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User:Mantis/Raven Software Sandbox
This is a sandbox for games by Raven Software currently not covered on this wiki, feel free to contribute to these sections.
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Contents
- 1 Black Crypt
- 2 Heretic II
- 3 Prerelease:Heretic II
- 4 Soldier of Fortune (PC)
- 5 X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
- 6 Prerelease:X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
- 7 Wolfenstein (2009)
- 8 Singularity
- 9 Prerelease:Singularity
- 10 Back Burner (Stuff that is not a priority right now)
Black Crypt
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| Black Crypt |
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Developer: Raven Software
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Black Crypt is the debut title of Raven Software
Heretic II
Heretic II is squeal to Heretic and the fourth game overall in the series. Rather the being a first-person shooter, this game moved to third-person action adventure-like gameplay, the results of which are... a surprisingly decent game, especially considering everything staked against it.
However, releasing around the same time as Half-Life pretty much doomed it and many other games to low sales (the change of genre probably didn't help ether). Since then, the series has pretty much laid dead outside of most of the games being released onto Steam in 2007 by id and some off-hand references found in the Raven-developed Wolfenstein and Quake Champions.
This game and Hexen II's Portal of Praevus expansion haven't been re-released due legal issues between id and Activision.
Prerelease:Heretic II
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Development Timeline 1997
- November - Heretic II starts development.
- December - The game's art is finalised.
1998
- November - The game is released.
Soldier of Fortune (PC)
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| Soldier of Fortune |
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Also known as: Soldier of Fortune: Tactical Low-Violence Version, Soldier of Fortune: Special Edition (EU)
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Features the "GHOUL" system which caused a fair bit of controversy back in the day (it even got the game banned in some countries).
Revisional Differences
Tactical Low-Violence Version
A modified version of the game for sale at Wal-Mart and other more squeamish retailers who didn't like the standard release. This hard-disables all the violence settings.
Gold Edition
This upgrade was made available to pre-existing owners as a free patch, as well as as a seperate retail release that also bundled in a video interview with the real John Mullins.
Highlights include updated single-player enemy AI, two new multiplayer modes (Control and Conquer The Bunker), 18 new multiplayer maps, six new skins, and AI bots for Deathmatch and Arsenal games.
Platinum Edition/Special Edition
The last release of SoF1, this includes everything from the Gold Edition, plus five new multiplayer maps and Gamespy support. The retail release also included the strategy guide and a video preview of the sequel.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a pretty decent hack-and-slash based on the infamously bad movie of the same name.
Prerelease:X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
Wolfenstein (2009)
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| Wolfenstein |
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Developers: Raven Software,
Pi Studios (multiplayer), Endrant Studios (additional multiplayer)
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Raven Software takes another stab at a classic id Software property with 2009's Wolfenstein. When B.J. Blazkowicz gets in possession of a mysterious medallion, it up to him to stop a nazi plot to harness the power of the Black Sun dimension.
Not only was this the last collaboration between the once budding Raven and id, it also was the last Wolfenstein (and in fact the last anything from id Software) prior to ZeniMax Media acquiring the company, which occurred only two months prior to this game being released.
The game unfortunately suffered then lukewarm reception and low sales. It later got pulled off digital distribution in 2014 for unknown reasons, the same year that Bethesda released a series reboot (thought this is probably just coincidental).
Singularity
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'Singularity shows that saving the wrong guy at the right time can make one hell of a difference to the world.
The game had a very difficult development, to say the very least. After two years of work Activision threatened to cancel the game because it was preforming horribly on all platforms, even on high-end PCs. A deal was then struck so that Raven would work on the game not to finish it, but to ship it in TEN MONTHS. Underwhelming sales of this game, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Wolfenstein would lead to lay-offs at Raven and their restructuring as a support studio for the Call of Duty franchise.
Indeed, truly there are fates worse than death.
Prerelease:Singularity
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Back Burner (Stuff that is not a priority right now)
ShadowCaster. Notably the game runs on a modified variant of the Wolfenstein 3D engine, that was developed by John Carmack himslef during the development of id Software's magnum opus.
In 1994, a CD-ROM version called ShadowCaster CD was released. This version added two new levels with new monsters and replaced text boxes with FMVs and spoken narration.
MageSlayer is pretty much what would happen if Gauntlet and Hexen had a love child, with fun results.
So three RPG classes walk into a bar... They don't order a drink, though, because they're spending too much time trying to find more friggin' switches!! The Sega Saturn version is seen to be the middle child of the rather shoddy console ports; it's not as bad as the PlayStation port, but it lacks many of the unique features seen in the Nintendo 64 port.
https://www.gamesradar.com/the-making-of-soldier-of-fortune/
