Feature: E1L1

Probably the most famous of all levels in Wolfenstein 3d is E1L1. It's the first level that anyone who has ever played the game saw and played through. Given a pen and paper I'm sure that most Wolfers would be able to draw it almost exactly as it looks in an editor still to this day!

The level was basic in design but it introduced us immediately to the World of Wolfenstein 3d and showed us so much about Wolf, and why we still love it today. From it's blue prison walls to it's wood paneled wall areas and then to it's common grey brick walls that we are all so familiar with. We get dogs and guards, secret areas, treasure and and even a secret elevator.

By now most of us have played it so many times we feel we could play through the level with our eyes closed, finding all secrets and killing all enemies, so in honor of this iconic start to our favorite game I thought it might be interesting to take a closer look at it and how it has influenced Wolf 3d mod making.
A lot of mod makers have used E1L1 as a base for a level of their own mods. In this feature we will explore how and when it has been used, how the mapper made changes to enhance it for their own liking and what else it has been used in.

You can watch Balames87's YouTube video of the level HERE

Alpha Version
With thanks to Chris Chokan and some others, a couple of Alpha versions of Wolf 3d exists showing what Wolf looked like at an earlier stage through it's development.
We can see from the map view below that E1L1 doesn't look a lot different, but on closer examination we can see that some very important changes have been made.

There have been quite a few guard placement changes made from the Alpha version to the final version, especially with a lot of Level 4 guards being added, but the 2 main things that were changed have been circled in the above map.
- Firstly, we see that a table was placed that would block the players access to the large ammo and treasure cache in the secret room near the top-left corner of the map. This tops the player up and lets the new player know exactly what their ammo limit will be throughout the rest of the game. Plus we start to hear some of the 'found item' sound effects that seemed so 'awesome' back in the day, for those of us that didn't just have a PC speaker!
- Secondly, the access to the secret elevator has been modified. With this version the first pushwall would have blocked the players access to be able to push subsequent pushwalls meaning one would not have been able to access the Level 10 secret level.
These seemingly minor changes would of had massive repercussions on the level and the way it was played and we can be very thankful these changes were made for the better.

3D Map View
Not sure who made this but it's E1L1 shown in a proper 3d view. Not a new version but a different way to see the map.


DOOM II
Most people are aware of the Wolf 3d appearance in one of id's other mods, Doom II. On the secret level 31, you are greeted with a rather familiar sight.


This was a nice way for id to honor Doom's predecessor and the arguable instigator of the first person shooter that Doom helped take to another level. id even went as far as to use Wolf's E1L1 map to further keep the tradition going.

As you can see, very little was changed in the level design used as it matches quite closely to the Wolf 3d version. It was even complete with a secret elevator that took the player to another secret level which was Wolf 3d based also (A reproduction of the E1L9 Boss level).

You can watch Throom's YouTube video of the level HERE

End of Destiny
Probably the most famous version of E1L1 appeared in AReyeP and MCS' classic mod 'End of Destiny'. This appeared as a secret level and was perfectly summed up by AReyeP as to why others have used this level in their mods, "Who can forget this level? For many of us, it was our first Wolfenstein 3d experience!"

The main changes have been the addition of several secret areas with AReyeP describing the maps changes as containing "A number of sinister modifications". Anyone that has played the level can sure attest to the toughness (and rewards) of the level.


You can download Spear: End of Destiny from HERE.
You can watch LingYan203's YouTube video of the level HERE
You can watch Balames87's YouTube video of the level HERE

Sewer Town
John Burnett added a version of E1L1 to his fantastic mod 'Sewer Town' but with a couple of major changes. Firstly the player plays from the exit elevator backwards and secondly, parts of the level take place outside in a snow themed area!
There have been some other additional areas added that add to the playability and give this version of the map it's own identity


You can download Sewer Town from HERE.
You can watch LingYan203's YouTube video of the level HERE

The Grail of Eternal Life
The only real change to this version of E1L1 is the addition of a starting elevator the to the left of the original starting room. This appears as Level 7 in the mod so the addition of an elevator to match the other levels in the mod was necessary. Otherwise nothing else seems to have been changed form the original version except the removal of the Secret elevator.


You can download The Grail of Eternal Life from HERE
You can watch RichterBelmont12's YouTube video of the level HERE

Project Vertilgung
Similar to TGOEL, the creators of Project Vetilgung have added a separate elevator area to their map, but like Sewer Town, the player starts in the original exit elevator and works their way backward to the new finish elevator located off the original start room. This also has an additional secret area added to the treasure and ammo room in the top left of the map but the main difference to the level is the removal of all guards except for 1 ghost located in the small treasure room in the wood paneled area that can be easily avoided.


You can download Projekt Vertilgung from HERE
You can watch LingYan203's YouTube video of the level HERE

Project Wolfgeist
Thomas has used E1L1 in 2 of his releases with the first being in Project Wolfgeist which he made under his old 'Possum Trot' nickname.
Thomas has creatively played with the level and the way the player accesses certain areas and has changed the start position and secret exit by adding a couple of new elevators and removing the location of some of the secret walls turning their spaces into standard rooms. This gives the level a look and feel of it's own but still has a nod to the original version.


You can download Project Wolfgeist from HERE

Castle Assault
For his second go at reworking E1L1, Thomas has again been very creative in the way he does things, again removing the obvious secret walls that everyone knows and adding some new secret areas that the player wouldn't immediately know were there.
The level no longer leads to a secret level and neither of the original levels elevators are used to exit the level. The player works backwards in this, like others have done, but the player starts where the hidden secret elevator is located in the original version. The majority of guards and sprites have been changed and an additional exit area has been added to the square blue prison walled area on the right of the map
Outside of AReyeP's version this is definitely my favorite reworking of those listed here. castle Assault is one of my favorite Thomas' mods and this only adds to it's playability and enjoyment.


You can download Castle Assault from HERE

Wolf 3d Endgame
This is the only modified version of E1L1 that I haven't actually played but by looking at the map below it's fairly obvious to see the main changes made. The map is left almost identical to the original version, except for a large health & ammo stash behind the players start position and the addition of 48 mutants to the passageway leading to the exit area! I'm sure this would make for a very messy challenge.


You can download Wolf 3d Endgame from HERE

Enigma's Nightmare Part 1
Enigma released three parts to his 'Nightmare' series and used modified version of E1L1 in 2 of them (Parts 1 & 3). The modified level in Part 1 is an interesting challenge with many additional areas. Having played this level recently I feel that some of the new areas work well while some just seem unnecessary and the level would probably have worked better without them. Nonetheless it's still an interesting reworking of the original version.


You can download Enigma's Nightmare Part 1 from HERE

Enigma's Nightmare Part 3
Enigma's second effort at reworking E1L1 is unfortunately even a bigger mess, in my opinion, that the version he made for Part 1. There are huge big open spaces with little decoration or guards, long empty passageways and big parts of the map use the same floor codes. This makes for fairly easy going as you can just stand in one place and all the guards will come to you. If you do play through normally, you'll find that guards often open locked doors meaning it is possible to complete the level without finding a single key!
The access to the secret elevator has been changed, although it is still located in the same place on the map, but it's far more convoluted to access now.


You can download Enigma's Nightmare Part 3 from HERE

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading this feature. If anyone knows any more mods where E1L1 has been used and wants to send me a message on which mod it appears in, then I'll consider doing a Part 2 if I get a few.
Also I wish to say a big 'Thanks' to Thomas Weiling, Chris Chokan and Brian Lowe for their assistance on this feature. Thanks for reading everyone.

Review: Hitler's Ark

Details
Title: Hitler's Ark
Creator: Michael Collin (Dr. Chainsaw)
Released: 26/04/2007
Length: 9 Levels (No Secrets)
Level Format: Continuous
Story: New
Graphics: Mostly new
Sound: New
Special Features: Textured floors and ceilings, animated sprites, moveable objects, gun bobbing, directional sprites, 4 keys and doors.
Dos/SDL: Dos

Initial impressions: Some really great coding makes for a beautiful looking and laid out mod. The fun factor in this adds to the gameplay but doesn't distract from the professional way the mod has been constructured. Fantastic new music and sounds and the animated guards after being shot are a fun addition. Combines elements of Wolfenstein 3d and Super Noah's Ark 3d together well.

Gameplay: The game play is quite decent with large levels to explore and a respectful amount of guards. This is a nice merging of Wolf 3d and Noah's Ark 3d and although the player plays as Hitler, the mod is a nice challenge with some comedic aspects added into it.
There is more then ample health and ammo placed in plain sight throughout the mod so that one never gets too close to running out of either. The new statusbar has been extremely well done and I believe this is the only Wolf 3d mod I've seen where you play as Hitler!

Mapping: The mapping has been done very well except for one main aspect, the key placement and their proximity to their respective locked doors. Quite often the player spends many minutes running from one side of the map to another to unlock a door for a newly found key, only to find another key which then requires one to run back through the whole map again to where the player once was to access another locked door. This is done repeatedly on most levels but worst on level 6 where the last 5 minutes of gameplay is criss-crossing the level unlocking doors, retrieving keys and then repeating through all keys.
The maps are large and very well designed although the player doesn't really feel like they are on a boat as there are plenty of stone walls and ceilings throughout. The mixup of the lab areas gives a nice changeup to the mod which is predominately of a brown and fawn colour.
There are quite a few secrets in the mod but unfortunately most are only 3x1 rooms containing treasure. This doesn't really encourage the player to search for all secrets on a level.

Likes: The beautiful looking environments are rich and show how nicely the mod has been coded and decorated. The animated guards after being shot are a great idea and the health and ammo replacements are nicely drawn and are a clever change up from the original versions.
The level design is nicely done for the most part and the Bosses health has been adequately increased to a realistic and more challenging level.

Dislikes: The level design in relation to to the keys and proximity to their doors is the major thing that I suspect would irritate most people. Just too much time is wasting running back and forth through already completed areas.
The size of the Chaingun replacement is just simply too large and blocks too much of the screen and the secret placements become quite predictable as you work through the mod. Secrets used differently than just small treasure deposits would have been better to encourage the player to keep looking for them.


Ratings
Dean's Score: 7.5/10
Difficulty: Normal except Boss health has been increased dramatically.
Best Level: 9
Worst Level: 6

Wrap-up: A very nice looking mod with some fun elements that is easy to play at only 9 levels. Some great work has been done to add some unique features and they work very well with the games environment.
Some concentration on improving some mapping techniques by the creator would make this a more enjoyable experience for the player but outside of that, this is still an enjoyable, fun and easy mod to play through.

Where Can I get it?: You can download the mod HERE or by clicking on the screenshot at the top of this post.

Disclaimer: All reviews are only my opinion when playing the mod and are not intended to discredit anyone or the hard work they have put into creating their mod.

Review: Resistant

Details
Title: Resistant
Creator: Warthower
Released: 18/06/2008
Length: 13 Levels
Level Format: Continuous
Story: New
Graphics: Mostly new
Sound: New
Special Features: Textured floors and ceilings, additional guard, destructible objects, gun bobbing.
Dos/SDL: Dos

Initial impressions: Some nice coding features have helped add to the games environment well. Unfortunately the player is stuck with with a full screen view that onlt shows health and ammo, with no option to change it.
The music fits in very well with and helps enhance the over all feel of the mod.

Gameplay: The gameplay is very basic and there aren't a huge amount of guards on most levels. The most difficult thing is the very low amount of ammo meaning the player is constantly forced to use their knife. I'm not sure if this is intentional but it makes for very slow going and constant damage taking simply trying to survive.
The low ammo and health counts make the mod so much harder the further the player gets into the mod as things become more difficult, you find you almost never use the biggest gun as it uses all your ammo in a very short time and it can take levels to get back to a full compliment again.
There are 3 drab looking environments used in the game with all inside areas making the player feel like they are in a box as the same graphic has been used for walls, floors and ceilings.

Mapping: The mapping is very basic and the levels aren't overly big, especially in the start. There are quite a few secret areas in each level and even with finding all of these and their goodies inside, it is still very hard to survive and keep decent health and ammo levels. The outside areas are like huge mazes and become very annoying, very quickly, especially where enemies can attack from multiple directions and distances and there simply isn't enough ammo or health to fight. This causes the player to have to constantly retreat looking for ammo and health.
The Boss levels are a little more complex in design but still not overly well designed and can be quite mazey at times also.

Likes: The coding is the main feature of this, it sets a great look and environment to the game and I suspect this would be the main reason for why it won a Dome award.
The new guard is well deisgned but can be very damaging. The outside night sky and weather effects have also been done quite well and add to the look of the mod.

Dislikes: The mapping really lets this mod down, especially the outside garden levels which are nothing more than large mazes. The box like feel of having the same textures throughout indoor areas are lazy and most of the internal area are either 1 square passageways (as seen below), tunnels that doen't go anywhere, or 3x3 rooms.
I am confused as to how and why there are zombies and ghosts in this as there seems to be little storyline or reason for why they are there. Their colouring looks a little blurry which makes me think they have been imported from another game simply because the creator liked them in that, rather than specifically made to fit in this.
The worst componenet of the mod is the very limited amount of ammo that the player can cary (50) at any one time. This causes constant backtracking filling up on ammo and wastes a huge amount of time. I always felt 99, like in original Wolf 3d, was the right number as the player still had to be careful of their usage but wasn't constantly running out.
The lack of choice of screen size was something I was very disappointed in also. I like there being a full screen option in a mod but in my opinion it should ONLY be an option, not the only set choice. I'm a player that likes to know what level I'm on, how much damage I have reflective on my players face, which weapon number I am using and especially which keys I have!


Ratings
Dean's Score: 5.5/10
Difficulty: Harder because of restricted health and ammo limits.
Best Level: None
Worst Level: 6

Wrap-up: Some well done coding helps give this a look and feel of it it's own but it's lack of substance in a lot of other areas makes this a fairly decent let down for me. Most mods I play get better the further you go into them but this just became more and more irritating and was a real struggle for me to finish.
Others may feel differently to me about this and I sure hope that they can find something I wasn't able to. No matter what as long as the creator has made a mod to their own vision that they are happy with then I can't knock that.

Where Can I get it?: You can download the mod HERE or by clicking on the screenshot at the top of this post.

Disclaimer: All reviews are only my opinion when playing the mod and are not intended to discredit anyone or the hard work they have put into creating their mod.

Feature: Wolfenstein 3d YouTube Videos

I've noticed lately that there has been a big increase in the number of YouTube videos appearing that show either walkthrough's or showcases of Wolf mods or trailers for upcoming releases.

Having watched a lot of these I feel this is a great medium to help promote and explore Wolf mods without having to play them yourself. Listed below are some of the people I've found who've been doing these and can recommend watching.

Mod Trailers

Releasing a trailer for your upcoming mod can really help get some buzz going about your project and showcase a fair bit in a short amount of time for people to decide whether they want to download the mod to play it through for themselves or not.
You can watch any of the following by clicking on either the name of the video you would like to watch or by clicking on the 'play' symbol of any of the YouTube videos here. You can also click on any person's name which will take you directly to their YouTube page.

Soldat555

Joshua has released a number of trailers for his mods. They combine nicely chosen music and a good look at what the mod is about.

Doctor Who
Doom: The Movie
Tara Carmichael
End of Dragons
Return of Dragons
Frayed -


Max

Max has always made interesting mods and the following trailers sure show some of the creative and good looking aspects of his mods.

Evil Dead
Northern Darkness
DeathTrigger -

Jayngo

Jayngo hasn't posted much but the trailer for his Umbrella beginnings mod really gives a great insight into his fantastic mod.

Wolfenstein: Umbrella Beginnings -

InsurrectionMan

InsurrectionMan shows what looks to be a fairly standard looking Doom mod, until you realise he's made all this is the Wolf 3d code! This shows how much hard work has been put into the mod and how impressive it looks.

Doom Legions Revisited -

Mod Walkthroughs

The number of people producing Wolf 3d walkthrough videos has increased lately which is great for those of us that like to watch these but don't have the time to play through all these mods ourselves.

You can watch any of the following by clicking on either the name of the video you would like to watch or by clicking on the 'play' symbol of any of the YouTube videos here. You can also click on any person's name which will take you directly to their YouTube page.

Balames87

Probably the most well known producer of Wolf 3d mod walkthroughs is Balames87. Balames does commentary while playing through each level that really helps with understanding the level and the best way to proceed through it. Balames also has a suggestion page where he will do a blind playthrough of the highest voted mod each week. John has released over 500 videos with most being Wolf 3d levels with the majority completed to 100% of everything.

Spear of Destiny
End of Destiny
Spear Resurrection
Project X: Anniversary Edition
Castle Totenkopf SDL Version
Castle Totenkopf Dos Version
Spear of Destiny Reloaded
Trench Warfare -

LingYan203

LingYan does a lot of Wolf 3d levels without commentary and shows the quickest and best way to get through levels. He doesn't always get 100% but his playthroughs are a big help for anyone stuck on a level and needing to know how to complete it.

Project: Weltuntergang
Projekt: Vertilgung
The Golden Episodes
Spear Revisited
Spear of Destiny Mission 3: Ultimate Challenge
Project: Eisenritter
Operation Heimzahlung
Coming of the Storm
Mac-Enstein 3d - 2nd Encounter
Quest for the Amulet
Sewer Town -

RichterBelmont12

Richter has made a lot of Wolf 3d mods over the years under his current name as well as his previous nickname of Kyo Kusangi. Probably the bravest thing he has done for his Wolf 3d walkthroughs is to showcase and review his own mods.

Showcase #1 - Assault on Castle Wolfenstein & Assault on Germany
Showcase #2 - Assault on Germany 2 & Operation Recapture Spear
Showcase #3 - The Rise of Jason & Resident Evil
Showcase #4 - Resident Evil: Cover Operation & The Rise of Hitler
Showcase #5 - Spear of Dreams Parts 1-5
Showcase #6 - The Lost World Parts 1 & 2-7
Showcase #7 - Project X & Project X: Insurrection sneak peek
Deathtrigger -

WildWeasel486

WildWeasel has done some walkthroughs of a few recent Wolf 3d releases with commentary, he also does a lot of Doom walkthroughs and other things also.

Wolfenstein Sextilogy (Episodes 1-3)
Unsung -

JosephMallabar

Joseph has done a number of walkthroughs of Wolf 3d mods most of which are done very precisely and at an alarming speed! He has also done a few mods where he just demonstrates how to kill each Boss in a mod.

Wolfenstein 3d Boss levels
Conflict in the Fatherland Boss Levels
Coming of the Storm
Quest for the Amulet
Operation: Heimzahlung
Wolfenstein: Umbrella Beginnings - Episodes 1 & 2 -

Thanks for reading this feature, I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any suggestions of anything you like to see as a feature then please contact me and I'll see what I can do :)