I've Never Beaten Wolfenstein 3D.

[Werge]

Hey everybody, I just wanted to discuss Wolfenstein 3D. I've beaten Doom 1, Doom II, Duke Nukem 3D etc. dozens of times, but I feel like a noob because I've never completed Wolfenstein 3D. Don't get me wrong, I was very good at it, but I've only made it half-way into the second episode. I've also only made it a few levels into Spear Of Destiny, and never played The Nocturnal Missions. 

 

I love Wolfenstein 3D, and I've recently come back to old-school shooters. I'm certainly rusty. So, have you ever beaten Wolfenstein 3D, and how does the difficulty compare to Doom 1 and II? 

 

Also, what are some good strategies to use in Wolfenstein 3D?

 

[Midnight_00]

I've completed the six original episodes and Spear of Destiny on Death Incarnate. Barely touched the Nocturnal Missions.

 

The closer you are to enemies the more damage you do to them, and they do to you. You can take advantage of that to kill enemies quicker and save ammo, but I'd keep your distance when engaging officers and mutants if you can because they fire very quickly (instantly in the case of mutants). 

 

You can save ammo by using the knife on dogs and lone guards or SS (more risky).

 

You can camp in front of doors and kill enemies as they walk through in a line. That strategy loses effectiveness as the levels become more intricate though (not to mention having more officers and mutants).

[ReaperAA]

33 minutes ago, Werge said:

Hey everybody, I just wanted to discuss Wolfenstein 3D. I've beaten Doom 1, Doom II, Duke Nukem 3D etc. dozens of times, but I feel like a noob because I've never completed Wolfenstein 3D.

 

No need to feel like a noob. I reckon there are plenty of folks here that have played major 90's fps games like Doom, Heretic, Hexen, Duke3D, Quake I and II, Blood, SW, Unreal, HL etc. but have not played or beaten Wolf3D mainly because Wolf3D is a bit too primitive, even for many 90's fps fans. I happen to be one of those. I once tried Wolf3D, but got to around E1M4 or E1M5 before I just didn't wanted to play more. The maze like level design got to me.

 

33 minutes ago, Werge said:

how does the difficulty compare to Doom 1 and II? 

 

As far as difficulty is concerned, most folks find Wolf3D on IADI (I am death incarnate) to be harder than Doom 1/2 on UV. There was a thread about this sometime ago and almost everyone said this.

 

I will just quote my own comment from that thread

Quote

Wolfenstein 3D on IADA is harder than Doom on UV because:

• Jankier controls.
• Almost all enemies are hitscan.
• Enemies can shoot through each other. So you can't use enemies as meat shield. It also means no infighting.
• Enemies move faster and are surprisingly better at navigating environments than the enemies in Doom.
• BJ is much more squishy than Doomguy.
• Very limited ammo capacity. Only 99 bullets ammo vs the Doomguy's 400/100/100/600 ammo of bullets, shells, rockets and cell.
• A lot of ammo/health is hidden being secret pushwalls. So you better be good at finding them, else you will have a bad time.
• The level design is much more BS.
• No automap makes navigation harder (as if the wolf3D's mazes aren't already hard to navigate).

 

The first and last points can be somewhat mitigated by using ECWolf which includes better controls (ability to strafe) and an automap. But the rest still stand.

[Stupid Bunny]

I mean, I've still never played though E4 or Plutonia all the way so you have nothing to feel silly about :p

 

I can't remember if I've beaten the first three episodes of Wolf3D or not.  I'm pretty sure I did at some point, but to be honest they all kind of blur together for me.  Wolf3D has that kind of quality, unfortunately.

[Rudolph]

I have never beaten Wolfenstein 3D either nor do I really feel the need to, as Doom has made the game pretty much obsolete in every way.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

I've never beaten it, I always lose interest for the same reasons as other people. I also find the use of color in the game to be very ugly and irritating. I'd rather look at black and white or wireframe graphics than a series of neverending sky blue bricks. It's iconic and important, but I don't find it to be fun at all. Some games, no matter how monumental they were at the time of their release, age like dirt. Playing Wolf3D in 2022 or even 2002 is about as entertaining as playing Pong.

 

Maybe I should start a thread about old-as-dirt-but-incredibly-important games that are aren't any fun anymore.

Edited February 27, 2022 by TheMagicMushroomMan

[thiccyosh]

Well, me neither. Because even with the modern ECWolf port I think Wolfenstein 3D just isn't as great as everyone describes. In other words: Wolf 3D was already outdated once DOOM 1993 came out. Controls are clunky and most of the enemy roster are just hitscanners. Though I have to give Wolf 3D this: Blazkowic is fricking fast when he strafes, no wonders why Germans invented the Autobahn. Dude strafes faster than Doomguy.

[Roofi]

Me too , all levels look the same after all.

[7Mahonin]

I've said this elsewhere but the best tip I can give is to not play Wolf 3D like you're playing Doom. Once you get the chaingun, don't bother switching to the pistol or SMG. It is a waste of time and is not necessary. Tap fire if you want a more controlled, 2-round burst from the chaingun or hold it down for a rapid fire attack, which will always be better than a single shot from the pistol or SMG and the rate of fire beats both of those guns as well. All the guns have the same range and damage. The only difference is their rate of fire. The knife is useful to conserve ammo with and also has a different damage input than the other weapons, but you need to be quick, and don't bother using it against the mutants because they will automatically fire back at you. Take out enemies as soon as you can. The last thing you want is for them to venture off and attack you from behind, no matter what enemy it is. Dogs go down in one hit with all weapons, so use the knife for them except when they are swarming you, because you'll likely be killed once that happens without resorting to using your gun.

 

Anytime you start with a pistol your goal should be to seek out better firepower and additional ammo. The SS only drop their SMG if you do not already have one. Picking up a chaingun without the SMG gives you both weapons.

 

Each episode is 10 levels. 8 of them are standard maps, with level 9 always being a boss and level 10 always being a secret level. When you reach level 4, it is a good time to save your progress, as levels 5-8 tend to be far more challenging than the first four maps in each episode. The boss levels aren't too tough, but the goal should be to take out any guards first before finishing off the boss. The guards love to get behind you and blast you point blank in the head, and that isn't great if you're already dodging the boss's chaingun, rockets, etc. Think of the game as 2 sets of 30 maps. Episode 1-3 are the main story, with 5-6 being prequel scenarios that happen before BJ is captured and brought to Castle Wolfenstein.

 

Spear of Destiny is 21 maps. There are 2 secret maps, and then the final boss level is technically 2 levels, but does not appear as such while playing. SOD is a more challenging set, and the bosses are a bit more challenging as well. SOD technically takes place before any of the events witnessed in Wolfenstein 3D.

[Teo Slayer]

I have beaten Wolfenstein 3D and SoD a couple of times. I really enjoy that game, even if it looks flat and boring, but I prefer playing Doom more because it has more complexive maps, a larger variety of enemies (thank god they aren't all hitscans), has better weaponary and it is more fast-paced.

[Senor Cacodemon]

I never really wanted to beat the wolf 3d original trilogy because after episode 1 I felt like I was playing the same game just with new textures

[BigBoy91]

Me neither. I appreciate and respect the game for what it is, but it's just not fun to me. ECWolf makes it a little bit better, I guess. I much prefer Blake Stone.

[PsychEyeball]

I've replayed Wolfenstein 3D lately and considered my playthrough over after beating the first three episodes. The Nocturnal Missions (Episodes 4-6) are sadly more of the same and there's no real point to playing them today, unless you consider the new textures found in these levels a vital addition to the game. It's still a fun game and it's simplicity is endearing, but it has no reason to stretch itself over 60 levels. The game doesn't have enough variety to warrant that many levels.

 

Killing Hitler in Episode 3 and then never looking back is my suggestion.

 

And yeah, tips to help you with the game...

• Circle strafing will not help you in this game when all monsters are hitscan. Situational awareness is much more important in fights than mobility. Try to bottleneck monsters through doors or small hallways while keeping a safe distance from them to limit the damage they'll deal to you. Don't let yourself be caught off guard; a single SS officer or mutant can ravage you from full health to death before you can even blink.
• Don't take on mutants with the pistol! Unlike other enemies, they have no frames of animation for winding up their gun to shoot at you so their attacks are instant. This means they can easily shoot you between your own shots. It's not uncommon for them to be able to take a shot even when you use the machine gun.
• Even though the chaingun's great, it will eat your ammo very fast. On higher difficulties, you should consider switching to the machine gun to kill the boring brown guards or dogs; the latter only have 1 HP so a single attack of anything will kill them.
• Play in ECWolf in order to have the power of minimap available to you. The levels all are mazes and having a map help tremendously in navigating them.

[Jello]

Don't feel bad. I've only completed episodes 1-6 once, and SOD once. And that was a long time ago, and it was more just to say that I had done it. It becomes a complete slog after a while, with the vast mazes of levels, the limited weapon supply, the limited number of enemies with most of them being hitscanners. And the really BS mutants. And I never went up to Death Incarnate, I always played on Bring It On, because I wanted to have some semblance of enjoyment.

 

They were fun to play in their time, and I actually played the shareware of Wolfenstein after playing the Doom shareware. It still seemed impressive to me at the time, but I was also 8 and computers were relatively new, it's not like I had a pad shoved in my face when I was three years old while my parents ignored me because they were also staring at a screen.

 

But yeah, Wolfenstein was interesting, and impressive, but it was eclipsed very quickly by Doom. Even Blake Stone is more enjoyable at this point. And I always found the Catacombs games more interesting just due to the variety in textures and enemies.

 

Although really, Catacomb 3-D is kind of lackluster. I think the three sequels made by Softdisk were better, Armageddon and Apocalypse being my favorite. And with @Arno's CatacombGL port, I still think they're enjoyable even now. I don't feel the same way about Wolfenstein and the ECWolf port.

Edited February 28, 2022 by Jello

[Lizardcommando]

I saved my game a lot. Plus, I took it really slow. I played two - three levels a day. Playing the later levels where the maps get really maze-like gets exhausting.

[Dubbag]

9 hours ago, Midnight_00 said:

I've completed the six original episodes and Spear of Destiny on Death Incarnate. Barely touched the Nocturnal Missions.

Mutants on Death incarnate are almost instant death.

[Murdoch]

8 hours ago, 7Mahonin said:

Once you get the chaingun, don't bother switching to the pistol or SMG. It is a waste of time and is not necessary.

 

The SMG can use ammo more efficiently in my opinion. I tend to save the chaingun for major crowd control.

[dyshoria]

with the later episodes of wolf3d they knew that only someone who knew what they were doing thus giving the pros a challenge

[Luleta]

i think i finished ep3 and tried playing through ep4 and the rest until at some point i was like.

"this is just more of the same, im done" and stopped lol

its just that the weapons feel pretty much the same and so do the enemies, and the levels.

also most encounters boil down to "bottle neck and shoot down hall brrrr" which makes me fall asleep.

fuck the mutants tho, they have blood cultist dna.

[ChopBlock223]

I think that the base Wolfenstein 3D goes through half of its worthwhile mileage with the first episode, because the gameplay doesn't really change very much past that, but I think it still remains good enough for the following two episodes.

If you want the core Wolfenstein 3D experience, you get most of it with the original three episodes, you get to see all the enemy types, see some varying tilesets, fighting and defeating Hans Grosse and Dr. Schwabbs, then finally fighting and defeating Adolf Hitler.

 

I personally feel that after that it just runs out of steam. The Nocturnal Missions expansion is just not fun to me, some of the level design is outright awful, if you felt the game was too mazelike before, it gets much worse here, it also relies far more on gray, tan, and brown wall textures, so it really lacks the color variety of the original missions.

If you did the first three episodes but still want more, then I think Spear Of Destiny is a much better choice, as its level design is better and it has cooler bosses. It's also a little shorter so it doesn't overstay its welcome.

I cannot recommend the licensed third party expansions to Spear Of Destiny, some of the all new textures and sounds are cool, a lot of it I find to be quite crude and unpolished, not even getting into the design of the levels themselves, which has probably some of the worst of the official mapsets.

[Kyka]

Its totally cool that you haven't finished WOLF3D. No one has.

 

But we all say we have to keep up appearances.

 

On an unrelated note, I have finished all episodes of Wolf and SoD

[Doominator2]

I beat all 6 episodes in High School and I just recall abusing quick save a lot. Probably not the most fun way of playing it, but I just wanted to get it over with at the time.

[deleted-account]

Wolfenstein 3D is one of those rare games that makes me motion sick for some reason.  I beat it once just to say I have but I don't think I could take it again.

[jupiter_ex]

Neither had I until 2012 or so when the 20th anniversary was all over the news so I went home from work and played the whole thing + expansions from beginning to end.

I don't think I'd have the strength to do it again if I wasn't super hyped up like I was that day. Wolf3D these days looks like a monotonous maze of blue walls, and the lack of map and the draggy movement doesn't help :D

[Caffeine Freak]

Don't think I've ever beaten Wolf 3D either, though I did carve my way through a decent chunk of the game (up to the 4th episode or so, as I recall), around 11-12 years back. 

 

It's certainly a fun enough retro experience to blast through for an afternoon or so. Part of the problem with completing it is that even for the patient type, the game starts to become very monotonous after a couple dozen levels or so, though I think you could make a strong argument that this is more due to engine limitations than creative shortfalls. The game is probably an episode or two too long, especially when you throw in Spear of Destiny on top of the first six episodes.

 

I imagine sometime in the future I'll sit down again and power through the whole thing, just to say I did.

[LadyMistDragon]

I have but the last time was over 20 years ago. If the game had more composers besides Bobby Prince, that might be slightly different, but to be honest, it's almost too primitive. As much as I love the cute still title screen that it shares in common with so many other DOS games, it is very, very repetitive, partly from the weapon selection of nothing else. Besides hitscan damage just being unpleasant....

[unerxai]

I've finished Wolf3D and Spear, but didn't 100% them. I still find it kinda fun as long as I'm not going for completionism. I feel the same way about ROTT.

[DoomBoomer]

Don't feel bad about it that you haven't finished Wolfenstein 3D. It's so primitive and loses its steam after third episode. After that, it's annoying and confusing mazes.There is no much variation in enemy roster, and most of them are hitscanners. And it has been already mentioned that the game has only 4 weapons and only one type of ammo which is... Well, ammo. Doom is better than Wolfenstein 3D in everything.