After making a big news with the Wolfenstein 3D announcement, it finally emerged at the App Store for $4.99. Instantly climbing into the top 10 paid apps, the game has received rave reviews. I remember playing a lot of Wolfenstein on my dad’s notebook. It was a lot of fun, and I thought I could renew that fun by reminiscing in this ‘non-remastered’ version of the game.
The badly drawn enemies are quite entertaining
Visually, the game is beautiful. It is beautiful in the sense that it carries all of the graphics from the glory days. The blippety music also matches the graphics, as do the sound effects of the dying germans. Performance is superb (we’re not dealing with many polygons here) and controls are manageable. As I walked through the hallways in the first level, I got the overwhelming feeling that this is the perfect game. By the second level, my enthusiasm dipped. And after the third, I could not carry on any longer. I hope I do not offend any die hard Wolfenstein fans. I’m sorry but I don’t know how this game got so many 5 star reviews.
I’ve noticed this problem of bring underwhelmed with a lot of these ‘old memories’. Dangerous Dave on the PC, some movie you thought was fantastic, or some fun park you went to as a kid that you remember was super fun. It all seems so plain and uninteresting now, that you actually ruin those memories by indulging in them.
Long hallways get kind of tiring
In Wolfenstein, the gameplay is highly repetitive. You have to walk long hallways, kill the same 8bit characters (okay, they get more diverse later on), and get used to some repetitive music throughout. Wolfenstein was a great game when it first launched, as FPS was a whole new genre of gameplay. However, nowadays if you look at the innovations and tight storylines in modern 3D games, this one pales in comparison.
To sum it up, if you are a huge fan of Wolfenstein and played it for hours as a kid, it might be worth it to give it a shot. Prepare to disappoint your perfect memories though. As for those who have never played this game, I’d suggest you stay away. Better to wait for something like LiveFire with the iPhone 3.0 software.
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I enjoyed your review of Wolfenstein 3D. I picked up the game soon as it was released. I was a bit young when the game was released, but my first FPS was DOOM2 when it came out, and was a big fan of it. I do realise that this game does show its age with its long corridors and repetitive and similar maps (as I am constantly checking the map to see where I am going), but I do give it a 4 to 5 star review because I think it is a great app. It is exactly what it says it is, with a tasteful update to the graphics and control without making it look like a remake.
As boring as old games that were on the leading edge of creating a new genre were, I think this game is well coded, runs with no bugs, and is an awesome way to transport yourself back 20 years. Well worth the $5 and 5* review!
I am having one problem though: I’m stuck on the final levels of the first episode and once you die, you loose all of your weapons and end up not being able to kill the boss. Maybe I’m missing something, but I think the fact that there isn’t a quick save option means if you die while fighting this guy, there’s no beating him