Escape from Totenhaus

too many times in a Wolfenstein-themed mod is the premise the same: allied spy gets kidnapped and sent to a death camp or prison and has to fight his way out. Totenhaus isn't any different, and that's quite unfortunate. it tries to be original, fighting the way through predominantly brown buildings, and of course the rest of the story is up to the player.

 

level design isn't gonna be fun to go around in. just look at this first map, which is easily the lamest opener to any of the WolfenDoom sets thus far with nothing but guards and dogs and no MP40 to help, although thankfully it's not as frustrating as other entries. the second level shows a surprising moment of promise, as it's not filled with symmetry, but the levels that follow do. hey, great job having me find a key behind a secret for MAP06, and then again just to get to the outside of the last level. that Laz still does this kind of thing for level design really hurts the set overall. and of course these hallways and rooms aren't just symmetric, but oversized too, meaning that for the hitscan-heavy combat you're probably gonna do quite a bit of hiding at times. to also put into perspective, why does every floor look like a second floor as you apparently go up floors? doesn't make much sense it seems.

 

on the gameplay side, you don't get the chaingun until the second floor (MAP04), and well yeah, we've still got increased hitscanner health. the SS are one thing, but in this one the officers seem to have double their health and function identically to the chaingunner. the boss enemies are essentially reskins of Doom monsters here, which is lame (two of the Grosse guys you fight shoot invisible projectiles to give an illusion of chaingun fire but it's easy to dodge). on the Zdoom compatibility pk3, the game can prematurely end once you kill the last general instead of going to the exit as well. while the souped-up hitscanners can be annoying, the premise lame, and the symmetry still boring to run through, Totenhaus isn't entirely intolerable as the gameplay honestly isn't too harrowing (for me that would have to completely limit my resources and cover against loads of hitscanners, and Totenhaus doesn't do that).

I'm playing all the WolfenDoom scenarios and I'm currently playing Astrostein. This is the worst scenario yet, because most levels look the same. I'm giving two stars for the graphics, but the level design is boring.

Looks nice, but too symmetric. Gameplay is lacking, unfortunately; it's mostly just "look through the rooms until you find the next key". Of course, W3D in general is pretty much like that, but it's particularly noticeable here. - One of the problems here is probably that this does not actually feel like a "Totenhaus"; it doesn't feel like anything except for some random levels in a building (all of which seem to be on the 2nd floor, too!). "Treasure Hunt" etc. were much better in that regard.