Out Came the Wolves

Happy new year! Happy new decade and the rest.
And what better way to start the new year than to announce another removal from my Hall of Shame:
Say goodbye Wolfenstein 3d!

 Original image located here. Accessed 15th January 2020

To view this game from the distance of nearly three decades presents an interesting case. It may be the grand-daddy of all first person shooters but there have been both countless of innovations to the genre and just as many technological advancements. So how does this game hold up?

Surprisingly well.

Sure there's not much to the game. Sure the 3d effect is all scaling trickery. Sure there is no narrative, only three guns and a level design that is completely bonkers. But ultimately, this game still maintains interest on several fronts:

• The level design may be insane but the mazes are compelling - enough to have me looking around every corner, wary of any baddies in hiding.
• The game is kind of tough - especially on hardest difficulty where health items are scarce and you find yourself wading through ammo clips.....
• I mentioned previously that Doom presents many an opportunity to go full desperado (ie you versus a room full of baddies) - unlike many of it's successors. But now, I think Wolf 3d does it even better than it's younger brother. 
• Its always impressive to use the gatling gun on a room full of baddies. However, now that I think about it, it does burn through ammo quickly - considering there are so many countless ammo clips around, was I being encouraged to use that particular gun?
• Some of the bosses are really tough. And fighting them becomes a tense affair. Which is quite the achievement for a game made in 1992. 

So in the end the original Wolf 3d, somehow, still holds up.
Who would've thunk it?