Spear of Destiny

The Good
That's the question you are asked if you enter pelt to bypass the copy protection screen that appears after Spear of Destiny checks to see how much memory you have. (without the "Well, do you, punk?" crap. I just thought it sounded funny that way.) Many gamers consider this game as a sequel to Wolfenstein 3-D, but I consider it a spin-off to the game rather than a sequel. Anyhoo, In Spear's predecessor, William J. (aka: B.J.) Blazkowicz was sent on a mission to infiltrate Castle Hollehammer, kill an entire army of undead mutants, kill Hitler, uncover plans for deadly chemical weapons, and destroy the General. To complete these missions, he had to kill guards, SS troopers, white officers, dogs, and of course, the undead mutants, which took him through sixty levels of nothing but gore. In Spear, you also have to kill guards, SS troopers, white officers, dogs, and of course, the undead mutants. But this time, B.J. is sent on a new mission to recover the spear from Castle Nuremburg, which is known to greatly enhance the powers of Hitler, as well as his allies.

Spear has the shoot-all-the-nazis-and-find-the-elevator-that-will-take-you-to-the-next-floor gameplay that the original Wolf3D has. Furthermore, all the levels in the game has the same treasures, and some of them require one or more keys to open steel doors, not to mention that you can get more health in the level by getting food trays, dog food, pools of blood, and first-aid kits. If I go on about what's the same between the game and Wolf3D, I would repeat the information in my review to Wolf3D. So I'm just going to tell you what's different between the two. You see, the game doesn't have any episodes that consist of ten floors, and near the end of each episode, you face the big boss man. Rather, there are 21 floors (with Floors 19 and 20 secret levels) containing new textures, new sound effects, and new music. There are bosses on floors 5, 10, 16, 18, and 21, they are (in order) Trans Grosse, Barnacle Wilhelm, Ubermutant, Death Knight, and Angel of Death. Out of these bosses, Ubermutant is probably the scariest, since he is much bigger and has more arms than the undead mutants, and has a machine gun mounted in his stomach.

I have to admit that Spear's A.I. is much better than Wolf3D. Recently, on Floor 16, where you defeat Ubermutant, I gunned down everybody on the level but him, let Uber see me, and then go through the level, opening many doors in the level, and eventually lose him. I expected him to just follow me whenever I go, but more often than not, he turns around, takes another route, and finally intercepts me before I have a chance to go back to the room where I had first found him. The music sounds better with the game featuring about six tunes, although it hasn't been greatly enhanced in any way by adding more sound card support. other than the Adlib, Sound Blaster, and the Disney Sound Source. The cheats are basically the same as Wolf3D, but ID Software added more of them.

The Bad
Spear does not have new enemies, but who gives a shit? As I said earlier, I consider Spear a spin-off to Wolf3D rather than a sequel, but at least it stills belongs to the Wolf3D series. Like the original, most of the floors are nothing but mazes.

The Bottom Line
A good game. If you like Wolf3D, you probably like Spear, and if you like Spear, you probably like Return to Castle Wolfenstein, the REAL sequel to Wolf3D. ***