licensed game using the id Tech 1 engine to not have its source code released, support for the game through the engine's numerous source ports were scarce prior to a major reverse engineering effort by numerous source port developers. Those who have mutated formed The Order, a highly-technological cybernetic cult of those mutated by the plague (which caused them to hear the voice of the "One God"). The game's lore mixes sci-fi and fantasy elements, set in a world where a comet impact unleashed a plague that decimated or mutated a large part of the world's population. The game itself was originally in development by Cygnus Studios, before internal conflict caused part of the team to form Rogue Entertainment in order to continue development. The shareware version was originally released on February 23, 1996.īuilt on the id Tech 1 engine (similar to the Doom and Heretic series), Strife incorporates numerous elements from role-playing games (including open-world exploration with a central hub, conversation paths with non-player characters, and systems for inventory, currency, and stat improvement). Strife (also known as Strife: Quest for the Sigil, and not to be confused with the 2015 game of the same name) is a sci-fi fantasy role-playing shooter developed by Rogue Entertainment and published for MS-DOS PCs in North America (by Velocity on May 15, 1996) and Europe (by Studio 3DO on May 31, 1996).