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Wolfenstein 3D

Reviewed by Dogg It is highly unlikely that one person does not know the game that began the FPS (first-person shooter) genre. BUT just in case you didn't know let me slap you in the face, and then tell you that ID Software's Wolfenstein 3-d was indeed that one game. Wolfenstein 3-d came out even before Doom (the game many claim to be the forerunner of shooters even today), and it shows. Wolfenstein 3-d first came out in the PC, where it became a huge hit (it even got a sequel recently called Return to Castle Wolfenstein) Later on more versions were made, but those versions lacked panache, and they had also lost all the intensive brutality of the original PC version. So now BAM! Entertainment has secured the rights to this old, but privileged game and re-releases it to the public one more time on Nintendo's handheld, the Game Boy Advance, this time as a solid and proud PC port. Hitler's Blood Included! Wolfenstein 3-d taps you back in time, all the way to 1942-1943, during World War II Nazi Germany. Here Adolph Hitler's regime runs wild and the prosecution of many races begins. But then a soldier, B.J, or your character, was brought into a dungeon to be sentenced, but you escaped. So in the end you are basically left by yourself, (with no protection) in a huge castle filled with German soldiers, and even Adolph Hitler himself. Here you must do the part of taking out the soldiers, and then assassinating Hitler. Do you think you can do that? The adventure of B.J, however, is a lengthy and trivial one; in fact this game is separated into six episodes to separate the action and to simply to bring people to playing any part of the game that they might like. Each episode, in every part, is different. One episode has you escaping from Castle Wolfenstein, while another one puts you in the director's seat of seeing first-hand the bloodied corpse of Hitler himself. However, this brings me to my next point, Wolfenstein 3-dÉ Is bloody, offensive, and definitely not for the young or weak-hearted thanks to its war-like status. Bloodshed lies all over the place giving you a feel that this game truly is offensive, and with all of the portraits lying all around the place depicting Hitler, and Nazi symbols, this game just takes it to the max with its portrayal of nazism. The game also has skeletons lying around, whose flesh was drained out by gas (a scene of concentration camps), and there are even other piles of skeletal orientations, which show you more of the sickening things Germans made other people of different races do back in the early and late 40's. However, the massive brutality and gore should not curdle the fact that this is still a good game. While you are thinking Wolfenstein 3-d you are thinking old and outdated. While indeed it is old and outdated, all of that special gameplay is integrated and in a way put out into a special package that should intrigue people of the early FPS crowning days. However, while it is a proud PC port of an old game, still, it would have been cool if something new could have been added to the mix. Muli-Player support would have been nice, a new episode would have been sweet, and more weapons could have been portrayed. Speaking of weapons, Wolfenstein 3-d has four different types of them. While each is mostly the same as the other, it is still a good list -- though yet again more weapons could have evidently have been better--. The four weapons are: a shotgun, a silenced handgun (or the gatling gun), a swiping knife, and the fan-favorite, the sub-machine gun. The shotgun is a small weapon that fires slow, and practical. While slow, this weapon is still one of the main exhilarating weapons that you will use to kill your enemies. You will normally start out with this weapon, and this gun can be really useful against some of the more 'slower' enemies. The second gun, the silenced handgun, is basically like the shotgun except for the fact that it fires faster, and is silenced so no other guards can be alarmed or distracted. The swiping knife is the weapon you will always have because co-incidentally it does not need any ammo. WOW! The knife is practically useless, though, and it is hard to find a position in which you will actually be forced to use this 'weapon,' considering the fact that ammo packages are strayed and thrown all over the place. The sub-machine gun is the best weapon (obviously). This gun, while at times hard to find, is really useful because it fires fast and can kill many sets of enemies really fast. This is also the best weapon to use when you are up against the bosses of this co-essential unsubstantiated game. In this game you will never have any support, and incidentally I find that a good and bad thing. Nazi Guards and bio-genetic experiments try to stop your every move, while at times [Nazi] dogs will come and try to bite you to smithereens. And your best way of taking care of these enemies is to wellÉ kill them. Many guards are not really smart, and simple bullets can send these guys packing. The same goes for dogs. Now before you question the game's AI, simply think and see just how old this game is. Uh-huh, thought so. But there are some tough guards that you will have to deal with. Some guards are even equipped with machine guns making them hard, and the 'mutant' experiments simply use every trick in the book to try to take you out. This not only makes the game hard, but it makes it more suited to a person's liking. Control is where this game suitably seems to go down. While the pressing of the A and B buttons to open doors and to shoot bullets are not the problem, neither is the strafing done by the L and R buttons, yet something seems to integrate the controls at time, which can seemingly make the experience very bothersome. Every time I start playing I press the Directional Pad to move, but most of the time my character seems to do a whole spin, leaving enemies to hit-and-run my ass, and also leaving me with an idea of simply closing this game down. While this does not happen often, it still is a problem to this GBA perfect PC conversion title. The graphics are your average fair of bland, yet wellÉ average graphics. Environments are well done and enemies are very colorful looking. Added themes such as impaled skeletons, furniture, and barrels also add a weird, but more pixilated approach to the game. While it has not changed much, it still seems to good to the limited power in which the Game Boy Advance can process. You are also given options, in the main menu, to increase the brightness or the darkness of the graphics in this game: a la Doom. The audio, however, for the most part is definitely bland, and generic. Unlike Doom, which had background music, Wolfenstein 3-d does not. Audibly, this game is a falling romp to how much FPS have processed throughout the past years. There are a few sound bits though. Stuff like the sound of your gun firing, or to the words that seem to come out of soldier's mouths. I do not know German so do not expect me to translate for you. Overall, Wolfenstein 3-d is a sweet experience to how much first-person shooters have changed throughout the years, too bad though that Wolfenstein 3-d did not go through that change. More additions to the gameplay would have been nice, and soothing and relaxing background audio would have been a blessing indeed. Still, you are witnessing the first of the FPS games, a game that unfortunately has not changed through time, and in the end you will see that this can be a good thing.

Overall: 7 out of 10

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