Wolfenstein 3D

by ACTIVISION

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005RV92
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: January 15, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,321 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: PC

Amazon.com Product Description

It's World War II, and B.J. Blazkowicz, the Allies' bad boy of espionage, is a terminal action seeker built for abuse with an attitude to match. There's just one small problem: you've been captured by Nazis, tortured, and imprisoned beneath the intricate maze of Castle Wolfenstein where you await an inhumane execution. Now, you must do anything and everything to escape from the belly of the Nazi dungeon--or die trying.

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for your laptop too!, May 4, 2002

By 

Mark Lahren (Bismarck, North Dakota USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wolfenstein 3D (Jewel Case) (CD-ROM)

This particular release of this classic game was re-done to run under the Windows 95 environment when it first appeared. I have since got it running successfully under Win 98 and XP. The great thing is, the CD is not required to play, so this is a natural for laptop gamers wanting to experience a piece of history. I think this game dates back to 1992 or 93. The fact that it runs nicely on modern PCs makes it kind of a unique experience.
For those of you unfamiliar with this game, it is considered the granddaddy of first-person shooters. There were others before this, but this was the most fun with the simplest controls.
If you are used to playing modern games, don't expect to be blown away. But if you're looking for a simple time-killer in great environments, this is a classic. No 3D accelerator required!
Also, this release includes the complete 'Spear of Destiny' add-on, so you won't be running out of gameplay for a long time. It's just a blast to play. My favorite weapon is the chaingun, with (for its time) fantastic sound effects. The game's music is great too. Again keep in mind I'm not measuring any of this by today's standards.
I also recommend the reworked-for-Windows "Doom" collection for the same reasons I've listed here. "Doom" was also made by id software, and is a much superior game to this, although the argument could be made that I'm comparing apples to oranges between the two games. In my opinion, both games are must-plays. Experience some gaming history, and have fun at the same time!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You Gotta Love the Classics, December 2, 2001

By 

Christian Klein (Herndon, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wolfenstein 3D (Jewel Case) (CD-ROM)

You gotta love the classics. When you look back on such games as DOOM, Secret of Monkey Island, Zork, Wolfenstein 3D... huh? Wolfenstein 3D?

Yes, that's right: the game with the title that's a mixture of programming language and poor German is a classic.

While not many outside of the gaming world (and a few newbies in the gaming world) know about Wolfenstein 3D, we owe a lot to it. This simple, short, brainless shooter from id Software is the forerunner to games like Quake, Half-Life, and yes, DOOM. I am not exaggerating when I say that none of these games would exist without Wolf 3D - it literally invented the first-person shooter genre.

"You crouch over the guard's body, hoping that the others didn't hear his muffled scream..."

With (approximately) these words, the game opens up in the bowels of the ominous Castle Wolfenstein where you, B. J. Blaskowitz, have been imprisoned. You were searching for evidence of Operation Eisenfaust, a rumored Nazi project involving horrifying experiments on human beings in an effort to create an army of supersoldiers. Now, your only goal is to get out of the prison and save your[self] in the process. Believable? No way, but it is a somewhat interesting beginning (albeit in text form only). Then the game truly begins, and all pretenses of this being a story-driven game go straight to heck.

You start out with a pistol, a clip of ammunition, and a knife, and this is all that you have for a while in order to make it through eight different levels. On the "Can I play, Daddy?" difficulty setting, you run into a few guards, kill them, take their ammo, and maybe tirelessly run up and down using your USE button on the walls in hopes of finding a secret area. This is where Wolf's main fault kicks in - the enjoyment of the game depends far too much on the difficulty setting. While the amount of adrenaline in your body shoots through the (seven) roofs on the highest difficulty setting (appropiately named "I am death incarnate!") due to the increased amount of enemies, you have far too few on the easier settings. Here's an example: on easy setting, you bust (er, open the door) into a room and stand around shooting at the two German grunts, kill them far too easily, pick up the key, and saunter leisurely out. On hard setting, you open the door, charge into the room and maneuver around trying to not get shot into oblivion by the ten or so Germans, frantically grab the key while avoiding the other Germans that are pouring into the room through another door, and make your escape.

Another problem occurs after you kill most of the Germans on a level. Having nothing to do, you start looking around every single room in hopes of finding the one key that you need because you're stuck at a locked door. This might not be so bad except for the fact that the levels contain many small rooms and are very maze-like in nature.

The array of weapons you have is very small as well; you have four weapons at your disposal in the entire game. Most of these are basically the same, differing only in the rate of fire and how much ammunition they [use] up.

One last strike against the game is the anticlimatic ending. You'd think after eight levels of extreme carnage you'd be able to fight your way to the exit among veritable thousands of Nazis and, finally reaching it with more baddies on your tail, be relieved by Allied forces who really take the fight to the Nazis. No such luck. Instead, you have to simply open the door for big ugly with dual chainguns to come out. You'd even think that there would be some kind of complex AI for the endboss, but no luck there either: he just stands there, guns blazing. Sure, he'll follow you if you run away, but there's no big trick to it: just load up the chaingun and give him everything you've got. Then, you're treated to a five second cut-scene of B. J. punching the air as he leaps out of the castle to freedom. The text that sums up the aftermath is nice, but I'd expect a bit more.

Still, despite these basic faults, Wolfenstein has a lot going for it. The graphics engine was incredible for the day, featuring real-time battles with a lot of carnage, and the invention of a genre was no small feat.

In the end, Wolfenstein deserves a look. It's not as much fun as games like DOOM or Half-Life, but it's a nice, short diversion.

PROS: The birth of a genre; superb, adrenaline pumping action on higher difficulty settings; nicely done text.

CONS: It can quickly degrade to searching for a certain key; little variety among weapons; lack of enemies on easier settings; extremely short and anticlimatic ending.

BOTTOM LINE: It won't make you drop your Half-Life or Halo fix, but Wolfenstein 3D is a good buy for anybody that thinks the market is too low on action games.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Not the Same" is a moron, December 20, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Wolfenstein 3D (Jewel Case) (CD-ROM)

(...) I formally urge any serious buyers (of anything) to do your homework before wasting money on something you don't want. To set the record strait, id Software (original deviser of both games) is NOT trying to confuse you. Buyers have been buying this game since 1991. It has been in various packs and combinations. It was the first widespread sucessful shooter. id Software simply re-released the game (again) because the buyers who missed out on the whole shooter craze (1991-1997) want to own BOTH games. I assure you, this game is the classic, and should not be confused with it's offspring.

To cap it off, this classic is worth the ten buck for people who like doom, etc. The graphics are pretty corny, but for it's day that was top of the line. This is the original ...-kicking, ...-hating, 3-D revolutionizing game. The child of this game, Return To Castle Wolfenstein, has awesome graphics, and I urge you to buy them both. The games are well worth your time and, for the last time, look before you buy.

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