Difference between revisions of "Wolfenstein 3-D"

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[[Category: Games I've Beaten]]
 
[[Category: Games I've Beaten]]
 
[[Category: World War II]]
 
[[Category: World War II]]
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[[Category: Open Source Games]]

Revision as of 16:44, 14 October 2019

Original North American box art.

Wolfenstein 3-D is a World War II themed first-person shooter developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software for MS-DOS on 05-05-1992, then ported to several other platforms. The game is the third game in the Wolfenstein series, and the first to use the Wolfenstein 3-D Engine. The game is based on a much older game, Castle Wolfenstein, and, like the original, you play a prisoner of war who must escape from a Nazi dungeon. Additional episodes were added where you infiltrate Nazi strongholds and kill Hitler and fictional Nazi leaders. Wolfenstein 3-D is a video game milestone being one of the first widely popular FPSs.

I first played Wolfenstein 3-D in the early 1990s and was really impressed, not just by the 3D perspective, but also the gratuitous violence and digital speech. My favorite animation is the liquefaction death of Hitler. I rarely played the game fairly, usually relying on cheats to skip through most of the game, but I have played four of the episodes properly and have the feel of the game.

This was also one of the first games I spent a lot of time trying to modify. Before I had Internet access, I was able to get my hands on a map editor, and I made several custom maps for the game.

The game has been ported to several different platforms. There are effectively three versions of the game: the original MS-DOS release, the SNES and Apple IIgs port, and the Macintosh, 3DO, and Jaguar port.

Status

I own Wolfenstein 3-D on Steam. I have beaten the first four episodes at Bring 'Em On difficulty.

Review

  • Overall: 4/10
  • Best Version: DOS

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

  • The game, for its time, is a beautiful example of a first-person shooter done right.
  • Though cartoonish, the graphics are well-drawn and attractive.
  • The enemy AI is pretty dumb, but it does sometimes cause some rather shocking results when they inadvertently sneak up on you from behind and strafe to avoid your gun fire.
  • Bobby Prince's incorporation of Nazi and American political music was a nice touch. And the soundtrack overall is really good.
  • The sliding secret doors is a really cool addition.
  • The addition of a secret 3-D Pac-Man level was pretty cool.

Bad

  • The game tends to become monotonous. After the third episode, you've seen nearly everything the game has to offer save the remaining bosses.
  • The player turns far too slowly.
  • The use of lives and points doesn't really fit the game's theme.
  • Many of the levels have a ridiculous layout. While this makes the game more playable (a realistic map would be dull), it also hurts immersion.
  • In several levels NPCs will open a locked door long before you can get the key short-cutting large sections of the map.
  • NPCs are able to shoot around corners even when their guns are clearly behind the wall.
  • Allowing save scumming kind of defeats the difficulty, but, if you try to play without saving, the game is ridiculously hard.

Ugly

  • Nothing.

Media

Box Art

Due to the Nazi imagery, Apogee used their logo as the cover art in several European countries.

Documentation

Maps

Screenshots

Graphics

Fan Art

Videos

Download

Credits

Role Staff
Chief Operating Officer Jay Wilbur
Director Tom Hall
Designers Tom Hall, John Romero
Writer Tom Hall
Engine Programmer John Carmack
Programmer John Romero
Additional Programming Jason Blochowiak
Graphics Adrian Carmack
Music, Sound Effects Robert Prince
Sound Driver Jason Blochowiak
Voices Tom Hall, John Romero, Scott Miller
Documentation Kevin Cloud

Links

Link-MobyGames.png  Link-Wikipedia.png  Link-VGMPF.png  Link-ModdingWiki.png  Link-TCRF.png