Wolfenstein 3D was developed by id Software and released by Activision. It retails for 400 MSP and was released June 3, 2009.

Wolfenstein 3D is the great granddaddy of modern first person shooters. It essentially invented the genre and laid the groundwork for Doom to be released a year later. In 1992 it was a technical tour de force that became the fastest spreading shareware game of its time. You play as BJ Blazkowicz whose goal is to escape from Castle Wolfenstein and foil the Nazi plot. The action is bloody and brutal, but the real question is whether is stands up after almost 20 years.

Here’s what we liked:

Faithful port – There is no denying that this is a solid port of the game. This was a much bigger deal years ago when home hardware such as the SNES couldn’t handle the game. Now the game is laughable from a processing standpoint. Even so, all the sound effects and graphical cues are present in an uncensored form. It is a very nostalgic feeling to cruise the corridors of Castle Wolfenstein if you did it many years ago. It’s also worth noting that this is the complete version of the game with all six episodes. Many gamers who played this back in the day probably only played the shareware version which only contained the first episode.

Secrets are still fun – What would a castle be without secret passages? It would be a terrible castle! Castle Wolfenstein is filled with secret passages that lead to treasure, health, ammo, and new weapons. Finding them can be a pain, but there is a real sense of joy when you push on a wall and it gives way to reveal a treasure room.

Save states – Being able to save anywhere midlevel is a great feature. It could certainly be used to cheat your way through the game but at this point who really cares. We can think of many games that would have been handily improved by adding save states to the it.

Here’s what we didn’t like:

Antiquated gameplay – Unfortunately, the gameplay of Wolfenstein 3D is incredibly dated. Those who cut their teeth on the likes of Halo and Call of Duty may well find the game unplayable. As it is there is very little variety at all. There are no puzzles beyond finding a key somewhere in a level. There are only three different guns. All enemies attack in essentially the same way. This game is as bare bones as it gets as far as gameplay is concerned.

No auto-map feature – The different levels tend to be rather incoherently designed. There is no building made that would ever resemble these levels, and it’s incredibly easy to get lost. If you get turned around it can be almost impossible to know from which way you came. An auto-map feature would have done wonders to make the game more accessible. Nobody likes wandering around for several minutes only to realize that they have made a giant circle.

No Spear of Destiny / Lost Episodes – These two titles were direct sequels to Wolfenstein 3D that came out less than a year later and used the exact same engine. These games are much less familiar. It would have been awesome to include them in this package. In fact, we can’t think of any good reason that they weren’t added. It is a serious missed opportunity.

Clunky controls – This game was simply not designed to be played with a controller. It does well enough, but with no aim assist we shot wide left and right of our targets at point blank range far too often. This is coupled with a very slow turning speed. Overall the controls just don’t feel right, though they are serviceable enough.

Mandatory demo download – This is perhaps the most annoying aspect of all. In downloading Wolfenstein 3D you are also forced to download a demo for the new Wolfenstein game. At first this seems like no big deal. But then we realized that Wolfenstein 3D can’t be more than 20 megs.  But the overall download is 197 megs. For those with limited hard drive space this is completely unacceptable.

Gamers with particularly fond memories of the early days of the FPS will enjoy this outing. But even the most strident fan will likely find their fond memories comparing poorly to playing now. Simply put it hasn’t aged well. Fans will likely wish they had left their now misguided memories intact rather than shedding the light of truth on them. It certainly isn’t terrible, but it’s hard to imagine anyone really wanting to play this for more than an hour to stroll down memory lane. The uninitiated need not apply.

Score: Skip it