VGR WOLF3D

Happy Valentine!

Here's an inappropriately timed review of the classic shooter - Wolfenstein 3D!

VGR: Wolfenstein 3-D

From id Software/Apogee Software

Played on PC DOS

Also available on Amiga, Apple, Snes, Jaguar, 3DO, Game Boy Advance, PS3 & Xbox 360

Type FPS

Year 1992

Aaaah! Good ol' Wolfenstein!
Now that's a classic if there's one.

One of the earliest titles from id Software, that helped establish the Texan studio on the map and which changed action games forever...

id created "Wolf3D" (as people like to call it) shortly after breaking through the scene with the Commander Keen series.
It wasn't actually the very first game played in this First Person View, but certainly the one to popularize it and establish the ground basis for the First Person Shooter genre.
The game was actually developed using an improved engine that was created for their earlier attempts  Catacomb 3D and Hovertank 3D. Which were basically just interactive mazes.
The original Wolfenstein 3D became the groundbreaking work it is thanks to all the big brainiacs at id working on it - some left the company since then but they're some of the best game developers of the early 90s.
The project was directed by Tom Hall. Tom and John Romero designed the entire game. Romero also worked on the programming alongside John Carmack, who developed the original game engine. Like I said, the best of the best.
id then pitched the entire concept to Apogee (Duke Nukem). They ended up funding it for only 100'000$ and published the various shareware and commercial releases.

The game was actually inspired a lot by some old DOS classics, Castle Wolfenstein and Beyond Castle Wolfenstein. Old 8-bit top down stealth games.
At first Tom Hall wanted to originally call the game "Castle Hollehammer" (which became the title of Episode 2), but id was able to get the copyrights of the above titles, so they simply kept Wolfenstein for their own title.
The game does retain some basic stealth elements (but you can't disguise yourself as in those innovative early attempts at the genre) plus it's still the same type of maze exploration with several secrets to find around, albeit id's Wolfenstein 3D has no actual direct relation to those. (it's not a real sequel or remake!)

The game is set during a fictional take of World War II.
You play as an allied spy named in B.J. Blazkowicz.

The game isn't what you'd call a big epic storyline. It's more of a succession of several missions.

The game was - like most titles on computers were at the time - episodic.
The game is 6-episodes long. Each episode being about 9-levels long itself.
At the end of each episode, a final boss + a secret level to find via hidden switches somewhere in those nine levels.

The first episode was launched in May 1992 for MS-DOS, complete, as a shareware.
The 2nd and 3rd episode needed registration.
The first episode - "Escape from Wolfenstein" - has BJ escaping a prison cell. After escaping through nine levels you meet a high ranked nazi captain Hans Grosse and have to defeat him.
The second episode, "Operation: Eisenfaust", is about the experiments Dr. Schabbs is running for the nazis. You have to find and stop the madman who is creating an army of mutants for the Reich.
And finally the last mission (Die, Führer, Die!)  sees Blazkowicz infliftrating a secret bunker to confront the monster himelf, Hitler. First using a Mecha suit then it's mano-a-mano!

The three final episodes were originally released later on as a pack of additional missions, the "Nocturnal Missions Pack", and are set before the first episode.
These Nocturnal Missions are focused around the nazi's plans for chemical warfare.
BJ  has to captur war plans guarded by Gretel Grosse first and then in the final episode he goes against General Fettgesicht who's been planning these chemical assaults.
They're fun but feel added on, as they were originally.

The game looks a bit simpler by today's standard but is still very much playable and even fun.
The game is built around these maze levels you have to explore.
You can even use some stealth approaches, like moving behind guards without being noticed - killing theme by surprise will grant you bonus points for stealth kills.

You always start with the knife but can grab additional weapons such as a pistol, a machine gun and a gatling.
The goal in this game is to reach the Exit Elevator somewhere in these levels.
You can find several items lying around like medikits or food to restore your health, ammo and even hidden treasures. To find these hidden secrets you'll need to push walls, there you'll find some Gold and Silver objects.
The game uses a life system. That's what the score is used for. To obtain more lives either find a 1-up or you'll get more every 20'000 points.

Wolfenstein 3D is actually pretty long for its time.
Long and challenging.
To find your way around you'll need to keep a sharp eye open. Since the game is simplistic it's harder to get around, the textures repeat a lot. But it's all part of the fun.
And you can replay it to find all the treasures and test yourself on harder difficulty settings. The harder it gets the more enemies you'll find around!

Also enemies will surround you easily once you're find, so try to go strategically if you wanna survive to face Mecha-Hitler!!

The game was quite inventive for its time, and by looking at today's more linear and easier titles, it's still is a lot of fun and original to go back to such oldies.
It's the grandfather of the entire FPS genre!
Modern day developers can learn a thing or two by looking back at classics!

Wolf3D laid the ground for the later Doom and Duke Nukem 3D which perfected and improved 3D-first person perspective on several other levels.

The game is actually kinda humorous as well, there's even cameos of Pac-man's ghosts! Really!

Wolf3D became such a landmark for id it has since continuously inspired or be referenced in their later titles.
For example it was later revealed that Keen the main protagonist of id's Commander Keen series was actually named William Joseph "Billy Blaze" Blazkowicz II, making him a distant relative of BJ! (as a joke more than anything else really)
And even Doom's space marine appears to be another future descendant. The game is still referenced to this day in games like Rage.
The series has lived on all these many years, new installment have been released continuously to this day, the last one to date being simply referred to as Wolfenstein (2009).

Overall, it's an almost ageless-classic.
The game not only established the whole FPS genre and the basis many titles would use as template for years to come but it has also been such a huge commercial success that launched id's very long career.

The original is still the best, and the game is now 20 years old already! (should have made this review last year!)

Fun fact, it was actually forbidden in Germany... but there's still a lot of fans and supporters of the series over there!

The original Wolfenstein 3D has been ported on so many different systems over decades.
Well, I can't talk for any of those really, they were developed by several other development teams and their quality vary.
The PC MS-DOS is still the best to go! It has been released for regular Windows and works like a charm.
The infamous SNES port runs actually quite well, but thanks to Nintendo it has been subject to some heavy censorship.
The game follows a whole different storyline, nazi references and Hitler himself were edited out and replaced, the dog enemies replaced by rats and the very 1st castle has been changed to last castle.

Anyways, great stuff if the whole nazi/WWII doesn't prevent you from even giving it a chance. 

 

I give it:

2.5 / 3 Invaders!

VGR: Spear of Destiny

By id Software
Type Expansion

Year 1992

Before moving on to next projects, id released Spear of Destiny.

A prequel to Wolfenstein 3D.

It was  released shortly after the original game and basically used the same engine.

The game ditched out the whole episodic aspect.

It offers 21 brand new levels (2 secret ones!), adds some new textures, new items, a new type of enemy and all new bosses.

The levels are played straightly one after the other.

The game has this time a more occult-oriented aspect.

Hitler wants to use the alleged powers of the legendary Spear of Destiny. 

They steal it from Versailles and scientists are hard at work trying to master occult powers for the nazis armies.

You guessed it, B.J. Blazkowicz is sent on a new mission, this time the first one chronologically.

He goes off to Castle Nuremberg to put a stop to these mutants for the very first time.

BJ has to defeat the Grösse family for the first time, Trans Grösse here, then a certain Barnacle Wilhelm, the Übermutant and finally the Death Knight. 

But then the games has a sort of twist, BJ ends up in Hell where he has to fight his way out after facing a demon (a precursor to Doom's story?)... the Angel of Death awaits!

In 1994 some additional mission packs were released.

They aren't from id, they were collectively known as "The Lost Episodes" by fans. But since they use the same structure and boss patterns, even though they replaced all the textures, items and enemies...

It's cheap. It's not really a new game.. more like a sort of "update". They're also 21 levels-long.

Anyway, SoD is pretty fun and usually offered alongside Wolf3D on most recent releases.

Not super necessary to play through but it offers new original content!

Overall:

I give this one a: 2 / 3 Score!