The Wolfenstein 3d Blog

Review: Robocop 4 - The Delta City War

2012-03-07T12:16:00.000+11:00

Details
Title: Robocop 4 - The Delta City War
Creator: Little Snapes And John Bucksnort
Released: 07/02/2012
Length: 6 Levels (0 secret)
Level Format: Continuous
Story: None
Graphics: Original Wolf plus some new
Sound: Original Music, New sound effects
Special Features: None
Dos/SDL: Dos

Initial impressions: This looks ok, but nothing like the Movie in anyway that I remember, I guess that's why this is Part 4! The mod does have a nice look of it's own although theres some rather confusing things you notice straight off. Firstly the pistol has a sound like a machine gunm and secondly, the odd mixture of guards. You get the guy in the screenshot below (Who just lookes weird because of His height), the Officer from Wolf 3d, Giant Rats as well as one of the grunts from DooM. To be quite honest, they don't really all mix together very well. The new wall and sprite set, although very sparesly decorated fits quite well with the remaining Wolf ones that have been used and help give the mod a look of it's own.
All the level contain a (not obvious to find) hidden key. I know a lot of people are against this, and I personally don't think the player should have to be forced to search for secrets if they don't want to, but there are better ways to hide a key, such as showing a glimse of the key behind something, than just having the player get to a locked door, be unable to proceed and then have to backtrack throughout the level searching for a secret to find the damn key. I'm not sure why the mapper chose to do this but at least by Level 3 you realise you are just going to have to search for the key containing secret on each level.

Nice hat!

Gameplay:

Mapping: The mapping isn't outstanding if you compare it to a AReyeP or RonWolf but for 2001, when this came out, it's actually somewhat decent, except for the appalling maze on Level 6, I don't know how anyone could of thought that was a great idea!

"I know would could make this mod beter, a maze that takes up half the level but does nothing!"
Please, not this, nobody likes these, especially if there's no secrets, no keys, no bosses, no health, ammo or treasure and really no point of why you have put this in your mod.
Ouside of this the mapping is somewhat decent, the maps are rather small ans nearly the entire thing is in the one same wall, but at least they aren't full of empty of superfluous rooms for the sake of it, like some other mods from this era have had. There is a respectable amount of secrets and health, ammo and treasure isn't always easily to find unlike some other levels I've seen in mods lately.

Likes: The game was easy to play, didn't take too long to complete and at least had some decently, although non matching, selection of enemies. There wasn't a lot of searching around required through empty rooms and passageways for the way to go, in fact it's all fairly straight forward, which can sometimes be a good thing.

Dislikes: The maze on Level 6 was terrible and completely unnecessary.
For any aspiring mappers, please learn how to use the silent guard feature, otherwise you mod won't be challenging to most players, everyone will just do the same thing at every door they come to - Open it, fire one shot, and wait for every guard in that room to come to them. You have to mix it up a bit!
No Boss - Even if this isn't complete and even if the levels aren't going to stay the same after the final release at least throw a Boss in as a bit of a challenge. The mod alsp just ends with a frozen wall when you get to Level 7, surely you could of added an end game trigger instead!

Why do this? I mean that's a stone wall in the middle of a wooden one! And Barney, WTF?

Ratings
Dean's Score: 4.5/10
Difficulty: Not very difficult at all
Best Level: 5
Worst Level: 6

Wrap-up: This was ok but nothing special. The enemies all look great, in their own rights, but a set of guards that seemed to have more in common would have worked better. Also a larger use of differing wall types, more sprites and and non hidden keys, plus a Boss would have improved this mod a fair bit. The main problem is, none of those things are particularly hard to implement into your mod either, which is why this mod is rather disappointing.
I can't really recommend this as a must play, unless you have to play through all of the makers mods or something, otherwise their are a lot better mods from this era that i would suggest playing instead.

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: DieHard Wolfers Spear of Destiny SDL Mapset

2012-02-29T12:35:00.001+11:00

Details
Title: DHW SoD SDL Mapset
Creator: Various
Released: 07/02/2012
Length: 21 Levels (2 secret)
Level Format: Continuous
Story: None
Graphics: Original SoD
Sound: Original SoD
Special Features: None
Dos/SDL: SDL

Initial impressions: When you have AReyeP starting off by doing the first level in a mapset you know things can't go too wrong! The first level is perfectly balanced as both an introduction to the mod which builds up nicely so that the player can accumulate weapons and ammo before getting into some tougher stuff, which accurately reflects the level of difficulty of how many of the following levels are going to be.
Being that this is just original SoD, you know exactly what you are in for in realtion to features and enemies and can get going straight from the get-go.

Gameplay: As expected for a Community mapset, the action is fast paced and constantly challenging. There is quite a diverse number of mappers that have made levels for this and this mixes things up nicely. There is ample treasure, ammo and health and plenty of secrets for the adventurous player.
With the gameplay being constantly challenging one would be strongly advised to stock up on health and ammo regularly or to constantly keep in mind where to come back to for reserves. Heading into a new level low on either health or ammo is something I can advise very strongly against doing!

Mapping: I will reviewing this section based on the 18 levels that I wasn't involved in. I was very proud of the levels I made for this set so it would only be fair to put all bias aside.

With mappers making levels for this with the ability of RonWolf, Thomas, Serpens, Megabyte (who mapped all of KFH games "Reloaded" series) and AReyeP you know you are going to get some great levels, and all deliver high quality, challenging, enjoyable levels. What's nice about this is the other mappers, Hellblazer and Ipank7000 have delivered strong, enjoyable levels as well.
There are a lot more guards used than the original SoD game as each mapper tries to make their levels challenging with well thought out scenarios and ongoing battles to survive. Likewise, there are many more secret areas, choc full of health, ammo and especially treasure. So much so that my score rolled over twice while playing through this!
What I especially liked was the mix up between large open levels and smaller more compact levels. No 2 levels look alike, or play alike, meaning you just never know what to expect as you enter into each new level.

Likes: The mixture of levels and the diversity of styles made this thoroughly enjoyable for me. I think in making this that we aren't necessarily trying to make a better mod than the original, but more trying to make an enjoyable, entertaining mod for people to play, that embodies all the and I feel that we have achieved that nicely with this set.
Ipank7000's level was really well done and great fun to play, I greatly look forward to playing more of his levels am I am always very happy to see new talented mappers emerge.

Dislikes: Sound issues. I'm not sure if it was my pc or the game files but I lost music on 2 levels, only to have it return on the following levels and also suffered multiple crashes on one level also.

Ratings
Dean's Score: 8/10
Difficulty: Slightly harder than original SoD
Best Level: 8, with a nod to 15
Worst Level: 2

Wrap-up: Being apart of this, I was quite interested to see how everyone's levels turned out and how as a mod they played together. I can pleasently saw I was very surprised by how the mixture of styles blended together and feel this will be an enjoyable set and great representation of the quality that the DHW team can produce.
With 2 installments to the DHW mapping sets now made, here's hoping that a new mapset can be started for everyone to enjoy in the future. Spear Resurrection or End of Destiny anyone? :P

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

The earlier DieHard Wolfers SDL Mapset (Released 01/10) can be downloaded from HERE.

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: Wolfwing

2012-02-22T13:17:00.004+11:00

Details
Title: Wolfwing (Using NovoWolf as a base)
Creator: Hellblazer
Released: 02/06/2011
Length: 10 Levels (0 secret)
Level Format: Continuous
New Story: No (NovoWolf's is still there)
Graphics: Original NovoWolf
Sound: Original (Changed order)
Special Features: Increased Health and Ammo counts, Chaingun Guards, Intermission screens, animated sprites, shading & Ammo boxes.
Dos/SDL: SDL

Initial impressions: I'm not sure if the creator had Thomas' permission to use his mod as a base, and I guess it doesn't really matter, but for me there's the whole ethical aspect of how much credit can I claim for this mod and is this meant to be a tribute set or have a just stolen someone else's mod, used it as base and taking credit for someone else's hard work?
As I attempt to review this, a lot of the positives aren't due to the maker of THIS mod, but more to the maker of the mod that this used as a base, this makes reviewing something like this difficult, especially as then basically turns into just a map pack.
My initial impressions is that this looks a lot like NovoWolf, only not as well mapped.

Gameplay: The gameplay is fairly well done, although a lot of this plays part to the number of different enemy types installed in the original version, but the mapper does use them well. It's quite often easy to pick when a large battle is about to happen though as you will come to a room/s literally full or ammo and health boxes. Plenty of guards have been used throughout and sometimes firing your weapon in large open spacs can send guards running from multiple rooms and other places, which I believe is intentional and makes the player have to play somewhat carefully.
The usage of bosses is a little weird but this is because the mapper has tried to squeeze all the bosses used in 3x as many levels from NovoWolf into a 10 level set, meaning you can come across bosses quite frequently as you work through the levels.

Mapping: The mapping isn't too bad. The maps are mostly small and well decorated and generally serve a purpose for being there. The environments have been nicely done with a good use of wall art and sprites, although sometimes a little too much;

The levels contain ample treasure, although most of the time it's only the crown replacement used, even out in the open, like, everywhere... I 'm not used to so easily finding the highest level treasure item so consistently throughout a mod so this is certainly an interesting decision by the mapper. Usually the crown (or it's graphical replacement) is kept to hidden areas and/or hard to access areas, like Boss treasure rooms etc. There is substantial health and ammo in nearly every room making it extremely easy to stay as full health and near full ammo limits. The predetermined ammo level (250) set by Thomas, that the mapper has to work with here, means that the player can basically run around using the Chaingun at all times with very little worry of running out of ammo.
There are very few secret rooms, and most just contain the same items that are laying around everywhere else anyway. Unfortunately not everthing has been tested properly though, with some minor floor code errors and at least 1 secret area that goes nowhere;

After Level 5 is where things take a down note though. Level 6 is pretty much exactly the same as Level 6 from NovoWolf, as is Level 7, except for the removal of one room and the addition of another Boss. Levels 8, 9 and 10 do seem to be original levels though.
It's one thing, in my opinion, to do a tribute set (of sorts) to a mod but to use it's levels as well, for me, that's pretty much passing off someone else's work as you own, and when you are 'honouring' someone else's work, the last thing you want to do it look like you are taking credit for their work!

Likes: The mod looks great, it's nicely decorated, sometimes challenging and there's plenty of nice enough mapping to mix things up. NovoWolf is a good mod to have chosen to use as a base as it offers so much, a great variety of enemies and bosses and is a very beautiful mod to look at.

Dislikes: Using someone else's mod as a base. I know it's been done before by other mappers but this is often met with consternation and none of these types of mods are ever as good in quality to the original. I've had it done without permission for a mod I made, and I've often heard Thomas talk down others that have done it also. I'm not sure if Thomas knew the maker was using this as a base, and if he did, what he thinks of this, but for me I feel that at least some extra effort should have been added to make it very clear that this was only a mapset of someone else's mod. I think using levels from someone else's set is poor form, I know I wouldn't be too happy if someone had done it to one of my mods.
Changing the title screen or the 'Read This' or something to at least acknowledge the original creators work, and to personalise it a little to your own work, while also saying that this isn't the original mod, within the game, I felt is a measure of respect that should of been followed here.

Took me 4 minutes in paint!

Ratings
Dean's Score: 4.0/10 (Based on Mapping only)
Difficulty: Harder than original Wolf, not as hard as NovoWolf.
Best Level: 4
Worst Level: 6 & 7 - Because you stole them!

Wrap-up: NovoWolf is a very good mod and I can see why the maker chose to use it as a base, but for me there a few inexcusable things here that I feel the the maker should have done;

1. Don't use other peoples levels.
2. Make the mod distinguishable from the original.
3. I personally would run the idea of doing the set by the original mod maker, especially when they are still in the community and easily contactable.

There's not all bad here, and I know I rant a little bit, especially when the community is making mods for free, that aren't protected, meaning we can't stop someone else using our work and passing it off as their own, heck I've even had some jerk from Russia did it with one of my mods (at least change the email address genius so I don't get people emailing me asking how to complete one of your levels!), I just feel there needs to be an (almost) unspoken level of respect towards other peoples work. Yes, I freely admit that this probably has contributed to the score I gave this set.
If you love Thomas' mod, or have played and enjoyed (this set) makers levels elsewhere and want to play more of them then this is worth playing, outside of that i'd recommend playing the original NovoWolf rather than it's fairly average tribute set.

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

You can download NovoWolf, the mod this is based on HERE. You can also read the review I did on NovoWolf, from March 2011 HERE.

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.

The Wolfenstein 3d Blog now on Facebook!

2012-02-15T11:21:00.007+11:00

The Wolfenstein 3d Blog is now has it's own page on Facebook!

You can visit the page HERE.

We have also added the ability for you to post any of the posts we make here to your Facebook, Twitter or other Social media site for your friends and family to read also. Just click on the icon of the social media site you would like to post to under any post and you will be able to add it.

We will be posting all new posts here to the Facebook page also so you now have multiple ways to read any new posts!

Give us a like or leave us a message.

Released: DHW SoD SDL Mapset

2012-02-08T22:28:00.002+11:00

The follow up to 2011's DHW SDL Mapset has now been released, this time around Spear of Destiny gets the DieHard Wolfers mapping SDL makeover.
This is a 21 Level remake and contains levels by most of the people involved in the earlier set including a couple of others. People involved in the set are RonWolf, Thomas, AReyeP, MegaByte, Hellblazer, IPank7000 and Myself with Andy_Nonymous again doing organizing duties.

This is a great looking set of levels, from what I've played so far, which I feel most people will enjoy. I made Levels 4, 5 & 12 and really tried to make them as fun and chellenging as possible while maintaing the original Spear of Destiny look, feel and playability.

The set can be downloaded from HERE. (Note: It does require that you supply some of your own Spear of Destiny game files though, you need to provide the VGA, audio and vswap files.)

The DHW SDL Wolf 3d set (Released Jan 2011) can be downloaded from HERE.

Vacation

2012-02-01T11:04:00.002+11:00

Hi Everyone,

I will be taking a couple of weeks off and will return with a brand new post on Wednesday 8th February, 2012.

Thanks for reading the blog!

Wolfer Q&A: Ian Summerfield (Little Cherub/Metalor)

2012-01-18T12:56:00.003+11:00

Name: Ian Summerfield

Location: Somewhere within the United States.

Wolf 3d Nickname: Little Cherub / Metalor

Q. Where did your nickname come from and why did you choose it?

A. Well, I first chose the name “Little Cherub” because I had a fondness of Doom 3 when it came out. I had originally considered going with something having to do with the Mancubus, my all-time favourite Doom monster, but I wound up not doing so. Looking back, maybe I should’ve. So now I go by Metalor, just cause, Metal’s a cool substance and to be made out of it would either be very sleek and cool, or at the very least, very stiff and rigid.

Q. When did you first play Wolfenstein 3d?

A. I recall first playing maybe when I was about ten years old. I remember that I first saw my older brother playing episode 3 one or two times on this old computer we had. Seeing him do it, I guess I wanted a shot at it too (heh heh, sorry about that), and well, that’s pretty much that.

Q. How did you come to be a part of the Wolfenstein 3d Community?

A. After about 3 to 4 years, I found myself playing Doom (I know it’s rated M, but I was advanced for my age, or I at least like to think so), anyways having fun with that, I decided to start trying to look for ways to make my own stuff with Doom. I think I succeeded and found Deepsea, but soon found out that Doom modding could take huge amounts of time. Then after buying a new copy of Wolf 3D at the store and loading it on our computer, a simple modding interest from there lead me to Floedit, and from there I decided to seek out further modding utilities and wound up finding The Wolfenstein 3D Dome. After that, well I guess I just started modding what I could and made Monkeystein sometime afterwards. Then of course, I sent it into the Dome and just went on from there.

Q. What is the best part about being involved in the Wolf 3d Community?

A. There are several things. First and foremost: The People. The people in the Wolfenstein community are just so great and friendly. I mean, when you look at the Doom community, you find thousands of people, much more than the Wolf Community, but they’re either really rugged or have very little tolerance for Newcomers. In the Wolf Community there’s a bit more leeway with how everything goes. It just feels so nice to have all these people to talk to, seek help, and get some encouragement and some critical analysis on what you’re working on. On the Doom community, anyone having trouble is likely to get berated simply because the people there have had to deal with it so much that they have little to no empathy towards newcomers. So yeah, the People and then the Projects are a close second.

Q. You’ve been part of the Wolf 3d Community for nearing 10 years now, what has kept your interest to stick around for so long and keep releasing mods?

A. Well, I’ve often considered moving on to the Doom community and perhaps other game types altogether, but then I recall the overall experience that I’ve observed from the Doom community and I just decided that I had a good place to continue with, and I wouldn’t want to trade what I’m doing now with anything else. I have made some stuff for Doom and even did some stuff for RPG Maker (though I’ve never released any of this content), but I always prefer my work with Wolfenstein over everything else.

Q. You have released both animated and non–animated mods, do you have a preference as to what style you like to work on and what has attracted you to such differing styles?

A. I like both. Believe it or not, I just sorta switch depending on how I’m feeling when I’m starting another new project. I actually take lots of thought into what I’m going to do for my next project during my current project. I have like 5 ideas for follow-up mods to my current mod at the moment and whichever one I pick will be what I end up with. But Cartoon mods are fun because I can let loose with my creativity (even if most are based off of other people’s characters, the levels themselves can be original at least), but the realistic mods are more challenging. So it all depends on just what’s going on in my life at the moment and what I feel like I want to move onto afterwards.

Q. I read that you ran into some copyright issues with your mod SpongeBobStein, can you tell us about what happened there?

A. Oh that. Well, that’s all because I was new to the community and my parents were freaked about being sued by the creators of Spongebob if I used their characters. But nothing ever came up, so I just decided to release it for real. But yeah, anyone who ever got annoyed at that should be angry with my parents. I would’ve released it like any other mod otherwise. I may even remake it someday now that I’ve had enough time and that scare is gone.

Q. I believe you have a new mod nearing completion, can you tell us a bit about it?

A. Well, my current mod is called Guns and Glory 0.5 The Story Retold. It was originally going to be a sequel to my original Guns and Glory mod, but I decided to make it a prequel instead. It’s basically going to be another generic re-telling of the classic Wolfenstein 3D (the first 3 episodes) with my own twists and turns thrown in. This mod will basically be what Guns and Glory 1 was originally going to be like (but with a lot of changes overall) Also, I’ve stuffed the game with tons of bonus content. Most of which is just to look at, but a lot of which has never been seen in a Wolfenstein Mod before. For those still curious: I’ve officially used up all 512 object definitions in the mapdata file. There’s a lot to play with and a lot to be afraid of.

Q. Do you have any plans for an SDL update of any of your older mods?

A. I have considered some remakes for SDL, such as Schabbs, an Evil Lunatic (which actually has a Doomsday port for Doom), and Spongebobstein. As for the others, I either simply don’t have interest in them, or I’d more likely consider just having a sequel. But Spongebobstein and Schabbs, an Evil Lunatic are certainly buzzing about in my mind for remakes. Speaking of SDL updates, there was an unfinished Mod that I was working on sometime before I completed Crash Bandicoot that I may remake for SDL as well.

Q. What has been the most rewarding thing that’s come from Wolf 3d and your mods?

A. Just seeing what I can make and how I can go about it. Also I look forward to getting awards for my mods. It’s nice to get recognition for seeing something through, but it’s also nice to just make something and know that others will be able to enjoy it as well. It was also really enjoyable when someone actually emailed me just to ask how to use Medkits in Guns and Glory. I thought that was very fun. Someone wanted to play something I made so badly that they came right to me to ask how to do it. That really made my day.

Q. What advice can you impart to others that you’ve learnt over the years about modding?

A. Well, first things is that you want to develop a niche. Find out what kind of mods you’d like or want to make and just stick with it. There are actually a lot of mods I’ve never finished that I’ve released, that I wish I had. But my ideas just kept switching around because I had all these grand ideas for what I’d go and do and it just became overwhelming. So yeah, get a good idea of your style, stick with it and try to keep to just one mod at a time. Also, play test often, be fair in level design and reconsider filling the room with about 50+ SS or Officers. Don’t punish the player. I’ve done that too many times in my mods, and that’s a huge turn-off for most players. Also, give credit where credit is due. And finally, learn ChaosEdit or one of the modern map editors. Floedit was great, but ChaosEdit will see you through so much more if you let it.

Q. What are some of your favourite Wolf 3d mods that you’ve played other than your own?

A. Well, let’s see, there’s WolfenDoom, Spear Resurrection, End of Destiny (alot of Areyep mods, I know), Halls of Stonehenge, Unsung, Orb of Dilaaria, SOD: Reloaded, The DieHard Wolfers’ TC and several others. I usually like to stick with the big mods with all the coding changes to them. I’m a feature fanatic and I live for variety. I also like Trench Warfare, but damn that level 4, other than that I love that mod too.

Q.Why do you feel that Wolf 3d has such a long lasting legacy being it was released so long ago?

A. Because id Software is the best-damn videogame company ever. ‘Nuff said. (But I’ll say more anyways), because it’s a much milder and simpler starting point than Doom. Even considering source content, Wolfenstein just feels like, in all of the mods, the telling of a classic story of good versus evil (unless you don’t think of one party as necessarily evil over the other). But man versus man or men just feels more down to Earth and a lot of this stuff can in some ways, actually feel feasible. Plus, everything can garner a fanbase. It’s really the fans that make a game what it is. Without them, it could not exist. So thank the fans, it’s all because of them. Also, thank id Software. God-bless their source-code distribution policy!

Q. Any words of wisdom you would like to leave us on?

A. If I may quote: “Never eat Raspberries.” Damn good advice. Also, if you can, try not to make any mods that are basically polished turds. I’ve made too many of those in my modding career. Also, when in doubt in mapmaking, drawing out crazy floorplans can sometimes give you good ideas for actual ones (I’m just glad the Wolf Modders are so willing to overlook all the maps I’ve “borrowed” over the years). And also, give credit where credit is due. Just do it, you’ll be better off for it.

Wolfenstein Mods and Contributions

Released
Monkeystein (2003)
Southern Hell (2003)
ColdFusion! (2004)
Spear Resurrection: Master Levels (2004) - You need the original Spear Resurrection to play.
Spongebobstein (2004) (Review)
Nazi Party (2004)
Schabbs, An Evil Lunatic (2004)
The Doom Spear - Demo (with Mega Luigi) (2004)
DOOM Universal Tour - Demo (2005) (Review)
Invasion of the Cartoons (with Mega Luigi) (2005)
Crash Bandicoot (2006)
Crash Bandicoot 2 (2006)
Guns And Glory (2010)

Other Contributions
medEvil (3 Levels) (2006)
medEvil SDL (3 levels) (2011)

Unreleased
Guns And Glory 0.5 (Currently in Beta)

Cancelled Mods
Family Spitz!
Unholy Cathedral
ColdFusion 2 & 3
DOOM (Wolfenstein Version) Trilogy
Simpson Mania

Possible Future Mods
Spongebobstein SDL
Schabbs, An Evil Lunatic SDL
Resident DOOM (Resident Evil meets DOOM. It's the mod most likely to happen at this point)
Unnamed CHEX Quest Wolf Mod (I've always wanted to make a CHEX quest mod)
The Animated Nightmare After Christmas (An unfinished mod that may be remade for SDL)
Bear Attack (A cartoon mod based on a bear killing Hill Billies and Wildlife critters. This one is just specualtion at this point and may not happen at all)

Review: Doom Universal Tour

2012-01-11T10:53:00.000+11:00

Details
Title: Doom Universal Tour
Creator: Ian Summerfield
Released: 03/04/2005
Length: 5 Levels ( secret)
Level Format: Continuous
Story: None
Graphics: Mostly New (Doom based)
Sound: Original
Special Features: Destructable objects, multiple ammo types, increased ammo levels, 1up gives increased health level, additional keys and locked doors, explosive items.
Dos/SDL: Dos

Initial impressions: The first level is quite good, nicely laid out, and the DOOM graphics have been incorporated well into the Wolf 3d environment.
The status bar looks fantastic, and the menu and border colour scheme has been chosen well, as has the title screen. The enemies fire differently to what they do in DOOM, with the Wolf 3d dog being replaced by the Imp (unfortunately it still has the dog bark though) and you are unable to pick up the chaingun from the DOOM II heavey weapon dude when you kill him, these guys seem to do a LOT of damage at close range.
The DOOM armour has cleverly been reused as treasure items in this and a large number of DOOM & DOOM II walls and sprites have been utilised. Like in some of Ian's other mods, it would also have been nice to of had some music from the source of the project rather than having the Wolf 3d music left in. DOOM music would have taken this to another level in my opinion.

Gameplay: The gameplay is nicely paced with enemies constantly coming at you, although you do get chances to catch your breath. The pathways the player to follow are fairly linear within the game but there are also some nice layouts and challenges that lead to some good battles. There's more here within the mod than initial looks there is as there is some nicely done mapping and a nice array of weapons and enemies to keep things interesting.
The enemies firepower seems to be a increased from their Wolf counterparts and can be quite damaging at close range.

Mapping: The mapping is quite well done and suits the theme nicely with a good mixture of open areas, structures and passages. A lot of the Doom textures and sprites have been utilised very nicely and nothing really looks out of place.
The enemies behave differently than in DOOM, but once you stop expecting them to behave in their traditional ways, then things work quite well.
There are plenty of secrets and ample health and ammo throughout to keep the player going and luckily there is enough challenge so that the player has to be careful to some degree rather than just charging in to each new area. There is ample use of sprites and the layouts look colourful and decorative.

Likes: The mapping is quite decent and the DOOM environment has been done quite well in this, in fact a lot better than I've seen and played in a lot of other 'DOOM' Wolf 3d mods. It's nice to see mods that aren't just the straight forward Nazi theme and this honours DOOM quite well but also allows the creator to include some individuality to the theme and it's crossover with Wolf.

Dislikes: The sound effects of the Wolf 3d dog have ben left in as the battle cry for the Imp and just sounds out of place. Likewise, actual DOOM or DOOM II music would have made the environmental playing of this much better than leaving the original Wolf 3d music in with DOOM sprites and walls.
The mod can be a little mazey at times, especially level 2, but thankfully it doesn't get to a really annoying level.

Ratings
Dean's Score: 7.5/10
Difficulty: Harder then normal Wolf 3d.
Best Level: 4
Worst Level: 3

Wrap-up: This works well as it's own thing rather than trying too hard to simple replicate all DOOM elements which very few mods have been able to do accurately. It's own look and style, and the flair of the creator to make it hsi own take and style of the DOOM theme, makes this fun and quite enjoyable to play.
This was quite enjoyable to play but it's a little disappointing for me that it never ended up being longer than 5 levels. There is some very well done stuff here and the mod is nicely challenging.

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: SpongeBobStein

2012-01-04T18:02:00.006+11:00

Details
Title: SpongeBobStein
Creator: Ian Summerfield
Released: 03/04/2004
Length: 21 Levels (3 secrets)
Level Format: Continuous
Story: None
Graphics: All New
Sound: Original
Special Features: None
Dos/SDL: Dos

Initial impressions: Visually the mod looks great as the 64x64 sprite versions of the popular Tv show have been draw nicely in a comicly and cartoonish way. The opening level is rather small (as are a lot of the levels) but it's suitable enough to introduce us to the characters and gives the player a chance, including those that aren't too familiar with the show or characters, a good opportunity to work out what each sprite represents.
The sounds are great, including many soundbytes from the TV series but unfortunately the music has been left with the original Wolf 3d music which seems really out of place.

Gameplay: The mod is well decorated and the mapping at a decent enough level but nothing is too confusing. With the levels being not overly large there's little chance of getting lost, and with the secret walls all being marked, this is a fun but fairly simple play through.
There's definitely a novelty factor and this needs to be kept in mind when playing as this is intended to be a fun set. Comparing it to more serious Wolf 3d mods, it may not stand up too well, but knowing the creators intentions and appreciating the hand drawn walls and sprites helps make this more enjoyable than a straight forward reproduction of the original game.

Mapping: The maps are fairly small, nicely detailed and rather bright (as seen below). All walls and sprites have been replaced and the subject matter helps make this quite family friendly also.
The maps are fairly small on most levels but the sprites have been used well to help make the navigation of each level a little more difficult that it first appears.
There has been ample use of health, ammo and treasure where the player shouldn't find themselves short at many times when playing. The secret walls have all been marked and for some reason, in this type of 'fun' set, I find this quite suitable and rather appealing.
I genuinely feel that the creator has made a nice balance between level size and the fun factor of the mod as the theme may potentially become a little boring after a while, especially if each level was to take a lot longer to finish.
The Boss levels are significatnly harder than other levels, but this gives the player a nice wake up from the fun anf frovility of the other levels.

Likes: The bright colours and sounds are a great feature of the mod, although the reptitive sound snippets can start to become a little grating if you play for too long in each sitting.
The fun factor is the enjoyable part of this that I like the most. Not being a huge fan of the Tv show, but knowing enough about the characters, this is a nice break from the standard Nazi theme seen in most Wolf 3d mods.

Dislikes: The music - so much effort has been put into new sprites, walls and sounds, to have just left the music the way it is, is really disappointing. Even if the creator had added more appropriate 'cartoonish' sounding music not connected with the Tv show it would have been more fitting than the Wolf 3d music, in my opinion. Of course music from the Tv show would have fit even better.
The sounds, while great, don't have a big variance and can become fairly repetitive after a while.

Ratings
Dean's Score: 7/10
Difficulty: Easier than the original game.
Best Level: 8
Worst Level: 13

Wrap-up: For a mod that is obviously made to be a fun set, I feel it achieves it's objective quite well. This type of mod can't be taken too seriously but it's still easy to see, and appreciate, the hard work done by the creator.
If you are looking for something a little different and light to play to fill in a spare 30 minutes or so, then you could do a lot worse than to give this a go.

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

I managed to find the 5 Level Demo also, which can be downloaded HERE.

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.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-28T09:25:00.002+11:00

Merry Christmas all, and just in case you might be thinking to yourself, if only I could combine Wolf3d and Christmas well you are in luck! Download yourself one of the following (by clicking on the title) and enjoy;

End of Destiny: 2007 Xmas Levels

End of Destiny: 2008 Xmas Levels

End of Destiny: 2009 Xmas Levels

End of Destiny: 2010 Xmas Levels

Xmas Wolf - Dos Version

Xmas Wolf - SDL Version

Arielus Xmas Wolfenstein-3D

Hotel Romanstein: Last Christmas

The Night After Christmas

Thanks to everyone for their support through out the year and we all here at The Wolfenstein 3d blog wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New year!

My absense plus Christmas & New Year wishes!

2011-12-23T10:50:00.004+11:00

As you may have noticed, I have not posted on this blog for several months now. I have been hooked into mainly testing Doom projects, work, and college, which has used up most of my time. But I'd like to pop in for the holidays and say that I am still a fan of Wolfenstein 3D, just like all the other old first person shooters. And I'm sure there will come a time, sooner or later, where I return to being more active on this blog. Just recently, I've started playing games in multiplayer modes. While Wolfenstein 3D doesn't support this, Doom does, and it can be a very enjoyable experience, albeit in a different sort of way. But there multiple Wolfenstein mods released just this year that I want to be sure I play sooner or later - Spear Resurrection 10-year and DHW SDL Mapset being the top two.

In the meantime, I'd like to wish a merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all! I hope I find time to come back to Wolfenstein in 2012, I hope it's a good year as the game turns two decades old. Hard to believe it's been nearly two decades since ID Software started the revolution, but that's how time flies!

So here I sign off, but I hope I can become more productive with Wolfenstein in 2012, and sincerely hope it turns out to be a good year for all.

Review: Hitler's Revenge

2011-12-21T10:05:00.000+11:00

Details
Title: Hitler's Revenge
Creator: Joey Main
Released: 20/06/1999 (As close as I can tell)
Length: 10 Levels (1 secret)
Level Format: Episodic (Episode 1 only)
Story: New (Contained in the 'Read This')
Graphics: Mostly original
Sound: Original
Special Features: None
Dos/SDL: Dos

Initial impressions: Reading the story in the 'Read This' before starting the mod I really did not hold much hope for the mod;

"Many many months after Hitlers death. Allied forces said that they say a man with an uncanny resemblence of Hitler.This man who was said to be hitler was actully him. It seems before snabbs died he cloned himself and Hitler. Using pods that made clones of anything.You were send in to stop this. Now its all up to you!"

I really hope that the writer of this is either very young or has English as like a 5th language or something, sometimes it's better not to include a new story at all I think...
Looking at the menu I'm a little confused as this is only a 10 level mod, but it's been made using the full version of Wolf. The confusing part is that each of the 6 Episodes has been renamed. Starting each level it's fairly clear that the new maps are only on Episode 1, in a way, in the other 5 episodes, this is almost like passing off id's work as your own! I'd be careful about that sort of thing...
There are a couple of sprite replacements that aren't too badly done, however they are a little confusing the first time you find them. The green box in the shot below is actually the 1up!

The first level is small and fairly straight forward with no secrets however it's a decent enough challenge and there is actually some hints of the potential for decent mapping here, let's hope we see a bit more of it in the Episodes other levels!

Gameplay: Well, the creator has made some efforts to make this a little challenging but unfortunately his lack of using more than 1 floor code means that all the guards in the game just rush at you as soon as you fire a shot, thereby removing any clever guards placements.
What has been done well is the Hitler Ghost replacement to a 'super' SS like enemy. However, they are just a graphic replacement so so they still have the usual failings of the Hitler Ghost also.
The Boss level is particularly poor, especially the placement of the replaced Hitler Ghosts being on the other side of the end game trigger, meaning another category where you can't kill everything in the game. Seeing as the end game trigger is placed right on the othe side of a door, this means that it all ends before you even realise. Which is actually quite a sweet relief in some ways.

Mapping: Unfortunately all efforts at decent mapping ends within seconds of having the irrational thought mentioned above, and becomes especially evident once you get to the apallingly mapped Level 3 which is just made up of a whole series of interconnected 3x3 square rooms, all with the same floor code, which make it awfully simple to just open the elevator door, fire 1 shot and do this;

Basically just wait for everyone to come to you. Things are obviously fairly simple after this, as you can just waltz your way through the level, carefree, and at your own pace without any danger.
Worst of all, and I can't believe this has never been found in all the years that this mod has been released (I guess no one ever got to level 4!), the worst cardinal mapping sin of all time has been commited here;

Where is the Gold key? You can see the gold door circled in Green (Looking closely you can also see the brilliant mapping techniques used here along with the use of a single floor code!). What good is it in releasing a mod that no one can complete because you were too lazy to fully test your mod to see if all the keys were there before releasing it!! The most unsettling part is that this is just about the best level in the mod as well! Not that that stands for much.
Thankfully, and a little prophetically, the creator has included a 'cheats' file, but of course there's always the option of sacrificing your score by using the old MLI trick to be able to complete the level and continue on with the mod, like I did, and am now regretting, as I could of spent the time doing, well, pretty much anything else really...

Likes: The guy made and released a mod. Sure, it is poorly done, mistake ridden, non-challenging and unable to be completed but at least he saw something through and got it out there... for people like me to judge it :P

Dislikes: The lack of secrets. Not to say that there must be many on each level but I think it shouldn't be too hard to have at least a couple on every level. In this there is 8 total, over the 10 levels. It's almost like he just forgot or something while mapping to include them.
The Mapping is, well, disrespectful. I know that sounds harsh, and there's a lot more to making a mod than the playability that others get from it but at least have some respect to fully test your crappy mod before unleashing it on the unsuspecting masses! Poor use of floor codes is something I dislike but you can't expect everyone to have the highest level of mapping ability but forgetting to put a key in is unforgivable in my books.

And there goes your chance at getting 100% of everything as well...

Ratings
Dean's Score: 1.0/10
Difficulty: Very easy compared to original Wolf.
Best Level: It would be unfair of me to put one over the others.
Worst Level: 3, 9 and a few others are just as bad as each other...

Wrap-up: As you can tell I was pretty darn disappointed with this mod, but it's easy for me to sit in my ivory tower and poke shit at other peoples work having years of experience working on and playing mods. I just wish the guy would have taken more care or asked others to test or give help with his work before release. But hey, at least he's released a mod, that's a lot more than some others can say!

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: 10 New Ones

2011-12-14T15:15:00.002+11:00

Details
Title: 10 New Ones
Creator: Thomas (Coding by Havoc)
Released: 16/10/2011
Length: 10 Levels (1 secret)
Level Format: Continuous
Story: None
Graphics: Original
Sound: Original (Changed order)
Special Features: None
Dos/SDL: SDL

Initial impressions: The mapping in the first half of the mod I found to be rather formulaic and not some of Thomas' best work, however, once you get to about level 5 the pace picks up and so does the level quality. From here on you are into the mutant based levels, and these are normally where Thomas' mapping strengths lay. Not to say the earlier maps aren't of decent quality, I just feel they are little off from his best work of mods like 'All this and Wolf 3d', 'Castle Assault' and 'NovoWolf'.

Gameplay: The gameplay is fast moving and the guards are well placed. In thomas' mods it's usually rare to last long periods of time on full health and with full ammo. The ammo count is more measured than in most mods with little excessive amounts lying around. This is a good thing as it makes the player more aware of aimlessly blasting away and making the most of what is found.
10 levels is a good length for a mod, especially one with no storyline and you know is primarily just a map pack. The level quality evolves as you progress through towards the inevitable Boss challenge finale.

Mapping: The mapping quality gets better as the player progress's through the mod. The first 4 or so levels are rather average and to be honest, a little below where I would expect Thomas' mapping to be, however, after this things pick up substansiably as we are treated to some of Thomas' more finer mapping skills as the levels increase not only in challenge but also in complexity.
There's mothing overlty wrong with the early levels, I guess I just found them to be a little 'soft' and a tad formulaic for what I know Thomas is capable of. Each mapper has their own style and I feel this mod could have helped been a little more enjoyable (And receive a higher score) if the earlier weaker levels were a bit stronger and more to the level of the later levels which is more to Thomas' mapping skill level.

Likes: The Boss level was great, really challenging, with constant surprises and was a real battle to survive, the player must be constantly aware.
Levels 6 onwards were really good and show off how talented a mapper Thomas has been over the years, they are challenging, fun and well designed. Thomas likes to map with the original set, and all except for 1 wall addition, he shows off skillfully how well the original walls and sprites can still be used.

Dislikes: I like the scenario where a mapper purposefully sets it so a guard can open a locked door for the player, heck I've even used it myself, but it has to be done right. If you are too quick sometimes you can spoil the plan without any chance of recourse. Unfortunately this happens in the level 10 secret level meaning once you've spoilt the mappers plan you have no way accessing the locked area that the guard is supposed to open for you, leaving yo no chance of getting 100% of everything in the mod.
One thing that bugs me, and maybe doesn't bother others, is when the score 'clocks' over and starts back at 0 again. It's fairly simple in the mapping stage to fix this, especially in SDL, so there shouldn't be any excuse, or need, for it in modern mods IMO.

Ratings
Dean's Score: 7.0/10
Difficulty: Similar difficulty level to the original.
Best Level: 9
Worst Level: 10 (For reasons mentioned above)

Wrap-up: Across the 10 levels, this evens out to be a decent mod from Thomas, and his first for a while. While not as good as some of his other mods there is still some challenge and some decent levels to warrant a full playthrough.

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: Spear Resurrection - 10th Anniversary Edition

2011-12-07T09:46:00.000+11:00

Details
Title: Spear Resurrection - 10th Anniversary Edition
Creator: AReyeP & MCS
Released: 11/12/1999
Length: 23 Levels (4 secret)
Level Format: Continuous
Story: Original Spear Resurrection
Graphics: Original Spear Resurrection
Sound: Original Spear Resurrection
Special Features: Increased health and ammo limits, 25 Ammo box, animated sprites, additional weapons, powerups, multiple ammo types, breakable columns, teleporters plus more!
Dos/SDL: SDL

Initial impressions: There have been a few level packs released of the original Spear Resurrection over the years since AReyeP and MCS released the modders version but when the games creator remakes the new levels you know you are in for something special! This is an entirely new set of levels made by AReyeP to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Spear Resurrection being released.
The first level has been remade in a simpler, more straight forward manner and sets the theme of the new levels and their design early. Everything you remember from the original is there only bigger and better with an obviously (largely) increased sprite and actor count from the original that AReyeP has used to his full advantage.
Everything looks better, sounds better and to be honest IS better in this version. In the original, the first level was a little confusing and could be quite hard for novice players, the remake, although not without it's challenges, is a less confusing outside level and entrance to the castle.

Gameplay: With AReyeP's new levels this is as good as I've played in any mod in a very long time. Sounds like a big compliment? Well, the quality stands out for itself when you play the mod. No level in this is without it's surprises, challenges and unexpected enslaughts of guards and tricky scenarios. The player must always be wary of attacks, alternate ways to do things, secret areas, cleverly placed guards and the very well used sprites that often give you (and the numerous guards throughout) visual access to other areas.
The Boss areas are challenging, with more going on in their levels than just the 1 on 1 challenge against them, and the secret levels really are a quite challenging.
Right from the start of each level the player is forced to scope out their surroundings and be alert anbd prepared for whatever may lie ahead.

Mapping: This is definitely one of the best mapped mods I've ever played and is even better then the original set of maps. The increased sprite and actor count makes for wonderous and beautiful maps that are nearly all of large design with many areas to explore and large secret areas that have given AReyeP (And Ack) the freedom to go all out on level design.
Most levels took me around the 30 minute mark to complete at 100% of everything meaning that this is a good 10+ hours to play through the mod, although I'm sure it can be done quicker (Chris?) if one is less intersted in triple-digit results.
The levels have some similarity in design but are all unique enough so as not to replicate ideas and designs, don't been fooled into thinking you know exactly what is coming next!

Likes: The new levels are an absolute standout, I just wanted the mod to be 100+ levels so I could just keep playing the mod!
The increased sprite count has been used to it's full capacity with every level and every area bursting with decoration and design. The extra sprites haven't just been placed because there's more available either, they have often been cleverly used as part of the design of the level and the path the player is to follow.
The secret areas have all been 'marked' in some way, be it a different coloured light, a red skull or a water puddle and this does seem to make things a bit easier, especially with the level sizes, rather than having to check every wall in each map, however some can still be easy to miss if you aren't completely observant.

Dislikes: The only real thing I can say is that I felt a bit lost and directionless in the second part of the final spear level, not quite sure what to do and with my bullets not seeming to do any damage to what I thought I was supposed to be killing. Continual running around and searching will help you find what you are looking for though.

Ratings
Dean's Score: 10/10
Difficulty: A lot harder than original Spear of Destiny.
Best Level: 2
Worst Level: 22

Wrap-up: An absolutely outstanding mod that has been improved on and makes for somthing that everyone will love playing and get multiple play throughs and hours of enjoyment from. AReyeP has pulled out all the tricks here and made a truly definitive version of an already great mod, this is a must play! Fingers crossed for a remake of End of Destiny next!

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

The Original Spear Resurrection mod can be downloaded HERE.

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.

YouTube Video: Mutant Strike 3

2011-11-30T09:20:00.000+11:00

LingYan has done a series of YouTube video walkthroughs of Majik Monkee's Operation: Mutant Strike 3 - The Last mutation. There are 10 videos, 1 of each level.

You can watch the first video here;

Just follow the links down the right side of the YouTube page once you have watched the first video so you can then watch each video in level order.
You can watch the level I made (Level 7) for the set, here;

LingYan does a lot of YouTube videos of varying games but he also does a lot of Wolf 3d mod walkthroughs. You can visit his channel HERE as I'm sure you'll find plenty of other interesting videos to watch.

Review: Operation Buzz Bomb

2011-11-23T12:32:00.000+11:00

Details
Title: Operation Buzz Bomb
Creator: Luke Strauman
Released: 11/12/1999
Length: 10 Levels (1 secret)
Level Format: Episodic
Story: None
Graphics: New guards and some new sprites
Sound: Original
Special Features: Increased health and ammo limits, 25 Ammo box, animated sprites.
Dos/SDL: Dos

Initial impressions: The first level is nicely done and with the black ceilings and changed graphics is a nice introduction to the mod. The level is a reworking of the original E1L1 but is different enough to show some creativity, including some additional outside areas.
The new guards all work well, except for a the grey 'BJ-looking' officer that is always facing you and moves reminiscently like the Mac guards.
There has been complaints over the years that this mod looks a lot like Nate Smith's banned 'Beyond Wolfenstein 2 SE', and there are some similarities, but there's more than enough to make this stand out as it's own mod.

Gameplay: The gameplay is well engineered with plenty of guards of varying strengths spread throughout. The black SS are particularly dangerous and can take quite a few shots to take down, their firepower is very damaging also making them a formidable foe, especially in groups.

Mapping: The mapping is fairly well done on most levels, especially for the year it was released, but unfortunately Luke has made several floorcode errors in his maps, this doesn't affect the mod in a major way but is just a bit sloppy and can cause some minor sound issues at times.
The maps aren't overly large but have enough challenges and scenarios in each to make the game a good play and have enough secret areas to keep the player in good health and well stocked with ammo and treasure. the outside areas seem to be more dangerous than the inside ones.

Likes: The increased ammo count is a good decision and becomes more and more necessary as you play through the levels although the extra 15% you get on your health doesn't really seem to make that much difference.
The varying guard difficulties, this makes you think before just bursting into every room blazing, especially if the black SS is in there. This style of enemy balancing is a great way to make your mod a bit more challenging and to make the player tread a bit more carefully when playing it. The changing of some Bosses to enemies has been done very well and works effectively also.

Dislikes: The Secret level is nothing more than a small Boss challenge, but at least you get the chaingun, so it's worth playing solely enough for that, I guess I'm just more of making a secret level something special and different to the other levels.
You can pick up extra health and sprites past your maximums that don't add to your tally, effectively wasting some of your pickups, this should have been fixed up in the coding stage.
The treasure ratios are never right at the end of the levels, you can find everything on the level and consistantly not get 100%. I suspect this is a coding thing related to other things counting in the percentage but I don't know how to fix it, it's a shame Luke didn't either!

Ratings
Dean's Score: 7/10
Difficulty: Slightly more difficult than the original.
Best Level: 8
Worst Level: 10

Wrap-up: All up this a nice challenging older style mod that has been done fairly well. It has some basic errors but for being a 1999 release this is a great first up mod for Luke. There are some good features here and this sets up well some of Luke's better mods that he was to release in the years preceding this. Well worth a play if you are looking for an older mod to play to help fill in an hour or so.

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: Operation: Mutant Strike 3

2011-11-16T11:36:00.000+11:00

Details
Title: Operation: Mutant Strike - The Last Mutation
Creator: Monkeeworks (Majik Monkee)
Released: 26/10/2011
Length: 10 Levels (0 Secrets)
Level Format: Continuous
Story: New
Graphics: All new
Sound: All New
Special Features: New weapons, damaging sprites, Increased ammo limit.
Dos/SDL: SDL & Dos

Initial impressions: The opening level is well designed and sets up nicely the continuing storyline of the series. The wall set is nicely chosen and sprites fit well. The first level is a very good challenge, in fact it can be quite difficult in spots, but it sets the tone nicely for the rest of the mod.

Gameplay: Being majority mutants in most levels the action is fast paced and the little buggers seem to appear from no where consistantly. The maps can be a little mazey in times but with a lot of the action taking place in 'mutant-y' type areas this is to be expected.
There is a good supply of ammo and health and finding the secrets wll certainly help ones progress throughout the mod.
Mini Bosses are rampant throughout but they help develop your skill at beating them before the final levels where there is many of them that need to be dispatched.

Mapping: As I made one of the levels for this, I'll be reviewing the quality of the other 9 levels. The mapping is a bit of a mixed bag to be completely honest in this but for me what makes this of a very good quality it the fact that RonWolf mapped half of the levels. Ron's ability to consistently produce high quality maps that are creatively designed, well thought out and challenging is one of the main factors why he has become one of the best mappers in the community. The other levels aren't bad, except for a VERY rare poor map from Thomas but the maps in the set do all seem to work together well enough to produce a nice standard throughout the mod.
There are ample secrets used and at times the challenges are tough enough to keep the player consistently low on health and ammo, which makes for a far better challenge than just easily blasting through everything barely taking a scratch.
There is plenty of treasure, although this seems to have very little to do with the mod, except for the pieces of paperwork which contribute to the developing story in the intermission screens.
The final level however I found was much easier than in the previous 2 installments because of the imbalance of the weapons and the weakness of the bosses.

Likes: The storyline is one of the best parts of this and we are constantly updated as to what is going on and why we are meeting newer enemies. We get a full back story into Jill and whats happening with BJ and the US Governement. This for me, helps emerse you even more into the mod and what you are fighting to achieve.
The enemy set in this is well used and fits in nicely with the walls and sprites.
Ron's mapping in this is fantastic and keeps the gameplay interesting and at a good challenge level, I look forward to playing more of his levels in the future.

Dislikes: The Chaingun is just way to powerful, it kills almost everything way to quickly and makes the going a little too easy through levels 8 - 10. In saying that I would have preferred to have seen an additional weapon be introduced prior to Level 8, something in between the machinegun and the chaingun in power and have the 5th weapon be tha main 'Final Boss' fighting power weapon. Speaking of the bosses, they are just way too weak and can be killed very easily, I'm not sure if it's that they were too weak or the weapons were just too powerful but regretably they don't put up much of a fight.
As with the other mods in the series the radius of the damaging sprites is way too strong and will easily and quickly kill you if you get anywhere near them. This becomes a little annoying in Levels 9 & 10 where they are used in large quantites.

Ratings
Dean's Score: 7.5/10
Difficulty: Harder then the original due to mutant levels.
Best Level: 4
Worst Level: 8

Wrap-up: A decent wrap up to the series that has some familiarity with it's predecessing 2 parts and works together nicely as a trilogy. Each is close enough to remain a connection but different enough to be a stand out mod on their own.
If you enjoy the challenge of mutant mods, like well put together mods or have enjoyed the mods of Majik Monkee over the years then you certainly won't be disappointed with this.

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

You can read the review to Operation: Mutant Strike 1 HERE
You can read the review to Operation: Mutant Strike 2 HERE

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: Step Two

2011-11-09T09:57:00.001+11:00

Details
Title: Step Two
Creator: Harry Mass Snr.
Released: 25/04/2009
Length: 6 Levels (1 Secret)
Level Format: Continuous
Story: None
Graphics: Mostly new
Sound: Original
Special Features: Increased ammo count, guards drop 25 ammo clip.
Dos/SDL: Dos

Initial impressions: This has a similar look and feel to Step One, as well as to Harry's previous mods however there's just something in this that really didn't grab me. The first level starts off too hard, you open the first door and there is a mutant standing there right in front of you, as soon as you fire a shot multiple guards start coming at you, this is just a bit much initially in a mod for me, I like to let the player get a feel for the mod and it's surroundings before just throwing them straight into the VERY deep end. The difficulty is the same throughout, no matter what level you play, well, except for Level 3 as nearly the whole level is completely empty of enemies, so you do get used to it pretty quickly.

Gameplay: The gameplay can be challenging but becomes routine as each levels is the same. It all becomes just a bit predictable after a while. Most of the mod is just stand and shoot or enter a room, fire a shot, then back out and wait for everyone to come to you.
There has been an attempt to mix things up with some outside areas but they don't really work that well and otherwise the same few walls are used pretty much throughout.

Mapping: To be honest, the mapping is quite poor in this. There are many rooms with no guards on each level that are full of sprites, as seen below, that just don't need to be there. There is no story so there's no understanding of why things are laid out this way, you don't know where you are or what your mission is, you could be in 'bizarre-o sprite World' for all we know, where this type of thing could be completely normal!
The levels are nearly all poorly mapped with just room after room of similar design, very few secrets, not that they need to be compulsory, but a few more would have made things a bit more interesting at least.
The excessive use of unnecessary sprites goes from levels being over-decorated to just ridiculous, it's almost like the mapper decided to just use all the sprite count he had on each level, just for the sake of it.
There is way too much ammo and health, especially seeing each guard drops a 25 ammo clip when killed.

Likes: The challenge is good, at times, for more experienced players but there is just way too much health and ammo around to really test the player.

Dislikes: Some of the mapping is really poor and unnecessary, as outlined above.
Although challenging, the damage and use of enemies is a bit too tough too quickly into the mod, all levels have been made to the same level of difficulty, I'm just more on the side of building the toughness the further you get into a mod rather than throwing it at the player straight away.
The outside areas don't work at all, mainly because the ceiling is the same colour as the inside. The outside attempt gives you a little faux feeling of being external, but not much.
The ammo count is mis-aligned on the status bar as well and hinges over the keys area, it just looks weird and really isn't that hard a thing to fix, this should of been amended before release.

Ratings
Dean's Score: 4/10
Difficulty: More difficult than the original, especially at the start.
Best Level: 10
Worst Level: 3

Wrap-up: I was quite disappointed by this and felt that it was below standard for Harry. This just didn't have a great feel about it and just didn't flow like a good mod would, it almost seemed like the creator just threw random bits from other places together and called it a mod, I think the quality suffered from over use of sprites and poor mapping.

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

The review for the prequel to this mod, titled Step One, can be read HERE.

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.

Released: Operation: Mutant Strike 3

2011-11-02T09:57:00.000+11:00

Majik Monkee has released the third, and final part, of his Operation: Mutant Strike series. This again follows the female character of Jill Hunter and her efforts working for the US Government to shut down the evil genetic mutations and experimentations that are going on at the Regenschrim Corporation.

O:MS 3 is 10 levels in length, like it's predecessors, has many new creatures and artwork and was mapped by Majik Monkee, Soldat 555, Thomas, RonWolf and Myself (Level 7). It's very mutant heavy, as the title would suggest, but is fast paced and delivers the usualy MM style to ensure a mod that will challenge and keep the player entertained.

You can download the mod (in SDL) HERE.
You can download the 1st installmet; Operation: Mutant Strike (in SDL) HERE.
You can download the 2nd installment; Operation: Mutant Strike 2 (in SDL) HERE.

Review: Step One

2011-10-26T09:51:00.002+11:00

Details
Title: Step One
Creator: Harry Mass Snr.
Released: 14/04/2009
Length: 4 Levels (1 Secret)
Level Format: Continuous
Story: None
Graphics: Some original, mostly new
Sound: Original
Special Features: None
Dos/SDL: Dos

Initial impressions: The game has been made in an old school style more resembling the original game rather then with all the special features of more modern day mods. This has been made with only changing the floor and ceiling colours and wall and sprite set but still gives it a look of it's own.
The guards are many and it's well worth looking for secrets asa they are often well stacked with health, ammo and weapons. You'll find you may need to run back to stock up at certain times through each level and probably won't have a lot left over.

Gameplay: The game play is quite difficult as large amounts of guards have been used here and they all seem to do plenty of damage when they shoot you. Each scenario is packed with enemies and the 'stand and face' method is less likely to garner a great result with this type of gameplay.
This would be found VERY challenging for a novice player and should challenge more experienced players look for a harder, older style set to play.

Mapping: The mapping is in an older style and uses some of the tricks popular back in the earlier Wolf modding days. There is an large number of secrets used (especially on level 2), but most rooms are used in a linear fashion and following through each level isn't overly difficult as long as you look for secrets as you need to find some to be able to complete most levels. Outside of the secret level there aren't many big open areas but are more room after room as you work your way through the maps.

Likes: The black walls. usually I don't like them unless you are meant to be playing through a complete night time level, but in this they have actually been used fairly well here and with great effect.
The mod is certainly challenging, which is a nice change from a lot of mods where once you get the biggest weapon you basically never die, this actually kicked my ass repeatedly and made my play more warily then I usually have to, going in 'all guns blazing' will not suit you well in this mod!

Dislikes: The guards all seem to do such massive damage every time you get shot, I'm certain this has been increased from the levels in the original game. You preety much have to seek out health, which there isn't much of out in the open, after 1 or 2 shots or you'll stand a high chance of dying the next time you get shot.
The walls have an old school look but some just don't fit in that well and just look like badly distorted wall art that have have tried to be converted into 64x64, quite unsuccessfully.
Having to find secret rooms to finish a level is something I don't like very much as this style doesn't cater to all players, some just like to run through levels sa fast as they can without having to worry about searching every bit of wall space to find a secret that might lead to the exit. I'm also not very fond of the 'hollow wall' trick but they are a trait of harry's mods and he uses them fairly well again here.

Ratings
Dean's Score: 7.0/10
Difficulty: Hard, way harder then the original set.
Best Level: 2
Worst Level: 10

Wrap-up: The is a decent effort, although a little short at only 4 levels, but is fully in HMS's style and will delight those that loved his earlier mods. This is quite a difficult mod in parts and should choose to be a decent challenge for most players.

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

The sequel to this mod, titled Step Two, will be reviewed in the next couple of weeks.

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: Nazi PANIC!

2011-10-19T11:27:00.006+11:00

Details
Title: Nazi PANIC!
Creator: Michael Collin (Dr. Chainsaw)
Released: 19/02/2006
Length: 3 Levels (No Secrets)
Level Format: Continuous
Story: None
Graphics: Original with lots of variants
Sound: Original
Special Features: None
Dos/SDL: Dos (Sharware set)

Initial impressions: Creatively made and bordering on a bit wacky, this was an entrant in a competition at the DieHard Wolfers forum where modders where to make, and release, a mod in 1 week. This was the winning entrant and has plenty of Dr. Chainsaw's colourful and individual flair about it.
The mapping is well done, the status bar and a lot of the non-original walls and sprites have been taken from elsewhere, but there are also plenty of new of both created especially for this release.
Using plenty of colour and with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek, Dr. Chainsaw has turned this into a fun set thats enjoyable to play through.

Gameplay: The gameply is relatively fast paced with plenty of guards, well placed, to keep you on your toes. The levels are are of decent size with plenty of treasure, ammo and health and secrets throughout.
Visually the game is very dynamic with bright colours, wall signs to read and creatively recoloured versions of a lot of the original games walls.

Mapping: The mapping is well done but unfortunately Michael goes with the similar story of making the player back track through large amounts of the level after finding keys, like he did in his other release 'Hitler's Ark' (Review).
The 3 levels have been well mapped with ample health and ammo so the player should never run out, and plenty of (small) secret areas full of treasure and other items.

Likes: The artwork is well done and adds a visual style of it's own here. This is a fun set and at 3 levels doesn't get tiresome or boring.
The mapping, other than what's outlined in the 'Dislikes' section, is well done and maps are challenging and nicely laid out.

Dislikes: Michaels' usual mapping style of making the player run back across the near entire level to get to either the next locked door or the exit has been used again here and can be quite frustrating and time consuming.

Ratings
Dean's Score: 6.5/10
Difficulty: About the same as the original game
Best Level: 1
Worst Level: None

Wrap-up: A fun, but short, set that will entertain you and fill in half an hour of your day. Brightly coloured and with entertaining elements to look at, this is nice effort and worthy of the cometition win it achieved.

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.

Great mods you've (probably) never heard of: Switch 17

2011-10-12T14:19:00.016+11:00

Switch 17 is not your conventional type of mod, it doesn't have any new levels, no new walls, no new sprites, but what it does have is brand new weapons, and plenty of them!

Released on Christmas Day of 2005 by Dugtrio17, Switch 17 is a weapons replacement pack for the original Wolfenstein 3d levels. What it is that has been done so well here is that the player doesn't just get 1 new set of weapons, but 8 that vary greatly in design and result!
You also get a couple of extra selection screens, one that lets you select the weapon types and one that offers either 'Normal' or 'Arcade' modes. There's still only 4 weapons in each set but playing around with each will give you very interesting results and not just the standard stuff you'd expect!

Here's a quick rundown and look at some of the weapons;

Classic: The original games weapons with new sounds and a couple of extras, if you play around with things a little bit!

G04it: From another Dugtrio17 project that contained rechargable weapons. Complete with powers bars that do different things and a rather unconvential way to top up your ammo!

Rayguns: Future inspired plasma style weapons. The symbol on each represents a bit about what they do. Does the green one look like a skull? Hmmm, what could that mean...

Mind Powers: By far the most different and interesting set, each weapon does very different things, you'll need to use them a fair bit at different times to work out all of what they do though.

Explosives: Some real fun to be had here but be careful as these projectiles don't all go in a straight line away from you! You don't want to be anywhere near them when they explode.

Uberpowered: Weapons with very different properties here, just remember that not all weapons can be used time and time again and not all weapons will leave you standing where you started!

Wizardy: As stated by the creator, you'll probably never work out everything that all these weapons do. Even working out some of it takes some time but is well worth it in the end.

Fireworks: Some really cool stuff here, but maybe even further distance might be the safest bet... if you catch my drift... as I run away from you after firing... ;)

There's also a lot more to these weapon packs than just running around and having different weapons to shoot with, they all do very different things. Range, distance, damage radius, direction, sound, the inability to move while firing and quite a few other things have all been carefully crafted into the sets design. Just don't expect anything to behave exactly as you think it should, and genuinely be prepared for anything!

Another great feature is that different things happen on different days! (Play it on Christmas Day to see the guards drop Xmas presents and on April Fools Day (April 1st) to see the guards all shoot syringe's at you!)

This also works with any Wolf 3d mod that has the original files as a base. Try it out with different sets as it really makes them into a whole new mod!

You can download the mod HERE. It is highly recommended that you read the 'READ.txt' file that comes with the set before jumping in as it might just give you a few clues about what some of the sets and weapons do.

Here's a link to a post at the DieHard Wolfers Forum that Chris Chokan made several years ago about what He discovered about each weapon set.

Here is a YouTube video that shows off some amazing looking stuff from some of the weapons that were to be in the 'as yet unreleased' sequel.

Look out for more parts of this 'Great mods you've (probably) never heard of' series coming in the future.

Review: Mac-enstein 3d - Triumph Of The Will

2011-10-05T10:38:00.001+11:00

Details
Title: Mac-enstein 3d - Triumph Of The Will
Creator: Andy_Nonymous (Mapping by ponz)
Released: 31/07/2007
Length: 12 Levels (1 secret)
Level Format: Continuous but episodic in a way also!
Story: New
Graphics: Original Mac Graphics
Sound: Original Mac Music
Special Features: Additional Mac Features
Dos/SDL: Dos

Initial impressions: The opening level is fairly basic but sets up the rest of the mod nicely. There is some unusual combinations of walls (as seen above), and having not played the Mac version much, I'm not sure if this is doing a brilliant job of immitating it or is just a part of ponz's personal mapping style.
The mapping is decent, there is a well measured amount of health and ammo and we meet all 3 guard types. There are some secrets, which as usual reward the player willing to take the time to look, and a nice amount of treasure.

Gameplay: The gameplay is consistently challenging and the guard placement isn't always predictable, meaning you might actually be surprised on occasion by their placement. The levels vary in size but are not large enough to get the player lost in and follow a fairly simple linear pattern, which certainly makes things easy for the player.
There are 3 Bosses spread throughout the game which make for a good challenge but if you are able to get some distance on them and pepper them with rockets then the battles can end fairly quickly.

Mapping: The mapping is done to a decent, challenging level. I'm not sure I've ever played any levels made by ponz before but you can see that real effort has been made to make fun but challenging levels for this set. The levels are nicely designed with a good range of sprites used but on occasion ponz has tended to over decorate (see the below 2 screenshots) a little but there is a consistency of design through out and a nice mix of level types and designs.
There is quite a different amount of secret areas throughout the levels, most of which are worth looking for, especially if you want the rocket launcher and flame thrower, which will help you immensly when fighting bosses, and many will provide shortcuts that will make things much easier for your progression through the game.

Likes: The levels have a decent flow and keep you challenged, with 12 being a good number that makes the mod a decent enough size that it takes a couple of sittings to play through everything.
The Mac sprites and walls are of a higher quality than the original Dos set but it's always weird seeing the guards only have the 'face on' images and not the full 360 degree view like in the Dos version. The Bosses have been done well and the sounds and music are of a high quality.
The speed of the secret walls is one thing I always thought was done much better in the Mac version and this shows just how much better they work.
The Rocket launcher and Flame thrower are awesome fun, although they take a little bit to get the aiming correctly, and make a welcome addition. I can see why so many modders have added them into their mods over the years!

Dislikes: Theres nothing really about the set itself to dislike as it is done quite well, but for me it's the same old things that made me prefer the Windows version over the Mac version originally. The main irritant is that most of the time you don't know when you've been shot. There is numerous times through this I thought I was on nearly full help only to notice that I was actually severely damaged and quite near death. An added sound when hit would have improved this, so the player at least has an idea that they've been shot.
The floor/level indicator is not accurate but instead in showing in the Mac style, it resets after each Boss challenge instead of being in one continuous count. The below screenshot showing Floor 2-1, is actually from Level 6!
The only other minor things are that the 1up's don't give you ammo and the item counter. The 1up is not a big thing as you are rarely near running out of ammo, but it's just something you get used to. The item count is a good idea but this is not reflective of your actual tally as it resets every time you surpass 99 items.

Ratings
Dean's Score: 7.5/10
Difficulty: A little more difficult than the original Dos version
Best Level: 7 (2-2)
Worst Level: 12

Wrap-up: This is a professionally produced set that looks, plays and sounds great. A lot of effort has been put into reproducing the Mac gameplay, look and style into Dos and while some of it isn't as good, some of it does show to be better.
With challenging mapping and good enemy placement this is a mod that will keep most players on their toes. Hopefully an SDL version appears at some time in the future.

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.

Released: The DieHard Wolfers TC SDL

2011-09-28T09:52:00.003+10:00

After more than 8 years, the DHWTC has finally been completed and released! This sat dormant for a number of years until Andy_Nonymous, myself and a few others took over the reigns back in January of this year and steered this one through to completion.
Since THIS feature, plus some questioning at the DHW forum, the decision was made to see if this could be finished off and finally released for everyone to enjoy. A huge thanks to Ringman, Loki and ack for popping their heads in and helping with some of the missing information about bits of the mod from years back and a massive thanks goes to Andy who took over the coordination of the project and spent many hours sorting through everything trying to work out what still needed to be done.

The mod was found to be mostly completed, only missing a couple of levels, some story development, some sprites, a title screen and a few other bits and pieces.
Andy has also updated the engine into SDL which fixes some of the old bugs. This shows as a time capsule in a way when one reads the list of contributions from the community members that gave their time to making this over the years. This would certainly have to be the mod with the longest credits list I've ever seen!

The mod contains 30 levels (3 x 10 level episodes) that need to be unlocked one at a time. There is a huge amount of things in this that only those involved know about and I guarantee you will be surprised by the direction the mod takes and how different it is from the original game.
Everything in the game has been replaced from the original and has artwork to a level that I've never seen before with the new guards being the real highlight, in my opinion.

The mod can be downloaded from HERE. (Updated Version - 02/10/2011)
The Original thread at DHW used for development can be read HERE.

Great mods you've (probably) never heard of: 6.25

2011-09-21T09:34:00.003+10:00

6.25 is a mod of a completely different type than what you are used to and is like nothing you've ever played before. Sure, it looks like normal Wolf 3d, it does use the original set of walls, sprites and enemies, but there is something very different and brilliantly clever about the design of this mod.

Yes, as you can see from the shot above, the entire mod is mapped only using a 16x16 grid. So what you say, I could do that, and quite quickly, and the maker did make it quickly, claiming that the 6 levels only took them less than 2 hours to make. So what makes this so good then? The simple answer is ack. When, in my opinion, the greatest ever Wolf 3d mapper sets his mind to make something and release it, you'd better believe it's got every single bit of mapping skill and experience that an educated mapper has learnt over years of honing his skill mapping for various projects.

Who is this ack guy you ask? Well, if you've ever played any of Majik Monkee's mods, Adam Biser's brilliant Orb of Dilaaria or Episode 6 of the recent DHW SDL Mapset, then you've played some of ack's levels. Ever played acktung 1 or 2, Archives 1 or 2 or The Alliance of Powers, then you've played some ack's levels, and in a lot of these cases you probably didn't even realise that's the reason why you were enjoying yourself so much!

6.25 appeared randomly on the DHW forum one day in April 2006 and was described as an experimental set by it's maker. The levels were a replacement for 6 of the levels on Episode 4 of ack's release acktung!. The mod is tightly mapped, beautifully designed and very, very challenging. It is literally a thrill ride for the 15 minutes it will take you to get through the set and leave you desperately wanting more. There is little treasure, very few secrets and the player must be careful with their use of health and ammo but this all adds to the excitement. Somehow ack makes the levels play and look a lot bigger than they are utilising the limited space in many, varied clever ways through clever sprite placement and changing up of wall types.

This is an outstanding set and one that a lot of people will never have played, let alone ever heard of, but I can highly recommend it if you have it in your archives. Sadly the set, or any of ack's posts, remain at DHW as at some stage over the last few years he chose to delete every post he ever made there. The other bad news though, is that I have been unable to find the mod listed anywhere publicly for download. EDIT: Andy has now uploaded the mod and provided a download link, thanks Andy!
If you still think you can make a mod as good as this using such a small grid, then I challenge you to try it, it's not as easy as it looks!

You can download the mod HERE. (Thanks to Andy_nonymous for providing the link!)

Look out for more parts of this 'Great mods you've (probably) never heard of' series coming in the future.

Why I Love the SNES Wolf3D

2011-09-15T13:50:00.002+10:00

Let's be honest, most fans of the PC version of Wolfenstein 3D either really dislike the SNES port, or downright hate it. Is it because it's a bad game? well, that depends on what you're comparing it to. I do, however, take issue with the box art, which seems to portray our hero as being Billy Idol during the Vietnam War.

In my younger years, I initially had two different exposures to Wolfenstein 3D, the first being the shareware version on a friend's computer in college, the second being the SNES port some time later (it wasn't until years later that I finally got my hands on the full PC version for the first time). Like many other people of the time, Wolf3D was my first exposre to a FPS, and was a very memorable experience, and I often found myself longing to know what adventures awaited those who didn't just replay the first ten levels over and over, but actually bought the full version. When I later discovered there was a SNES port of the game, I just assumed it would answer that question for me, which in some ways, it did.

To really examine why the SNES port isn't as bad as some folks think, let's take a look at some of the objections diehard fans of the PC version have to the SNES version...

1. "The graphics suck!" - Okay, I can't really argue against that point. There's no denying that the SNES wasn't really made to handle FPS the way the PC could, and yes, looking at enemies and walls from a distance was kind of like viewing them through Vaseline coated goggles. This was true of the Doom SNES port as well. The HUD and weapons look pretty good, though, and let's face it, is it better to have NO Wolfenstein, or a port with inferior graphics to the original?

2. "No Nazi symbolism!" - Yes, this takes away from the decorations a little bit, not having the Nazi symbols the original version had, but is there really anyone out there playing the game who doesn't already know the enemies in the game are Nazis? Going in to the SNES version for the first time after it had been a while since I'd played the shareware version, honestly, I didn't even think anything of the absence of swaztikas on the flags, and it definitely didn't factor into my enjoyment of the game.

3. "What? No blood!" - It was an SNES game, folks, what did you expect? Honestly, though, if a game has good gameplay mechanics and decent pacing, is the absence of blood going to negate those things? For some folks, the answer is "yes", and those people scare me, but for a guy raised on arcade machines, and console games like Contra and Rush n' Attack, where blood was not present, it really never made a difference to me. I accidentally bought the "gore free" version of Duke Nukem 3D at Wal-Mart initially, and it took me three days before I realized the blood and swearing was censored out? Why? Because of the solid gameplay elements I was focusing on instead. SNES Wolfenstein is no Duke 3D, but you get my point (I hope).

4. "Giant rats instead of dogs?" - I'm not going to touch the whole "a dog's life is more valuable than a rat's" argument, I have my preference for which animal I prefer, but that's a topic for another discussion. Yes, removing attack dogs because killing them is mean but still allowing the killing of attack humans is stupid, I agree, but the giant rat is cool. I admit, I was a little confused by the presence of the rats the first time I played the SNES version, but with all the other mutants running around in the game, it didn't seem that far fetched. Training the rats to attack just BJ and not the Nazis, well, okay, that's a bit of a stretch. Maybe BJ's prison sweats were soaked in melted cheese before they locked him up.

5. "English speaking enemies!" - When Wolf3D first came out, the internet was not the big deal it is today. When trying to interpret what the PC enemies were saying, I either had to rely on my (very rusty) knowledge of German, or consult the German to English dictionary and hope I was actually understanding what was being said well enough to translate it. When the SNES was popular, your average kid playing the game probably had very little interest in breaking out the dictionary to translate enemy dialogue, so the port was actually doing them a favor by providing enemy voices in English. Sure, they weren't direct translations of the German from the PC version, but people played the game to shoot the bad guys, not sit around and listen to them babble.

6. "They screwed up the bosses!" - Did they, though? Yes, it's true that instead of Otto Giftmacher, General Fatface and Gretel Grosse, we get instead Trans Grosse, Ubermutant and "Black Knight" (known to us PC folks as Death Knight). You know what, though? When I first played the full version of Wolf3D, and had not yet heard of SOD, I was actually a little depressed. The SOD bosses that appear in the SNES port are a lot more colorful and interesting, in my opinion at least. I was more than a little disappointed to find out that at least two of the "real" bosses in the full version of Wolf3D were nothing but oversized officers with big guns.

At any rate, I think I've made my point, which is, if the SNES port were the only version of Wolf3D out there, I'm sure most folks would think it was a pretty good game (albiet in need of some clearer graphics on the SNES). If we had only the original Wolf3D and the SNES was actually a PC mod release, I'm pretty sure folks would be all over it. In fact, I'm going to wrap this up here and go see if such a thing as a PC mod version of the SNES port exists somewhere. Those of you who think I'm crazy, well, you're not the first, so I won't lose any sleep tonight! :-D

Review: Hitler Strikes Back

2011-09-14T11:34:00.003+10:00

Details
Title: Hitler Strikes Back (SDL Version reviewed)
Creator: Havoc
Released: Dos 19/06/2005, SDL 11/04/2011
Length: 20 Levels (2 secrets)
Level Format: Continuous
Story: New
Graphics: Original, except for Bosses.
Sound: Original
Special Features: None
Dos/SDL: Dos & SDL

Initial impressions: A nice looking recreation of the original set that has been well decorated with a moderate level of challenge. The opening level is very small and contains a fairly easy to find secret elevator but it is nicely decorated although Guard usage seems a bit light on which reduces the challenge of the gameplay a fair bit.

Gameplay: The gameplay is fairly standard and not overly challenging but has been done to an adequate level. There's nothing glaringly wrong with the mod it's just not as challenging as it could have been made and is a fair bit lighter on in challenge than the original. I would have liked to have seen the mod build to be more challenging through guard frequency and harder scenarios rather than just a use of different types of guards.

Mapping: The maps are a little small and quite simple by design, I was able to complete most maps to 100% in only a few minutes each.
Treasure has been used too willingly and it's very simple to find enough to keep your extra man count at maximum.
Health has been used a bit lightly, especially the 25 health item and 1 up, with most levels not containing a 25 health item at all and only a few levels possessing the 1up always hidden in secret areas.

Likes: The Boss sprites in the SDL version have been greatly improved and look fantastic.
The maps are nicely decorated and are visually appealing with all looking similar to the originals, only much smaller in size and complexity.

Dislikes: You are unable to access the 2nd Secret level as the elevator only moves back 2 spaces instead of the required 3 to open the gap to allow the player to get to the secret elevator. This is a simple coding fix and something that needs to be updated . Just to be sure, I checked the map, there's no enemies or anything blocking the elevator either. (EDIT: Havoc has now released an update with this fixed).
The maps are a little small and the guard usage is quite light. The guard placement becomes very predictable with a lot of small roms which usually always contain only a single guard standing front and centre waiting for you nearly every time.

Ratings
Dean's Score: 6.0/10
Difficulty: A fair bit easier than the original set.
Best Level: 18
Worst Level: 20 (2nd Secret Level) - It's just the Pacman ghost level with more treasure.

Wrap-up: The mod is nicely done but isn't much of a challenge for an experienced Wolf player. The levels are nicely laid out, although most are very straight forward and a little on the small size. I emailed Havoc to advise of the problems with the pushwalls and he issued a new version within days explaining that he hadn't realised that this had occured. This set, although it looks great and is nicely done, would really more suit an introductory level player.

Where Can I get it?: You can download the SDL version HERE or by clicking on the screenshot at the top of this post. (Updated to version 1.2 - Released 12/09/2011)
You can download the DOS version HERE.

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: Day Of The Chaingun

2011-09-07T09:56:00.001+10:00

Details
Title: Day of the Chaingun
Creator: Ross Williams
Released: 31/07/2002
Length: 6 Levels (No secrets)
Level Format: Continuous
Story: New
Graphics: Original
Sound: Original
Special Features: None
Dos/SDL: Dos (Shareware)

Initial impressions: Terrible, the entire first map uses the same wall, no decoration, is tiny and uses only 1 type of guard throughout. There is a ridiculous amount of health and ammo and the hand drawn sprites are just awful. The map is very basic and there is little to no challenge at all.

Gameplay: There is a little more challenge as the mod goes on but nothing to rave about. Only 2 types of guards are used in the entire mod and only two types of walls are used throughout the entire 6 levels, except for one new added wall, that is, well, completely out of place, only used once, and certainly has no connection with the mod, the storyline or anything to do with the mod really.

Mapping: Just plain awful. The creator has made little to no effort to make sure his maps are good or challenging in any way. Most rooms have no decoration and not a single light has been used in the entire mod. After Level 1 only the SS guard is used and there is either 1,2 or (generally) 0 in every room, which becomes highly predictable and doesn't make for a any type of challenge at all.
The maps are very small and easily to navigate, time is wasted opening multiple rooms on every level with just nothing in them. The creator had the Shareware set of sprites but hasn't used most of them, why not place a plant or anything rather then just leave all the rooms completely empty?

There is little treasure used, almost no secrets and massive amounts of health and ammo, way more than the player could ever use, unless they stood there shooting at the wall to use ammo up. There is heaps, unrealisticly, at the start of each level, just sitting there, out in the open...

Likes: The only real thing to like is that the creator has actually made and released a mod (a few actually) which is more than some people can say. We've all seen a lot of people arrive at the forums, promise mods, fail to deliver and then disappear. No matter how bad in quality, this guy has at least seen something through to completion.

Dislikes: Pretty much everything. For me, most of all, is the seemingly complete lack of care for something that has taken time to make. I can never understand why people have made mods and released them knowing they are bad, rushed things and had things look terrible in them.
The hand drawn sprites are really poorly done and should never have been added to the mod, if you can't draw, use the originals or ask someone to help you. The quality of the hand drawn sprites in this reduce from the quality, not add to it.

Ratings
Dean's Score: 1.5/10
Difficulty: Far less than the original
Best Level: None
Worst Level: All

Wrap-up: An extremely disappointing mod that isn't one I can recommend to others, except as a what not to do when making a mod. The complete lack of care, no matter what the age of the creator, makes this an unsightly, and nearly unplayable mess.

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.

Released: DHWSDL Mapset (Updated Version)

2011-08-31T22:03:00.000+10:00

An updated version of the DHWSDL mapset has been released recently that contains 4 new maps made by myself for Episode 5. The mapset contains levels made by AreyeP, RonWolf, Thomas, Serpens & Ack, with Episode 5 also containing maps made by Arielus and Schabbs.

Episode 5 Level 5

I decided to remake my levels for this after playing through the rest of the set and realising that my levels weren't up to scratch with what others had produced. The maps have taken some time but I am really proud of the quality of the new levels in this and I hope everyone enjoys them to.

Episode 5 Level 7

Andy_Nonymous has also included the latest SDL file updates in the rerelease as well as some other bug fixes recently discovered by various Community Members. The original release was awarded The Wolfenstein 3d Dome Award for January 2011. All of the screenshots that appear in this post are of the new levels included in the set.

Episode 5 Level 9

The updated version of the mapset can be downloaded either from HERE or by clicking on the title screen at the top of this post. The link section has also been updated to include the latest version.

NB: On a side note I would like that publicly thank WolfForever for testing all of the levels for me, his feedback contributed strongly to helping me get the maps up to the quality I was hoping to achieve.

Wolfer Q&A: Majik Monkee

2011-08-24T09:48:00.004+10:00

Name: Matt Merrill

Location: Lincoln, Nebraska

Wolf 3d Nickname: Majik Monkee

Website: Monkees Switchboard

Website: Monkees Image World

Q. Where did your nickname come from and why did you choose it?

A. Well, back in 1994 when I was in college, my girlfriend at the time happened to discover one of the very first “chat rooms”, which for us, was nothing more than green text on a black screen on old computers that didn’t even use a mouse or Windows yet. I eventually decided to see what all the fuss was about and tried to find a username that hadn’t been taken yet but was having no luck. I decided to try misspelled words, and I was a big Red Hot Chili Peppers fan at the time. I remembered they had a weird spelling of the word “magic” on one of their albums at the time, so I came up with “majik” (they actually spelled it “magik”). I’ve always found monkeys amusing for reasons I can’t quite explain, and when I was looking for another “m” word to finish out my nickname, “monkey” was the obvious choice, although I once again chose a different spelling. People used to always ask me if I was a fan of the Monkees, which I’m not, or if I was a fan of the show “Monkey Magic”, which I’d never heard of prior to creating my nickname.

Q. When did you first play Wolfenstein 3d?

A. I believe that was back in 1993, my Freshman year in college. One of my friends had the game on his computer, and he was trying to describe it to me before I’d actually seen it. He told me you controlled a gun “floating around on the screen” shooting enemies, which honestly, sounded pretty stupid. I’d seen some old 3D maze type games before, but never a FPS, so I couldn’t grasp what he was trying to describe. I did eventually wind up playing it during a visit to his dorm room, and it seemed pretty revolutionary at the time. In fact, I think I actually played through the whole shareware version at one sitting.

The main things I remember are my surprise the first time I encountered Hans Grosse (for some reason, I didn’t think 3D games would have bosses), and pressing multiple keys on the keyboard at the same time trying to figure out what the ILM code was (my friend remembered there was a code that gave you everything, but had no idea what it was). The first time I played anything other than the shareware version was when the SNES version came out a few years later, and unfortunately, I didn’t realize the massive difference between it and the actual full version (which, thankfully, I did eventually get my hands on).

Q. How did you come to be a part of the Wolfenstein 3d Community?

A. That’s kind of a strange story, actually. I used to write reviews for console and PC games over at Gamefaqs, and enjoyed reading reviews others had written, especially scathing reviews. After reading a review for the NES game, Raid 2020, which claimed to be the worst game ever, I became curious about and decided to go outside Gamefaqs to learn more. I came across a blog called Encyclopedia Obscura, which was devoted to writing very lengthy, critical reviews of video games (among other things), and they had a very amusing review of Raid 2020. I eventually became hooked on the Encyclopedia Obscura site, to the point where I contacted the author and asked if he needed any contributors to his site, directing him to take a look at some of my own previous work. He actually accepted my offer, and requested I find something to write about and let him know what I’d be doing. Somehow, during my Google search for “crap games”, I came across the official site for Spear Resurrection. It had been a long time since I’d played Wolfenstein, and I had no idea people were still doing anything with the game. When I read the description of the game and realized it featured clones made of “human waste”, I was convinced I’d truly found a “crap game” to pick on. I decided I would do a piece for the blog about how insane it was people were modding such an old game, while poking fun at some of the “stranger” aspects of Spear Resurrection. Well, before I could do a proper review, I had to play the game first to prove it was as bad as I thought it was, and that’s when things actually turned around. Like most people, I was blown away by what Spear Resurrection had to offer, went on to be likewise impressed with Wolfendoom, and eventually found the Diehard Wolfers forum and Wolfenstein 3D Dome during my efforts to find more mods. I just couldn’t get enough of them.

Q. What is the best part about being involved in the Wolf 3d Community?

A. Half the fun of experiencing a great game (or anything that interests me for that matter) is having someone to share your experience with. No offense to my wife, but she cares very little about Wolfenstein, and very few of my real life friends (aside from my Brother) are really dedicated Wolfenstein fans. Without the gang at Diehard Wolfers, I’d be missing out on info about upcoming mods, feedback on mods I’ve released, and most importantly, a lot of great interactions I’ve had with a lot of really great people there over the years. I’d like to think I’d have still made mods without access to an active Wolfenstein Community, but the truth of the matter is, when I first discovered Wolfedit long before the internet was a big deal, I had very little motivation to do any editing or modding.

Q. You’ve released many popular mods, how much planning and development goes into each mod?

A. That varies a little from mod to mod, but for the most part, a whole lot of thought and planning goes into them before work actually begins. It usually starts with just a very general idea of what I’d like the mod to be about, and the first thing I’ll usually establish is the cast of enemies for the new mod (as an artist primarily, character design and selection is the most enjoyable part for me). Next comes the story, which will usually go through several revisions before I find a version I’m happy with, because without a good story, mods tend to feel very empty or pointless to me (I’m embarrassed to say that I download and play very few mods that have no story attached to them, I have to feel like I’m doing something meaningful when I play a mod). After the cast and story are settle upon, depending on the size and scope of the mod, completing the remaining elements usually takes anywhere from several weeks to several months. The Mutant Strike games generally took a few weeks to finish, while Operation: Letzterschutz and Halls of Stonehenge took several months to complete because of the increased level count and complexity of the code requests. I’m a very picky person when it comes to my mods, though, I don’t like releasing anything I’m not totally happy with, and sometimes that can delay the release of a mod when I’m nitpicking over the details of an already finished product.

Q. You have had a long standing collaboration with ack, what has it been like working with him over the years and what impact have his maps had on your mods?

A. I started working with ack before I ever even realized how talented he is as a mapper. When I was extremely new to the Wolf community and was first posting my ideas for Halls of Stonehenge, he contacted me by PM and offered to do maps for the project. At the time, I just thought it was cool to have someone offer this kind of help unsolicited, I didn’t even realize just what kind of talent he was bringing to the project until I started getting the maps. He really helped HOS stand out as a mod, and I firmly believe it’s a much better mod because of his contributions than it would have been with just maps from me (I did the first two, last two normal maps, and then the Funhouse secret map, ack did all the rest). After the success of HOS, it was only natural that I’d want that level of quality map-wise in my mods, and he was always willing to contribute to projects when asked. The only mods he hasn’t contributed maps to were Operation: Hundscheisse and OMS3. Most folks are aware ack has done a lot of maps for me, but what they may not know is that he’s also given me a lot of feedback on mod stories, reviewed maps I’d done for some different projects, and even provided sprites for me to edit for my projects on occasion. It’s been awesome working with him, and it’s a little weird doing OMS3 without him on board, but I’m fortunate to have a very talented team of mappers still to make the project a great one.

Q. You are currently in the process of making ‘Operation: Mutant Strike 3’, will this be the last part in the series?

A. That depends on how you look at it I guess. Officially, I’d have to say yes. We went for years with the Mutant Strike series ending with part two, where Jill basically disappears at the end of the story, and I always felt like that was kind of a loose end somehow, and after the great reception O:MS2 received, I kind of started viewing O:MS as being a trilogy at some point. During my “dark period” where I did no modding and didn’t visit the forums for a couple years, I still felt this strange longing to return to the modding scene and make O:MS3, I just didn’t have a strong enough story or strong enough motivation with some of my real life challenges. The conclusion of O:MS3 will tie together with the conclusion of Halls of Stonehenge and medEvil, and will hopefully be a nice wrapup for those storylines.

I am, however, working on a “prequel” mod of sorts as sort of a “prize” for an O:MS trivia contest I plan on hosting, which will feature Jill battling dog soldiers similar to those featured in Operation: Hundscheisse. It won’t have “Mutant Strike” in the title, though, and the story will be pretty minimal, so it will be a fun addition hopefully, but not necessarily an integral part of O:MS history. If some other ambitious modder wants to pick up Jill’s story in the future in a way that does justice to the rest of the series, I won’t complain, but O:MS3 will most likely be the final actual O:MS instalment.

Q. Do you have plans to make any new mods after O:MS3?

A. At the moment, no, but never say never. Most of my focus lately has been on ways to improve O:MS3, I haven’t thought very far beyond that. I will most likely expand upon my most recently released mod, Big Time Gangsta, probably a few levels at a time. Right now, I suspect I’ll offer help to people with graphics or whatever else I can do to assist others with their mods, but the mod development and planning process takes a lot out of me, and at the moment, I’m trying to minimize my own commitments.

Q. Why did you choose to release your mod ‘Revenge of Poopdeck Willie’ under a pseudonym?

A. RPDW was what I would call an accidental success. When I made it, I was lampooning mods that borrow levels from other mods, and also mods that tend to have a ridiculous difficulty level. Also, if you read the endart text, you’ll notice an intentionally poorly written, rather ridiculous story that goes with the mod. My efforts to make an intentionally “bad” mod failed, though, because as I was putting it together, there were still elements of strategy and “fairness” at work in my item and enemy placement, to where the mod was still winnable with effort and strategic playing. I didn’t realize this though until I’d already released it under a false name, figuring people would think the mod was garbage, and not really wanting to be associated with a garbage mod. I’m actually kind of proud of RPDW now, and find myself playing it from time to time when I want a challenge and a laugh.

Q. Which of your mods are you most proud of, and why?

A. That’s a tough question. I love most of the mods I’ve made, all for different reasons. O:MS2 is one of my favourites, simply because I feel like it’s a really story-drive mod with a lot of great elements to it. I also really like medEvil because there were some really great features that were not really done before at the time that Adam Biser managed to incorporate, and again, medEvil had a pretty solid story. Probably my overall proudest achievement mod-wise though would have to be Operation: Letzterschutz. In terms of scope, it’s my largest mod to date, has the most variety in enemies, scenery, and scenarios, but still managed to capture the feel of the original Wolfenstein for the most part. It’s also the mod that has the largest total number of levels done by myself, and that’s a pretty big accomplishment for me, since mapping is the thing I have the most difficulty with. So yeah, O:L is my favourite if I had to pick just one.

Q. What has been the most rewarding thing that’s come from Wolf 3d and your mods?

A. Knowing that people are getting enjoyment out of something I’ve created (or helped create) is the number one reward for me. I’ve never cared about the fact that modding isn’t a paying hobby, if I know that even a couple of people are excited about and enjoying something I released, that’s the real payoff. It’s a little surreal how I sort of forgot about the mods that I did for the past several years, then one day decided to Google some of them by name, only to find them reviewed and available for download on a bunch of different sites I’ve never heard of before. That’s kind of fun, and I’ve made some friends by contacting the various owners of these different blogs to introduce myself and comment on their reviews.

Q. What are some of the important things you’ve learnt about mod making along the way and what is some advice you can pass along to help others with mod making?

A. Well, first of all, before you even start making a mod, know what it is you want to accomplish, and have a clear idea of what you want the final product to be, otherwise, you’re just working aimlessly. That being said, once you start your project, be open to outside criticism and suggestions, don’t take them to be some sort of a personal attack. I’ll admit I’ve had people criticize ideas or concepts of mine, and at first I resisted, only to eventually realize the suggestions had merit, and watch my mod vastly improve after implementing the suggested changes. Not every suggestion will be one that improves your project, over time, you just learn to recognize when someone is offering you good advice and filter out the other stuff. My last bit of advice about modding is to pace yourself. Working on projects can be fun, but if you try to do too much in too little time, you’re bound to burn out, and start associating Wolfenstein with work – and that’s bad!

Q. What are some of your favourite Wolf 3d mods that you’ve played, other than your own?

A. To be honest, it’s been a while since I’ve played a mod, I’ve mostly been working on mod creation since my long absence from the community. However, I do still have very fond memories of several mods. Probably my all time favorite mod thus far would be “Coming of the Storm” by WSJ. I remember that mod had just enough code changes to satisfy me, and the story and new enemies were really awesome. I also really enjoyed “Operation: Heimzahlung”, it was extremely well executed and very realistic. “Wolfendoom” is easily one of my favourites, not only is it fun but it was the very first true mod I ever played, and I’ll always have fond memories of it. “Spear Resurrection” and “Orb of Dilaaria” were fantastic mods, and two mods I started playing but never finished (right about the time I took my break from Wolfing) were “Trench Warfare” and “End of Destiny”.

Q. Why do you feel that Wolf 3d has such a long, ongoing legacy?

A. Well, most of the current members of the community are like me, people who were kids or teens around the time Wolfenstein first came out, and we have fond memories of how exciting it was to first experience the game, and want to expand upon that and keep that feeling alive. Also, I think editing the game and modifying the code is more accessible to a wider range of people than modding games like Half-Life or other complex modern day FPS games. Let’s be honest, the original Wolf 3D is still a fun game. It’s challenging yet not too complex, and the WWII era seems to be a really popular era for video gamers, so it has that working in its favor as well.

Q. Where would you like to see the Wolf 3d go from here?

A. Well, I’m excited to see the different ways people find to improve upon the original game, and I hope to see that continue, but at the same time, I sincerely hope we’ll continue to see mods or level sets with an “old school” flavor to them, because those are the ones that really capture the original essence of Wolf3D. A continuing balanced mix of the two would make me happy.

Q. Any words of wisdom you would like to leave us on?

A. Don’t take yourself too seriously. That goes for all aspects of life, not just modding. Also, don’t expect to be the best at everything in life, as long as you are doing your own personal best, people will usually appreciate the effort. Oh, and last of all, don’t expect to please everyone all the time, that will just burn you out, and it’s just not possible! =)

Wolfenstein Mods and Contributions
Released
Halls of Stonhenge (2003) (Review)
Operation: Hundschiesse (2004) (Review)
Halls of Stonehenge: Special Edition (2004)
Operation: Letztershutz (2004)
Operation: Mutant Strike (2004) (Review)
Operation: Mutant Strike 2 (2005) (Review)
medEvil (2006) (Review)
Operation: Mutant Strike (SDL Version) (2011)
Operation: Mutant Strike 2 (SDL Version) (2011)
Operation: Hundschiesse (SDL Version) (2011)
Operation: Letzterschutz (SDL Version) 2011

Released under other Names
Revenge of Poopdeck Willie: Resurrection (Released as 'Elmer Fudd') (2004) (Review)
Venture 3D (Released as 'Village Idiot Productions') (2011)
Big Time Gangsta (Released as 'Ronowen Vance') (2011)

Other Contributions
Orb of Dilaaria (Graphics assistance)
The DieHard Wolfers TC SDL (Graphics Assistance)

Unreleased
Operation: Mutant Strike 3
Operation: Hundenberg

Unreleased Contributions
Kurt V's The Master (Graphics Assistance)

Other
Alien Invasion Patch (for SOD, converts to Corridor 7 Enemies) (2004)

Review: Revenge of Poopdeck Willie: Resurrection

2011-08-17T09:07:00.001+10:00

Details
Title: Revenge of Poopdeck Willie: Resurrection
Creator: Monkeeworks (Elmer Fudd (AKA Majik Monkee))
Released: 31/08/2004
Length: 12 Levels (No secrets)
Level Format: Episodic (3 x 4 levels)
Story: New
Graphics: Original
Sound: Otriginal
Special Features: None
Dos/SDL: Dos

Initial impressions: Using original Wolf the maps have been designed as more 'Challenge' level than introductory. There are multiple Bosses on each level and some are placed so as to really give the player a surprise in their location. There is ample health and ammo, but backtracking is usually required at times as one never knows quite when the next Boss will appear. There has been ample use of other guards and the levels have been nicely decorated.

Gameplay: The game play is quite challenging and has been made so purposefully. There are plenty of difficult scenarios and the player is best to use all their tricks and previous playing experience to proceed through the maps. Majik Monkee has repeatdly stated that these levels are tough and may be so for some players, this may turn off some less experienced players but this should also give a good sense of achievement for those that stick at it.

Mapping: A lot of the levels have been taken from other Monkeeworks mods but most work well in this set. Those chosen have been selected for the best suitability to this and none sit out of place.
There are plenty of health and ammo caches, little treasure is used though, which doesn't seem to make a difference, and there are plenty of secret areas.
The Bosses are many and it's common to find multiple on each level. They aren't all placed where you'd expect them though!

Likes: That the levels have been made with the more experienced player in mind. There are very few true 'Challenge' sets out there and this is one set that the hardcore Wolfers will get a decent challenge out of rather then blasting their way through Episode 1 of the original game in 10 minutes again!
The changed artwork, especially the Bosses amd Hitler Ghost replacement has been done brilliantly, all look fantastic and fit the original wall set extremely well.

Dislikes: Some of the levels have been used before, which isn't always a bad thing but in 2 situations here I feel there are. In the first, the same level has been used twice (E1-L1 & E2-L1) with only a few guards changed on the level. The second (E2-L2) is a recycled map from another Monkeeeworks mod, 'Halls of Stonehenge'. The problem with this is that it has a section with multiple push walls, all of which can't be accessed, meaning that the player can not get 100% of secrets on this level. I know most players wouldn't care about this but as I am a 100% of everything type player, like some others, so this type of thing can be a little annoying, especially when you search every inch of every wall in the entire level trying to find the missing pushwalls to get your 100%.
The end episode stats are incorrect anyway and haven't been changed to reflect only the number of levels you play in the episode.

Ratings
Dean's Score: 7.0/10
Difficulty: Much harder than original Wolf with multiple Bosses on every level.
Best Level: E1-L3
Worst Level: E2-L3, E2-L1 isn't much either as it's identical to E1-L1.

Wrap-up: This is a challenging mod that is more geared towards experienced players. I'm not sure why Majik Monkee chose to release this under a psuedonym but I'm told it was at least a year after release before it was revealed to be his work.
At only 12 levels this is a short, but entertaining, mod to play through that should keep players of all levels interested. Possibly one of those mods not a lot of people have either heard of or played but one everyone should give a try of at some time.

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

This is a bonus review of another of Majik Monkee's 'Monkeeworks' projects. The previous weeks reviews of 'medEvil', 'Operation: Mutant Strike', 'Operation: Mutant Strike 2' and 'Operation: Hundschiesse' can be read HERE (medEvil), HERE (O:MS), HERE (O:MS2) and HERE (O:H).
I have also previously reviewed Monkeeworks mod 'Halls of Stonehenge', the review of which can be read HERE.

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: Operation: Hundscheisse

2011-08-10T09:30:00.004+10:00

Details
Title: Operation: Hundschiesse
Creator: Monkeeworks (Dumscheissekopf (AKA Majik Monkee))
Released: 30/04/2004
Length: 7 Levels (1 secret)
Level Format: Continuous
Story: New
Graphics: Some original, some new (From Super Noah's Ark 3d and others)
Sound: New
Special Features: None
Dos/SDL: Dos

Initial impressions: There's some weirdness in this but it all appears to be for the sake of fun. The 'dog soldiers' have been well done as have the other sprites that have been modified. The sounds have all been redone and fit well with the mod and the fun aspect of it. The early levels are very basic and not much more than connected room after connected room.

Gameplay: The Gameplay is fairly similar to the original Wolf 3d game except Bosses are much, much harder. The levels aren't very complex but the changed graphics are well done and a delight to enjoy while playing through the mod, as are the new sounds that accompany them.
The mod does come off a bit as a bit of a hodge podge of random ideas at times, and certainly doesn't have as much story and ideas behind it's creation compared to other MonkeeWorks mods, from what I can see.

Mapping: The mapping is rather average throughout, and some levels you feel like have been completely constructed via a Modular home building kit as each room is just a replica pod of all previous rooms with only the internal walls changed around a little bit.
There are few secrets in each level and they become more important to find the further you get into the mod. The secret level is nicely done and serves it purpose well.

Likes: The Graphic work looks fantastic, has been done extremely well and is the stand out feature of the mod. The Bosses especially, have been brilliantly designed and work very well in the mod.
The whole idea behind the mod is fun and has been kept in that spirit by the creators.

Dislikes: The final (final) level is almost impossible to beat (at least I wasn't able to finish it after numerous tries) meaning the player is most likely never to get a full resolution of the mod, although I'm sure this was intended.
The Bosses, especially the 'Dog Mecha Hitler' is extremely difficult to kill and inexperienced players would struggle very badly trying to beat this boss.

Ratings
Dean's Score: 6.5/10
Difficulty: No more difficult that the original Wolfenstein 3d.
Best Level: 4
Worst Level: 2

Wrap-up: A fun little mod that you can play through in around an hour or so with some fun and creative elements to it. This has been made in a whole different spirit that most of the other Monkeeworks mod and should be treated as thus.
I can see now where a lot of influences have been taken from by other modders since this was released, that surely is credit due in it's self.
All in all, this is a bit of fun but not really a mod that you'd repeat play often.

Where Can I get it?: You can download the mod HERE or by clicking on the screenshot at the top of this post.
I even managed to find the 1 level demo, of which can be downloaded HERE.

This is the final week of a 4 week special I'm doing by reviewing some of Majik Monkee's Monkeeworks projects. The previous weeks reviews of 'Operation: Mutant Strike', 'Operation: Mutant Strike 2' and 'medEvil' can be read HERE (medEvil), HERE (O:MS) and HERE (O:MS2)
I have also previously reviewed Monkeeworks mod 'Halls of Stonehenge', the review of which can be read HERE.

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.

Level Analysis: All This And Wolf3D Level 69 - Introduction/Prelude and Part 1

2011-08-04T23:00:00.003+10:00

Note: This post will have multiple parts, and unfortunately a map view of the level being discussed cannot be provided. However, plenty of other screenshots from the level(s) will be included. This series of posts will also contain spoilers, even more than most level analysis posts, but it is needed to even close to fully recognize what makes this level what it truely is.

Thomas Weiling's mod "All This And Wolf3d" holds one record for sure even to this date - it's the only Wolfenstein mod out there with more than 60 consecutive levels to play through, and probably will remain that way until Thomas himself releases his next project "The Last Howl". But that wouldn't mean anything if the levels were a simple or poor affair - nobody would ever in their right mind appreciate 70 boring, poorly designed, or otherwise uninspired maps. Fortunately, All This And Wolf3D delivered the quality in spades, and nearly every last level it has is filled with quality map design and enough variety to keep a player's interest for this unusually long duration of time. However, the game's first 67 levels are, with the exception of the occasional new walls and static objects, are levels that could come out of the original Wolfenstein games or any other great mod.

That changes - just a bit - in Level 68. When you see the level loading, you will see a progress bar that shows how close the loading is to finished, unlike the usual screen that loads a level in a matter of seconds or two. You will then soon find out why - while only a medium sized floor, and arguably smaller than most levels in the game, it is clearly in a land far different from any you've explored in the 67 levels that preceed it. The typical Wolfenstein grey floor and fitting sky has been replaced by shading, and through the maps dark brown rooms and tunnels you will not be killing any Nazis, but rather you are in a land of ghosts, where fortunately once they're dead, they are finished (unlike Angel of Death, etc.).

And while you play the level, you might wonder why the game switches gears into such a strangely different mode so abruptly. But after you throw one more elevator switch, and listen to a changed intermission sound, it does not take long to realize even more strange things as you enter Level 69.

The picture above shows the very start of Level 69. The shading is gone, but two oddities become immediately noticeable. Firstly, I did NOT edit the resolution of the image. If the screen of the starting elevator looks like the dimensions have been unusually windened, that's because they have been. Secondly, look in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. Notice the number 5.5 in yellow? That's actually a time - it counts down by tenth of a second, and when it runs out something unusual happens - but I won't get to it yet.

If you play around with your keyboard a little bit, it won't take long to notice another strange thing. The pause key does not pause anything. The quicksave and quickload keys (F8 and F9) do nothing, nor does the F1 key to restore another level. And if you press any F_ key, or hit escape to go to the menu, you'll find an unpleasant surprise when you attempt to reenter the game:

And then you will die. Yes, you are the kittens!

Okay, no, you're BJ, but the bottom line is you can't do any action to save your progress or stop the level here. At all. If you do, it WILL fail, and in most cases, you will find out only when you see the above screen and subsequently must die and restart. Don't try saving in the middle and then loading it fresh later (i.e. after ending the game normally) - it will only load from the very start of the level.

After you leave the starting elevator, the strange screen dimensions quickly reset to normal. And for a moment, it looks like a normal level. You are in a small corridor, of green slime walls, with a guard and a mutant. The only oddity on the screen is the ticking timer....

So, two seconds later...SURPRISE! You will be taken to a completely different scene on the screen, facing a locked door, with another weird screen effect - the size/scale of the screen is consistently, several times in a single second, switching between normal and oversized. Behind you will be a guard, and an officer on higher skill levels. It's a three-unit tiny hallway in total with all the doors being locked, so clearly without another time you're stuck. Indeed, another timer, this one in a different color, will be on the bottom right, and the ceiling will now be blue!:

(Note that this screenshot is unable to demonstrate the oscilating screen size that I noted.)

It might be at this point that you start wondering, is this even by Thomas? Well, if you're a text file reader, you'll know from within the first few paragraphs of the manual that comes with the game that this level is in fact not by Thomas - the only and only level of ATAW to have that distinction. It is instead by Chris Chokan. And any early day Wolfer will know that guy for he made one of the funniest classic conversion of the old era - Chokage. And with that knowledge may come the fact, quickly or not, that a weird level was all but a foregone conclusion before the map even loaded. And everything that's happened so far might make some more sense. But don't be eluded - if this level was an iceburg, then you've barely seen its tip.

So, the time runs out. And suddenly, you appear once again in an entirely different area, this time using a red wall from the Lost Episodes with a fitting red ceiling to accompany it. The oscillating screen is gone, but yet another timer, this one just a little longer, is counting down the seconds. And if you battle this area fast enough, which shouldn't be a problem, you will find a picture of BJ's face with some of the letters of "I Am Death Incarnate!" appearing around it:

It's quite possible to have some time remaining after all the enemies have fallen to the floor, and a curious mind may just wonder if this wall does anything. So you may press it. And the wall doesn't move, but suddently the screen flashes. If you look closely, you'll find out your health has been raised 5% - even if it goes above 100% - up to a maximum of 200% - the shot demonstrates the ability to lift health over 100% using this wall. And you'll want the whole 200%, so trust me and get there in time to press on it in rapid succession before the clock runs to zero.

As the timer hits zero once more, you are warped into yet another area - a grey ceiling is here - but the timer is gone. If you're on a higher skill, you will be getting fired upon immediately. That starts to show why you wanted to have 200% health in the area before. Upon looking through the area, you'll find a little health, ammo, and treasure, as well as a few hidden enemies - and you may also see an elevator on the side opposite the enemies and items - except with a little problem - while you could navigate a maze of barrels, a single white pillar blocks your way through the barrels:

So you'll have to turn around the other way, and you'll find blue stone and two locked doors - can't proceed here. However, if you look off to the side in this direction, where two small "huts", with wood panel surroundings, are present, then you'll have the next move to progress.

It seemingly doesn't matter which one you go into - they are both identical. A room full of treasure with grey stone on the inner walls. They might look like dead ends, but there's one odd standout - the grey decoration walls are missing their decorations, and are filled with an arch of pitch dark instead:

So - it's pretty obvious you must walk right into one of these black portals. But what happens next? Or better yet, what better way to end a post than leave a big cliffhangar that should have fans who don't know the answer waiting anxiously for Part 2?...so that's all for now!

Review: Operation: Mutant Strike 2

2011-08-03T09:22:00.004+10:00

Details
Title: Operation: Mutant Strike 2
Creator: Monkeeworks (Majik Monkee)
Released: 08/01/2005
Length: 10 Levels (No secrets)
Level Format: Continuous
Story: New
Graphics: Mostly Original, some new.
Sound: Some new, some original
Special Features: Harmful Sprites, Additional enemies, Shading, map name on 'get psyched' screen, additional weapon.
Dos/SDL: Dos

Initial impressions: Now this is more like it! From the tameness of O:MS 1 to the much increased difficulty and harder challenge of O:MS 2. This really steps is up with multiple mini bosses and plenty of SS replacement guards straight off the bat in level 1.
The walls and sprites are a lot more appealing than the mods predecessor and the map quality has clearly increased. The first level is quite a difficult challenge and players will need to proceed with care at all times.

Gameplay: The Gameplay is quite intense and very fast paced. The player doesn't have a huge amount of time to rest as mutants and other enemies seem to be constantly coming at you from multiple angles.
There are plenty of traps on each level that can easily see you over run with enemies and fighting for your life. While there is plenty of health and ammo it is very advisable to keep some in reserve (ie. Don't waste a 25 health kit if you are already on 94% health) as quite often you are required to back track to fill up on health and ammo.

Mapping: The mapping is greatly improved from O:MS1. Not that the mapping was bad in the first mod, it's just done in a much better, more open style in this. The maps are larger and more complex and there is a lot more diversity of scenarios in each level.
There are plenty of secret ares, which in most cases contain treasure, health and ammo, the latter of which makes the players efforts of completing a level much greater. It is advised to search these out when time permits.
Warning: Don't take these maps lightly after playing O:MS1 as you won't get very far if you do, they are at a completly different level of difficulty, which experienced Wolfers will find much more challenging.

Likes: The Wall set is better and more appealing, the maps are bigger and harder, the enemy list is more combative and the story is a lot more in depth and involved. All of these elements make for a highly entertaining and challenging mod.
While the 'wide-radius' damaging sprites are still used in this, they are used in much less frequency and the player is giving much greater opportunity to manoeuvre around the objects in question.

Dislikes: Due to the increase in difficulty, new or novice players to Wolf mods may struggle with the difficulty, and are advised to play on a lower difficulty setting as the hardest is extremely difficult.
I found the ammo volume on Level 10 to be too small. There just needed to be one more secret with a large cache of ammo for my liking, but it is possible to defeat everything with the ammo supplied, if you are careful.

Ratings
Dean's Score: 8.0/10
Difficulty: Much harder then O:MS1 and very much harder than original Wolf.
Best Level: 4
Worst Level: None

Wrap-up: This is a fantastic challenge and another really well put together mod from Majik Monkee. The professionalism is easily observed from the artwork all the way through the intermission screens and seen especially in the maps.
As mentioned above, this could be quite difficult to those unfamiliair with Monkee's mods but this will be especially enjoyable for experienced Wolfers who are looking for a challenge.
Outside of 'Beyond Mutantstein SE' this is easily the best 'mutant' based mod produced by the Wolfenstein 3d Community.

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

This is week 3 of 4 of a special I'm doing by reviewing of Majik Monkee's Monkeeworks projects. Next week will feature a review of and 'Operation: Hundscheisse'. The Last 2 weeks featured reviews of 'Operation: Mutant Strike' and 'medEvil' which can be read HERE (O:MS) and HERE (medEvil).
I have also previously reviewed Monkeeworks mod 'Halls of Stonehenge', the review of which can be read HERE.

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: Operation: Mutant Strike

2011-07-27T11:06:00.001+10:00

Details
Title: Operation: Mutant Strike
Creator: Monkeeworks (Dumscheissekopf (AKA - Majik Monkee))
Released: 07/10/2004
Length: 10 Levels (No secrets)
Level Format: Continuous
Story: New
Graphics: Mostly Original, some new.
Sound: Some new, some original
Special Features: Harmful Sprites, Additional enemies.
Dos/SDL: Dos

Initial impressions: At first look, this looks fairly similar to a lot of other mutant based mods that have been released over the years. The first level is fairly basic with just room after room of mutants and the usual piles of bones and blood lying around. The addition of the non-shooting mutant, the 'sleeping' mutant and the flying bat (although a little bizarre) are nice additions to the usual 'Mutant only' theme. The first mini bosses comes as a surprise and can be a little hard to kill the first time you meet, especially if you are unaware of his presence.

Gameplay: The gameplay is decent and there are some rooms with harder challenges mixed in from the normal ones, especially as the multiples of enemies increase. The earlier maps are basically all room after room of the same thing which gives the player a chance to save and regroup before facing the next battle. It's only later on where you are fighting multiple mini-bosses in levels, and the levels become more complex, that the difficulty and challenge really steps up.
The proliferation of ammo and health is a bit high on the early levels and it's very easy to stay on full health and ammo through most of these levels.

Mapping: The mapping is fairly basic with most maps made up of room after room of similar attacks. A lot of the rooms seem to have similar looking walls throughout. There is some variance in level design later on in the maps (After map 6) with some larger open spaces and varying designs, but some of these maps can also be quite mazey.
There are few secret areas used through the first 6 maps with most only offering a small benefit if found. The secrets become more important after Level 6 to find as the player can quite often be running low on health and/or ammo.
The ammo levels on a couple of levels (especially Level 7) are a bit low so care is needed, especially on levels where fighting multiple bosses and mini-bosses.

Likes: The gameplay and graphics are well done, especially the mini-bosses and bosses, and all fit and help build the theme nicely. The maps increase in difficulty and complexity as you progress which helps build the tension of impending challanges still to face.
The music is nicely done and fits the theme well, especially the later levels, which helps build the tension when fighting bosses and exploring.

Dislikes: The damaging sprites, like in other Monkeeworks mods, are the most annoying things by a long way in this. The radius is too large and can easily kill the player from too far a distance away. At least knowing this, the player can do the best they can to avoid them where possible.
The ammo balance is a little out on some levels. Some levels have more then you could ever use and some you are seriously left wanting of just a few more clips!

Ratings
Dean's Score: 7.0/10
Difficulty: Harder than normal due to mini-bosses
Best Level: 7
Worst Level: 10 (I was just hoping for a bit more from the main Boss level)

Wrap-up: This is definitely one of the better mutant themed mods out there. The Level length (10) is quite suitable as I couldn't imagine just fighting mutants for 60 levels!
An integral part of both Monkeeworks releases as well as the Mutant Strike series (With a 3rd part soon to be released) this is a fun little mod that gives the player enough of a challenge and will leave them looking forward to it's sequels.

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

This is week 2 of 4 of a special I'm doing by reviewing some of Majik Monkee's 'Monkeeworks' projects. The next 2 weeks will feature reviews of 'Operation: Mutant Strike 2' and 'Operation: Hundscheisse'. Last week featured a review of 'medEvil' which can be read HERE.
I have also previously reviewed Monkeeworks mod 'Halls of Stonehenge', the review of which can be read HERE.

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: medEvil

2011-07-20T10:09:00.002+10:00

Details
Title: medEvil
Creator: Monkeeworks (Majik Monkee)
Released: 03/03/2006
Length: 10 Levels (No secrets)
Level Format: Continuous
Story: New
Graphics: New (Some from Blood and other Monkeeworks Mods)
Sound: New
Special Features: Animated Walls, Additional Weapon, Harmful Sprites, Additional enemies.
Dos/SDL: Dos

Initial impressions: This is a very well presented and professional looking mod. The title screen, menu and menu music is extremely well done and sets a tone ealy for the mod. I'm not a huge fan of melee weapons like the sword used in this, but I managed to get a handle on it quite quickly and it only stays as the main weapon for a map or so until you build enough ammo and find other weapons.
The walls and sprites are done extremely well and fit the mod perfectly, as do the guards and music. The most annoying part is the damaging sprites as these can kill you from quite a distance away.

Gameplay: The gameplay is quite fast paced with most guards being fast moving and plentiful. The maps are nicely decorated and have used the guard types well to enhance them.
There are constant mini bosses to battle through theout the mod which really challenges the player a bit more then just tearing through 10 standard levels and helps break up any predictability. The mod has been designed to really tell a story across the 10 levels and builds really well towards the level 10 finale, this is further enhanced by the intermissions screens and gradual introduction of different enemy types and Bosses.

Mapping: The mapping is extremely well done and helps bring the whole theme and feel of the mod to life very well. The maps have a whole grungy, dirty look and a feel to them which compliments the walls and graphics used perfectly. There are a lot of tight passageways to follow and the guards and other enemies are used in good quantities.
There are a mixture of outside and inside levels but all progress in a fashion that leads the player forwards. There are a few mazes within the levels but nothing too ridiculously large. There are ample secret areas hidden throughout the maps, all of which strongly assist the player on their quest. The secrets are usually cleverly placed with many often in or near rooms containing large battles or Bosses and are well worth searching for.

Likes: Everything in the mod has been specifically chosen or designed to work with each other and the theme of the mod. You can tell that this isn't just a collection of things that someone has liked and all placed in a mod together hoping they'll work. There has been a definite plan and idea in place through the whole creation of the mod.
The storyline is well written and develops nicely as you move through the levels.
The balance of difficulty in the mod is as well developed as I've played for a while, where there are harder challenges than original Wolf 3d, with nothing too impossible, if the player is careful and thinks about the best way to combat each scenario they should be able to move along nicely. All the little touches included, like the ghosts, may not all be noticed by every player but they definitely help make for a fuller, richer playing experience.

Dislikes: The damaging sprites are the main annoyance for me in this. It's good to have additional, creative things like this but unfortunately the radius in which the items can inflict damage is just too large. The problem comes that most of these items have been placed in tight passageways and areas where the player is forcd to go quite close to them. This is understandable in a mapping sense but there are a couple of occassions where I was forced to brush against a wall and was killed by a damaging sprite placed on the other side of the wall. It's pretty crappy when you are killed by something you can't even see!

Ratings
Dean's Score: 8.0/10
Difficulty: More difficult than original Wolf due to addition of Mini Bosses, Missile firing enemies and the large damage radius of the damaging sprites.
Best Level: 4
Worst Level: 3

Wrap-up: A very good mod with a different theme to the traditional Wolf mod. This is challenging but very entertaining and well worth playing. The only recommendation I can give is to be VERY careful of the damaging sprites and save often. A mod every Wolf fan should try at some time or another.

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

Over the next 4 weeks I'll be doing reviews of Majik Monkee's Monkeeworks projects. The next 3 weeks will feature revies of 'Operation: Mutant Strike', 'Operation: Mutant Strike 2' and 'Operation: Hundscheisse'. I have also reviewed Monkeeworks mod 'Halls of Stonehenge', the review of which can be read HERE.

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.

YouTube video: Deadly Sleep

2011-07-18T11:00:00.001+10:00

This is just a quick post to note that Balames87 has played the first couple levels of Deadly Sleep, the first mod I reviewed. He gave me credit for reviewing it and said he agrees that it is a fantastic game.

That's it, I just wanted to make mention of the play. Thanks, Balames, for giving this one a look in particular. :)

As a final note, Balames mentioned he might pick up this game again from where he left off. I'd be very interested in seeing more, so that idea has thumbs up from me! :)

Review: Rising Evil

2011-07-16T23:10:00.001+10:00

Mod Title: Rising Evil
Author: Ryan De Haast
Dos/SDL: Dos
Number/nature of levels: 30 consecutive (no secret)
Requires original Wolf3D/SoD file(s): None required
Released: February 1, 2002
Download: You can download here or by clicking on the title screen at the top.

Review:

Gameplay/difficulty balance/enjoyability: This addon is not necessarily the most balanced out there, as it contains an excess of ammo on all skills in some cases, and is quite easy even on normal because of too many guards being level 4 only. So playing this on hard skill is recommended if you're looking for a good challenge. That said, while this basically restricts the mod to one skill in my view, it is quite a fun romp on that skill with some good challenges. You're fighting original Wolfenstein 3D guards most of the time, but on hard they are fairly well placed. The mutant is changed into a demon-like enemy; however its attack is generally similar. Additionally, there are six bosses and they contain changed sprites. The bosses appear on every level that is one less than a multiple of five, except the final boss which is on the last level, Floor 30, as would be expected (Floor 29 does not contain a boss). Most of them are not overly hard although in at least one case (Floor 9) it is near impossible to have enough ammo to defeat the boss unless you find a few secrets. As stated before, ammo is sometimes in excess, but health is not overly plentiful so this makes some challenges but little frustration. The maps themselves are mostly quite long with an ability to hold up to six keys, but they did not bore me, as I recall really running through half of this on a single Sunday afternoon. The only level I really did not like that much is one map, Floor 21 if I recall correctly (certainly around there) that is almost entirely a series of alcoves with enemies in each one. This is okay when used in a level (i.e. original Wolf3D E6L1), but I did not appreciate it being practically the entire map. Otherwise the designs and balance tend to create an enjoyable game throughout, providing you use the highest difficulty. My rate for this category is 8/10.

Level design/texturing/look: There is a predominant tendancy for brown walls (generally wood or chipped wood) throughout much of this game, although it starts with a few green slime/grey stone dominated levels and there are some brighter lab-like maps near the end. Additionally, the level following every boss level uses an underground/tunnel like wall with wood on its borders but grey in the middle, that is not used on any other maps. However, in spite of a slightly limited texture variation, the used textures are put to good use and come with fitting ceiling colors. There are many new and changed walls ranging from slightly modified original Wolf3D walls, to some imported from Spear, to several new wall textures. Door textures are also changed, with multiple types, including a cool wooden door to mark the entry into a wooden area, and a couple new locked doors. Many of the things/objects are from the original game, but there are some new ones and the 25 ammo kit is imported from Spear of Destiny. For design, as stated before the levels are mostly large, and many are cavernous. However there is enough variety and with the exception of the alcove-only level (mentioned in the above section) I felt they were pretty well designed and managed not to get overly repetitious even with many similarly themed maps. Level progression is good, with some backtracking at times, but that is to be expected especially given the addition of four new keys, and I can't ever remember having no idea where I needed to go next. I give this category a(n) 8/10.

Code changes: In addition to the six keys mentioned above, there are many other changed like new intro/intermission (including par times)/ending screens and several new demos. Ceiling colors are changed and fit the levels well. There is one new weapon - a missile launcher - that is relatively rare (from memory) but obviously useful if you find it. The 30 levels are also seamless, and are not split into episodes. The episode selection screen is removed and the names of the difficulty settings are changed as well. All in all these coding features are certainly seen in other mods as well, but everything pretty much gets the job done. (Note: I'm now only assigning by-category ratings to the first two categories.)

Other (music, miscellaneous features, etc.): The mod loses a little in this field; a good part of this is because all the music is unchanged making some levels have inappropriate music (most notably Floors 4, 14, 24, and 30 are boss floors without boss music, and Floor 29 has the final boss music but it's actually the penultimate level with no boss!). Many of the tunes are also repeated just like they are in the episodes of the original Wolfenstein 3D, since the game is Wolf3D based and the tunes in each episode of the original Wolf3D repeated. Also, there are no secret levels. Really I don't recall any extras or easter eggs here at all, but the unchanged music and no secret levels are my only real complaints.

Final score: 7.5/10 (good to very good)

Summary: Rising Evil is quite a fun partial conversion with good, generally extensive levels (minus than one with all the alcoves), generally unadvanced yet sufficient code changes, a nice mostly brown look but with occasionaly variations mainly near the beginning and end, and a challenging but not frustrating play on the hardest difficulty level. However, less of the guards should have been level 4 only, as this makes things quite easy even on middle difficulty. Additionally, I took off at least a point for the completely unchanged music and lack of any secret levels. However overall this is quite a good mod that deserves your attention and a playthrough; I strongly doubt you'll regret it. Just make sure to use the hard difficulty level if you want any considerable challenge.

Review: The Grail of Eternal Life

2011-07-13T14:06:00.010+10:00

Details
Title: The Grail of Eternal life V1.0
Creator: Marcus Svensson
Released: 04/01/2005
Length: 21 Levels (Actually only 20)
Level Format: Continuous
Story: New
Graphics: Some original but most taken from other sets
Sound: New
Special Features: Textured floors and ceilings, outside weather effects, additional weapon and ammo type.
Dos/SDL: Dos

Initial impressions: Coming in, this is a mod that I'd been looking forward to playing and has quite a good name about it.
The first level opens in a nicely decorated forest. The sprites, sky and falling snow have been done very well and this shows great promise for the mod. The guards have been taken from Operation: Letztershutz and other mods but they fit well with the mod, especially the outside snow theme. The sounds and music seem to fit well as do the sprites and other elements used in this level.
The first map is a very big maze that can be a little annoying to get through but has a fairly straight forward path to follow.

Gameplay: The gameplay is quite easy, especially after the first few maps, when the mapping becomes so poor and predictable that there is very little challenge completing any part of the mod. The first level is the hardest as the trees, snow and tight path can make visibility quite difficult at times.
There are no real traps within any of the levels and those that have been attempted are so poorly executed that any player can see what is going on and avoid any type of unexpected attack.
The game play is made very simple by the ample and extremely random placing of ammo and health, which seems to be placed pretty much anywhere the creator felt like it, same with a lot of the treasure items, with no reality in mind.

Mapping: This, in my opinion, after level 2, is one of the worst mapped mods that I've ever played. Well actually I've seen worse, but for a mod that has had some serious work done on it by it's creator and coder to try to make a good mod, this is more the most disappointing effort at mapping I've ever played. Looking at the credits list it shows that levels 1 & 2 were done by other maps than the mods creator, so they aren't to blame as the first 2 maps are tolerable.
The rest of the mapping consists of small, highly predictable maps that are generally a nonsensical connection of rooms, very long tunnels and passageways that go nowhere, which the player has to back track along once reaching the end, and maps recycled from other mods, especially from the original Wolfenstein 3d, even though this is a Spear of Destiny mod!
Some of the lesser highlights of the maps include;
- Level 13: One single tunnel that does a U turn with 1 square rooms off it containing guards.
- Level 15: Where the entire map is just one big spiral
- Level 16: That is so small it barely contains 100 objects including guards and all sprites!
The mapping is so poor that the creator just completely got lazy and didn't even bother to map the second secret level (Level 20), instead spending his time making this in the map editor;

And explains his actions as thus "What? I was bored and had to put in some kind of place-holder."

Likes: The wall textures are the best part of the mod, they actually set a half decent feel and look to the mod. There are some random ones that don't look to fit in that well, including one that looks like it has had coloured paint splashed over it, but the doors are nice and fit in well with the walls.
The textured floors and ceilings are well done also and generally fit quite well with the walls.
Most of the sprites that have been used fit fairly well, although the treasure items seem to look out of place a bit.

Dislikes: Everything not listed in the 'Likes' section above!
The one thing I haven't talked about was the music. The tunes are all taken from Castlevania and other games but none seem to actually fit very well. Maybe my contempt for the levels as I was playing them made the music stand out as more irritating than most tunes, but I didn't find that these were very suitable, mood enhancing or contributed to improving any of the poor aspects of the mod. I suspect they actually weren't that bad but more lumped in a bad situation.
The use of a sword as the hand combat weapon just makes no sense either and is severely out of place.

Ratings
Dean's Score: 2.5/10
Difficulty: Not as difficult as the original Spear of Destiny.
Best Level: None
Worst Level: All

Wrap-up: This was an incredibly disappointing mod for me. I was VERY surprised to have read how highly revered this mod has been and wondered if I was actually playing the same mod others had talked so highly about! In fact, this was a real struggle to actually complete playing through by the end.
This had some good work done on walls but the lack of care and respect for the levels seemed to pretty much get thrown out of the window. I can't really recommend this to anyway to play, except to see how to completely ruin a mod with potential.
The creator announced that he was developing a new version of TGOEL, a V1.5, with new maps. The development website for, which promises all types of enhancements and new features, including new screenshots, hasn't been updated in several years though.

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

The development of TGOEL v1.5 has it's own ModDB page that can be viewed HERE.
The development of TGOEL v1.5 has it's own website that can be viewed HERE.

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.

Level Analysis: Original Wolf3D E4L5

2011-07-10T20:00:00.006+10:00

Introduction: The "Level Analysis" is a new type of post I'm introducing to this blog. In these posts, I will be picking a single level from a Wolfenstein 3D or SoD based game (it could be either one of the commercial games or an addon/mod) that, generally, will be a map I thought stood out for one reason or another. The post title will always contain the map that's the subject of the post. In the post I will discuss my thoughts on that particular map, including many of its features and/or overall styles and usually, reasons why it stands out from the crowd in some way to me. Each post will contain at least one in game screenshot from the level. Additionally, at the bottom of each such post, a Mapedit view of that level's map, if available, will be shown, with a line drawing the quickest path to the level's exit. The map may also contain highlighted areas that will be discussed in the post. Without further explanation, I will start my first post of this kind, and it is for the original E4L5 which, per my first post (Introduction to Me: WolfForever) is the single level from the original Wolf3D (excluding the obvious ones like E1L1, boss levels, and secret levels) that stood out most in my mind the first time I played the game.

The first four maps of the fourth episode (A Dark Secret) may look large at times in an editor, but the reality is that they are all fairly easy and short to complete. A good run of each level could come in at under a minute, easily under a minute and a half, a piece. The mapspace is filled with unnecessary to visit areas, with a rather quick route to the exit. However, E4L5 breaks this trend in dramatic fashion, and not only takes much longer to complete than any previous level in the episode, but is arguably one of the, if not the, most extensive level(s) in the commercial Wolfenstein 3D game to that point. By looking at the shortest route line on the map, certain rooms can be skipped, but nearly every general "area" of this relatively large level must be visited.

Additionally, there are relatively few supplies yet many guards of all kinds present along this shortest route, so unless you're a really good player, or playing on an easy skill, it may be nearly mandatory to visit some of the additional areas that are host to much of the level's ammo and (already limited) health supply. Even more confusing, fully half of this level is done in quite a mazey layout, and it can be easy to get lost or miss an area. This is compounded by the fact that one of the keys required to beat this map is located in a section of this maze area that is not necessary to visit just to progress into the more open grey stone section - and you don't need either key until the last few rooms of the level. In fact, while both sets of locked doors are very close to each other on the map, it is not hard at all to reach the first locked door with no key yet at all. This is because, while the first (silver) key is in an area off the main route out of the brown mazey area, the second - gold - key is even easier to miss.

Circled in blue on the map is the section of the level containing the gold key. Notice the player cannot enter this section from the left, because a green barrel blocks the path. ID Software did something they only very rarely did in the original Wolfenstein 3D game - make a relatively unobvious secret, actually a succession of two secrets, necessary to obtain this essential key. Both pushwalls in the blue circled area must be used to attain this gold key.

As eluded to earlier, in addition to having many ways of challenging the player through confusion (a key far, far away from it's door; fully half or more of the level being quite mazey; and most of all, a rare case of needing an inobvious secret to get a required key), this level is no walk in the park as far as enemies are concerned either. Like I said, there is little health or ammo laid out on the shortest route, and (especially regarding health) it is not exactly plentiful in other areas either. All types of normal guards appear - starting with several dogs, then transitioning to a mix of guards, officers, and SS. The silver key in particular is guarded by a large hoard of SS.

Additionally, this level has one more way of tricking you - there are many fake elevators. In particular, it will look as if you've found the exit almost immediately once you enter the grey stone area, as there are two elevators in this room (circled in green on the map), but neither can actually be entered as blocking barrels immediately follow the elevator doors. The room with the actual exit also has three elevator doors, but only one of them is real - there is another elevator blocked by barrels opposite it, but most notably, a large "trap room" - circled in purple in the map - is located behind a third elevator door. But it is not necessarily a room that need be avoided, because at its far end (to the player) is a secret than contains an ammo clips and no less than THREE one-ups as a prize for fighting off this room of officers.

To me, E4L5 is the first truely tough level in the Nocturnal Missions, and a prelude to some of the more difficulty levels to come even later in Wolfenstein (especially Episode 6: Confrontation). Even when I replayed Wolfenstein for the second time in 2000 (reference my first post for details on my full Wolf3D career), it took me nearly an hour to find the hidden gold key - I had remembered that this level gave me huge troubled when I was younger, but I didn't remember why, and I didn't remember the ultimate solution. But even though many may object to the inclusion of a hidden required key, it is for these reasons that E4L5 is one of the more memorable, more notable levels in the original Wolfenstein, and the feature of hiding a required key undoubtedly contributes to why this is the level I remembered most from when I was young, even against the many large, mazey, and difficulty levels later in the game - especially in the final episode.

Review: Drawn & Quartered

2011-07-06T09:20:00.003+10:00

Details
Title: Drawn & Quartered
Creator: Ringman
Released: 02/04/2006
Length: 3 Levels (No secrets)
Level Format: Continuous
Story: New
Graphics: Original (All hand drawn)
Sound: New
Special Features: None
Dos/SDL: Dos

Initial impressions: An amazingly original mod with all walls, sprites and guards being hand drawn and scanned before being placed into the game. The mod has a look of it's own but for me, unfortunately, it makes things very hard to distinguish in game, when playing.
Every aspect of the mod has been redone in a hand drawn manner which shows great attention to detail. Completely new music and sounds have also been added.

Gameplay: The gameplay can be quite challenging as visually this can be very difficult on the eyes trying to clarify all elements within the game. It is generally only when you eyes sense movement that you can tell what is an enemy and what is a sprite. The player needs to basically walk around and towards everything as some wall textures can be very lightly drawn and there is all manner of proportions in size on the various sprites and decorations.

Mapping: The maps aren't large but are adequate for the mod, especially with the difficulty in separating visuals within the game. There are only 3 levels in the mod but they are distinctly different levels, each with their own theme and each with differing designs, but they all work well in their own way. Some of the health and treasure items are a little confusing and there is a fair bit of trial and error through the first few levels working out what is what.
Ultimately the level design is very basic but anything more complicated would have only made things more confusing and visually difficult.

Likes: The story, encompassing members of the Wolfenstein 3d Community, is highly creative and original and fits perfectly with the mod. There is a lot of humor within the mod as this is obviously intended to be a 'fun' set. The mix of funny looking enemies works very well as does the other visual nods to some other Wolf mods, including the obvious visual look of Operation Letztershultz submarine theme and a very similar looking enemy to Ringman's previous mod, 'Mutant Blobs from Uranus'.
The creativity to completely revolutionise the Wolfenstein 3d graphics set makes this the most original looking Wolf mod ever produced. The detail that the makers have gone to redo everything in hand drawn versions would have been very time consuming but helps make the mod have such a unique look.

Dislikes: The visuals, although original, for me, made playing the mod extremely difficult to distinguish. I have had similar problems with other mods like 'Halls of Stonehenge' and 'Planet Nexion' when playing, and maybe it's just my eyes, but such original styles of graphics, as used in these mods, do genuinely make things more challenging.
The music that plays on each level seems to be of poor quality and although some how fitting the mod isn't very likeable, I do feel this is intentional though. The tune that plays on level 2 is specifically grating and repetitive and almost makes you want to turn the music off.

Ratings
Dean's Score: 7.0/10
Difficulty: More difficult than usual due to visual aspects
Best Level: 3
Worst Level: None

Wrap-up: A highly creative and entertaining mod that is extremely well done. This is a fun set to play and works well as a 3 level mod. It's always fantastic to see a modder think completely out of the box and produce something so original that no one else has ever seen before. This is well worth a play for those reasons alone.

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: Deadly Sleep

2011-07-03T11:51:00.005+10:00

Mod Title: Deadly Sleep
Author(s): Schabbs/Brian and Arielus
Dos/SDL: Dos
Number/nature of levels: 16 consecutive maps
Requires orginal Wolf3D/SoD files: No
Released: August 1, 2009
Download: You can download the mod by clicking here or clicking on the title screenshot.

Review:

Gameplay/difficulty balance/fun value: This was among the first mods I played when returning to the Wolf3D community in late 2010. Advertised on the Dome as "we hope you find it enjoyable", I can certainly say I enjoyed playing this and then some. Most of the 16 levels are quite large and the average map took me around 10 minutes to get through. The two authors have slightly different styles but they blend together very well. Each level is very well made, has an appropriate ceiling color, and is relatively challenging to finish with plenty of guards and rarely an excess of health or ammo. I was hooked into this game by the third level and as such, finished the whole thing in just a few days. The only bosses are on the last level, where all Spear of Destiny bosses appear, with five distinct boss battles. The original Wolf3D/Spear feel is very much retained throughout the 16 levels. I never got lost or stuck and level progression was very good. Additionally, while challenging, I was never put to frustration in any of the maps. To conclude, this is an extremely fun and well-playing partial conversion. I give this category a rating of 9.5/10.

Level Design/Texturing: As said above, all 16 maps, except appropriate the first, are quite large. They are also very well designed with generally fitting textures. The textures are almost entirely from the original Spear of Destiny but they fit in well. The main new textures I can recall are locked doors are now in the color of the key they require, and I find this to be a very good addition. The two authors clearly have different styles of design and by looking in an editor it's fairly easy to guess who made which map even if you ignore the signatures the authors left. However, in play, it combines very well, and the switching of authors of the levels does not make it feel discontinuous in any way. Both authors are well-known Wolf3D mappers and have very good styles of design. Secrets are done well and necessary items are never placed in secrets or otherwise unusually hard to find places. My only complaint in this category regards the occasional use of the Angel of Death red hellish texture on some normal levels, but that is minor and does little to detract from the game. I give this category a rating of 9/10.

Code Changes: This game is meant to retain the original feel and does so very well. As thus, coding changes are limited and mostly of the basic variety (new introductory screens, different status bar, modified between levels screens, fitting ceiling colors, four keys, etc.), but they are all very well done and none feel out of place. Since all coding changes were good and approrpriate, I give this category a rating of 10/10.

Other (music/ceiling colors, etc.): The music is unchanged from the original Spear of Destiny. Unfortunately I must deduct a point or two for this because while the music still fits most levels acceptably, boss music plays on Floors 5 and 10, but there are no bosses on these levels. Also, the mod loses a slight amount of points for having no secret levels. Ceiling colors, once again, are changed and fit the levels well. There are no other miscellaneous changes I can recall. I give this category a score of 7.5/10; it would be a 9/10 or better if music was changed and there was at least one secret level.

Final Summary: This is an excellent partial conversional with very well designed levels, highly enjoyable gameplay, and a good challenge. It presents a very appropriate amount of new features (coding changes, textures, etc.) such that it fits the game but also strongly retains the original feel as intended. If you still at all enjoy original styles sets, I strongly recommend you play this game, which is IMO one of the more overlooked mods, receiving far less attention that I believe it should have upon release.

My final score for this mod is 9/10 - excellent.

Disclaimer: All reviews represent my own opinion and should not be taken to any offense. You may feel differently about a mod than I do, and that is fully acceptable.

Introduction to me: WolfForever

2011-07-01T09:51:00.004+10:00

Hello, I'm WolfForever and this is my first post! Before I get into anything I'd like to say big thanks to Dean for allowing me to join this blog. This post will be about myself and my full experience with Wolfenstein, and quite a long post at that, and some Wolf3D basics for me. In the future I'll likely post features, reviews, and other content as well.

I am from Cleveland, Ohio, USA. I'm currently 20 years old and finally learning how to drive after putting it off for way too long. Additionally I still go to college in some semesters and I have a profession that involved reviewing inspections of pipes, that are recorded as videos that can be played on a computer. My favorite academic subject is math. I passed Calculus I this past spring and plan on going to take Calculus II in the fall, time permitting.

My favorite free time hobbies are weather/meteorology, math trivia, and of course, video games! As this blog is for Wolfenstein 3D, that will be the hot topic for the rest of my introductory post. I started playing games far younger than many - I was only in kintergarden when I first touched Wolfenstein 3D, under my parent's consent as obviously I was very underage. The first time I played E1L1, I played on baby skill and beat the map with no ammo and less than 10% health remaining. But it did not take me long to develop my skills, and within just a matter of weeks or months, I had blasted my way through the majority, and eventually all, of the original Wolfenstein! Aside from the obviously unforgettable maps (i.e. E1L1, many boss levels, and most secret levels), I think the individual level I remember the most right from when I first played it is E4L5 - it took me literally ages to realize the required key was hidden in a secret, and the mazey, gritty feeling of the whole level made it even tougher.

I did my first blast through all three Spear of Destiny episodes almost immediately following my finish of Wolfenstein 3D. I always liked the original (first) mission best, however oddly the many levels in Mission 2: Return to Danger where you can basically run to the exit in a matter of seconds were never bothersome at this young age, but that was because at the time I was focused on finishing the game and nothing else. I always liked Mission 3: Ultimate Challenge more than Mission 2 though, and at first even liked it almost as much as the ID Software original Spear of Destiny mission.

It was not long after this when I came across the Wolf3D Mania CD, and played Wolfen60, WolfGam2, and the many shareware sets that come with the CD. I remembered many of the levels, especially from Wolfen60, even though nowadays it's no more than an average set with a wide array of mappers and levels. And I was so startled when the shareware sets that use the older shareware version would suddenly crash on me, it has in effect, even to this day, made me somewhat tense when playing anything that uses the older Wolf3D versions.

After a couple-year hiatus in the late 1990's to play Doom (which ties Wolfenstein for my favorite video game) and other FPS titles of the era (most of which I rarely play nowadays although I do touch games like the Quake series occasionally), I came to revisit all the Wolfenstein and Spear of Destiny games around mid 2000. I played on baby, and it was still a challenge coming back! It was as this point where I started to realize the distinctions in quality particularly with the Spear of Destiny games - the make a quick dash to the exit feature in Mission 2 quickly lost its appeal as I was looking for levels with more flavor and substance. After briefly experimenting with it years before, I fully began working with the levels in MapEdit. I would often make changes myself or removing things I don't see fit or didn't like, especially in some Lost Episodes maps (particularly Mission 2) and also in many of the registered levels that are on Wolf3D Mania. (Over the time, Return to Danger has lost its appeal to me entirely and I now feel the game is in fact quite poor, although I do maintain my view that Ultimate Challenge is worth at least one play, if you can get it extremely cheaply, or already bought it in the past.)

My first game I played that was not part of any of the commercial Wolf3D-related packages mentioned somewhere above was 1st.zip by Ken O' Brien (which was presented to me around the start of 2001 as if it was an official fourth SoD mission, even though I now know it was really just an add-on). I then received BJ Rowan's "The Renovation" about a month later. The quality stood out above anything I had seen at the time for custom maps, having consistently good and occasionally even great level quality. However, after giving all the games I had many, many plays, I temporarily abandoned playing Wolf3D later in 2001.

However in late 2001 I first began using the internet on my own, and that set the stage for many, many more games to look at on my own when I returned to the Wolfenstein scene once again in mid-2002. The first new game I played when returning was Barry Christian's "Armageddon", and it left an incredible impression to me, with all the (even though they're nowadays quite simple) code changes and 60 seamless, atmospheric, and well-designed levels. I soon played its own sequel "The Road to Neushwanstein" and it left just as good of an impression.

I experimented with level designing myself by late 2002, and during this period released four small sets of level to the Wolf3D Dome. However, they're all fairly poor quality; I will admit this up front as looking back there's no use in beating around the bush. I even played for a little with the source code, making some basic changes, but quickly lost interest in designing more levels after making just a few levels for a full standalone replacement set I had planned. To anyone interested, all my levels are still available at the Wolfenstein 3D Dome - they are in "Patrick Grey's Funpack" (my name I submitted to the Dome at that time was Patrick Grey out of relatively random choice). But I will warn again not to go in expecting anything of high quality. I lost interest in designing, quickly realizing I have much more fun as a player.

In the mid- and late-2000's, Wolfenstein began to tire me out once more, and for many years I was playing almost exclusively Doom. The only exception was in 2008, when AFADoomer's port of Wolfenstein into Doom gave me a brief urge for the real thing, and in that time (a month or so) the most notable mod I played was Thomas's classic "All this and Wolf3D". But like many classics, Wolfenstein is a game that never permanently loses its appeal in my mind. This takes me right up to the near-present. In late 2010 (yes, less than a year ago), I was inspired by an excellent Doom-engine port Vermil made of the Wolfenstein spinoff "Corridor 7" to, once again, begin playing Wolf3D once more. And it was then, and only then, when I came to the full realization that despite its obviously massively outdated features, Wolfenstein is actually more fun - much more fun - to me than at least 90% of modern shooters, in addition to being just as much fun as Doom had been for so many years. With better skills (I was playing Doom levels on the medium difficulty routinely), I immediately jumped to noraml skill on Wolf3D as well, and from all the years, I find it no harder than it was for me on baby back in the day.

By this point in time there was an incredible plethora of extremely impressive mods released for Wolfenstein games. I played and thoroughly enjoyed many of the "staples", like Totengraeber, & End of Destiny within just a moth or two after restarting my Wolfenstein hobby.

I also have played so many other fantastic mods in the past several months, that naming them all would take up too much space. In addition to the two "staples" I mentioned above, some of my favorite Wolf3D games I've ever played to date would include NovoWolf, Deadly Sleep, W.O.L.F., Castle Assault, the third episode of the Wolfenstein 3D Community Map Pack, Alliance of Powers, ack's registered Wolf3D and SoD sets, and Operation: Letzterschutz, along with possibly a few others I missed mentioning. And there are still some classics I've yet to play.

Just weeks after returning to the Wolfenstein front, I joined the Haven forums as WolfForever (which remains my current name, of course). This was a few weeks before Christmas last year. I always enjoyed posting polls of people's opinions on add-ons or mods, especially my favorites or ones I was/am considering playing. I'm now active on the DHW forum as well, after having to wait about a half a year for registration problems to be fixed.

I first made direct contact in email with Dean after playing Escape from Castle Holle which, while I think it's undeniably a great game, I felt the desire to give feedback on how it could be made even better. I knew he was still very much active in the communtiy, and he had made useful and detailed posts in several of the polls I had posted over at the Haven. Dean thanked me for this feedback, and since then I've been talking with him through email on a relatively near-regular basis. The talk, feedback, and even testing some of the maps he has in progress, are but some of the things that potentially helped lead me to getting this position as a blogger on his site. Again I can not say thanks enough for providing me with the opportunity! :)

In addition to Dean, just some of my other favorite people still around in the community include Areyep, Arielus, Schabbs, ack, and Thomas. They all never fail to produce great levels, and of course Schabbs gets huge credit for being the manager of the Dome, a site the remaining modern-day Wolf3D audience may very well owe its presence to. I could not even begin to imagine what the community might be like nowadays if the Dome wasn't around.

To conclude, that's basically "all about me", just as the title says, and I hope you enjoyed reading this first post and sorry if it was too long. I look forward to doing other posts such as but not limited to reviews and features in the future - quite potentially beginning as early as within the next week. And I must, absolutely must, end my post with yet another huge thank you to Dean for providing me this opportunity to share the blog space. It really presents me to some potentially great future opportunities. :)

All for now,
WolfForever

News: Important Blog Changes

2011-06-30T10:01:00.002+10:00

Hi Everyone, this special post is to announce some exciting changes to the blog!

You may have already noticed that the blog has had a slight name change and will now be known as 'The Wolfenstein 3d blog'. The reason for the change is that I have invited another Wolfer to contribute to blog. WolfForever will be joining the blog and will from tomorrow start blogger his reviews, analysis and all sorts of things also for everyone to read. I will continue to posts my blogs on Wednesday as I have been.

This is an exciting level of the growth, one we hope will bring even more information and discussion on Wolf 3d and give readers even more to read, play and discuss.

There may even be times when we both collaborate on a post, such as each giving our own review on a mod or even sharing the information we have found for some of the blogs special feature items that have been done here.

We hope you enjoy the changes and growth of the blog and as usual, if you have any suggestions of anything you would like to see or read on the blog then please either leave a comment below or you can leave a message for us at either The DieHard Wolfers forum or The Wolf 3d Haven Forum.

YouTube Video: Wolf 3d Community Map Pack

2011-06-29T10:12:00.001+10:00

Balames87 has done a playthrough of my maps that I made for the Wolf 3d Community map pack a few years back. I did episode 3 that consisted of 6 levels, being 4 normal, 1 Boss and 1 secret. There were some very good mappers included in this set and some outstanding levels made. You can watch the playthrough below;

Balames did a great job and seemed to genuinely enjoy his time playing the mod. I also made a couple of other levels in the set that appear in other episodes. The full SDL version of the set can be downloaded HERE.

It's rewarding to see people vote to see my work highlighted but also to hear nice words from Balames as he plays through and enjoys my work. Thanks also to those that have left positive comments toward my work on the videos, it's for others enjoyment is the main reason why I make and release Wolf 3d levels.

YouTube Video: Escape from Castle Holle

2011-06-22T11:00:00.004+10:00

Balames87 recently did walkthrough of my mod 'Escape from Castle Holle' on his YouTube site;

Unfortunately, the mod repeatedly crashed on the hardest difficulty when he attempted to start playing Level 2. This never happened in the testing phase that I came across, nor had anyone reported to me any crashes of this kind in the 3 1/2 years that the mod had been released! After investigation, I discovered that the crash was caused by the max number of Level 4 guards being used on some levels. I fixed the issue and released an updated version of the Dos release on Sunday 19th June, 2011, which was published on the Wolfenstein 3d Dome.

The updated version can be downloaded from HERE. (All links on the site have also been updated)

Balames87 then, very kindly, did another playthrough starting from Level 2 and played through until the completion of level 4.

Balames did a decent job and had some nice words to say about the mod, which is always nice to hear about a piece of work that you spend a decent amount of time on for people to enjoy playing.

SDL Update
Progress has continued with work on the SDL version of EFCH. Some additional features have been added that were intended for the initial Dos release but didn't make it for various reasons. Moving to SDL has also given me the ability to add some more guards and sprites in maps where I was restricted by size previously.
There isn't going to be many game changing alterations but there will be improvements to functionality, aesthetics as well as some improvements, but not major changes, to gameplay.

The SDL release will not be rushed but should be released later this year at some stage, time depending.

Update: June 2011

2011-06-15T11:06:00.002+10:00

I thought it might be time for a bit of a news update as it's been a while. There's a few different sections here with some information that is going on around the Community at the moment.

Escape From Castle Holle SDL - Coming Soon!

I have been working with Tricob to convert my mod 'Escape from Castle Holle' to a more modern SDL version! It is coming along nicely so far and will feature some improvements from the Dos version as well as some enhancements that SDL provides. It won't be up to the level of WSJ's incredible reboot of Castle Totenkopf but the SDL update will mean that more people will be able to play it on modern systems plus It gives me the chance to go back and fix some things, as well as add a few things I left out due to space restrictions.
I'm going over all the levels again to fix some minor things as well as to add some additional sprites and guards that I wanted to in the Dos version but was restricted by size. Thankfully, SDL gives one the ability to do things like this.
I have received some feedback from people over the years about the mod and will review all that to see if I can implement any suggestions to help make the mod more 'player friendly' or to fix up some minor things I missed that others found.

I won't release the full details just yet but there are few Bonus things planned for the SDL release also. :)

Spear Resurrection SDL

AReyeP has posted on his site that he is currently working on an official SDL version of his 'Spear Resurrection' mod. Not only is the mod being converted, but AReyeP has announced that he is making an entirely new set of maps for the mod as well!
Being one of the most loved Wolf mods of all time this seminal work will soon be able to be enjoyed by for many more years, well into the days when young people start asking 'Dad, what's Dos?'.

You can read AReyeP's update concerning the release HERE.

DHW SDL Part 2 - SoD Version

After the popular DHW SDL mapset that was released early in 2011, discussions have commenced about producing a Spear of Destiny SDL mapset by most of the same mappers involved in the Wolf 3d version. With a lot less maps in Spear this will mean that the 21 maps should be made a bit quicker and will probably be released by the end of 2011. I'll be involved again making some levels.

On a personal note, I am currently in the process of remaking my 4 maps that appeared in the Wolf 3d version. 2 levels I used were recycled maps from my EFCH set and the other 2 weren't up to standard of the other mappers original maps. I have so far completed one map and am nearing completion of a second. This will see a re-release soon, that will also include updated files to the latest 4SDL version also.

Recent Mod Releases

There have been some very good releases over the last few months. here's a quick run down and some links of one's I suggest having a look at;

Orb Of Dilaaria - Adam has released a new version that has the DosBox executable built in. This makes the mod playable on most modern Windows based PC's much like an SDL mod would be.
* Link updated to latest version (V1.04)
Unsung - Nembo's excellent, Dome Award winning mod, was released during April and in my opinion is the best release this year to date. Combining some fantastic graphics and an original feel it is a mod that is well worth having a play of.
DeathTrigger - M2's recent release also won a Dome Award and contained some fantastic new coding features not seen in other mods like moving vehicles, mounted guns and the ability for the player to look up and down.
Wolfenstein Sextilogy 3 SDL - Executor has released the 3rd part of his Wolfenstein Sextilogy set in grand fashion by releasing updated versions of all 3 parts in new glorious 4SDL style.
The Spear - Penguindog55's prequel to his first mod 'End of the Third Reich'.

Click on the name of each mod above to download them.

HWE - Havoc's Wolfenstein Editor

Havoc has made a Wolfenstein editor that is now available for download. This is a really nicely looking editor that has a MapEdit look about it but with more modern functionality. havoc has just released a large updated version with more features and functionality and is taking a recommendations and feedback to further enhance it's usability and functionality.

I've had a fair bit of a play around with it and found it to be a very user friendly and handy tool. The features I particularly liked was the zoom feature and the ability to flip/rotate particular selected parts of a map.

With further updates to come this is definitely something I'll be using for mapping and mod making for future projects.

HWE (Version 0.3.1) can be downloaded from HERE.

Blog updates

- I have switched on the mobile phone version so that things will look better for anyone that may want to read my blog on their mobile, I'm sure there's thousands of people now screaming 'Thank you, finally!' well anyway, it's there.
- There will be more of each of the type of posts coming soon that I've been doing this year, including; Wolfer Q&A's, Mod reviews, Features and update posts like this.
- I'm starting a new job soon which may restrict my time that I can spend on the blog but it will by no means be that I'll stop posting. I usually write the posts days and sometimes weeks in advance so the Wednesday posting should be able to continue.
- I do actually have plans for the blog that I think will help make things a lot more interesting but I will release details of this in the coming months.
- If anyone has any suggestions of anything they'd like to see on the blog please send me an email and I'll see what I can do

I'd just like to thank everyone for reading my blog. I regularly get over 1,000 visits per Month which means that readers must be finding some of my posts interesting. I'll continue to do my best to keep posting interesting information and updates for, and about, the Wolfenstein Community.

Review: The Last Mission

2011-06-08T09:42:00.002+10:00

Details
Title: The Last Mission
Creator: Martin
Released: 09/02/2004
Length: 10 Levels
Level Format: Episodic (Episode 1 - Shareware Version)
Story: None
Graphics: Original
Sound: Original
Special Features: None
Dos/SDL: Dos

Initial impressions: A fairly standard shareware mapset. The layouts are fairly subpar compared to the original set. This isn't very challenging or as well laid out and decorated as the original set and many straight map sets that have come before it.

Gameplay: The game play is fairly average and not as challenging as the original. The levels are on the smallish side and there's really no cleverness to the design or layout to challenge the player.

Mapping: The mapping, despite the makers claims, isn't very challenging and the player shouldn't take a huge amount of damage throughout any of the levels. There are many completely empty rooms and many that just seem tacked on to help enlarge the map size.
The keys are easily located in all levels and if one was to do a speed run on the game you could probably have all 10 levels done in under 15 minutes.
The secret level is a joke and is simply just a combination of words with the same floor code. The Boss level is effectively one room, if you are going to make 10 new maps why not use more of the limits allowed to you rather than make very basic small maps?

Likes: The maker has had a go at making a good set and has done the best they can with the limited sprite set from the shareware version and their limited mapping ability. Some areas are nicely decorated and effort has been put into trying to make the maps challenging.

Dislikes: The mod isn't an improvement on the original set and there are many better mapsets of the original game out there that the player would get a better challenge and more enjoyment out of playing.
I'm not sure why the creator chose the shareware set when they could have just made a Episode 1 mapset from the full version and given themselves more to work with.

Ratings
Dean's Score: 5.0/10
Difficulty: Not as difficult as the original
Best Level: 3
Worst Level: 9

Wrap-up: A fairly average mapset of the original shareware version. I am happy to see that mappers are still having a go at making mapsets without using all the new coding features that are available today, but unfortunately this is a 'one play' only type of thing as the original set and many other original mapsets are a lot more challenging and entertaining to play.

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: Wintersturm

2011-06-01T10:32:00.004+10:00

Details
Title: Wintersturm
Creator: WLHack
Released: 16/05/2007
Length: 3 Levels
Level Format: Continuous
New Story: Yes
Graphics: All New
Sound: All New
Special Features: Rocket launchers, Bombs with timers, Animated sprites, directional sprites, Additional keys w/ doors, textured floors & ceilings, paralaxing skies & gun bobbing.
Dos/SDL: Dos

Initial impressions: The all new artwork has been done to an exceptional level and really helps create a new atmosphere. The ambient sounds are very fitting and the replacement weapons have been done to a very high standard. The overall thought that has gone into the layout of this mod and the way the player progresses makes this a very impressive set. There are some sound issues but this looks to be a very professionally done otherwise.

Gameplay: The gameplay has been made with a lot of thought involved with each of the 3 levels taking place in completely different environments. There are plenty of guards and lots of places to explore. The added features of a timer (Level 2) as well as stationary rocket launchers (Levels 1 & 2) add new elements to the mod. The ample use of guards keeps the player on their toes and the new features helps keep things interesting.

Mapping: The mapping is extremely well done with each level becoming a new adventure. WLHack has mapped this to match the features of his mod quite well and has done a great job in setting out environments in a challenging manner. There is a great mixture of inside and outside scenarios that even better done than in his previous mod 'The False Spear'.

Likes: The overall appearance of the mod, including the new artwork, new statusbar and challenge features like the bomb timers, make for a really challenging and entertaining game to play. The new weapons, guards, health and treasure items have been done extremely well. The sky in level 1 is one of the nicest I've ever seen used.
The gameplay is a highlight and makes the game look and play beautifully. The mapping and environments are done extremely well which makes this one of those mods where you want to search every inch of every map.

Dislikes: There are some bugs in the game. There are sound issues at times when multiple sounds are playing that mean you can't hear the guards yells of alert when they are approaching plus the secret wall and other sounds don't play sometimes. There is a bug with the ammo counts for certain weapons when the player picks up ammo that can be confusing as to how much ammo you actually have. Changing weapons and then back again usually fixes this.

Ratings
Dean's Score: 8.0/10
Difficulty: Things are made more difficult with additions like the timers & rocket launchers
Best Level: 3
Worst Level: None

Wrap-up: An outstanding effort seeing this was made in a relatively short period of time (7 days according to it's creator). This has been brilliantly done but would have served the player better by getting a full mod treatment of 20+ levels as there is just so much to enjoy. Great detail has been taken and shows what can be done to make Wolf environments rich, beautiful looking and a great challenge for the player.

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: E1L1

2011-05-25T15:10:00.002+10:00

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

2011-05-18T14:43:00.001+10:00

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

2011-05-11T10:59:00.000+10:00

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

2011-05-04T10:06:00.016+10:00

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 :)