Wolfenstein 3D

Wolfenstein 3D is the true godfather of FPS games, yeah Doom took the genre and perfected it, and Doom ended up being the more memorable game that people still reference today, but Wolfenstein still has a reputation and to this day there are still new Wolfenstein games coming out that people are getting excited about. Wolfenstein is a classic shooter, very similar in style to Doom, but instead of fighting demons and zombies in hell you are fighting Nazi soldiers and mutants (which were sort of the precursor to Nazi zombies) in bases. Wolfenstein has actually aged alright, the gameplay is solid, mainly just face an enemy and shoot until they die and most enemies use guns which go on the hitscan method of damage, which can be a little annoying since there is a randomness factor involved in how much damage you'll take from a shot. Now the problem I had with Wolfenstein is the design, so many levels just felt and looked so similar, where Doom had a variety of environments and design choices, Wolfenstein has the same textures and very similar design on almost every level. 80% of the levels in this game just felt so similar to each other that I felt like I was in one of those old dungeon crawler RPG games going through a dungeon. Ocasionally the game will throw in a level that has a different and more unique design and it is the most exciting thing after going through many generic levels to get there. Plus the enemies also don't have much variety, you have your normal troops, the big troops with machine guns, then the fast troops. I guess you have dogs and mutants too but they aren't as common, but compared to Doom that had at least double the amount of enemies than this game.

I mean my biggest gripe with the game is the design, and how limited it feels and that's more due to the time it was made. Back in 1992, this game would have nothing short of amazing and revolutionary and its crazy thinking a game of this calibur could come out in an era where 2D games like Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog were at their peak, but the game just doesn't have a big variety of weapons and most of the weapons in this feel way too basic, the same old enemies get old, the level design gets pretty repetitive and tedious, the music isn't anything too special, and there were many better FPS games to come in the years following. But it still had some cool things that would revolutionizing the genre, and the hidden secrets were cool along with having Hitler as the final boss. Its a classic game worth playing at least once, but once Doom came out, this game sort of became a bit obsolete.

decent oldschool fps, the level design can be extremely frustrating at times and also at times it feels like they were fucking drunk designing some of the levels (essential keys hidden behind ambiguous secrets, retarded mazes etc) but its kind of enjoyable overall

oh and the last 3 episodes were released post game, (kind of like DLC) they were titled "nocturnal missions" (shit joke) after realizing it only takes 1 day to make a single level. so i can kind of tell that these last 3 episodes are far less polished and worse in quality/rushed. especially episode 6. fuck you episode 6.

6.5/10

Today, Wolfenstein 3D has become something of a footnote, and perhaps for good reason. Although it may seem harsh, the game could be called something of a dry run for DOOM, but for those of us who were able to play Wolf 3D in its day, it was jaw-dropping. I won't pretend that I was a PC gaming enthusiast when it came out, because I was but a child, but it was one of the first PC games that I remember playing and thinking that it had something over the consoles to which I was so accustomed. My uncle owned a copy of this game, and during a family reunion in the early 90s, on his IBM-compatible laptop, he showed it to myself, my siblings, and my cousins, perhaps against some protestations by our parents, and it floored me. I was used to playing the 2D games on the Nintendo (or the NES as it is usually called now), and here was this realistic, three-dimensional (or so we thought) world. Nowadays, it isn't that impressive, and I would much rather play DOOM, but this was tapping into something that I did not think possible, and even now it has its charm. The visuals are simple but somehow still artful. I think id knew how to work within the confines of the systems of the day that many developers did not, and they avoid looking dated as a result. The gameplay is likewise simple, consisting of just running, shooting, and opening doors, but who could blame them in those days for sticking to the fundamentals. The controls feel a bit awkward, but I have to cut some slack as there just wasn't much of a framework or blueprint to go off. I now understand that the world was 2D with a 3D presentation, achieved through clever programming and manipulation of the first person perspective, but it looked convincing at the time, and it was a feat that my child brain thought impossible. Wolf 3D was not the first FPS, let alone the earliest game with a first-person perspective, but it was the first one that seemed to know what it was doing and certainly the first one to break through to a mainstream audience. Coming at it completely fresh today, it likely won't be too appealing, and I cannot help but say go for DOOM and other later id titles, instead, hence my more middling score, but it just cannot be overstated how much of an impression it left on me at the time. I begged my parents to buy a PC for several years just to play this title, and it was worth the wait, and even today, Wolfenstein 3D is worth booting up now and then just for old times' sake. This was a revolution at the time and has immense historical and (for myself) personal significance that I cannot overlook.

More of a dungeon crawler than a FPS. Primitive 2D sprites, cramped camera controls and level designs. But at least the map designs have a good sense of depth to them. You'll find something new every time you play. On the downside, navigating a lot of levels can be a complete chore, having to grab two keys on opposite ends of a map that looks the same. No mini-map, and only the color of the walls as your point of reference. Though it's really fun action and a great challenge, plus, you get to kill Mecha-Hitler.

Is it one of the most important games of all time? Definitly. Is it one of the best? not even close.

Wolfenstein 3d is not close to being the first FPS ever released, but it was leaps ahead of the competition when it came to level design and gameplay. You play as a priosioner escaping a Nazi concentration camp. Although stealth can be used to surprise your enemies, the main objective is to shoot everyone that stands in your way to robohitler (or simply escaping in the shareware version).

Despite the title its not really 3d, as its more 2d attempting to simulate 3d. You only aim sideways, and the enemy hitboxes are extremely generous. There are only a couple enemy types, and there is really no change in strategy you use to defeat them. Just shoot them dead. Its a must to shoot them fast though, as they all have hitscan enemies, meaning you cant dodge their projectiles. This reenforces the need for a more stealthy approach to the game, by checking corners when you enter a new room. Talking about weapons, you only have 3 really (one being a knife that you never want to use), and a minigun that acts as a temporary powerup. Being fully automatic means that its very easy and fast to kill enemies, so as long as you dont have a full army shooting at you you should win most confrontations easily.

Now about the level design in this game, that really the best thing and the worst thing about it. The maze like level design makes you pay attention to your surroundings and make a mental map of the levels in your ahead. There are a lot of secrets lying around, and these can make the difference between surviving or not. Unfortunatly, most of these secrets are hidden between walls, and unless you want to bump them all you will inevitably miss a lot of them. The maze like design also makes the game really repetitive. There is very little variation of the textures used between levels, and in the end it all starts feeling the same.

Soundwise it offers some neat sound effects considering its age. Its really cool to hear the nazis shouting in german. visually it looks dated, but not as much that it affects the gameplay.

Overal its not an amazing game, and it has aged in more ways than one. That said, it still has solid gameplay and a cool experience for quite a while.

So when I was a kid, I got an old 486 computer with Windows 3.1 from one of my uncles. It had this game and several others installed (Scorched Earth, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure, etc.)

I quickly realized this was exactly the kind of game I "wasn't allowed" to play. Naturally I kept it a secret and played it whenever I could. I think it was the first FPS I owned and one of the first I played, but I remember playing Doom a few times before that.

Well, what I can say? The story is simple, the mechanics simple, the graphics are horrible in retrospect, at the time it seemed cool. You run around in a secret German prison castle and shoot Nazis (and their dogs, sorry PETA and ASPCA...) with a variety of guns, and they utter a variety of sounds as they die in a bloody shower. You stumble across many skeletal former prisoners. That's about all there is to it. I think the farthest I got was to Hitler but I couldn't defeat him. Sorry, free world :(

FPS aren't my favorite style of game, and this one in particular was extremely repetitive. However, it does great at making you paranoid when moving around corners or having your back turned. I give it a 4.0 rating based on its place in gaming history and my own experience. FPS evolved into something much better after this, with the Quake series and one of my personal favorites, Quake III: Arena.