612th played so far

Genre: First-Person Shooter
Platform: PC/Xbox/Playstation 2
Year of Release: 2001
Developer: Gray Matter Interactive
Publisher: Activision

Wolfenstein 3D is certainly a notable game. It was amazing to see 3D done at the time, as a first person shooter. Horribly dated now, of course, but the technology was amazing at the time. On the other hand, setting it amongst nazis reviving Hitler, the subject matter felt edgy at the time, but now feels unnecessary.

Returning to that castle, then, we go back to the nazi theme (which I’m not convinced of), but in a modernised setting that looks more like what we’ve grown used to. The question is, does that make it better for us?

Our Thoughts

I’ll be honest, as much as it is meant to be the point of the setting, the nazi imagery of this game feels mostly unnecessary and not something needed here. The game spends a lot of time trying to set this up as necessary – turning them into monsters – but it never quite worked.

Even so, while set in a castle, these days a good way to create a large integrated setting, this is no System Shock 2 and it instead creates several levels (with associated secrets) and an outdated feeling score at the end of each level. It’s a weird throwback.

The castle is designed to be somewhat realistic – perhaps except for some lengthy staircases that seem to have heavy stuff dragged up and down them for the levels to work. It feels like work has gone into it.

Final Thoughts

This game is a decent enough shooter, but feels outdated in places and I feel the setting doesn’t do it any favours. It never connected with me and became middle of the road because of that.