Wolfenstein 3D

The Good
Like it or not, this is where much of modern PC gaming, and indeed gaming period, started. From a shareware publisher famous for the 'Commander Keen' platform games this texture-mapped FPS was released with much fanfare and became a huge shareware hit. 'Doom' was a few short months away.

The Bad
A lot of the bad things about 'Wolfenstein' can be forgiven, as it's a piece of history. However, I can remember that, at the time, it didn't take long for the novelty to wear off, and after a few levels the simplistic gameplay becomes extremely dull. On a rational level, 'Doom' blows it out of the water, and, played today, it's more of a curious relic than a game. Still, it's 'Wolfenstein'.

The Bottom Line
An earthshaking early FPS (with texture-mapped graphics), this is a fast-moving shoot-em-up rush through a set of mazes. As a game, it's dull, but hugely influential.

The Good
I remember my jaw dropping when I DOWNLOADED and installed the shareware version of this baby on my lowly (even at that time) 286. But this puppy cooked, and because of that it singlehandedly ushered in the age of true 3-D action gaming on the PC.

I also have fond memories of the original Castle Wolfenstein that was made for the Apple, so that also gives this an extra jolt of coolness.

**The Bad**
The rooms were a little too maze like (the walls bitmaps all looked alike) and there was no automap, so that made the game much harder to play casually.

**The Bottom Line**
The equivalent to a B/W TV for today's color crowd, but still pretty awesome anyway.

The Good
This was it...the first ever FPS (first person shooter) I laid my eyes and hands on. This was also the one that started the FPS frenzy I now have. You could probably easily imagine it: here I was, with nothing but an old 386sx/20 Mhz IBM PS/2, equipped with one of the first-generation Sound Blaster cards, and here was a game that not only ran so smoothly that I couldn't believe it, but it pushed my hardware to its limits (and that's saying a LOT for back in 1992) and delivered everything that makes an awesome game...well, AWESOME.

But what was it that made Wolf3D such a joy to play? Well, like most other early FPS games, since the hardware was limited, the game couldn't be overly complex. But that's not just it. It's about the theme of this game. Being an escaped POW caught in the middle of the Nazi regime in World War II and getting to pay them back with a shower of bullets to the chest was just too sweet. I mean, what other game lets you actually kill Adolf Hitler and watch him collapse into a pile of bloody giblets? Wolf3D delivers that experience in its purest form: raw action. You run through Nazi strongholds, blasting anything that dares shoot you, and get that sweet sensation that you did your part to stop one of the most feared armies in history. Gameplay in Wolf3D really is simple: you can grab better weapons that just your simple pistol, solve a couple of small puzzles, and eventually blow away a huge Boss at the end of every episode. Four buttons to remember: fire, action, run, and strafe, plus your directions. That's it. The best part was its native support for the 4-button Gravis Gamepad, so if you had one of those, the controls became perfect and easy to use.

For the time that this was written, the graphics looked pretty damn good. Granted, now they would look like a joke, but back then a smooth-scrolling 256-color VGA game that was also 3D was a big, big thing. The sounds and music were also very well done. To make the environment feel more authentic, id made all of the dialogue German, and it gives me the chills sometimes when I'm walking through an empty hallway and a guard suddenly yells out "ACHTUNG!" behind my back. The music was also very good. Robert Prince's pieces fit in very well with the action, and most of the music was very "hummable", meaning you would still hear it in your head long after you stopped playing. Hell, 10 years later, I STILL hear some of that music in my head!

The Bad
Wolf3D unfortunately doesn't run under Windows, and no one has ever ported the original game to Windows yet. However, there are TCs for DOOM II and Duke Nukem 3D that will bring you all the Wolf3D action with better engines.

The Bottom Line
Wolf3D, even 10 years later, still remains one of my favorite games ever. Although the game was remade (or is that given a sequel?) today as Return to Castle Wolfenstein, nothing will ever beat the original for its sheer action factor.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to blast a few more Nazi soldiers. Quoth the title of Episode 3, "Die, Fuhrer! Die!" ^_^

The Good

• Great graphics for the time
• Gameplay revolutionary again for the time
• Still tons of fun 20 years later.
• Is dirt cheap and has tons of levels
• Finding secrets is rewarding
• Gives the player a tough, but fair, challenge
• More depth to combat system than meets the eye
• Has great historical significance to gaming and was the first great FPS

The Bad

• May not appeal to modern FPS fans who don't dabble in old school games
• Can get very repetitive during long play sessions
• Only a small handful of enemy types and weapons
• Can't circle strafe, which would be very useful
• Music can get repetitive and grating
• Repetitive wall textures can make mazes a nuisance

The Bottom Line
Strangely enough, I found the idea of reviewing Wolfenstein 3D a rather hard one. I found it not unlike attempting to review Super Mario Bros. Attempting to write a review puts you on a tightrope suspended above a thousand spiky precipices, as every game designer inspired by that game aim high velocity sniper rifles right at your testicles or clitoris. A lot of them are trigger happy, even if all you did was pick a nit on their beloved game. No matter what you say there's just no denying the massive influence and importance of this game, and even if you aren't a fan of it - it won't ever truly fade into obscurity like so many of its peers over time.

However, also like Super Mario Bros. - Wolfenstein 3D is a damn fine game, even 20 goddamn years after its explosive debut in 1992. At the time of this writing (May 5th, 2012) Wolfenstein 3D is 20 years old - and I feel like an old geezer saying that as I played it when it was fresh and new.

Another hard part about reviewing it is ultimately the struggle to view it without the rose tinted goggles of nostalgia. It's nearly impossible when you have 20 years of Nostalgia to feed upon, but I did my best - and yet even without those goggles, Wolfenstein can be pretty entertaining. Granted - I doubt youth weaned on games like Modern Warfare or Halo 3 will care much for the game, but for those who are willing to dip into the old school - Wolfenstein 3D is a game you must play at least once.

The premise of Wolf3D is dirt simple: You are in a castle. See that guy over there? The one in the blue coat, blonde, blue eyed, giving you a dirty look? He's a Nazi. Do you like Nazis? No? I didn't think so, here take my gun - go nuts but remember he ain't the only one.

Okay, okay if you want to be technical there is a plot buried in Wolf 3D but it is about as substantial as the one I just gave. Basically, you play as B.J. Blazkowics and you are out to stop some evil Nazi scheme (is there any other kind?) but right as you are about to learn the dirty secrets of said scheme, you are found out and unceremoniously thrown into a cell in the dungeons of the eponymous castle Wolfenstein. You escape, find out a plot involving mutants, and then ultimately kick hitlers arse. There is also a prequel trilogy (Oddly labeled as episodes 4,5,6) in almost all current releases of the game in which you stop another plot involving deadly gas.

But that isn't why you are here, I prefer my version of the plot - you are here because you don't like Nazis, and they are cramping this places style something harsh; so go nuts. It wouldn't be long for Nazis to become a cliche in shooters, and if any modern gamers wondered where the fascination with crushing the third reich came from in FPS games - here you go.

The game controls fairly simply, you use the arrow keys to move, space to open doors and CTRL to shoot - although players like me prefer a mouse/keyboard combination where the mouse moves, fires, opens doors, and toggles strafe whereas the W and S buttons move your characters surprisingly quick legs forwards or backwards. You can't aim up and down in this game though, aiming is as simple as making sure that your target is in the center of the screen.

In fact the title of the game is something of a dirty lie. The game isn't 3D at all, but rather smoke and mirrors, the game uses an advanced (for 1992) technique called Raycasting which creates the illusion of 3D by surrounding the player in coloured heightmaps pretending to be walls. Even the foes you fight are 2D sprites, the game loads in one of 8 possible sprites depending on where you are standing which gives the illusion that they can rotate in the world.

Still, if you saw this when it was fresh out of the tin in 1992 - your mind would be blown. Granted, 3D games had been out for awhile but they were often slow and did not have texture maps but instead, solid colours. Wolfenstein 3D had textures on the walls and the enemies were about as advanced as a human sprite got at the time, and most importantly - Wolfenstein was so bloody fast it gave people used to the chuggy nature of 3D racers and flight simulators at the time motion sickness.

As simple as the gameplay is though, there is more to Wolfenstein 3Ds combat than one might expect. Believe it or not - Wolfenstein 3D has a very simple, but often overlooked ballistics model. In fact those who are more used to its younger siblings, Doom or Quake may find themselves dying faster and wondering why, not realizing that unlike in those games - getting into close quarters combat is not recommended. There's a reason a trench gun or rifle wasn't used in Wolfenstein 3D, it's because even the wimpiest pistol could take you out at point blank range.

Wolfenstein 3Ds combat model works more or less like this; at a distance, bullets become less accurate and do less damage. However, at close range - they become much more accurate, and they can score critical hits - the games equivalent of a headshot, which wasn't possible at the time. Getting close to foes is never a good idea, and you MUST pay attention to your surroundings. Like other FPSes of the time, there are a lot of tight hallways which means backtracking and luring enemies into ambushes is essential.

If you see a pile of enemies in a room, get their attention - but unless you are packing a chaingun and don't care about wasting some ammo, don't head into that room. Instead, lure them out and take a vantage point at the end of a hallway - and use it to your advantage. While this may be a tactic that sounds like it slows things down, it truly isn't. Afterall... they do it to you too. Often times enemies are set to patrol, or they will hear you from other rooms and unlike in "Doom" they actually will follow your shots (In Doom, it just causes them to start randomly wandering around.) and sometimes you can find yourself pedaling back into an ambush set up by some foes who heard your shot. Stay on your toes at all times.

However, the game isn't perfect. Admittedly, even for the time there were very few enemies - 6 in total, not counting the bosses of which there are 3 in the very first release and 6 in every other release (I don't think it is possible to find a release with only 3 episodes anymore, they were only available VIA mail order and all ports and store bought copies have 6 episodes.) and one of said enemies only appears in Episode 2; only 4 weapons, one of which is a knife and 3 of which are guns that use the same ammo pool.

ID Software actually had previous released a FPS using the same engine called Catacomb 3D which offered more variety in this regard, proving that it was possible to have more. However it doesn't ultimately harm the game that much.

A somewhat bigger complaint, is that admittedly the level design and the appearance of the levels can be confusing and monotonous. They are almost always very maze like, and while I am one of the few people who kind of likes mazes in FPSes - I don't like it when the mazes don't offer at least some way of finding your way. In Doom, you had an automap and you could also recognize landmarks in the level due to a wider range of textures and scenery pieces. In Wolfenstein 3D, there are no maps and the walls are often all the same which can lead to a lot of meandering and the game really loses steam and becomes repetitive when minutes pass without a Nazi and a shootout. Sometimes you will be thrown a bone, and will see a unique looking set of walls that inform you that you are moving on. Otherwise, the only breadcrumbs you get are the corpses of your fallen foes.

My last nit to pick is the length. Wolfenstein 3D is not a game you will sit down and play through all the way, unless you have the highest tolerance to repetition in the world. As much as I love the game, its little flaws tend to build up during longer play sessions and there are 60 levels to clear. That's A LOT, especially for the time. Granted it was a sign that you were getting your moneys worth, but I doubt anyone could tolerate playing that many levels in a single sit. Space out your play time, or else you'll go mad - no matter how addicting Wolfenstein 3D can be, and it certainly can get pretty addicting even if it isn't quite as addicting as it was when it was brand new.

So at the end of the day, if you are a fan of shooters and enjoy old school games - there is no reason you should not try Wolfenstein 3D. C'mon man, you've had 20 years to do it and if you still haven't, why not now? You can get it from plenty of places for a cheap price, even Steam. Mach Schnell, SCHNELL! do it now and celebrate 20 years of this landmark shooter!

There's no reason not to... unless, of course, you are a NAZI!

The Good
This wasn't so much a game as a revolution. It was the first game of its genre. By using the 1st person perspective, everything that happens in the game feels like it's actually happening to you. The graphics were state of the art in their day. Sure it doesn't compare to unreal or quake, but this was 5 years before them. The voices are hilarious. My friends and I used to play just to listen to the nazi's dying. the controls are about the easiest to learn of any FPS I've ever played. Plus what could be better than shooting nazi's?

The Bad
There isn't much variety of enemies. The music gets pretty repetitive after a while. The ending was kind of a let down. Umm there's not much of a story to it. Umm thats about it.

The Bottom Line
It's nazi killing at it's best. The first first person shooter.

The Good
Hmm.. it was well made in some aspects, but not in all of them.. anyway the graphics are good (Unless you get close to them X-) and the sounds are pretty good.

The Bad
The level maps are stupidly mazey and there's no map. ARGH!

The Bottom Line
A classic in the tome of 3d gaming. Very dated now, but worth a look nonetheless, for a reason or another.

The Good
Graphics were really something when it came out (or atleast when I first played it on my friends 386). Music and sounds were good to my mind. The gameplay is quiet weak compared with Quake etc. but at the time there weren't too many choices for 1st person.

The Bad
Maze like levels sort of ruined this game.

The Bottom Line
A game like Doom only the graphics are worse. It is set in a "fantasy" in the second world war...

The Good
A revolution in gameplay and graphics, there really isn't much I can add to what everybody already knows about Wolf 3D. It is a fantastic action classic that grounded the rules and spawned the most popular pc gaming genre ever. Not bad for a little shareware game, huh?

The storyline is inconsequential, just shoot your way through more Nazis than you can shake a stick at, and get to that fabled elevator to take you to freedom! (well, the next level actually) Your help? 4 weapons and tons of ammo! Go get some!!!

Ultraviolent (well, for it's time), action-packed, with a graphics engine that was da bomb, and incredible music and sfx (achtung!!) Wolf set the foundations for what we all know and love nowadays. Now get down on your knees and show some respect!!

The Bad
Well as much a revolution as it caused, it still couldn't shake off some arcadey details that I really didn't enjoy at it's time. You had "lives", you had point-scoring items, etc, etc. And I really, REALLY hate mazes, of which Wolf 3D has more than enough.

The Bottom Line
There are no ways to describe what Wolf was and is to the gaming industry, people were disgusted (shooting nazis=good, shooting dogs=Eeew!!), people were getting motion sickness, people were losing sleep because of it, etc. etc. It changed everything!!! But above all Wolf proved that the pc was more than competent when it came to handling fast paced action games, delivering even more excitement than a console or any other platform had ever done. Now lock and load pal, it's butt-kicking time.

The Good
Back in 1992, ID Software, with help from their friends from Apogee, were responsible for a new genre, known as the FPS, or First-Person Shooter. This genre involves the player going around a "map" (level) shooting anything that moves. Such as is the case with Wolfenstein 3-D (Wolf3D) where you play William J. (B.J.) Blazkowicz, a WWII spy who is sent to infiltrate the Nazi Fortress, Castle Holehammer, where word has it that the evil Dr. Schabbs is planning to build an entire army from dead bodies. Unfortunately, B.J. is captured and thrown in Castle Wolfenstein for interrogation and, eventually, execution.

Wolf3D is spread across six episodes: "Escape from Wolfenstein" tells the story of B.J. escaping from Castle Wolfenstein, whereas "Operation Eisenfaust" has B.J. killing an army of undead zombies and Schabbs himself. In "Die, Fuhrer, Die!", B.J. receives his task of a lifetime: Destroy Adolf Hitler, "A Dark Secret" has him finding "The Poison Maker", who plans to create chemical weapons, including the one most feared and used in WWII. "Trail of the Madman" has B.J. finding a person named Gretel Grosse, who has vital location information on Nazi secret bases. Finally, in "Confrontation", he must defeat the General (aka: Fatface), leader of the poison war. Each episode has 10 levels (9 normal levels and one secret level) and there is a boss waiting on the ninth. Each episode has new textures. When you defeat some bosses, you are allowed to see your boss die frame-by-frame with DeathCam.

As usual with any other game company, there are two versions of Wolf3D: Shareware and Commercial. The shareware version has only episode one, therefore you can't play the other five episodes unless you order the commercial version. Regardless of what version you have, the object in each level is to go around the map and shoot anybody you see, until you have reached the elevator which takes you up to the next level. By "anybody", I mean an assortment of enemies, such as guards, SS troopers, officers, dogs, and even undead zombies you first meet in episode two. Each enemy has their own weapons. For example, guards carry pistols, while SS troopers carry machine guns. The undead zombies, on the other hand, carry pistols that are mounted on their chests, and fire whenever they raise either of their hands. All of these enemies (except the zombies, which are silent killers) share their greetings whenever you approach them. These enemies, after their greetings, try their best to put a bullet in you. Everybody (except the zombies) in the same room as you will be alerted if you just happen to fire your weapon, and eventually find you. On later levels, you have to find one or two keys that will open the steel doors in the level.

Of course, you start each episode with 100% health, which means that you won't go down in one hit, but lose a bit of health. How much health depends on the difficulty setting you choose just before you play each episode. There are four settings to choose from. If you select "Can I play, Daddy?", your health will be depleted only a little bit when someone shoots you. The higher the difficult level, the more health that you will be wasting. If you select "I am Death Incarnate!", you really must learn to hide, so when an enemy peers around the corner from where you are hiding near, you can immediately put a bullet through them. Also, you can see B.J.'s face in the status bar. All he does is look left, right, and center; and the more health you lose, the more bloodier his face gets If you health does get low, you can find first-aid kits, trays of food, dog food, and pools of blood, and if you manage to find these, your health will be restored. You also start out with three lives, and you get more either by scoring 40,000 points, or get a "blue B.J. circle" (which is rare).

You always start each episode with a knife, but can carry up to three other weapons, including the pistol, the machine gun, and the chaingun. Sure, this is quite poor considering that the FPS's of today has more weapons like this, but you didn't get that opportunity in much, earlier games. As with any other gun, you need to get ammo, which can either be found lying around within the map, or lying around near a dead person when you kill them using any of the above weapons. When you get the chain gun, B.J.'s face will grin. In order to put your weaponry to good use, I suggest using your pistol if you come face-to-face with one or two enemies, and using the chain gun when you have a situation where you meet a lot of enemies (about ten at once).

Also, scattered around the maps are treasures, including the golden cross, treasure chest, chalice, and crown. Most of these are in secret areas, which you may find if you keep pushing every wall in the map (like you do to doors). This wastes some time in the level, but it is worth it if you are a gamer who likes to score points. It is quite rare in any episode that you will find an elevator in one of the secret areas. This elevator takes you to level ten - the level that you won't find normally. So far, the only secret elevator I discover was in episode five. Out of these secret levels, I like the one in episode three, level ten the best, what I like to call Pac-Wolf. This is where you play B.J.-Man. Here, you have to avoid the big Pac ghosts (can't be shot) while you search for the way out, and along the way you can collect a lot of chalices for a whole heap of points, but like any other level, you must also be on the look out for enemies.

When you complete each level, a statistics screen comes up that tells you the percentage of enemies, secret areas, and treasures that you have discovered in the level. You'll receive 10,000 bonus points for each area you get 100% on, and you also receive an extra 5,000 points for beating the game's par time.

The graphics are different for each episode. The enemies and bosses (at the end of each level) look quite nice. I loved the way the Nazis always look like cars when they are dead. Each enemy's AI is nice. They basically move around and shoot at you. But the bosses, each one of them has a different attack. Dr. Schabbs, for example, throws syringes at you, while Otto Giftmacher punches you with his huge metal fist.

Sound effects and music are excellent. When enemies see you, they make their own greeting sounds. You always know when an enemy is nearby, because when you shoot, they are alerted and walk in the direction that the shot came from. I enjoyed listening to the dying screams (which are different for Nazis). If users had a Sound Blaster installed in their machine, they could be able to hear all the digitized sound effects and awesome music. If not, the sound effects were twice as good when it was coming through the PC Speaker. If they had a SB Pro instead of a normal SB, then the sound effects would be enhanced. If you are far away, then the shot would be heard from a distance. However, if you get too close to an enemy, then the weapon's shots would be loud.

The Bad
Most of the levels consist of mazes, especially those huge ones in episode six. It's easy to get lost.

It would have been great if the game provided subtitles so you know what the enemies are saying. The only sound I can make out is that the SS troopers saying "My life!".

The Bottom Line
This game is rated PC-13 (profound carnage), a spoof of the PG-13 rating in the United States. Since Wolfenstein 3-D takes place sometime during WWII, this game should not be taken for real. There wasn't any undead zombies at the time. Hitler also didn't use machine guns to take out his enemies, nor did he wear a robot suit for extra protection, or was killed by a person who just happened to have a vendetta against him. I don't think defeating enemies with filled syringes was heard off, either.

Overall, Wolfenstein 3-D is a nice game with plenty of action. If you like 3D shooters and haven't played Wolf3D yet, then get this game. You will love it.

The Good
This game was completely unlike any game I had previously played. My brother played it first, at my dad's office, and when he tried to describe it to me I just couldn't get a mental picture of what it would be like. Both of us were young enough that we didn't really understand what 3D meant, and he kept saying stuff like "You're killing Nazis, but it's like you're really there, you know? You're kinda lookin through this guy's eyes like they're you're eyes, and you can see the gun out in front of you?" Me: "Can you rotate, or do you just go in a straight line?" Him: "Oh, you can rotate, and there's no time limit." This was interesting. You could stop and enjoy the scenery, unlike games like Super Mario Brothers. So, when I finally played it, I was sucked in immediately. It was the first truly immersive game I ever played, and had many great moments, from the grin which appeared on your face when you located the chaingun to the satisfaction of watching Hitler's bloody head drop onto his corpse. Oh, yeah. It was so much fun, I didn't even notice the limitations of 1992's VGA graphics technology.

The Bad
Oh, yes, the Wolfenstein mazes. Never mind the fact that the Nazis would have found it extraordinarily difficult to navigate around their castles with mazes all over the place. The things were just irritating! Even in 1992, there were plenty of puzzle games available if one wanted to do some mazes. In this game, though, we could have done without 'em. Wolfenstein was about killing Nazis and getting to the end of the level, not scurrying around like a mouse after some cheese. Also, though it was great and innovative in its day, the VGA graphics really don't look that hot. When you've got the pistol equipped, you kinda have to squint to get the idea of a chunky pistol being held in a pair of chunky hands. Futhermore, the only places in which a plot even makes an appearance is in the text messages at the conclusion of each episode. Other than that, all six episodes are pretty much the same thing. The only variations in gameplay are different wall textures every now and again. This fact coupled with the occasional maze can make the game pretty repetitive after a while.

The Bottom Line
Try to imagine the way things were in 1992. There were no 3D shooters. This single game gave birth to the genre which would later give us such masterpieces as Deus Ex and Half-Life. Gameplay-wise, it hasn't held up all that well over the years, but it can still be satisfying to blow away some Nazis for a few minutes once in a while. Try to appreciate it for its historical value, and enjoy the simple pleasures it still provides.

The Good
Now this is something I should review long time before. Well, I guess I was too busy re-playing the game instead, hehe. I remember first time seeing this game. I had some ol' 386 with B&W monitor, which only helped the atmosphere, since all the World War II oldies were in B&W technique, either 'cos they were old, or to increase the realism. Well, even teh Schindler's List was B&W even though it's from last decade movie. Anyway, I prefer old movies instead, and in this game, I prefer old 1st person shooters as well, lol. You know, back in time everything was so easy. You didn't have like 300 keys to press or 780 directions to point onto, but simple left, right, up and/or down, with a button to shoot. I remember "Wings" game from my Amiga days. It's still my best simulation (even though I really dislike simulation genre), and I remember all 237 missions I ended. It was vector based graphic and on only 2 floppies for Amiga, but it was great nevertheless. That only shows how game really doesn't have to take 7 CDs to be good. Same goes for Wolfenstein 3D, though if you compare it today, it would more be like 2 and a half D :)

First thing nice is that this game so easily finds your sound card, and works so smoothly on slower computers as well that it was a sin not to play it. Not to mention how great were soldiers' sounds and yikings, lol. I did once take a look at the source code, and it was rather okay done (not that I understood it that much), no matter ID guys said they did it rather silly back in time. Hey, everyone has to start with something silly to achieve the top place. Heck, Brett W. Sperry and Louis Castle started in a garage, and look at them now, their Westwood Studios is one of the best gaming industry on the globe. Well, I seem to skip this game's topic somehow, so I'll try and say something nice about this game, while I'm stil awake ;)

It gives you four different weapons, a knife, a luger pistol, machine gun, and something Arnold Shwarzenegger used when chasing predator, a painful one, hehe. That was a big gun to carry through the nazi halls, but most rewarding and bullets-eating as well. You have six mission in total, or which every of them consists from about 6-9 levels/floors that are more or less well guarded, depending the toughness level you choose to play in. At the end of every mission is a leader that, of course, must be shot down in order to complete the mission. You should read the text after missions, hehe, it might be funny sometimes, lol. As for the enemy AI, I didn't notice it, and that speaks for itself. Only thing on tougher level is that they hit you even if they shoot on 90 degrees west from you, lol, but that's only the sprite error, right? :)

Here we have german shepherds, that are hard targets, but nice to practice from afar. They mostly protect their rations, so you can get a few health percentages somewhere near them. Nazi soldiers are the most thing you'll find for starters, and they have a luger or such pistol, even though when on hard it seems like they have Colt .45 :) There are also SS troops that are equipped with machine guns, as well as mutants made by some doc's exercises, and you should be careful with both of the mentioned. Officers have a luger as well, but they're pretty fast and extremely hard to shot with only a gun for example. Beside these, there are six different bosses, differently but heavily shielded and armed. Also, I forgot to mention that music in this game is really great. Even greater then from game's add-on pack, "Spear of Destiny", but more or less the same ones. Of course, I cannot say music in IDs games is worth something, but this one definitely is.

The Bad
I'm trying to think of something but can't do ;) However, that mutants thingy could maybe be better developed or used something else instead. But with such colors, and the thing that it's the mother of all 1st person shooters, I like this game pretty much. Especially first mission.

The Bottom Line
Nothing new, but rather old for today's shooters, but I'm sure this game kept many of gamers tight to their chairs for a long long time. With possibility of rotating for 360 dgrees and shooting all around the nazi halls, great sounds, voices, and ouchs, accompanied by dynamic music, I say this is a definite game for every one of us while we were back in time. Also, it's probably easier then these newer games, especially in a navigation sence of way, hehe.

The Good
Well, suffice to say that is was progarmmed by John Carmack :-) It was simply groundbreaking at the time. Though clearly inferior to Doom (which came out a year or so later) it was still an awesome game -- first person shooter action, decent graphics, a blazingly fast (for the time) 3D engine and a truly ridiculous storyline. It's what makes first person shooters so great, isn't it?

The Bad
What's not to like? The music and sound effects aren't "all that", but the game still rocks.

The Bottom Line
If you liked Doom, you'll like its predecessor. Get it, play it, love it and live it.

The Good
Wolfenstein 3D is a classic in the greatest sense.

It pushed the limits of a 8088/286 to its max, all while delivering great gameplay and a fun time.

The graphics for the time were fantastic, and for those of us lucky enough to have a stereo sound card (and a good pair of headphones), the sounds of opening doors in the distance was just enough to get your heart racing.

Control was simple. Arrows to move and 2 keys for firing and opening doors.

The Bad
There wasn't a lot that I didn't like about the game. I found it was pretty solid in all areas... even the map layout were pretty cool.

The Bottom Line
The original 3D shooter. If you can find it (or download TC's for Domm II or Duke Nukem), grab it and play!

The Good
It is mindlessly addictive and fun to play, even at 3 A.M. when you have a term paper due in 5 hours! (Just ask my college roommate!) The German-speaking baddies are still some of my favorite computer game characters to quote. Just remembering the levels where I knew I was in for big trouble from the vast number of "Gustappo!" calls I heard through the speakers brings back fond memories of the game that started the first-person shooter genre.

The Bad
I didn't particularly like the fact that when you got close to something, the graphics blurred. I always wanted to read the fine print on the Achtung! posters around the walls.

The Bottom Line
This game, the granddaddy of all first-person shooters and based on the original "Castle Wolfenstein" game I used to play on my high schools' 8088 Compaqs, has you looking down the barrel of your pistol, knife, or machine gun at Hitler's goons, and even Hitler himself. What you do after you line them up in your sights isn't pretty, but is sure is the best fun I ever had at the time. Sure the first-person "Shoot-em-up" genre has improved with graphics quality, difficulty, and even "addictability," but Wolfenstein 3-D is what started it all.... "Eva, auf wiedersehen!"

The Good
Blockbuster game- this was a really good, fun game, that was way ahead of what could be done on consoles. Amazing how far PC action games had progressed in just a couple of years.

The Bad
I hate how Wolfenstein's success obscured the game's origins in the old Muse Software Castle Wolfenstein series! I'm also not too thrilled with the huge number of rip-offs and clones that flooded the market.

The Bottom Line
Considering my view of Commander Keen (and my similar views for most other PC software from the late 80's/early 90's), I didn't think much of the PC as a gaming platform. Sure, I had fun with the big bloated simulators and adventures around then, but for pure action gaming, I didn't bother.

I started hearing about Wolfenstein 3d, and having been a player of the original 2D games on the Apple ][ and C64, I tried it out at a friend's house. My jaw hit the floor and I hit the keyboard- I didn't come up for air for hours.

Compared with corridor shooters (or FPSes if you will) of today, Wolf seems a little bit dated. Doom really swept the market shortly afterwards, and it's been a steady progression upwards in quality and gameplay since. With the deluge of corridor shooters, though, the gameplay of todays' games just doesn't seem as fresh or as exciting as it did when I first beheld the twisting, turning 3D mazes in Wolfenstein. Since I'd never been pleased with the home adaptations of Atari's arcade game Xybots, this game really made do.

One other thing- Wolfenstein really changed the way software is looked at and dealt with. Shareware was an uncommon sight on the computers I'd used before- it existed, but for the most part, authors either released their works as freeware and public domain or maybe sold copies through small ads in the back of computer magazines. Shareware was more of a force in the PC world, but it was the ugly mutated sibling to real commercial software. You just didn't expect quality, or support in shareware titles. Apogee started out with what comes across today as crummy BASIC-like adventure games- it really is kind of mindboggling to see the progression that occurred in quality over the years.

From the Kroz games, to Captain Comic and Commander Keen, to Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, the games' quality increased exponentially. It also drove from the market (both shareware and standard commercial) substandard software, and changed the face of computer games. Shareware became a legitimate place for large and talented groups of people to release commercial quality games...

The Good
Good early 3D graphics, decent weapons array, and best of all... YOU GET TO KILL NAZIS!

The Bad
Any game where you kill nazis works for me, so nothing, really.

The Bottom Line
I'm sure you've all heard of Doom. This was its predecessor.

The Good
I loved this game back in the day because of its depth in story, which still rivals some FPS today. The different levels and skill levels cater to any action gamer's taste. The weapons are also preety cool. From a wimpy knife to a gatling gun to a rocket launcher it's all there.

The Bad
Obviously by todays standards the game is obsolete in every category from graphics to story, other than gameplay. But that's the most important thing right? Anyway, this won't impress you if you don't like vintage gaming.

The Bottom Line
This game is one of my all time favorites and deserves a try if you haven't played it. It's a cheap distraction too.