.

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Wolf3D is a good game (except for some rage-inducing levels here and there). Doom is a step up in most areas, but it doesn't mean you can't fire it up once in a while and have some dumb fun.

If you want a 'thinking man's Wolf3D', take a look at Tetsujin for 3DO. It features interconnected and non-linear level design, each enemy type and encounter is like a puzzle, and each map is a short resource management challenge that you have to deal with.

God damnnit, was Chu Ishikawa responsible for that game's soundtrack? This is Industrial greatness.

Norikazu Miura, actually. Both games have a great industrial/ambient score. The sequel feels like a step down, though -- it's worth a playthrough, but it feels dumbed down, without the fine details of the original combat system, and also with a two weapon limit and regenerating health/energy/ammo...

 

[Morenatsu.]

Wolf3D is a good game (except for some rage-inducing levels here and there). Doom is a step up in most areas, but it doesn't mean you can't fire it up once in a while and have some dumb fun.

If you want a 'thinking man's Wolf3D', take a look at Tetsujin for 3DO. It features interconnected and non-linear level design, each enemy type and encounter is like a puzzle, and each map is a short resource management challenge that you have to deal with.

God damnnit, was Chu Ishikawa responsible for that game's soundtrack? This is Industrial greatness.

Norikazu Miura, actually. Both games have a great industrial/ambient score. The sequel feels like a step down, though -- it's worth a playthrough, but it feels dumbed down, without the fine details of the original combat system, and also with a two weapon limit and regenerating health/energy/ammo...

>synergy inc.

 

[Curratum]

Wolf3D and SoD are wonderful games. I love the mazelike levels as it really helps develop your spatial orientation and memory.

The action is super fast-paced, and given that the world is all squares / blocks, and flat, it's amazing how fun the game is.

I did my last playthrough in November, I think. It will soon be time for another round. First time I beat the games on I Am Death Incarnate too!

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

If you want a 'thinking man's Wolf3D', take a look at Tetsujin for 3DO. It features interconnected and non-linear level design, each enemy type and encounter is like a puzzle, and each map is a short resource management challenge that you have to deal with.

That sounds almost exactly like Freaks (1993), except that game exclusively manages health, as you have infinite ammo for your gun. Its actually a really clever game despite having that feature and working more like Dungeon Master than Wolfenstein.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

If you want a 'thinking man's Wolf3D', take a look at Tetsujin for 3DO. It features interconnected and non-linear level design, each enemy type and encounter is like a puzzle, and each map is a short resource management challenge that you have to deal with.

That sounds almost exactly like Freaks (1993), except that game exclusively manages health, as you have infinite ammo for your gun. Its actually a really clever game despite having that feature and working more like Dungeon Master than Wolfenstein.

I've never heard about this one, but now I'm going to fix this. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Deflowerer]

Wolf3D is a good game (except for some rage-inducing levels here and there). Doom is a step up in most areas, but it doesn't mean you can't fire it up once in a while and have some dumb fun.

If you want a 'thinking man's Wolf3D', take a look at Tetsujin for 3DO. It features interconnected and non-linear level design, each enemy type and encounter is like a puzzle, and each map is a short resource management challenge that you have to deal with.

God damnnit, was Chu Ishikawa responsible for that game's soundtrack? This is Industrial greatness.

Shoot this aesthetics into my veins, god damn this is great!

 

[Morenatsu.]

everything synergy is A E S T H E T I C

 

[Lyric Suite]

Raven made a clone of Wolf3D as their first shooter. Wonder if it's gud.

 

[schru]

Raven made a clone of Wolf3D as their first shooter. Wonder if it's gud.

ShadowCaster incorporated some RPG elements, so I'm not sure if it was exactly a shooter, but it's interesting that Gabe Newell singled it out in an interview at one point:

RPS: Yeah, I've been playing Hexen on Steam and remembering what it did for FPS games in terms of looking up and down and so forth.

Gabe: I wish we had Ultima Underworld on there. It's a game that I think is invisible to the current generation of game designers. Also there's a game called Shadowcaster – I seem to be the only person who has ever played it – but it was this first-person game with resources you could manage that you could transport to places, and it was really sophisticated. There's a lot of lessons to learn from that. It's a fun game to play, and there are more useful concepts than in a lot of the stuff you see coming out today.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/rps-exclusive-gabe-newell-interview

 

[Curratum]

Shadowcaster is absolute balls and has no source port to boot, which makes it a complete waste of time.

 

[Siveon]

I'd rather play the original Medal of Honor games, or even the original Call of Duty games, than play Wolf 3D.

 

[Curratum]

I'd rather play the original Medal of Honor games, or even the original Call of Duty games, than play Wolf 3D.

They're all good in different ways.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Raven made a clone of Wolf3D as their first shooter. Wonder if it's gud.

Its a pretty good game. A bit more on the RPG side than the FPS side. It uses roughly the same combat system as most RPGs at the time did, but its progression system is very simple, just health and magic increases per level. Its simple but effective. Lots of cool details, like enemies running away if you deal enough damage to them. I thought it had pretty top notch level design, except for the levels the CD version adds. Its only real flaw is that instead of having a resting system like a normal game, you have regenerating health and mana. Other than that, there's nothing wrong with it, I guess unless you're illiterate and can't figure out DOSbox.

 

[Curratum]

To even consider comparing the dull, slow bore with walls disappearing into "no-render-fog" 5 tiles away from your camera, to the blistering fast, almost constant action and tension of game like Wolfenstein is truly a sign of stupidity.

But I just noticed you have a severely autistic blog that has a good number of severely autistic games reviewed on it, so I guess you're a special case.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Wolf3D was mind-blowing to me when I first played it way back when but I don't think I'd ever re-play it these days. Too simplistic and just plain slow, despite being a marvel at the time. It would be baby's first FPS these days... literally. I think I even had my 3 or 4 year old great-niece propped up on my lap in front of the monitor madly playing that game with some success. However, when I later set up Thief and asked her if she wanted to play for awhile, she fled the room when she saw her first undead groaning & moaning and slowly lumbering towards her in the mine.

 

[Curratum]

Wolf3D was mind-blowing to me when I first played it way back when but I don't think I'd ever re-play it these days. Too simplistic and just plain slow, despite being a marvel at the time. It would be baby's first FPS these days... literally. I think I even had my 3 or 4 year old great-niece propped up on my lap in front of the monitor madly playing that game with some success. However, when I later set up Thief and asked her if she wanted to play for awhile, she fled the room when she saw her first undead groaning & moaning and slowly lumbering towards her in the mine.

I don't see where the "slow" comes from. On higher difficulties, Wolf3D has the absolute shortest / fastest "time to die from enemy fire" in any shooter ever made and you need great decisiveness and stun-locking / fire distribution skills to keep a bigger group of enemies from melting your face in the blink of an eye.

 

[KafkaBot]

Wolf3D was mind-blowing to me when I first played it way back when but I don't think I'd ever re-play it these days. Too simplistic and just plain slow, despite being a marvel at the time. It would be baby's first FPS these days... literally. I think I even had my 3 or 4 year old great-niece propped up on my lap in front of the monitor madly playing that game with some success. However, when I later set up Thief and asked her if she wanted to play for awhile, she fled the room when she saw her first undead groaning & moaning and slowly lumbering towards her in the mine.

I'd argue that's the greatest value of this game these days. It's extremely simplistic, so anyone experienced with FPS games will likely get bored soon enough (despite the game's undeniable quality), but it's an excellent introduction to people who have never touched one of these games before. If you deconstructed "FPS" as a concept until only the skeleton remained, you'd probably get something like Wolf 3D.

 

[Curratum]

Wolf3D was mind-blowing to me when I first played it way back when but I don't think I'd ever re-play it these days. Too simplistic and just plain slow, despite being a marvel at the time. It would be baby's first FPS these days... literally. I think I even had my 3 or 4 year old great-niece propped up on my lap in front of the monitor madly playing that game with some success. However, when I later set up Thief and asked her if she wanted to play for awhile, she fled the room when she saw her first undead groaning & moaning and slowly lumbering towards her in the mine.

I'd argue that's the greatest value of this game these days. It's extremely simplistic, so anyone experienced with FPS games will likely get bored soon enough, but it's an excellent introduction to people who have never touched one of these games before. If you deconstructed "FPS" as a concept until only the skeleton remained, you'd probably get something like Wolf 3D.

I actually enjoy the simplicity. You forget all about the complexities and layers of modern shooters and all you care for is blitzing through the levels and killing things quickly, with some light ammo management added on higher difficulties, if you're not great at finding most secrets. Your brain slips into a really pleasant state, where you're just doing a relatively simple task but one that still requires your attention and reflexes.

 

[KafkaBot]

I actually enjoy the simplicity. You forget all about the complexities and layers of modern shooters and all you care for is blitzing through the levels and killing things quickly, with some light ammo management added on higher difficulties, if you're not great at finding most secrets. Your brain slips into a really pleasant state, where you're just doing a relatively simple task but one that still requires your attention and reflexes.

Oh, don't get me wrong, so do I. But Wold 3D causes my brain to sort of go on auto-pilot, which turns it into something akin to comfort food: it's something I enjoy, but I'll rarely want to spend too much time playing it, lest I get bored. Doom is the old FPS that best hits that sweet spot for me, having JUST ENOUGH layers to prevent me from becoming too detached from the experience, while still maintaining that sweet, almost 100% visceral undercurrent that defined the shooters of this era. The John Romero maps are my personal favorites, given how they perfectly balance exploring mazes and blowing everything to bits.

 

[Curratum]

Let's be honest - Doom only sold so well because of Romero's shareware episode. I can't fucking stand Sandy Petersen's maps in both Doom games, and Sandy made almost all of E2 and 3 in Doom 1 and those were well... occasionally weird in a good atmospheric way, but mostly fucking balls... :D

 

[zapotec]

I get heavy motion sickness when playing Wolfenstein 3d

 

[Curratum]

How though? It's got a vertically fixed viewpoint and you only turn side to side, no headbob, no looking up and down, no camera complexity.

Have you tried a sourceport with high fps, could it be the framerate?

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

Raven made a clone of Wolf3D as their first shooter. Wonder if it's gud.

ShadowCaster incorporated some RPG elements, so I'm not sure if it was exactly a shooter, but it's interesting that Gabe Newell singled it out in an interview at one point:

RPS: Yeah, I've been playing Hexen on Steam and remembering what it did for FPS games in terms of looking up and down and so forth.

Gabe: I wish we had Ultima Underworld on there. It's a game that I think is invisible to the current generation of game designers. Also there's a game called Shadowcaster – I seem to be the only person who has ever played it – but it was this first-person game with resources you could manage that you could transport to places, and it was really sophisticated. There's a lot of lessons to learn from that. It's a fun game to play, and there are more useful concepts than in a lot of the stuff you see coming out today.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/rps-exclusive-gabe-newell-interview

There was also this (also made by Raven)


BTW Did it also use a modified Wolf3D engine?

 

[Curratum]

Tried playing Cyclones from one of those Russian CDs with 500 DOS games on them that were circulating in pirated shops in the mid 90s.

The game is disgusting. Everything controls like shit, and is floaty as fuck. There's a perfectly good reason why all those other 90s shooters died in their tracks - they were almost universally shit, and tried to "innovate" with zero success, where they should have been iterating and improving on what Doom already did.

Bonus stillborn FPS-ish game of the period:

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Wolf3D was mind-blowing to me when I first played it way back when but I don't think I'd ever re-play it these days. Too simplistic and just plain slow, despite being a marvel at the time. It would be baby's first FPS these days... literally. I think I even had my 3 or 4 year old great-niece propped up on my lap in front of the monitor madly playing that game with some success. However, when I later set up Thief and asked her if she wanted to play for awhile, she fled the room when she saw her first undead groaning & moaning and slowly lumbering towards her in the mine.

I don't see where the "slow" comes from. On higher difficulties, Wolf3D has the absolute shortest / fastest "time to die from enemy fire" in any shooter ever made and you need great decisiveness and stun-locking / fire distribution skills to keep a bigger group of enemies from melting your face in the blink of an eye.

Except for some of the bosses, they all moved in that slow, diagonal side-to-side movement that screamed, "Just shoot me, I'm dead!" But if you saw it as fast, then maybe it's a matter of personal perception so I won't argue the point. Maybe they really were fast... to you.