Wolfenstein 3D

Game: Wolfenstein 3D
Developer: iD Software
Platform: PC
Release Year: 1992
Stephen's Rating: 6/10

Basic Plot

Your goal is to escape Castle Wolfenstein and overthrow the Nazi regime.

Gameplay

Wolfenstein 3D is the grandfather of first person shooters, although it should be noted that it did not use a 3D engine. It used 2D graphics to "fake" a 3D world. The easiest way of observing this is with the enemies. They can only face one of 8 directions at any time because they are actually 2D sprites with animations to fake them facing in different directions.

Unlike modern PC first person shooters you didn't use the mouse to look around, instead it was all controlled by the keyboard. The game involved killing enemies and staying alive, finding keys and unlocking doors, and handling environmental hazards and puzzles.

You obtained a set of guns during the game which became increasingly powerful, but you had to find ammunition. There was also an element of saving ammo or using it efficiently.

Machinegun, fighting generic Nazi tropps. Note the face down the bottom centre. This is your face and as you take damage, the face becomes increasingly beaten up with cuts and bruises. This became a common mechanic in future first person shooters.

Positives

It was groundbreaking for the time and opened up a whole new perspective to gaming. I also really liked the concept of secret passages and stashes as well as the secret level.

Negatives

It's unfair for me to put it here, but this game was the grandfather of all first person shooters, a genre which in my opinion has been over-done. It seems the big studios release the same game with slightly better graphics over and over again.

The story was pretty weak, but I don't think anyone was paying attention to it anyway.

One of the boss fights.

Memorable Moments

One time at intermediate school some classmates were playing the game at lunch. I watched for a while and got frustrated as they died over and over again. So I jumped on after a while and breezed through the game, and I had half the class watching me in semi-awe.