Customer Reviews
Classic FPS. Just needs some work to run.
What can you expect from a game that came out 15 years ago? A lot of fun if you are willing to take the time to get it to run.
Wolfenstien 3D was released in May of 1992 and set the standard for what a sucessful FPS needed to be. The basic elements of Wolf 3D can be found in one form or another in every FPS since.
However the game has become rather difficult to get running on todays computers. Being built for dos, it is hard to bring it into a dosless enviroment. There are some excellent emulators that have been released, one being Dosbox, and with Wolf's recent release on Steam it makes it easier than ever to play this classic game.
Better recognize.
Chris, or user "iamtheman_", who wrote the "I'm SO ANGRY at Wolf3D" diatribe is missing the point.
This game was so. Incredibly. Frieking. Awesome. ...when it came out..yea, what? 15 years ago? I remember playing this on a 486. It was revolutionary. So it doesn't use DirectX inputs. Do you scream at black and white movies, too?
And it says right there, on the flipping description that it won't run on XP. So...whose fault is it that it doesn't work on your XP machine, d00d? Seriously.
I think a fair review of this game would have to take into account that playing PC games that are 15 years old isn't something you do because you want a cheap game--it's something you do because you appreciate the genre.
A DOS gaming classic: BJ Blaskowitz, guns & glory
Released back in 1992, when the best way to play video games was in a video arcade or on a Sega Genesis... Wolfenstein 3D revolutionized computer action games, changing forever the entertainment landscape.
To remind people of what it was like... top of the line PC games used new "VGA" graphics (more colors and detail possible than EGA; EGA had replaced CGA which was essentially four colors: yellow, purple, cyan, and red on a black background), and sound cards were a luxury item (8 bit, and then 16 bit sound through Soundblaster was AMAZING... prior to this we put up with our "PC Speaker" which had little clicks and bloops that tended to by muffled, high pitched, and annoying... coming out of the heart of your PC itself, not through your headphones), and CD-ROM driver were the wave of the future (you typically had to buy a "multi-media upgrade kit" to get the benefits of those). Mice had two buttons (one if you were on a Mac, and in those days, people made fun of Mac users for not having any good games on their platform). Online play? Forget it. The way to do that was 1 on 1 via your modem (if you were lucky enough to have one). When my family (always a late adopter of new technology) got one, it was 2400 bps (which was top of the line!). If you wanted to get online, you went through a BBS (Bulletin Board Service) or one of the newfangled online services like Prodigy, which essentially were their own service (access to the WWW was limited, or non-existent).
So put that into perspective, when you pick up this game now, as it's a relic of the past. Still, we can see the greatness present there even today!
Though other games had featured "first person shooting" and "3D maze wandering," and this title was itself a sequel to an unsung PC maze game called "Castle Wolfenstein" (with a viewpoint similar to the original Gauntlet), this title popularized those features, and did them in a highly polished and exciting manner.
Most of us who were young in 1992 were first introduced to Wolf3D through the brilliant marketing scheme called "shareware." The idea was that you could buy a game for cheap (a few dollars) at a store (back then games typically came in big bulky cardboard boxes, and came on a floppy disk or three, around this time the big 5.25" disks were being replaced by the ultra modern 3.5" ones which were more durable and held more data, a whole 1.44 mb worth!), which was a bargain.
For that price, you essentially got to play an "episode" worth of levels, full functionally, for unlimited time. If you wanted to play the "full game" (typically two more episodes of equal length, but increased difficulty and with extra features), you had to order it with your credit card over the phone or go to their BBS.
Shareware was everywhere, you could legally get a copy from your friend or download it from a BBS if you wanted. The idea being that the companies (like Softdisc publishing) wanted to get the word out, and get people playing their game, getting them hooked, and then they'd order the "full version," or register their shareware to get all the content.
A lot of us who were "poor" back then played a lot of shareware games, but few registered ones until we got older and could afford to blow money on games (just when we were supposed to be focusing on other things!).
Wolfenstein 3D will look dated now. The graphics are very pixelated, though detail increases as you move closer to objects. The sounds are adequate, and everything is pleasingly cartoony, but with a bit of a violent mature edge (you are fighting Nazis in torture dungeons after all). The gameplay is simple: turn, move forward/back, shoot, open/close door, strafe. The view port is in first person, but you will see your character's face and he looks angry and hurt as you take damage or get into intense fights. Most of the gameplay involves navigating the maze (on frustrating aspect is that you have no map, but I guess that makes sense considering you're a prisoner of war throughout much of the game), shooting the guards you encounter, collecting keys and health to stay alive and progress, and saving every other minute in case you get dusted (and lose all your gear... since you had limited "lives" unlike in games of this type now). There is no real "aiming" with the mouse as in later games, as your character just fires instant hit bullets (or hits from your knife) and if you are facing the enemy with your gun lined up on them, they get hit.
This game was the precursor to "Doom" and largely responsible for that game's success. Doom expanded upon the formula presented in Wolfenstein 3D and this title was largely forgotten by the world at large until ID Software went back to make the long-awaited sequel "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" a few years ago.
The original game had three episodes involving battling Hitler (each episode ended with fighting a huge "boss" character that took a lot of damage before going down, except on the easiest difficulty). The registered version had three more missions where you tried to stop a chemical warfare plot by the Nazis.
A sequel came out a little later called "Spear of Destiny" in which you try to locate the legendary Spear of Longinus, that pierced the side of Christ, which Hitler has stolen (along with many other religious relics), a la Indiana Jones. The gameplay was basically unchanged, just with new textures, enemies, and harder mazes. Overall the humor and iconic artwork as well as the memorable music, as well as intense action, made this a great gaming experience back in the day.
If you can put up with the technological limitations and obsolete visuals, this is a great trip down memory lane, to see how far PC games have come, and what simple, yet fun ideas were cooking in those days of yore. If you're not nostalgic about games from that era or the Wolfenstein series, consider this "a history lesson."
Technical Notes: I run windows 2000 pro, and when I purchased the "XPLOSIV" republished version on disc, I noted that the package specifically says that it's NOT compatible with Win2k. The solution of course (which I figured) is to just ignore the launcher, run the SETUP.EXE program to install the needed game files, and then move them to a new folder. Go download a free program called "DOSBOX" and use that emulator to run Wolf3D and SOD (both included in this package) in that.
There are a few glitches: my gamepad only recognizes three buttons (if I try to remap the controls in game, it only recognizes two!). Of course this game was designed for use with a Gravis gamepad (a popular four button controller for the PC back in the day that roughly resembled that which was used on the Super Nintendo), but most of us didn't have one, and so we just used the keyboard and mouse (which is fine).
When the screen flashes (hit by enemy, item picked up) there are some graphical artifacts left on the screen (until it flashes again or your something, as if the refresh rate is off). Your mileage may vary, but the game should be intact. If you try to run the game outside of DOS Box, you may not have any sound (just the annoying PC speaker), so be warned.
