Final Thoughts

[Pix]

#8433

I’ve been working away at this since the end of February and finished up the 6th episode last night. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it particularly but the basic gameplay has held up better than I expected. The thing I miss the most isn’t 3D levels but an automap. The game tends to end up devolving into lots of wandering around once you’ve killed baddies off, trying to find where to go next. I’ve been playing with online maps as a result – there are some on Steam that don’t show keys, enemies, etc.. but offer enough of a guide to minimize getting lost.

I suppose my other criticism is the lack of variety. This is no wonder with the limitations and it’s getting quite old by the end of 6 episodes. Episode 6 was reasonably brutal with the numbers of enemies and the mazes also. I’ve been getting through a chunk of the game each day but this is not something I could sit down and play for hours on end. It’s still been fun to go back to but if I’m honest, I’m hard pushed to come up with a reason why anyone should go back to this. I felt much the same about it in the mid 90’s from what I can remember. Doom really was a massive step forward a year or two later.

[TigerQuoll]

#8435

This is one of those games that is so defining for me and I have so much nostalgia for that it’s hard for me to look at it objectively, so take the following with a grain of salt.

Wolf3D is still as playable for me now as the first time I experienced it when I was 8 or 9.
If it had an automap, was truly 3D or had deeper mechanics it just wouldn’t be the same game anymore.

I see it a bit like Tetris. There are modern clones with all sorts of extra mechanics and gimmicks, and nobody can deny that the original is just the same thing over and over again. But the original, in all its simplicity, is still worth playing.

And just like in Tetris, which sometimes refuses to throw a line piece at you for ages, sometimes Wolf3D throws endless, bamboozling mazes at you. But I still love it and will never stop going back to it.

[Tijn]

#8436

Wow, congrats on completing all 6 episodes! I’m only up to episode 2 myself. But I must say, while I found episode 1 quite a drag at times, with its giant maze-like levels, somehow episode 2 feels a lot more stream-lined. There seems to be more health & ammo too, which is much appreciated. So all in all, I’m having a much better time than I had expected to haha.

[watchful]

#8437

For those thinking of giving up, please consider trying ECWolf first. It’s modest quality-of-life improvements really made it much more fun for my older self to keep going.

Specifically, ECWolf has an auto-map lined with the wall textures, yet it can be overlaid and auto-rotate. It’s sort of halfway between Doom and ROTT’s auto-map.

ECWolf also offers modern strafing and locking the Y-axis for a very familiar WASD+mouse configuration.

[Martli]

#8439

I’ve just finished the 6th episode tonight. It probably took me about an hour per episode to complete, and I’m now tossing up whether to give spear of destiny a go or to just leave it there. I feel accomplished having beaten this legendary game, if a little exhausted.

I don’t have strong nostalgia for this game as I was slightly too young for FPSs when it came out, and DOOM was better timed for my FPS coming-of-age. I did watch my older cousin play it though, so I was aware of it, as well as its links to DOOM (from the two DOOM II secret maps).

The nostalgia for me was really around the fact that I didn’t have it as a kid, and that it had this taboo or forbidden quality to it. Do I dare play this game?! What if my mum found out?! I dabbled in it over the years, and I’m pretty sure I got as far as beating the shareware episode, but never much further than that.

The hardest part for me in playing this game was trying to set aside my DOOM-bias and to consider it from as clean a slate as possible. I didn’t do a good job of that because going into it I was thinking “oh it’s just a series of confusing mazes without an automap” and “the controls are going to suck because you can’t circle strafe” and all the usual complaints about this game.

But anyway, none of that was an issue and I loved (almost) every minute of it. Turns out it’s really fun to go around killing Nazis (not so much the poor dogs) and stealing their gold. The worst part about it was I kept getting the ‘theme song’ stuck in my head and whistling it out loud (it’s not a song you want to get caught whistling in public).

My approach was to basically just focus on completing the level rather than maximising my score. That means taking out as many Nazis as I could, and reaching the end of the maze. I didn’t want to ‘wall hump’ myself into insanity trying to find every possible secret.

The mazes are indeed confusing, and you get lost, and overwhelmed when you open a door to find a big open room with four more doors to explore. But you muddle your way through them, get the keys and move on. I think I only ever had to look at a map for one level (the only level where a key is hidden behind a secret).

The controls do feel a little primitive, but they work and usually the spaces aren’t big enough where something like circle strafing will actually do you much benefit, so it’s fine. Just get used to pushing ALT every now and again.

Some of the elements like ‘score’ and ‘lives’ are redundant, but they do add replay-ability to it (ie, playing with different rule-sets, or trying to get 100% across the board).

The secrets are totally random, but boy is it satisfying when you hear the sound of those walls opening up.

This ticked all the boxes for me. I got to play a game that was in my gaming ‘periphery’ but that I had never completed before, and at the same time get a greater appreciation for the later FPSs that were so fundamental to my gaming experience. That’s what DOS gaming is all about for me. If it hadn’t been game of the month I would have probably let my preconceptions get the better of me and left it sitting on my C: drive unplayed.

Overall, this game is like listening to AC/DC – each level/song is basically the same, but it’s a damn good level/song so I’ll keep playing it.

[Tijn]

#8440

Wow what a great post. Thank you for sharing!

[fastwinstondoom]

#8457

You’re a stronger person than I Martli, the pursuit of secrets / 100% score in each level broke me. Think I got halfway in act 2 before I called it quits. The curse of my completionist personality…

[Pix]

#8459

I played through Spear Of Destiny this afternoon. I enjoyed it well enough. I think a break from Wolfenstein definitely helped there. The level design seemed a little more interesting I thought but there is precious little difference to the original game. It’s surprisingly short for a commercial release. Only 21 levels including the two secrets. Some of the later levels were very short, especially the final boss who was an absolute pushover. It does give the impression of being a quick cash grab before Doom came out.

[watchful]

#8466

Back in the day I got a big-box copy of Spear of Destiny and enjoyed it, though a bit less than Wolf3D. It’s levels felt too much like mazes.

I’m actually replaying SoD now too, and up to level 15 it’s not as bad as I remember. Or perhaps ECWolf’s auto-map just makes it significantly easier to navigate. Still, later levels seem to lack ammo considering the number of enemies. They appear to force the player to kite and funnel the enemies to make every shot count.

Looking back SoD does feel a lot like an expansion, since it offers nothing but art swaps and some new maps.

[TigerQuoll]

#8467

I decided to concentrate on SoD this month, since I don’t think I’ve beaten it before.
I played on “death incarnate”, and you get absolutely swamped with enemies in some levels.
The “final” final boss is still pretty easy, but the fake-out final boss is quite a challenge because the level is swarming with baddies, and you’re forced to try to deal with them at the same time.

SoD does have a bit of a different tone and feel to it than Wold3D – a bit dirtier and grungier maybe?
It may be a bit shorter, but with 5 bosses across 21 levels and a generally more focussed approach to level design, I think it stays a bit fresher than the main game.
That said, it offers very little wholly new content over the original, and I’m not sure that I wouldn’t have felt a little ripped off had I bought it new.
Id did pretty much the same thing with Doom 2, but seem to have pulled it off a little better.

[dr_st]

#8481

Well, even though I only remembered about this month’s game two thirds into the month, I still somehow managed to beat the first three episodes of Wolfenstein 3D. So, in a way, I could say that I’ve completed the game – since a 3-episode registered version was released at one point. 🙂

I think I played E1 on skill 2, E2 on skill 3 and E2 on skill 1. What a bizarre mix. This, of course, makes a huge difference in difficulty. Mostly because of the damage / accuracy of the hitscanners, which seems to be boosted significantly with every difficulty increase.

It didn’t help that E2 is infested with the mutants, and those are the toughest enemies in the game. 😆

I also felt in general that the E3 levels were shorter and less convoluted than those of E2. Getting 100% of everything in most levels was easier, although typically I would be satisfied with 100% kills and treasure, and not bother with 100% secrets. On some levels I was fed up and didn’t feel like hunting for secrets.

I also decided to skip the crazy pushwall maze with 170+ pushwalls in E2L7, and the maze to get to the secret elevator in E3L7.

Replaying it now, I can definitely appreciate some of the design, visuals and puzzles that the developers had managed to achieve with such a limited engine. However, there is no escaping the repetitiveness. Don’t feel like playing episodes 4-6 or Spear of Destiny any time soon.

I think the music is my favorite part of the game.

[fastwinstondoom]

#8496

Having gone back over Easter to try to finish the game(at least the original episodes) I have come to the conclusion that Wolf3D is definitely best enjoyed in bite-sized chunks. Instead of trying to just power through it I did a level or two, saved, played some other games and then came back for another level. Really cut down on the feeling of repetetiveness.

Also really helped with my need to 100% everything since I remembered alot from my previous attempt this month(that’s how we did it back in the day after all, play something until it was burned into your brain). Like dr_st above I did not even try for the two crazy maze puzzles.

Finally, I really, REALLY would have enjoyed it even more if it had a Blake Stone-type automap in the hud!

All in all though, really happy the game was picked! I (eventually) had a blast playing it and even more just thinking about it, all the other games in the series and having a bit of a re-read of Masters of Doom. March was a good month <3

[dr_st]

#8497

An automap would make hunting for secrets far easier (not to mention navigating the mazes would become trivial). The extremely limited level geometry would clearly show you where secrets can and cannot exist.

I also am happy Wolfenstein 3D was selected – I enjoyed revisiting.

[red.hexapus]

#8498

It was nice to come back and replay WOLF3D during the past two weeks, since I haven’t played it since the mid-90s, and I only played the sharewere version (ep 1) back then.

If I were to recommend it to someone new, who has not played the game before, I’d say to stick to the first 3 episodes and skip the Nocturnal missions (eps 4-6), which in my opinion were too difficult and definitely too labyrinthine.