.

[sigard]

.

 

[fork]

Almost anything is better than modern FPSs.

 

[luj1]

Wolf3D was one of my first floppy games. Really atmospheric for such a rudimentary game. Did much with so little. Definitely marks the beginning of the golden age of FPS.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

Still so many PC players underestimate gorgeous Jaguar / 3DO ports.

 

[Lemming42]

It's dwarfed by Doom in just about every way. Probably the biggest problem with Wolf3D is how limited the weapons are, and how they all share one ammo type. As a result there's no management of ammo as a resource, which is crucial to FPS games. You never need to use the pistol again when you get the MP40, and the chaingun is just for bullet sponge enemies. You're basically using one gun for the whole game, the MP40, sometimes switching to the chaingun if there's a room full of Big Bastards. Although honestly, if you fire in reasonably controlled bursts, you could probably easily get away with just using the chaingun the entire time.

The level design isn't my kind of thing personally, not a fan of mazes to start with but the game's limited graphics that make everything blend into one just kill it stone dead. The fact you have to find keys makes it worse - at least in Doom (and later, the Build games), keys were in distinct and memorable locations. In Wolf3D they're just placed in the corner of rooms that look identical to every other room you've visited.

Even pre-Doom, Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold shits all over Wolf3D, IMO. Agreed on the music though, it's the best thing in Wolf3D, some of those tracks are great.

What's really interesting about Wolf3D is how decline-y and popamole-y it is when compared to Castle Wolfenstein. They took a game about stealth (including lockpicking, disguises, being able to make enemies surrender, etc) and resource management and turned it into a barebones corridor shooter. I suppose it didn't matter to people much at the time since the concept of a first person shooter was still a novelty.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

I've replayed Wolf3D and SoD not too long ago, too. I have to agree with Lemming42. Doom has superseded Wolf3D in every facet. Yes, modern FPSs are mostly terrible, but I would readily prefer almost any recent boomer shooter (Dusk, Amid Evil, Ion Fury, Prodeus, Hrot, Shrine 1/2, Hellbound, Hedon, etc.) to Wolf3D. But none of them compare to Doom.

 

[samuraigaiden]

I wouldn't say Wolf3D is shit, but any any good FPS is better.

Only two viable weapons and one ammo type, it becomes a game about ammo conservation. Plus, enemies are all hit scanners and it only has a handful of genuinely great levels.

I totally get the appeal of Wolf3D btw. I played it when it was new and it was a serious contender for best action game ever made.

 

[Eyestabber]

Amid Evil

A game I praised before finishing, big mistake. It turns into a shitty platformer around chapter 5 or so and it REALLY fucking sucks. I hate platforming in general and it made me drop AE. The first 3 chapters are amazing and you get to see the full arsenal, so it feels really bad when the overall experience takes a nosedive. It's strange because Dusk remains consistent from start to finish, despite having some WEIRD levels in Ch3 and both games involve roughly the same ppl.

Also, RTCW is a textbook case of a "sequel" blowing the original out of the water. And let's not forget Enemy Territory!

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

That's not necessarily a high water mark, most new FPS titles are hero shooters, battle royales or crappy Unity/Unreal Engine games.
But I've found Wolfenstein to be a bit...iffy. As Lemming42 said, its not the natural step up one would think from the original Wolfenstein games, since Castle Wolfenstein was peak of the crop in 1981, whereas Wolfenstein 3D is honestly outclassed by the Catacomb games, and afterwards most of its clones surpassed it. Far too many levels can be summed up as, lol, its a maze. Plus I'll always dislike the game for screwing with its own maxim of "never have a secret be necessary to complete the level", which it breaks in the final three episodes. There were just too few parts that were truly memorable, certainly not enough to fill 60 levels. Though curiously I don't think any of the shareware episode's levels are among those, they're only memorable because they were in Doom 2. And I'm not saying this now, this is an opinion I've had for a long time. Its mostly of note because its the first FPS as we think of it today. Other FPS predecessors either had really weird control schemes or you didn't really have ammo, like the Catacomb games.

That said, I don't get the praise for the music, it seemed fairly generic in terms of midi compositions from that time. Of Prince's original work, I found Bio Menace to be the only interesting one.

 

[DraQ]

I found Wolfenstein 3-D and its expansion Spear of Destiny to be genuinely fun. Those games offer plenty of memorable moments and levels that showed actual creativity and surprised me in various ways (I specially remember nazis hiding inside fake elevators, interestingly placed secret containing lots of cool and epic treasures that made me feel somewhat rewarded, huge levels where the player had to be ready for the mutants attacking in packs, that awesome map at Spear of Destiny that consists on a square that goes round the Übermutant...).

Also, the visuals and sounds where very distinctive and totally unforgettable. I still think some tracks can be counted between the most epic videogame music.

TLDR:
Fast paced gameplay, deadly weapons and enemies, sound, atmosphere, level design (yes mazelike level design is far from optimal but it's still miles better than linear action corridors).

If anything, it's more worth playing today than it was in mid-late 90s- early 2000s when proper FPS games were still being made and the competition was fierce in that genre.

Caution:
Trying too hard may result in
!

 

[luj1]

Get Psyched!

Project Warlock did a nice homage to that

 

[anvi]

I loved Wolf3d and SOD I can't believe companies back then were making their own freaking engine, their own gameplay, their own concept and 'IP', and making a kick ass FPS. But at the same time they had all the oldschool knowledge of how to make it work really well, like having bosses and later colored key-cards for each area adding seriousness to the carnage, etc.

I was pretty burned out by the concept after that though. I love that Doom, Quake, kept getting more advanced, but I didn't want to play any of them. I try to keep up with FPS though because it's so fundamental to gaming and it can be fun. The highlights for me since Wolf have been: Quakeworld Team-Fortress, Duke 3d, original Rainbow 6, SWAT 4, Arma 2, Unreal Tournament especially Onslaught, STALKER, System Shocks, Tribes, Delta Force.

 

[anvi]

It is sad such explosive progression could turn into decline. If it kept going at that rate... Fortnite would be about 1000 times bigger and more advanced.

 

[Alphons]

It's not a masterpiece, but it's also not an utter tripe.

Recently did a marathon (100% kills and all secret levels) of all six episodes, SoD and Lost Episodes (Return to Danger and Ultimate Challenge) and it's worst offense is how weak level design is.
Out of over 100 levels there's like a dozen of good and memorable ones. And twice as many atrocious mazes.

Shooting is fun, shame that "mowing 20 Nazis in one corridor" moments are so rare and majority of shootouts involve max 5 enemies at a time.

 

[randir14]

Used to play it all the time with my mom when I was a kid. I remember one day seeing someone playing it at Costco and I didn't understand why the graphics and sound were so much better than on my PC. Years later I discovered it was the Mac version.

 

[Lemming42]

System Shock and Ultima Underworld are weird examples to use given that they're both games that highlight Wolf3D's failings, IMO.

System Shock in particular shows how to make mazes fun (by having visually distinct areas with landmarks for the player to use as navigation, and memorable obstacles to navigate to proceed), how important weapon variety and resource management is in an FPS (not just ammo, but also health, battery power, health and battery packs, patches, etc), and how to create incredibly strong atmosphere. Wolf3D's problems come from generally weak level design with mazes that are more annoying than fun, no resource management (universal ammo's at 999, looking good!). Atmosphere is subjective I guess but come on, you can't really tell me Wolf3D's castles and sewers have got anything on Citadel Station. Ultima Underworld, similarly, is in a league of its own.

I honestly can't immediately remember any well-designed levels from Wolf3D, while I still remember every deck of Citadel Station in reasonably clear detail. I think Spear of Destiny maybe did a little better.

Have you played Aliens of Gold? If you liked Wolf3D, you should enjoy it - it's very similar on the surface, but a much more tightly designed game on the whole.

 

[Falksi]

Used to play all the time with my mom when I was a kid.

 

[Alex]

Almost anything is better than modern FPSs.

... except modern [insert other genre here].

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Have you played Aliens of Gold? If you liked Wolf3D, you should enjoy it - it's very similar on the surface, but a much more tightly designed game on the whole.

Aliens of Gold had a few different flaws in addition to the (rarely, though still there) mazes, namely, the plasmoids that respawned on certain levels, who were generally a complete and total pain in the ass. Then there were the scientists, who you sometimes had to not shoot, which wasn't a problem until they start wandering into firefights or blocking your way around. Of the Wolf-engine derived games, Shadowcaster is the best in my opinion. Though because it leans more towards RPG in most of its design elements, some parts of it are a bit awkward. That game has one of the best level designs from the time, along with excellent progression and an interesting but very optional story.

 

[Ash]

Wolf 3D is rather boring, but yes, better than most FPS of the past 15 or so years. The decline is strong.

 

[DraQ]

The Wolf 3D detractors ITT would probably feel more at home on the RPS or Gamespot message boards.

Let me guess you guys also prefer Bioshlock and Skyrim over SS and UU because OMG guyz those OLD gamez look so old now and the NEW gamez look waaaay better now adays!! they are also not so long anymore but they have have a lots and a lots of awsome cinematiks. (liek watching a cool shooter movies AND some of the time playing it also :D :D ) Theyre soo muuuch fun and much lesser confusing and I always just wanna like WIN my games ROFL ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . I realy like showing many chievos to frienz .. LOL.. and they actualli work on my XBOx on the sofa! Computors are not really amd e for playing the game anyways !!!

Called it.

 

[Morenatsu.]

Wolf 3D is kind of fun for a little while, but it's like the FPS equivalent of solitaire.

 

[DraQ]

There are four types of games and the ability to distinguish them is inversely proportional to how much of a concave-headed brainlet you are:

• Games that are actually good - either completely, as flawed gems or good-for-what-they-are (play those).
• Games that are not really good themselves, but they have pioneered something good, so they deserve credit - either historical, or because no one has followed through and they are still the best in their category (only play those if their genre stagnated immediately or if you want to experience a bit of history).
  
• Games that are obviously shit to anyone caring to take a look (don't play those, unless craving masochistic lulz).
• Games that might have seemed good on release to press and easily manipulated morons but actually aren't (don't play those, unless craving masochistic lulz, but take care to not confuse them with #1).

Wolf3D, being very primitive, is firmly in the second category and since the genre it helped spark (note that there were earlier FPS games) became very prolific, the credit it deserves is purely historical.

The conclusions WRT OP's intellectual capability are left as an exercise to the reader.

 

[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.

 

[d1r]

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.