Wolfenstein 3D

As one of the first first-person shooters released, Wolfenstein 3D helped to popularize the FPS genre on the PC and also established the run-and-gun archetype in FPS games. Originally released for the PC, it was then ported to several home consoles and computer systems, including the 3DO, the Game Boy Advance, the Atari Jaguar and the Super Nintendo. The game was also ported more recently to the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. There is also an online version of the game on the web. It's also one of the first games that led id Software to fame, which would only get bigger with the release of Doom and Quake.

With impressive graphics at the time and a great soundtrack, it's one of the very first games that had Nazi-related content, which was very rare at the time. It has a very variable roster of enemies including a guard, an elite guard, mutant, officer, and dogs. While it is decent, it has its flaws as well, which is what this article will discuss in addition. Due to the limitation of the engine, for example, the level design, frustrating difficulty, and so on, the game gets pretty repetitive after awhile due to the lack of variety.

The AI is impressive for its time. Enemies would pursue you outside of their room, opening doors in their way and doing anything they can to chase you to the ends of the map. They'll react realistically to your presence (shouting something in digitized German) and will even feel pain when shot. They also hear your gunshots, even if you're not in the same room. At the time of its release, nothing was scarier than shooting a guard in one room and hearing a squad of SS troopers alerted in the next. Enemies also zig-zag and circle instead of charging directly at you in the shortest possible straight line; while most of the time their movement is still predictable, in the right room layouts this movement pattern can allow them to flank you if they get lucky. Unfortunately, enemies in most console ports only have front facing sprites. Because of this, it makes stealth virtually impossible.

The game has 6 episodes each comprising of 9 floors with the 9th floor being a boss. There's even a secret 10th floor, which is somewhat unnerving since there are seemingly never-ending purple walls and ceiling, combined with creepy music, creating a very ominous mood. In Episode 3, the 10th level is a joke level where you have to navigate a Pac-Man maze and you even get ambushed by the ghosts. There are 6 bosses in the game with one of them being Hitler himself who is armed with a mecha suit with chain guns.

The level design is decent even they are more or less designed in a similar way. All the levels also have pushable walls that reveal secret passages that often lead to secret ammo and health caches, extra lives and treasures.

There are many notable levels that are unfortunately very difficult for many reasons:

• The entirety of Episode 2 because of the mutants. Levels 4 and 6 start out with one (although this is true for the latter on the higher difficulties) facing you as soon as you begin, and if you don't have a Machine Gun or Chain Gun with you, you're screwed. Particularly, the fourth level is notable for having the highest amount of these mooks, which can be a daunting challenge if you play at the higher difficulty settings.
• Episode 2, level 8. Not just because of the mutants (and the regular sections are actually not that confusing), but because of a secret area that leads to an insane amount of pushable walls that seem to go nowhere and showing birdcage-sized room after birdcage-sized room in a labyrinthine concoction of monotony; varying with either nothing or collectibles. Also, there are TWO doppelgangers of Hans Grosse hiding in one of these rooms; the first being located at the center of the labyrinth, and the second located at the northeastern part of this monotonous maze. The main reason for these insane amount of secret walls is to find the elusive Easter Egg secret that contains a sign that says "CALL APOGEE, SAY AARDWOLF". Unfortunately, this is only featured in the original 1992 version of this game; later versions will just replace it with a pile of skeletons, rendering the search for the sign completely out of the question.
• Episode 3, level 8 is a huge pain in the ass, with lots and lots of ambushes. The biggest offender, though, is the giant swastika room at the start, along with the rooms surrounding it, all swarming with Officers and SS soldiers. Make even the slightest noise, and they all converge on you at once from all directions (with even a few enemies from adjacent rooms joining in.) And even if you think you've killed them all, the rooms are set up to stagger their arrival, so there's probably still one or two more wandering around, waiting to get you when your back is turned.
• Episode 4, level 5 itself is quite manageable in difficulty, but the map is rather rude because a key to finish the level can only be gained by a mandatory secret that isn't obvious. If you don't have a map of the level, then you'll probably be stuck smacking every wall until you finally locate the key.
• Episode 6, level 1 is particularly fearsome for a starting level. The map is comprised of some ridiculously long stretches of hallways that have perpendicular corridors which almost always contain an Officer to ambush you when you least expect it. It gets worse on the harder difficulties where if you're not careful, you can expect to lose at least more than half of your health due to how damage calculation is indicative on those settings. And these corridors-with-perpendicular niches compose a good third of the entire map, meaning you had best tread carefully if you want to make it out alive. Fortunately, after that part of the map, the hallways become far less confusing and more linear, but you still have to look out for yourself because of the sheer number of mooks that will come to greet you.
• Episode 6, level 6, the one level just before the infamous seventh one. While the map isn't particularly as dauntingly sizable compared to the very level that comes after it, it more than makes up for it with its confusingly asymmetrical corridors that can haze your progress to get to the critical locations. Add to the fact that there are unexpected ambushes lying around these corridors and the dangerously acute awareness of the mooks once you open fire, and you've got a rather unforgiving level to complete.
• Episode 6, level 7 has a bad reputation as well. The layout is a mess in of itself and it has over 140 soldiers (if playing on I Am Death Incarnate!)!
• Episode 6, level 9 from the original game and levels 16 and 18 from Spear of Destiny qualify, due to the swarms of guards (including mutants) that occupy the rooms of level 16, and the Death Knight in level 18 plus the fact that you start in a very disadvantageous room with mutants guarding the exits to safer ground.

The knife, one of the first weapons that the player starts with, is next to, if not absolutely useless. In order to deal any damage with it, you need to get very close to the enemy you want to stab and in rapid succession, giving them plenty of opportunity to shoot BJ up close and deal massive amounts of damage to him or even kill him. Even if you do manage to injure an enemy, you need to stab them multiple times before they die, and other enemies that are not on "ambush tiles" will still be alerted to your presence when you stab an enemy. The same can be said for the pistol if you have the chain gun (the most powerful weapon) or even the machine gun (a slower weapon but useful for avoiding wasting ammo), although it's still better than the knife.

Since it was the first ever first-person shooter, there are many things that didn't age well compared to later FPS games:

• No map, radar, or any kind of in-game guiding system. The player must navigate through each level with nothing but their own sense of direction, memorization of landmarks, and the corpses of slain enemies.
• There's a lives system which is completely pointless since you have the ability to save anywhere.
• The weapon selection is much smaller compared to later FPS games. There's only a knife, pistol, machine gun, and chain gun.
• All weapons use a single ammo pool; if you have 50 bullets, you have 50 bullets regardless of which gun you have out.
• Weapons that don't differ except for rate of fire. Accordingly, weapons are arranged in a strict hierarchy, going, from weakest to strongest: knife, pistol, machine gun, and chain gun. There is never any benefit to switching to a weaker weapon.
• The controls are somewhat stiff by today's standards.
• While Wolfenstein is one of the earliest 3D games to feature mouse controls, they work differently than in later games, owing to the game's complete lack of verticality; while the mouse's X-axis swivels the player around (as would become standard in later FPS games), the mouse's Y-axis is used to move the player forward and backward. This means the game can be played without ever touching the keyboard, although the mouse must be often lifted and repositioned in order to keep moving forward. The options allow the Y-axis to be disabled, bringing the controls very close to the now-familiar keyboard & mouse FPS control scheme. You also can't circle strafe sideways like in a modern FPS, even when using mouselook (you have to hold down a separate key to strafe, which also prevents you from looking left and right); this is corrected on the modern console ports of the game, as well as the unofficial Open GL port.
• In the original version of the game, it is impossible to strafe without holding down an additional key. However, modern single-key strafing is included in practically all modern ports.
• The levels flat consisting entirely of 90-degree angles and zero verticality.
• Unlike later shooters, the pushable walls don't have any distinction to let the player know that it's pushable. This leads to the player having to "wall-hump" every wall until they find the right one.
• The design of levels are also very similar since they're all maze-like.
• The environments haven't aged well and are boring in comparison to future FPS games due to the lack of detail since everything in most levels (of their own episode) look the same. There are also no environmental hazards of any kind; enemy fire is the only thing that can harm the player.
• All enemies always face the player when shooting (though not when running or patrolling, save in the Mac versions) and exclusively use hitscan attacks; consequently, enemies' shots will always hit the player if they are given the chance to fire.

Artificial Difficulty for a number of reasons:

• Unfortunately, the game engine can only support a certain number of sprites on screen at any one time before it stops drawing them. Certain levels, notably E4M10, suffer from this when the enemies turn invisible.
• A large part of the challenge of playing the game on the PC is the inability to strafe sideways like in a modern FPS, even when using mouselook (you have to hold down a separate key to strafe, which also prevents you from looking left and right); this is corrected on the modern console ports of the game, as well as the unofficial Open GL port.
• B.J. himself doesn't have much health and can easily be killed making the game frustrating most of the time.
• If an enemy gets the drop on you and shoots you at point-blank range, you will almost certainly lose over half your health. The Mutants are the most infamous for doing this because of their total lack of an "aiming" state (in other words, they'll immediately skip to shooting instead of having to raise and look down the sights of their weapon). They're also good at getting said drop on you due to them making no sound at all.
• The Mutant enemies can fire instantly, in addition, enemies can instantly shoot you through doors the instant they're opened, while the player has to wait for the door opening animation to actually see through them, this means mutants behind doors can instantly shoot the player before they can even see them due to the door opening animation.
• There are many beginners traps as you'll open a door only for there to be tons of enemies on the other side who ambush you, killing you before you have time to react.

So...are you ready to get psyched?