I installed this on every computer in my Business English class in high school because we constantly ran out of stuff to do and each desk had a computer for typing out assignments. (The teacher was cool with it once she found out we were killing Nazis) By the end of the year, half the class would be playing Wolfenstein by the end of each period.
The girl I had a crush on at the time watched as I helped someone find the .exe file and then said "So is this what you do? Are you some kind of video game nerd?"
I froze.
Then, I lied: "Uh... no not really". But she was obviously right.
...come to think of it, why didn't I install something with multiplayer?? Another missed opportunity born of the foibles of youth.
The girl I had a crush on at the time watched as I helped someone find the .exe file and then said "So is this what you do? Are you some kind of video game nerd?"
I froze.
Then, I lied: "Uh... no not really". But she was obviously right.
...come to think of it, why didn't I install something with multiplayer?? Another missed opportunity born of the foibles of youth.
Wolfenstein 3D is the videogame of all time. it contains all facets of videogames. it's a fast and stupid game that is also really weird and cryptic. every episode feels like it was designed with a completely different sensibility. it's unclear whether it's going for realism, horror, or cartoony comic absurdity half the time. that tonal confusion makes it feel totally like a product of time and place that could not exist anywhere else. none of the clones of this game (even Blake Stone, which i like) ever felt anywhere near the same to me. it's just an inspired, inspiring mess.
When it comes to the history of first-person shooters, I've seen people crown Doom as the grandfather of the genre while half-heartedly addressing Wolfenstein 3D with a general sense of "Oh, yeah, that game exists as well". Don't get me wrong, people do pay their respects towards this game and the standards it set for both id Software's demon-themed follow-up and the first-person shooter genre as a whole, but I have not seen nearly as many people talk about Wolfenstein 3D as they've talked about Doom, let alone praise it, and I wanted to see why. Much to my surprise, though, I had a pretty good time with Wolfenstein 3D from start to finish, and while it isn't perfect and has dated quite a bit more than Doom, it's still a fun game that I'd say is worth playing today.
Back when I reviewed Doom in September, I mentioned how a lot of that game's entertainment comes from how simple and direct its immensely gratifying and fast-paced gameplay was, but since Wolfenstein 3D featured an even more stripped-down setup than that, I was interested in seeing what that would feel like. Instead of running at the speed of a cheetah and obliterating hordes of demons with chainsaws, shotguns, and laser rifles, Wolfenstein 3D has you infiltrating Nazi castles and bunkers adorned with countless swastikas and portraits of Adolf Hitler while gunning down handfuls of German forces at a time, and this approach manages to feel tense and enthralling in its own right. It only makes sense that the previous two entries in this series were both top-down stealth games, as having any of the enemies be able to kill you in two or three shots led to me peeking around lots of corners, looking for secret rooms, occasionally avoiding confrontation entirely, and even luring enemies into my line of fire using the sound of my gunshots as I fire at nearby walls. Even with B.J. Blazkowicz's limited arsenal of a Walther P38, an MP40, a chain gun, and the single most ineffective and unsatisfying knife on earth, gunning down Nazis is still very satisfying, and since your movement in the game is very restrictive, the combat becomes less about dodging bullets and more about killing whatever soldier or soldiers are right in front of you before they kill you, and that adds a lot of intensity to the otherwise brief gunfights. This is the same aspect of Wolfenstein 3D that led to me enjoying the game's boss fights, with the iconic battle against Robo-Hitler being especially engaging thanks to the limited health and ammo drops.
Most, if not all of the actual gripes that I had with Wolfenstein 3D can be attributed to both how old this game is and how early of an entry in the first-person shooter genre this was, but despite this, they still ended up affecting my experience with the game somewhat negatively. While the actual layouts for the labyrinthine levels were quite different in terms of both design and escalating difficulty, the art direction made many of the stages look and feel identical to each other, as the entire game is spent looking at the same brick walls, blue doors, and green lamps from the first stage to the last. The sameness of the visuals didn't help the occasionally confusing exploration, as the maze-like hallways were much less easy to navigate or tell apart than the ones in Doom (although these occasional moments aren't nearly as bad as the constant, cryptic nonsense of Doom II). The music tracks in Wolfenstein 3D also felt quite repetitive, and while a few new tracks got added with each episode, most of it just ended up meshing together anyway. Even with all of these flaws, I still enjoyed Wolfenstein 3D a lot more than I thought I would, and not only am I interested in checking out the prequel episodes that weren't included in my version of the game, but I also want to eventually check out some of the reboots and sequels that came out later on, such as Return to Castle Wolfenstein or Wolfenstein: The New Order.
Back when I reviewed Doom in September, I mentioned how a lot of that game's entertainment comes from how simple and direct its immensely gratifying and fast-paced gameplay was, but since Wolfenstein 3D featured an even more stripped-down setup than that, I was interested in seeing what that would feel like. Instead of running at the speed of a cheetah and obliterating hordes of demons with chainsaws, shotguns, and laser rifles, Wolfenstein 3D has you infiltrating Nazi castles and bunkers adorned with countless swastikas and portraits of Adolf Hitler while gunning down handfuls of German forces at a time, and this approach manages to feel tense and enthralling in its own right. It only makes sense that the previous two entries in this series were both top-down stealth games, as having any of the enemies be able to kill you in two or three shots led to me peeking around lots of corners, looking for secret rooms, occasionally avoiding confrontation entirely, and even luring enemies into my line of fire using the sound of my gunshots as I fire at nearby walls. Even with B.J. Blazkowicz's limited arsenal of a Walther P38, an MP40, a chain gun, and the single most ineffective and unsatisfying knife on earth, gunning down Nazis is still very satisfying, and since your movement in the game is very restrictive, the combat becomes less about dodging bullets and more about killing whatever soldier or soldiers are right in front of you before they kill you, and that adds a lot of intensity to the otherwise brief gunfights. This is the same aspect of Wolfenstein 3D that led to me enjoying the game's boss fights, with the iconic battle against Robo-Hitler being especially engaging thanks to the limited health and ammo drops.
Most, if not all of the actual gripes that I had with Wolfenstein 3D can be attributed to both how old this game is and how early of an entry in the first-person shooter genre this was, but despite this, they still ended up affecting my experience with the game somewhat negatively. While the actual layouts for the labyrinthine levels were quite different in terms of both design and escalating difficulty, the art direction made many of the stages look and feel identical to each other, as the entire game is spent looking at the same brick walls, blue doors, and green lamps from the first stage to the last. The sameness of the visuals didn't help the occasionally confusing exploration, as the maze-like hallways were much less easy to navigate or tell apart than the ones in Doom (although these occasional moments aren't nearly as bad as the constant, cryptic nonsense of Doom II). The music tracks in Wolfenstein 3D also felt quite repetitive, and while a few new tracks got added with each episode, most of it just ended up meshing together anyway. Even with all of these flaws, I still enjoyed Wolfenstein 3D a lot more than I thought I would, and not only am I interested in checking out the prequel episodes that weren't included in my version of the game, but I also want to eventually check out some of the reboots and sequels that came out later on, such as Return to Castle Wolfenstein or Wolfenstein: The New Order.
Played via the ECWolf source port: it's the essential way to even attempt to play the game, adding mouselook so that you can strafe without having to hold Alt every time - plus support for modern resolutions.
While not the original FPS, Wolf3D was arguably the first game to not just get it right, but really make it a proper, fantastic videogame that goes beyond its gimmick. What id crafted here is nothing short of fantastic for its time, and while it's definitely difficult to revisit today as anything more than a museum exhibit, a sign of how far we've come, I still think it's pretty playable if you give it a little patience.
Wolf3D is the FPS genre stripped down to what is practically its most bare: You have a gun (and a pathetic knife if you run out of ammo), there are enemies to shoot, and you have to find the exit. Levels are entirely flat and consist of rooms, and mazes. Oh, so many labyrinthian mazes. ECWolf contains an automap to help remember the path you've taken, but the vanilla game expected you to bust out the ol' pencil and paper. The design gets tiresome after a while, but it convincingly keeps you on your toes, especially given the danger enemies present.
The Nazis - always a fantastic choice of guilt-free targets (except their poor guard dogs...) - come in a few shapes and sizes. Most go down easily and take embarrassingly long to aim their gun at you, whereas later ones can aim faster or forgo it entirely. However, their damage output is not to be underestimated: all standard enemy guns in this game are hitscan, meaning that if their gun is aimed at you when fired, it will instantly hit you. Several factors determine if the bullet actually hits you or not, such as your relative speed and distance (and the same applies to your own shots). From there, bullets can either scratch you, dealing minor damage, or crit: taking as much as half your health instantly. Encountering an enemy at point blank range without immediately unloading your weapon into them is a certifiable death sentence, and that's a layer of challenge persistent throughout.
The base game on PC has 3 episodes, while most versions available now add an additional 3 "prequel" episodes, though they're far harder than the base game. The console ports supposedly have completely redesigned levels to accommodate the limited memory, so I'm only speaking for the DOS original here. Having played on "Bring 'em on!", the normal difficulty, I found Episode 1 to be a great entry into the game, and 3 to be a satisfying if maybe a little underwhelming finale to the original trilogy. Unfortunately, there's an outlier: Episode 2 marks a huge difficulty spike from 1, and makes 3 seem easy in comparison. This is due to, among other things, the "mutant" enemy type, who has no alert sounds, and can sneak up on you very easily. Oh, and they don't even have to aim - if they see you, they're already shooting you. They're never seen again after, but this spike in difficulty is incredibly off-putting so early into the game. The prequels aren't too remarkable, but generally ok - Episode 6 is the hardest by far, as it should be, but Episode 5 has one level that you can get permanently stuck in by design, which is frankly a horrible concept for a stage.
The music is a little varied: Bobby Prince would later compose the iconic soundtrack we know and love from Doom, but while a few tracks here are also pretty great, some are just utterly goofy. Yes, the hidden morse code message is cool and all, but i'm afraid it does not constitute a bop. The soundfont used here is also not at all as good as Doom, which holds it back a bit.
I always wondered why id never came back to Wolfenstein back in the day (save for the expansion Spear of Destiny, which I will absolutely play next), and just went straight on ahead with Doom and Quake, leaving other developers to pick up where they left off every 5 to 10 years. But now having played all the way through, I can see that they really did just immediately perfect the formula in this iteration of the engine. Those 6 episodes are practically 2 games in of themselves anyway, and I can't see a 7th episode being any more difficult in terms of design without stretching into the criminally unfair.
All in all, this shooter still shoots just fine - though I can't exactly give a glowing recommendation in this day and age.
While not the original FPS, Wolf3D was arguably the first game to not just get it right, but really make it a proper, fantastic videogame that goes beyond its gimmick. What id crafted here is nothing short of fantastic for its time, and while it's definitely difficult to revisit today as anything more than a museum exhibit, a sign of how far we've come, I still think it's pretty playable if you give it a little patience.
Wolf3D is the FPS genre stripped down to what is practically its most bare: You have a gun (and a pathetic knife if you run out of ammo), there are enemies to shoot, and you have to find the exit. Levels are entirely flat and consist of rooms, and mazes. Oh, so many labyrinthian mazes. ECWolf contains an automap to help remember the path you've taken, but the vanilla game expected you to bust out the ol' pencil and paper. The design gets tiresome after a while, but it convincingly keeps you on your toes, especially given the danger enemies present.
The Nazis - always a fantastic choice of guilt-free targets (except their poor guard dogs...) - come in a few shapes and sizes. Most go down easily and take embarrassingly long to aim their gun at you, whereas later ones can aim faster or forgo it entirely. However, their damage output is not to be underestimated: all standard enemy guns in this game are hitscan, meaning that if their gun is aimed at you when fired, it will instantly hit you. Several factors determine if the bullet actually hits you or not, such as your relative speed and distance (and the same applies to your own shots). From there, bullets can either scratch you, dealing minor damage, or crit: taking as much as half your health instantly. Encountering an enemy at point blank range without immediately unloading your weapon into them is a certifiable death sentence, and that's a layer of challenge persistent throughout.
The base game on PC has 3 episodes, while most versions available now add an additional 3 "prequel" episodes, though they're far harder than the base game. The console ports supposedly have completely redesigned levels to accommodate the limited memory, so I'm only speaking for the DOS original here. Having played on "Bring 'em on!", the normal difficulty, I found Episode 1 to be a great entry into the game, and 3 to be a satisfying if maybe a little underwhelming finale to the original trilogy. Unfortunately, there's an outlier: Episode 2 marks a huge difficulty spike from 1, and makes 3 seem easy in comparison. This is due to, among other things, the "mutant" enemy type, who has no alert sounds, and can sneak up on you very easily. Oh, and they don't even have to aim - if they see you, they're already shooting you. They're never seen again after, but this spike in difficulty is incredibly off-putting so early into the game. The prequels aren't too remarkable, but generally ok - Episode 6 is the hardest by far, as it should be, but Episode 5 has one level that you can get permanently stuck in by design, which is frankly a horrible concept for a stage.
The music is a little varied: Bobby Prince would later compose the iconic soundtrack we know and love from Doom, but while a few tracks here are also pretty great, some are just utterly goofy. Yes, the hidden morse code message is cool and all, but i'm afraid it does not constitute a bop. The soundfont used here is also not at all as good as Doom, which holds it back a bit.
I always wondered why id never came back to Wolfenstein back in the day (save for the expansion Spear of Destiny, which I will absolutely play next), and just went straight on ahead with Doom and Quake, leaving other developers to pick up where they left off every 5 to 10 years. But now having played all the way through, I can see that they really did just immediately perfect the formula in this iteration of the engine. Those 6 episodes are practically 2 games in of themselves anyway, and I can't see a 7th episode being any more difficult in terms of design without stretching into the criminally unfair.
All in all, this shooter still shoots just fine - though I can't exactly give a glowing recommendation in this day and age.
more important than it is fun. Fundamentally a top down shooter with a limited FOV, FPSes didn't become real until Doom
A game that is honestly not worth playing unless you want to relive the progenitor of the shooter genre (though you could just play DOOM for that). Which is exactly why I give it a 4/10, DOOM exists. A ton of respect for what the game did, and how well it did it 30+ years ago. It's just not worth playing anymore really...
One of the greats. Kick-started the FPS genre. We all owe a lot to Wolf3D.
Complete playthrough (all six episodes). Absolutely deserving of its classic status, Wolfenstein 3D remains enjoyably playable to this day, especially with the help of well-implemented modern Source ports. The quality of the episodes is quite variable - episodes 1, 3 and 5 being the most enjoyable and tightly-designed, while episode 4 is particular gets a bit too labyrinthine and 6 has the occasional map layout that's clearly designed to ensure death unless you're very lucky; I'm also not a fan of the approach to secrets that just requires 'using' every inch of wall space until you happen to run into the right on. These can't, however, detract too much from the simplistic compelling Nazi-blasting action - just don't forget the quicksave and automap!
This game is a better representation of hell than Doom. The maze-like level design with repetitive visuals are clearly designed to drive you insane. I recommend not trying to map the levels as you're playing, so as to immerse yourself into the role of a prisoner trying to make his way out of the Nazi dungeons. Instead of using a map, your main method of navigation is leaving a trail of dead bodies to know which rooms you've already visited. By the time you finish playing, the brick texture will imprint itself on your retina.
Much as I appreciate the experience, I don't think I'll ever be able to beat this game. Escaping from a real Nazi prison would probably be easier.
Much as I appreciate the experience, I don't think I'll ever be able to beat this game. Escaping from a real Nazi prison would probably be easier.
The originator of the entire FPS Genre has obviously been built and improved upon since then. But to this day there's still something so cathartic about turning pixelated Nazis into puddles of red goo with a baby blue chain gun.
One of those games you can put in the category of : "the beginning of something great". Very short, fun gameplay, confusing stage layout sometimes, but an acessible piece of game history.
(This is the 70th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)
The FPS genre and id Software is like the Soulslike genre and From Software. It's like the roguelike genre and Rogue. Wolfenstein 3D would kickstart a whole genre of video games that would try to replicate its (and Doom's) success over years to come from this point forward using the exact same style that was pioneered right here, with Hovertank and Catacomb 3D acting as test subjects preceeding it.
With Wolfenstein 3D, id Software improved upon their 3D engine and built a full-scale video game with multiple episodes, a small yet complete story and fast-paced shooting action that ended up being revolutionary, though not perfect. In today's review I'm going to go over my thoughts, which are both positive and negative, but mainly it's a celebration of an achievement that is pretty much the reason for why I decided to do this challenge in the first place.
STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 2/10
You are BJ Blazkowicz, an American spy of Polish descent infiltrating the Nazi base looking for plans for the Operation "Eisenfaust" (blueprint for building a "perfect" army) and ultimately destroying the Nazi regime. You are captured and imprisoned at Castle Wolfenstein at the start of the game and have to shoot your way out and ultimately make your way to Hitler's bunker and take him out in what makes the first of two trilogies. After releasing the first trilogy, id Software took a few months to create another trilogy working as a prequel to the first one. From a story perspective, you will be satisfied after playing the first trilogy though.
The story is explained in the manual and at the end of each of the three episodes of a trilogy. There isn't much else to it. BJ can be seen holding a minigun on the cover for the game, screaming as he stands over a dead Nazi soldier. You can also see his face throughout the game, as his eyes glean left and right to give an impression that he is actively checking the corridors for enemies. Finally, you see him jump into the exit of an Episode and shout in jubilation whilst doing so. I love BJ Blazkowicz from my time playing Wolfenstein The New Order, but he is a killing machine exclusively in this game, with no heart nor desires other than mowing down Nazis.
Hitler is the final boss, as mentioned, and is in a robotic suit when you finally meet him. When you kill him, he says "Eva, auf Wiedersehen", which is one of many things bosses and all enemies shout in this game. I didn't understand some of it even though I'm German, for example I have no idea what the normal soldiers are saying when they spot you, but having these characters express certain things or simply speak German is a pretty big deal at the time and definitely adds to the shock value that this game provided during its release.
GAMEPLAY | 13/20
This game is a first-person shooter. It revolutionized the entire genre and is called the "grandfather of FPS games". Before this, you had Hovertank 3D and Catacomb 3D from id Software, which used prototypes of the eventual Wolfenstein 3D engine and were short tech demo-type games that id made as part of their contract with Softdisk, but Wolfenstein was going to be their first big attempt at making a full-scale video game of this type.
PC's were not equipped to play graphically 'demanding' games from a first-person perspective at this time, so developers didn't attempt something like this. John Carmack, the programmer of the engine ended up figuring out though how to make this game run well by both making wall tiles all identically large to reduce the complexity of what the PC would have to display and by only making the PC calculate visible surfaces at a time instead of a whole map.
It was John Romero who then came up with the idea to make this a "loud" and "cool" fast-paced action game, and there you have it.
The end result is what we call today the world's first boomer shooter with handguns. You strafe around maze-like levels to kill enemies like Nazi soldiers of different types, hounddogs, bats and zombies, you look for keys to unlock your way out of the floor you're on, and you make your way up continously through three total Nazi dungeons with 9 floors each to ultimately kill Hitler. The end result is indeed a fun Arcade-like shooter that ... is not as bloody and gruesome as parents from 1992 would make you believe. Open a door and a Nazi will stand there. Shoot him and a bit of blood will come out. Even if you shoot all of them on a given floor, barely a few percent of the entirety of that floor will be covered with them and their blood. The floors themselves don't look brutal, gruesome or scary either. I guess it's called being desensitized by what we have seen since? But it could also be that it's genuinely funny to look back and think that this was such a horrific thing to expose gamers to when movies would depict a billion times more horrific scenes annually. It would be useful to note here that games were not seen as art by not only many individual humans inofficially, but also officially by, for example, the German legislation.
Back to the gameplay. After a couple hours, does it get repetitive? Sure. There are only four weapons in this game that I ever found, and the mini- and handguns pretty much become useless once you find the submachine gun, because all weapons share ammunition, so the single-fire handgun is slower than the SMG and the mini-gun wastes too many bullets needlessly unless you have a group of 3+ enemies standing next to each other, which doesn't happen all that often.
The worst part about this game from a gameplay perspective for me was the secret-finding. This game has secret doors just like Catacomb 3D had, but in that game, you would just shoot magic projectiles and it would cover a few tiles and you would figure out quicker if random tile #879 had a secret behind it. In this game, secrets are also hidden behind random secret tiles. Unfortunately, since this could be any tile and you need to push SPACE into it instead of shooting, this means you are constantly projected to that horrific buzzing sound that plays when pressing SPACE. It's somewhat tolerable when you press it separately for each tile, but progress this way is slow. Best thing to do is hold SPACE and strafe along an entire wall, but here is where you get that terrible sound penetrating your ears constantly, and it is literally so bad that I had to stop at one point because of a headache I got from it. I enjoy secrets in games like this, but not when finding them means subjecting yourself to these horrors.
The worst part is that for the boss fights, you are pretty much forced to figure out where the secret doors are. This is OK once you initially find them, but until you do, you just keep pressing SPACE everywhere until something opens up. These doors have weapons, ammo and health packs in them, which you will need, because once you die to a boss once, you only spawn with a handgun and 8 rounds of ammo, which means that without these secret doors, you simply cannot beat a boss.
Overall, I had a fun few hours with this game minus the headache. I can tell how this game was seen as revolutionary, and with only half a year of development no less, so I'm looking forward to the improvements id Software will come up with for Doom, which released in 1993.
MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 6/10
Voice acting exists, as already described. Enemies shout stuff at you when they spot you and when you kill them. Sound quality is of course not great, so even as a German I couldn't decipher all of what was said, but it's a nice way to add immersion and alert players of enemies being in the same room as you, so I overall found this to be a plus for the experience.
Sound design ranges from horrific for the sound of unsuccessfully trying to open doors or strafin around, to pretty good for the sound of guns and doors opening and closing.
The soundtrack I found to be kind of disappointing. It reminds me more of the subtle background music of Catacomb 3D rather than the metal, fast-paced sounds of 1993's Doom for example. At least placing the tone somewhere in between I would have enjoyed more. While I don't think the soundtrack suits the game very well, as its own thing I think there are some solid tracks here, but it's not a soundtrack I'd care to listen to again necessarily.
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 6/10
Graphics look better than for Catacomb 3D, that's for sure. Wall tiles have some actual textures to them instead of being solid single colors. Decoration was added, like posters, plants, tables and more. There is more enemy variety and the spritework is slightly improved. This was all possible thanks to a switch from 16 color EGA to 256 color VGA compared to Catacomb 3D.
That said, these are still rudimentary 3D graphics in a game that sacrifices graphical presentation by design to allow for the PC's of the time to actually handle the gameplay, so suffice it to say, this is not going to win awards for looks.
I did appreciate a few minor things though, like the way you could see enemies get hit by your shot and die way off in the distance as small sprites, or how the portrait of BJ would keep starting to the sides and how he would get bloodied up the lower your health would go.
ATMOSPHERE/IMMERSION | 8/10
You stroll around in Castle Wolfenstein filled with Nazis that shout things at you in German. On top of that, you are playing this in first-person. Does it get any more immersive than this in 1992? The portrait of BJ staring to the sides, the posters and Nazi emblems hung up on the walls and the animations of enemies getting hit and dying all are minor things that add to the atmosphere in this game as well.
CONTENT | 7/10
This game gives you access to four weapons, it has 7 types of enemies in the original trilogy, it has two trilogies (six episodes) with 9 floors on each, and four difficulty levels to test your prowess on. Pretty good. Though the fast pace doesn't match as well as you'd like with the rather low amount of enemies you will find on each floor (especially compared to Doom) and therefore repetitiveness can kick in after the first trilogy.
LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 6/10
The maze-like design of every floor is a clever way of extending the time it takes for players to go through them, but I found some to be overly confusingly laid out at times. I also found that on many floors, there weren't as many enemies as I would have liked to see, so I thought that there were too many breaks inbetween the shooting. There is also one major thing I disliked, which is boss encounters. You encounter one and pretty much immediately die on your first attempt. On your second, you realize that you have no weapons and ammo to really work with anymore, since you lose everything at death, which means you are forced to run around the room to find secret areas to restock. I don't like the idea of restricting the player to a few lives either.
CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 10/10
This game managed to achieve something on a scale that no other game that tried to do something in first-person view ever could achieve: Make a fast-paced FPS game that was fun to play and actually ran well. It's revolutionized a genre, something only a couple dozen games over history could say, so it deserves the high praise it gets for innovation (especially since this game will kickstart a slew of FPS games that will find themselves on my challenge spreadsheet over the coming years).
REPLAYABILITY | 3/5
You can try to beat your high score, try to up the difficulty and try to find more of the secrets and treasures in the game to go for 100% completion. You could go for 4 or 5 out of 5 here if you were to include all those fanmade levels you can play as well.
PLAYABILITY | 5/5
Works well at all times.
OVERALL | 66/100
This game is a big part of video game history for its innovation. Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake are played to this day, both old and new iterations, and id Software took arguably their biggest step right here. The game is still fun for a couple hours, but didn't age quite as well in parts and still leaves a lot of potential left to be explored in 1993's Doom, which I'm already looking forward to.
The FPS genre and id Software is like the Soulslike genre and From Software. It's like the roguelike genre and Rogue. Wolfenstein 3D would kickstart a whole genre of video games that would try to replicate its (and Doom's) success over years to come from this point forward using the exact same style that was pioneered right here, with Hovertank and Catacomb 3D acting as test subjects preceeding it.
With Wolfenstein 3D, id Software improved upon their 3D engine and built a full-scale video game with multiple episodes, a small yet complete story and fast-paced shooting action that ended up being revolutionary, though not perfect. In today's review I'm going to go over my thoughts, which are both positive and negative, but mainly it's a celebration of an achievement that is pretty much the reason for why I decided to do this challenge in the first place.
STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 2/10
You are BJ Blazkowicz, an American spy of Polish descent infiltrating the Nazi base looking for plans for the Operation "Eisenfaust" (blueprint for building a "perfect" army) and ultimately destroying the Nazi regime. You are captured and imprisoned at Castle Wolfenstein at the start of the game and have to shoot your way out and ultimately make your way to Hitler's bunker and take him out in what makes the first of two trilogies. After releasing the first trilogy, id Software took a few months to create another trilogy working as a prequel to the first one. From a story perspective, you will be satisfied after playing the first trilogy though.
The story is explained in the manual and at the end of each of the three episodes of a trilogy. There isn't much else to it. BJ can be seen holding a minigun on the cover for the game, screaming as he stands over a dead Nazi soldier. You can also see his face throughout the game, as his eyes glean left and right to give an impression that he is actively checking the corridors for enemies. Finally, you see him jump into the exit of an Episode and shout in jubilation whilst doing so. I love BJ Blazkowicz from my time playing Wolfenstein The New Order, but he is a killing machine exclusively in this game, with no heart nor desires other than mowing down Nazis.
Hitler is the final boss, as mentioned, and is in a robotic suit when you finally meet him. When you kill him, he says "Eva, auf Wiedersehen", which is one of many things bosses and all enemies shout in this game. I didn't understand some of it even though I'm German, for example I have no idea what the normal soldiers are saying when they spot you, but having these characters express certain things or simply speak German is a pretty big deal at the time and definitely adds to the shock value that this game provided during its release.
GAMEPLAY | 13/20
This game is a first-person shooter. It revolutionized the entire genre and is called the "grandfather of FPS games". Before this, you had Hovertank 3D and Catacomb 3D from id Software, which used prototypes of the eventual Wolfenstein 3D engine and were short tech demo-type games that id made as part of their contract with Softdisk, but Wolfenstein was going to be their first big attempt at making a full-scale video game of this type.
PC's were not equipped to play graphically 'demanding' games from a first-person perspective at this time, so developers didn't attempt something like this. John Carmack, the programmer of the engine ended up figuring out though how to make this game run well by both making wall tiles all identically large to reduce the complexity of what the PC would have to display and by only making the PC calculate visible surfaces at a time instead of a whole map.
It was John Romero who then came up with the idea to make this a "loud" and "cool" fast-paced action game, and there you have it.
The end result is what we call today the world's first boomer shooter with handguns. You strafe around maze-like levels to kill enemies like Nazi soldiers of different types, hounddogs, bats and zombies, you look for keys to unlock your way out of the floor you're on, and you make your way up continously through three total Nazi dungeons with 9 floors each to ultimately kill Hitler. The end result is indeed a fun Arcade-like shooter that ... is not as bloody and gruesome as parents from 1992 would make you believe. Open a door and a Nazi will stand there. Shoot him and a bit of blood will come out. Even if you shoot all of them on a given floor, barely a few percent of the entirety of that floor will be covered with them and their blood. The floors themselves don't look brutal, gruesome or scary either. I guess it's called being desensitized by what we have seen since? But it could also be that it's genuinely funny to look back and think that this was such a horrific thing to expose gamers to when movies would depict a billion times more horrific scenes annually. It would be useful to note here that games were not seen as art by not only many individual humans inofficially, but also officially by, for example, the German legislation.
Back to the gameplay. After a couple hours, does it get repetitive? Sure. There are only four weapons in this game that I ever found, and the mini- and handguns pretty much become useless once you find the submachine gun, because all weapons share ammunition, so the single-fire handgun is slower than the SMG and the mini-gun wastes too many bullets needlessly unless you have a group of 3+ enemies standing next to each other, which doesn't happen all that often.
The worst part about this game from a gameplay perspective for me was the secret-finding. This game has secret doors just like Catacomb 3D had, but in that game, you would just shoot magic projectiles and it would cover a few tiles and you would figure out quicker if random tile #879 had a secret behind it. In this game, secrets are also hidden behind random secret tiles. Unfortunately, since this could be any tile and you need to push SPACE into it instead of shooting, this means you are constantly projected to that horrific buzzing sound that plays when pressing SPACE. It's somewhat tolerable when you press it separately for each tile, but progress this way is slow. Best thing to do is hold SPACE and strafe along an entire wall, but here is where you get that terrible sound penetrating your ears constantly, and it is literally so bad that I had to stop at one point because of a headache I got from it. I enjoy secrets in games like this, but not when finding them means subjecting yourself to these horrors.
The worst part is that for the boss fights, you are pretty much forced to figure out where the secret doors are. This is OK once you initially find them, but until you do, you just keep pressing SPACE everywhere until something opens up. These doors have weapons, ammo and health packs in them, which you will need, because once you die to a boss once, you only spawn with a handgun and 8 rounds of ammo, which means that without these secret doors, you simply cannot beat a boss.
Overall, I had a fun few hours with this game minus the headache. I can tell how this game was seen as revolutionary, and with only half a year of development no less, so I'm looking forward to the improvements id Software will come up with for Doom, which released in 1993.
MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 6/10
Voice acting exists, as already described. Enemies shout stuff at you when they spot you and when you kill them. Sound quality is of course not great, so even as a German I couldn't decipher all of what was said, but it's a nice way to add immersion and alert players of enemies being in the same room as you, so I overall found this to be a plus for the experience.
Sound design ranges from horrific for the sound of unsuccessfully trying to open doors or strafin around, to pretty good for the sound of guns and doors opening and closing.
The soundtrack I found to be kind of disappointing. It reminds me more of the subtle background music of Catacomb 3D rather than the metal, fast-paced sounds of 1993's Doom for example. At least placing the tone somewhere in between I would have enjoyed more. While I don't think the soundtrack suits the game very well, as its own thing I think there are some solid tracks here, but it's not a soundtrack I'd care to listen to again necessarily.
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 6/10
Graphics look better than for Catacomb 3D, that's for sure. Wall tiles have some actual textures to them instead of being solid single colors. Decoration was added, like posters, plants, tables and more. There is more enemy variety and the spritework is slightly improved. This was all possible thanks to a switch from 16 color EGA to 256 color VGA compared to Catacomb 3D.
That said, these are still rudimentary 3D graphics in a game that sacrifices graphical presentation by design to allow for the PC's of the time to actually handle the gameplay, so suffice it to say, this is not going to win awards for looks.
I did appreciate a few minor things though, like the way you could see enemies get hit by your shot and die way off in the distance as small sprites, or how the portrait of BJ would keep starting to the sides and how he would get bloodied up the lower your health would go.
ATMOSPHERE/IMMERSION | 8/10
You stroll around in Castle Wolfenstein filled with Nazis that shout things at you in German. On top of that, you are playing this in first-person. Does it get any more immersive than this in 1992? The portrait of BJ staring to the sides, the posters and Nazi emblems hung up on the walls and the animations of enemies getting hit and dying all are minor things that add to the atmosphere in this game as well.
CONTENT | 7/10
This game gives you access to four weapons, it has 7 types of enemies in the original trilogy, it has two trilogies (six episodes) with 9 floors on each, and four difficulty levels to test your prowess on. Pretty good. Though the fast pace doesn't match as well as you'd like with the rather low amount of enemies you will find on each floor (especially compared to Doom) and therefore repetitiveness can kick in after the first trilogy.
LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 6/10
The maze-like design of every floor is a clever way of extending the time it takes for players to go through them, but I found some to be overly confusingly laid out at times. I also found that on many floors, there weren't as many enemies as I would have liked to see, so I thought that there were too many breaks inbetween the shooting. There is also one major thing I disliked, which is boss encounters. You encounter one and pretty much immediately die on your first attempt. On your second, you realize that you have no weapons and ammo to really work with anymore, since you lose everything at death, which means you are forced to run around the room to find secret areas to restock. I don't like the idea of restricting the player to a few lives either.
CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 10/10
This game managed to achieve something on a scale that no other game that tried to do something in first-person view ever could achieve: Make a fast-paced FPS game that was fun to play and actually ran well. It's revolutionized a genre, something only a couple dozen games over history could say, so it deserves the high praise it gets for innovation (especially since this game will kickstart a slew of FPS games that will find themselves on my challenge spreadsheet over the coming years).
REPLAYABILITY | 3/5
You can try to beat your high score, try to up the difficulty and try to find more of the secrets and treasures in the game to go for 100% completion. You could go for 4 or 5 out of 5 here if you were to include all those fanmade levels you can play as well.
PLAYABILITY | 5/5
Works well at all times.
OVERALL | 66/100
This game is a big part of video game history for its innovation. Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake are played to this day, both old and new iterations, and id Software took arguably their biggest step right here. The game is still fun for a couple hours, but didn't age quite as well in parts and still leaves a lot of potential left to be explored in 1993's Doom, which I'm already looking forward to.
Quando você descreve "videogame" para uma pessoa que não conhece, ela possivelmente terá duas imagens mentais passando no momento: a primeira é um jogo de plataforma como Mario, em que você anda lateralmente, enquanto derrota seus inimigos ao esmagá-los com um simples pulo. a segunda é de uma arma projetada na tela e atirando nos inimigos a sua frente. E, apesar do FPS ser um aspecto fundante dos jogos como conhecemos hoje, ele é relativamente recente na história dessa arte, popularizado, de fato, com DOOM, desenvolvido pela id Software, apenas em 1993.
Porém, antes de se aventurar por um planeta Marte invadido por demônios, a id decidiu por resgatar uma pequena franquia de jogos, vistos do ponto de vista isométrico, onde um homem tenta escapar de um castelo nazista, "Castle Wolfenstein", e imaginar como seria se isso fosse realizado em 3D. Assim, surgiu o percursor do FPS, Wolfenstein 3D.
Para começar, o design de níveis e inimigos é mínimo, mas muito competente em fazer com que você seja bem mais cauteloso do que em outros jogos da id como DOOM, o que combina bastante com a narrativa de um soldado infiltrando instalações nazistas.
Os primeiros três episódios (considerado como o arco original do jogo) são espetaculares em sua progressão de dificuldade, tanto de inimigos quanto níveis, culminando em uma tensa batalha contra o próprio Adolf Hitler.
O problema se dá nos três episódios finais (conhecidas como as "Nocturnal Missions" e que servem como prólogo para os três episódios originais). Eles se fundamentam nos bons níveis anteriores, mas os bosses parecem ser fáceis demais e os níveis muito longos para a variedade pequena de inimigos do jogo.
Dessa forma, é fácil entender o porque DOOM ocupou o lugar de Wolfenstein 3D como o causador da primeira onda de FPS nos anos 90. Mesmo assim, recomendo bastante os três primeiros episódios, que contam com uma experiência fechada, e que são competentemente executados.
Porém, antes de se aventurar por um planeta Marte invadido por demônios, a id decidiu por resgatar uma pequena franquia de jogos, vistos do ponto de vista isométrico, onde um homem tenta escapar de um castelo nazista, "Castle Wolfenstein", e imaginar como seria se isso fosse realizado em 3D. Assim, surgiu o percursor do FPS, Wolfenstein 3D.
Para começar, o design de níveis e inimigos é mínimo, mas muito competente em fazer com que você seja bem mais cauteloso do que em outros jogos da id como DOOM, o que combina bastante com a narrativa de um soldado infiltrando instalações nazistas.
Os primeiros três episódios (considerado como o arco original do jogo) são espetaculares em sua progressão de dificuldade, tanto de inimigos quanto níveis, culminando em uma tensa batalha contra o próprio Adolf Hitler.
O problema se dá nos três episódios finais (conhecidas como as "Nocturnal Missions" e que servem como prólogo para os três episódios originais). Eles se fundamentam nos bons níveis anteriores, mas os bosses parecem ser fáceis demais e os níveis muito longos para a variedade pequena de inimigos do jogo.
Dessa forma, é fácil entender o porque DOOM ocupou o lugar de Wolfenstein 3D como o causador da primeira onda de FPS nos anos 90. Mesmo assim, recomendo bastante os três primeiros episódios, que contam com uma experiência fechada, e que são competentemente executados.
Meh.
My first experience with Wolfenstein, there's enough to admire to make this an enjoyable. The fast-paced gameplay and the humorous nature help keep the game fun and enjoyable throughout its six chapters. Some of the repetition in the environments and the obnoxious level design can make this frustrating, along with annoying instances of the "open door/push" button not working well. It provides frustration at times, but it's a neat relic that still offers fun to this day.
At my childhood friend's house, I used to play the "Christmas version" of this game where you shoot snowmen and Santas instead of Nazis and had the time of my life :D A little later, I somehow got my hands on the original version (probably downloaded from the internet) and played it again and again over the years. I think I fnished it once, though I can't say for sure.
The game definitely had a certain "allure of the forbidden", as it was blacklisted in Germany due to its unconstitutional symbolism. Blacklisted or not, I found the game a lot of fun to play. In all honesty, the game is far from perfect. There's a lot of backtracking and the game doesn't tell you were to find certain key items or helps you with a map or whatever. Controls can feel janky and shooting sometimes feels unresponsive. Some enemy encounters are weirdly balanced or straight up unfair. It's an old school shooter with all its ups and downs but with an undeniable charm to it. And hey, shooting Nazis is always fun :D
The game definitely had a certain "allure of the forbidden", as it was blacklisted in Germany due to its unconstitutional symbolism. Blacklisted or not, I found the game a lot of fun to play. In all honesty, the game is far from perfect. There's a lot of backtracking and the game doesn't tell you were to find certain key items or helps you with a map or whatever. Controls can feel janky and shooting sometimes feels unresponsive. Some enemy encounters are weirdly balanced or straight up unfair. It's an old school shooter with all its ups and downs but with an undeniable charm to it. And hey, shooting Nazis is always fun :D
ENG: Grandfather of the first-person shooter games, or FPS for friends. Although it was not the first, it was undoubtedly the one that gave the starting point for its development and mass marketing. And if we ask ourselves the reason for its success, apart from its novel gameplay, the fact that it is a technical feat undoubtedly comes to mind. It is well known that 3D in this game is a lie, an illusion, and it is a perfect one.
Inspired as far as theme is concerned by Castle Wolfenstein, an Atari game from the 80's, it stays there; theme and title, Wolfenstein and Nazis. The game by id Software distances itself from its predecessor in the gameplay section, if in Castle Wolfenstein the main thing was to be stealthy, here it is the opposite, grab the gun, shoot, and find the keys. Final point: repetitive and labyrinthine? Yes, it's a reality, but not for that reason less functional.
ESP: Abuelo de los juegos shooters en primera persona, o FPS para los amigos. Si bien no fue el primero, sin duda fue el que dio el punto de partida para su desarrollo y comercialización masiva. Y si nos preguntamos el porqué de su éxito, aparte de su novedosa jugabilidad, sin duda viene a la mente el hecho de que es una proeza técnica. Es bien sabido que el 3D en este juego es una mentira, una ilusión, y es una perfecta.
Inspirado en lo que a temática refiere en Castle Wolfenstein, juego de la Atari de los 80, queda ahí; temática y título, Wolfenstein y nazis. El juego de id Software se distancia de su predecesora en el apartado jugable, si en Castle Wolfenstein lo primordial era ser sigiloso, acá es todo lo contrario, agarrá el arma, dispará, y encontrá las llaves. Punto final. ¿Repetitivo y laberíntico? Sí, es una realidad, pero no por ello menos funcional.
Inspired as far as theme is concerned by Castle Wolfenstein, an Atari game from the 80's, it stays there; theme and title, Wolfenstein and Nazis. The game by id Software distances itself from its predecessor in the gameplay section, if in Castle Wolfenstein the main thing was to be stealthy, here it is the opposite, grab the gun, shoot, and find the keys. Final point: repetitive and labyrinthine? Yes, it's a reality, but not for that reason less functional.
ESP: Abuelo de los juegos shooters en primera persona, o FPS para los amigos. Si bien no fue el primero, sin duda fue el que dio el punto de partida para su desarrollo y comercialización masiva. Y si nos preguntamos el porqué de su éxito, aparte de su novedosa jugabilidad, sin duda viene a la mente el hecho de que es una proeza técnica. Es bien sabido que el 3D en este juego es una mentira, una ilusión, y es una perfecta.
Inspirado en lo que a temática refiere en Castle Wolfenstein, juego de la Atari de los 80, queda ahí; temática y título, Wolfenstein y nazis. El juego de id Software se distancia de su predecesora en el apartado jugable, si en Castle Wolfenstein lo primordial era ser sigiloso, acá es todo lo contrario, agarrá el arma, dispará, y encontrá las llaves. Punto final. ¿Repetitivo y laberíntico? Sí, es una realidad, pero no por ello menos funcional.
Played using the ecwolf sourceport
So I saw Warhammer 40k: Boltgun and thought "that looks like a lot of fun, but I still haven't played many of the FPS classics, so I'll do that first" So I'm about to play Shadow Warrior then I'm like "man I haven't even played Doom II yet, I should do that first" So I'm about to play Doom II then I'm like "y'know I haven't even played Wolfenstein 3D, let's just go back to the beginning" and alas here we are.
It's gonna be hard to say anything that hasn't been said about this game, so I'm just gonna give my own thoughts, which have probably already been thought by everyone else.
While Wolfenstein 3D technically isn't even CLOSE to being the first FPS game, in my heart it's the first FPS game, Maze War, tank sims, clunky RPGs, all came first, but this was the first game that truly felt like the FPS genre we know today.
It's hard to be critically fair to this game considering I've played through Doom like five times, and Doom does everything this game does 10x better, but I tried my best. Wolfenstein 3D still brings a good amount of fun and excitement today, something about these early shooters are just endlessly satisfying.
Levels are only hallways or slightly open rooms, but maps are MASSIVE sprawling labyrinths that are headache inducing. You WILL get lost, you WILL backtrack, and honestly it is not that fun! Level design is the biggest issue with this game, as it's more frustrating and confusing than it is engaging. Doom later remedied these level design woes so I guess ID learned from their mistakes.
Gun-play is tight enough, fast, and satisfying. It still holds up to this day, even though enemies can shoot you through doors and sometimes through walls, but you can get around it.
I'll briefly touch on the soundtrack, it's honestly pretty weak. There's a couple good songs, with the best being the main menu theme, but the music here just isn't noteworthy. I find myself listening to the Doom soundtrack from time to time, but I have no desire to listen to this one.
The game also suffers from tedium and repetitiveness. This game felt WAY longer than Doom, and I don't know if that's just because you get lost in levels so often or if there really is just that much more content. I personally would've preferred a little less, as you are basically walking down the same exact corridors shooting the same 3-5 enemy types with the same three weapons (only two are viable) and each boss fight is very simple. It gets kinda boring after so many hours, but it really isn't too bad, I just wished they'd switch things up with the level design to make it more interesting, but the level design arguably gets WORSE as the game progresses, with chapter 6, the final chapter, featuring some of the most obnoxious levels.
I want to also say, I think it was a bad decision to have the last 3 missions being prequels. After I killed Hitler, it was hard for me to give a shit about the story anymore, and it just wasn't interesting. Why would you have the ultimate bad guy beaten halfway through your game? Why not save him for the end? (EDIT: I've been informed chapters 4-6 were actually expansion missions as well, my bad!)
Anyways, I'll try to wrap this up.
Wolfenstein 3D unfortunately feels very dated, where games like Doom and Quake feel timeless, but there is still a lot of fun and endless charm here. If you can suck it up and get through some of the quirks of this game, you'll be having a good time blasting Nazis. "The grandfather of the FPS genre" is worth checking out.
So I saw Warhammer 40k: Boltgun and thought "that looks like a lot of fun, but I still haven't played many of the FPS classics, so I'll do that first" So I'm about to play Shadow Warrior then I'm like "man I haven't even played Doom II yet, I should do that first" So I'm about to play Doom II then I'm like "y'know I haven't even played Wolfenstein 3D, let's just go back to the beginning" and alas here we are.
It's gonna be hard to say anything that hasn't been said about this game, so I'm just gonna give my own thoughts, which have probably already been thought by everyone else.
While Wolfenstein 3D technically isn't even CLOSE to being the first FPS game, in my heart it's the first FPS game, Maze War, tank sims, clunky RPGs, all came first, but this was the first game that truly felt like the FPS genre we know today.
It's hard to be critically fair to this game considering I've played through Doom like five times, and Doom does everything this game does 10x better, but I tried my best. Wolfenstein 3D still brings a good amount of fun and excitement today, something about these early shooters are just endlessly satisfying.
Levels are only hallways or slightly open rooms, but maps are MASSIVE sprawling labyrinths that are headache inducing. You WILL get lost, you WILL backtrack, and honestly it is not that fun! Level design is the biggest issue with this game, as it's more frustrating and confusing than it is engaging. Doom later remedied these level design woes so I guess ID learned from their mistakes.
Gun-play is tight enough, fast, and satisfying. It still holds up to this day, even though enemies can shoot you through doors and sometimes through walls, but you can get around it.
I'll briefly touch on the soundtrack, it's honestly pretty weak. There's a couple good songs, with the best being the main menu theme, but the music here just isn't noteworthy. I find myself listening to the Doom soundtrack from time to time, but I have no desire to listen to this one.
The game also suffers from tedium and repetitiveness. This game felt WAY longer than Doom, and I don't know if that's just because you get lost in levels so often or if there really is just that much more content. I personally would've preferred a little less, as you are basically walking down the same exact corridors shooting the same 3-5 enemy types with the same three weapons (only two are viable) and each boss fight is very simple. It gets kinda boring after so many hours, but it really isn't too bad, I just wished they'd switch things up with the level design to make it more interesting, but the level design arguably gets WORSE as the game progresses, with chapter 6, the final chapter, featuring some of the most obnoxious levels.
I want to also say, I think it was a bad decision to have the last 3 missions being prequels. After I killed Hitler, it was hard for me to give a shit about the story anymore, and it just wasn't interesting. Why would you have the ultimate bad guy beaten halfway through your game? Why not save him for the end? (EDIT: I've been informed chapters 4-6 were actually expansion missions as well, my bad!)
Anyways, I'll try to wrap this up.
Wolfenstein 3D unfortunately feels very dated, where games like Doom and Quake feel timeless, but there is still a lot of fun and endless charm here. If you can suck it up and get through some of the quirks of this game, you'll be having a good time blasting Nazis. "The grandfather of the FPS genre" is worth checking out.
paved the way for doom, but isn't nearly as good as what would come later
I find it very interesting to go back to the games that inspired entire genres or first installments of beloved franchises. I've come to find out that the games that inspired and are first installments generally don't age well, however, there are some exceptions like Halo: Combat Evolved. Wolfenstein 3D is sadly not the exception.
Now when I say "haven't aged well", it doesn't mean those games are bad, but they do prove to be a lot harder to go back to as games of the same genre or games a part of the franchise improve and expand upon what came before or what inspired.
Wolfenstein 3D in this case is known as the grandfather of the FPS genre (said every journalist site) and the classic Boomer Shooter design we have all come to love. It established many things from having multiple weapons on hand, the run-and-gun design, the idea of having pushable walls, revealing secrets, and was even the first game ever to have you fighting Nazis.
The game is broken up into 6 episodes each with 9 levels and one secret level, with the 9th level being where you fight the boss of the episode.
This game is interesting as it isn't like other Boomer or Retro Shooters as the enemies don't come at the player at once, instead most are separated by rooms, most likely to encourage stealth. B.J. himself doesn't have much health and can easily be killed. When I first played this, I thought running around wouldn't be a good idea given how fragile B.J., but after going back to it a second time, I realized I was just being an idiot and not playing the game right. Although, there is one thing that makes the game kind of bullshit. If an enemy gets the drop on you and shoots you at point-blank range, you will almost certainly lose over half your health. Which gets REALLY annoying.
The Mutants are the most infamous of this due to their total lack of an "aiming" state (in other words, they'll immediately skip to shooting instead of having to raise and look down the sights of their weapon). They're also good at getting said drop on you due to them making no sound at all. The reason for this lack of "aiming state" is primarily because they have guns mounted to their chest. This in turn, makes them the most annoying and worst enemy in the game.
The AI is actually impressive for its time. Enemies pursue you outside of their room, opening doors in their way, reacting realistically to your presence (shouting something in digitized German), hearing gunshots, and reacting when shot are all things that weren't common in enemy AI at the time.
One of the biggest issues with this entry is the lack of a map, which means you can get lost mainly because of how lots of areas look the same with the game using decoration as a way to differentiate each room and the level design consisting of mostly mazes. There is also no distinction between what's a normal wall and what's a secret. In later games, you can tall what is and isn't a secret if there's a misaligned texture or a crack in the wall. This forces you to touch every single wall until you find the right one. If you do want a map you can use the ECWolf source port, which comes with an automap feature.
Let's talk graphics. For a game from 1992, it had pretty impressive graphics and sprite work for its time and actually holds up pretty well today. The environments on the other hand, are the thing that hasn't aged well as they recycle many kinds of walls from brick to stone to dirt, which gets a bit tiring to see after awhile and is boring compared to future FPS games.
The weapon selection is also really limited by FPS standards as there are only four weapons in the whole game. A knife, which is useless since you need to get in close proximity with an enemy, giving them plenty of opportunity to shoot BJ up close and deal massive amounts of damage to him; even if you do manage to injure an enemy, you need to stab them multiple times before they die, and other enemies will still be alerted to your presence when you stab an enemy. A pistol, which is the starting gun and is really weak as per tradition. A machine gun, which does sizable damage. And finally, a chaingun, which is the most powerful gun in the game and does good work of enemies. Even if you have all these weapons, it's pointless to use anything other than the more powerful gun since they all use the same ammo making your arsenal even more limited.
The controls are also an issue. They're pretty stiff all things considered and feels as if you're floating instead of walking or sprinting, but that's not the only thing wrong with the movement. If you've grown accustom to playing games with mouse controlling where you look and keyboard controlling you're movement (like many have today), you'll come to find out that you can't strafe sideways like in a modern FPS. Even when using mouselook (you have to hold down a separate key to strafe, which also prevents you from looking left and right). Fortunately, this has been corrected on the unofficial Open GL port.
I've always found it interesting to go back to games that inspired entire genres, but there's a reason why most don't really go back to them. I feel like this game is a prime example as to why. It was very impressive at the time, but has been outdone by its successor. Despite this, it's still a decent game.
Now when I say "haven't aged well", it doesn't mean those games are bad, but they do prove to be a lot harder to go back to as games of the same genre or games a part of the franchise improve and expand upon what came before or what inspired.
Wolfenstein 3D in this case is known as the grandfather of the FPS genre (said every journalist site) and the classic Boomer Shooter design we have all come to love. It established many things from having multiple weapons on hand, the run-and-gun design, the idea of having pushable walls, revealing secrets, and was even the first game ever to have you fighting Nazis.
The game is broken up into 6 episodes each with 9 levels and one secret level, with the 9th level being where you fight the boss of the episode.
This game is interesting as it isn't like other Boomer or Retro Shooters as the enemies don't come at the player at once, instead most are separated by rooms, most likely to encourage stealth. B.J. himself doesn't have much health and can easily be killed. When I first played this, I thought running around wouldn't be a good idea given how fragile B.J., but after going back to it a second time, I realized I was just being an idiot and not playing the game right. Although, there is one thing that makes the game kind of bullshit. If an enemy gets the drop on you and shoots you at point-blank range, you will almost certainly lose over half your health. Which gets REALLY annoying.
The Mutants are the most infamous of this due to their total lack of an "aiming" state (in other words, they'll immediately skip to shooting instead of having to raise and look down the sights of their weapon). They're also good at getting said drop on you due to them making no sound at all. The reason for this lack of "aiming state" is primarily because they have guns mounted to their chest. This in turn, makes them the most annoying and worst enemy in the game.
The AI is actually impressive for its time. Enemies pursue you outside of their room, opening doors in their way, reacting realistically to your presence (shouting something in digitized German), hearing gunshots, and reacting when shot are all things that weren't common in enemy AI at the time.
One of the biggest issues with this entry is the lack of a map, which means you can get lost mainly because of how lots of areas look the same with the game using decoration as a way to differentiate each room and the level design consisting of mostly mazes. There is also no distinction between what's a normal wall and what's a secret. In later games, you can tall what is and isn't a secret if there's a misaligned texture or a crack in the wall. This forces you to touch every single wall until you find the right one. If you do want a map you can use the ECWolf source port, which comes with an automap feature.
Let's talk graphics. For a game from 1992, it had pretty impressive graphics and sprite work for its time and actually holds up pretty well today. The environments on the other hand, are the thing that hasn't aged well as they recycle many kinds of walls from brick to stone to dirt, which gets a bit tiring to see after awhile and is boring compared to future FPS games.
The weapon selection is also really limited by FPS standards as there are only four weapons in the whole game. A knife, which is useless since you need to get in close proximity with an enemy, giving them plenty of opportunity to shoot BJ up close and deal massive amounts of damage to him; even if you do manage to injure an enemy, you need to stab them multiple times before they die, and other enemies will still be alerted to your presence when you stab an enemy. A pistol, which is the starting gun and is really weak as per tradition. A machine gun, which does sizable damage. And finally, a chaingun, which is the most powerful gun in the game and does good work of enemies. Even if you have all these weapons, it's pointless to use anything other than the more powerful gun since they all use the same ammo making your arsenal even more limited.
The controls are also an issue. They're pretty stiff all things considered and feels as if you're floating instead of walking or sprinting, but that's not the only thing wrong with the movement. If you've grown accustom to playing games with mouse controlling where you look and keyboard controlling you're movement (like many have today), you'll come to find out that you can't strafe sideways like in a modern FPS. Even when using mouselook (you have to hold down a separate key to strafe, which also prevents you from looking left and right). Fortunately, this has been corrected on the unofficial Open GL port.
I've always found it interesting to go back to games that inspired entire genres, but there's a reason why most don't really go back to them. I feel like this game is a prime example as to why. It was very impressive at the time, but has been outdone by its successor. Despite this, it's still a decent game.
Pretty damn good for the grandfather of FPS games. Sure it does have its limitations of the time (no height variation so levels sometimes feel cramped, no automap so you could get lost easily), but this game was a huge advancement in gaming technology.
To compare with id's previous attempt at a FPS game Catacomb 3-D (which I've played the first episode, never really finished), looking around in Wolfenstein actually looks natural and smooth as opposed to Catacomb. In Catacomb, the screen feels like it's stretching while your turning, which often left me feeling motion sickness while playing.
The atmosphere this game gives off is great too. In the first secret level you access in the game (which is accessed in the first level) you see purple flesh walls everywhere. This is supposed to be the blood of the mutants the Nazi's have been experimenting on. This game does a great job of showing the horrors the Nazi's have committed throughout, with skeletons in cages and in cells.
The music in this game is iconic too (well, there was one track that did get grating, but it was only in one level so forgivable). A lot of the soundtrack I recognize from Doom 2 RPG, which I though was pretty neat.
I found this game a lot of fun, and rightfully one of the milestones in video game history alongside Doom.
To compare with id's previous attempt at a FPS game Catacomb 3-D (which I've played the first episode, never really finished), looking around in Wolfenstein actually looks natural and smooth as opposed to Catacomb. In Catacomb, the screen feels like it's stretching while your turning, which often left me feeling motion sickness while playing.
The atmosphere this game gives off is great too. In the first secret level you access in the game (which is accessed in the first level) you see purple flesh walls everywhere. This is supposed to be the blood of the mutants the Nazi's have been experimenting on. This game does a great job of showing the horrors the Nazi's have committed throughout, with skeletons in cages and in cells.
The music in this game is iconic too (well, there was one track that did get grating, but it was only in one level so forgivable). A lot of the soundtrack I recognize from Doom 2 RPG, which I though was pretty neat.
I found this game a lot of fun, and rightfully one of the milestones in video game history alongside Doom.
Eu não diria que é bom, mas também não é ruim. Vale a pena jogar só pra conhecer os primórdios do FPS onde tudo era só mato
No es Doom, ni el mejor FPS del mundo, pero se deja querer y en general esta bastante bien.
Me gusta como las armas se sienten fuertes, la estética que inicialmente me desagrado a la larga me pareció bastante guay, me gusta que los enemigos tengan patrones dándole vida a los niveles para que si se sientan como una base nazi y matar a Hitler siempre es muy satisfactorio.
Eso si los últimos niveles son horrendos, y todos los niveles que involucren laberintos me parecen de lo peor.
Pero en general lindo el mata nazis simulator.
Me gusta como las armas se sienten fuertes, la estética que inicialmente me desagrado a la larga me pareció bastante guay, me gusta que los enemigos tengan patrones dándole vida a los niveles para que si se sientan como una base nazi y matar a Hitler siempre es muy satisfactorio.
Eso si los últimos niveles son horrendos, y todos los niveles que involucren laberintos me parecen de lo peor.
Pero en general lindo el mata nazis simulator.
the pops of all fps and you kill nazis so it's cool
minecraft rip off
It's all here, right from the start - just in its pupal stage. Still perfectly playable but good lord do these maze-ass levels need some kind of mini-map.
An iconic and influential classic you're only going to play once for historic purposes. While playing this game I really appreciated how the FPS genre has evolved since this point, but it has also made this game kind of obsolete.
It's a fun arcade shooter, but the levels are repetitive, there are only a few enemy types and the secrets involve you just pressing the space bar at the wall. It becomes boring pretty quickly, but the gameplay itself is still good after 30 years.
Episode 6 can go fuck itself though
Over all I would just recommend to play Doom instead.
It's a fun arcade shooter, but the levels are repetitive, there are only a few enemy types and the secrets involve you just pressing the space bar at the wall. It becomes boring pretty quickly, but the gameplay itself is still good after 30 years.
Episode 6 can go fuck itself though
Over all I would just recommend to play Doom instead.
Grandfather of fps, prob would have rated it lower if not for that
I used to play this with my mom on her computer at work
Obviously, a lot more simplistic in comparison to DOOM and the level design would be hell to figure out without a map, but as a casual shooter, this was quite a lot of fun.
There are bullshit moments and the game does overstay its welcome a bit in the last two episodes, but overall I had a surprisingly good time.
There are bullshit moments and the game does overstay its welcome a bit in the last two episodes, but overall I had a surprisingly good time.