Wolfenstein 3-D

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Wolfenstein 3-D

Wolfenstein 3D - DOS - USA.jpg

MS-DOS - USA - 1st edition.

Developer id Software
Publisher Apogee Software
Published 1992-05-05
Platforms Acorn 32-bit, DOS, Game Boy Advance, iOS, Macintosh Classic, PC-9800
Genres Action, First-person shooter, Shooter
Themes Action, World War II
Series Wolfenstein
Distribution Commercial, Open source, Shareware

Wolfenstein 3-D is a World War II themed first-person shooter developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software for MS-DOS on 1992-05-05, then ported to several other platforms. There are effectively three versions of the game: the original MS-DOS release, the SNES and Apple IIgs port, and the Macintosh, 3DO, and Jaguar port. The game is the third game in the Wolfenstein series, and the first to use the Wolfenstein 3-D Engine. It's also a video game milestone as it was one of the first widely popular FPSes.

The game is based on a much older game, Castle Wolfenstein, and, like the original, you play a prisoner of war trying to escape from a Nazi dungeon. Additional episodes were added where you infiltrate Nazi strongholds and kill Hitler and fictional Nazi leaders.

Personal

Own?Yes. On Steam.
Won?Yes. All episodes, Bring 'Em On difficulty.
Finished2022-01-18.

I first played Wolfenstein 3-D in the early 1990s and was really impressed, not just by the 3D perspective, but also the gratuitous violence and digital speech. My favorite animation is the liquefaction death of Hitler. I rarely played the game fairly, usually relying on cheats to skip through most of the game, but, in 2022, I finished playing through all six episodes at Bring 'Em On difficulty.

This was also one of the first games I spent a lot of time trying to modify. Before I had Internet access, I was able to get my hands on a map editor, and I made several custom maps for the game.

Review

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4 5 7 6 6

Best Version: DOS

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

  • The game, for its time, is a beautiful example of a first-person shooter done right.
  • John Carmack's 3D engine is lightning fast, it even worked on medium-level hardware of the time.
  • Though cartoonish, the graphics are well-drawn and attractive. Adrian Carmack's pixel art is top-notch.
  • Bobby Prince's soundtrack is really good, and his incorporation of Nazi and American political music was a fitting touch.
  • The enemy AI is pretty dumb, but it does sometimes cause some rather shocking results when they inadvertently sneak up on you from behind and strafe to avoid your gun fire.
  • The sliding secret doors is a really cool addition. Tom Hall was right to nag John Carmack until he added them.
  • I like that, when you're at especially low health, you can drink blood for health.
  • The addition of a secret 3-D Pac-Man level was pretty cool.

Bad

  • The game becomes monotonous pretty quickly. After the third episode, you've seen nearly everything the game has to offer, save the remaining bosses.
  • The player turns too slowly.
  • Enemies are able to shoot through the corners of walls and through barely opened doors even when their guns aren't visible. Dogs can also attack through corners even when their mouths are obscured.
  • In several levels NPCs will open a locked door before you get the key allowing you to short-cut large sections of the map, or alternately get stuck.
  • The use of lives and points doesn't really fit the game's theme and serves no measurable purpose.
  • Many of the levels have a ridiculous layout. While this makes the game more playable (a realistic map would be dull), it also hurts immersion. Also, the boss levels are usually pretty small and boring.

Ugly

  • Allowing save scumming kind of defeats the difficulty, but, if you try to play without it, the game is ridiculously hard. So, unless you've memorized where all the enemies are, you're kind of forced to use it.
  • There are several levels that require you go through long twisting mazes which are quite boring, except when you're ambushed out of nowhere by hiding officers. This requires the player to very slowly inch their way through these mazes, which is very boring.
  • A large portion of the secrets have no hints as to where they are. This means, if you want to uncover 100% of the secrets, you'll have to check every wall in every map, a tedious task.

Media

Box Art

Due to the Nazi imagery, Apogee used their logo as the cover art in several European countries.

Documentation

Maps

Screenshots

Graphics

Fan Art

Videos

Did You Know Gaming?
German version of Wolfenstein 3D.
Hitler reacts to Wolfenstein 3D.
Longplay - Bring 'Em On difficulty.

Play Online

Game Boy Advance (Europe), Game Boy Advance (USA), MS-DOS

Representation

Strong female character?FailThere is only one woman, and she's a sprite swap of a male character.
Bechdel test?FailThere is only one woman, and she only says a couple words to a man.
Strong person of color character?FailEveryone is white.
Queer character?FailThere are no queer characters.

Download

Credits

Role Staff
Chief Operating Officer Jay Wilbur
Director Tom Hall
Designers Tom Hall, John Romero
Writer Tom Hall
Engine Programmer John Carmack
Programmer John Romero
Additional Programming Jason Blochowiak
Graphics Adrian Carmack
Music, Sound Effects Robert Prince
Sound Driver Jason Blochowiak
Voices Tom Hall, John Romero, Scott Miller
Documentation Kevin Cloud

Links

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