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.
thealexmott
1 year ago