Castle Wolfenstein

The Good
Where do I begin? How about with it being the first computer game to feature sampled speech? It may be a bit scratchy, but you can still hear the German words that are spoken. Second, you can hold guys up with your gun and search 'em! This is useful with SS guards because you can bump 'em with your gun and take their bulletproof vests. Then BAM! Dead. Also, the game senses how your expertise in controlling and playing increases and bumps up the difficulty for you. This is cool because you can also reset it to the easiest whenever you want to. There's all sorts of items you can pick up, like SCHNAPPS (>HIC<), UNIFORMs, which make the escape easier, and the most coveted of all the items, the WAR PLANS. I've gotten this before, but I've only escaped with them once or twice. This shows that even in 1981 they knew how to make a challenging game.

The Bad
The controls take quite a bit of getting used to if you use the keyboard, and if you accidentally run into a wall, the screen goes all wacko and you are annoyed by a loud screeching noise (electrified walls?). That is only on the Apple // though.

The Bottom Line
Besides the bad, this is a great game. If you can get your hands on a copy, and you have the computer or emulator to go with, pick it up! A revolutionary classic that (let's not forget) gave us Wolfenstein 3-D. Woo!