YMMV / Wolfenstein 3-D

• Adaptation Displacement: Few people are familiar with the original Castle Wolfenstein.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: The Officer enemy's white uniform seems like a simple case of Color-Coded for Your Convenience, but the Nazis did, in fact, have a white version of the standard SS uniform. It just wasn't nearly as common.
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • Otto Giftmacher of Episode 4, level 9. He's by far the easiest boss in the entire game due to him carrying a Rocket Launcher as his only weapon and his rockets don't have the hitscan ability that the other guns possess, while the relatively slow velocity of the rockets make them pretty easy to dodge. For comparison, his projectiles are way slower than Dr. Schabb's syringes and on "Death Incarnate" he has much less health than Schabbs too. The Mac-family ports replaced him with Trans Grosse (likely due to being ported from Spear of Destiny) while Dr. Schabbs actually got upgraded with "rocket-syringes" that fly even faster.
  • To a lesser degree, Grettel Grosse can feel this way, due to being a re-skin of Hans Grosse. The level has plenty of cover, and your experience fighting Hans makes it easy to shoot-and-hide repeatedly until she dies. Just be careful not to die to the surprise party behind the exit door. The Mac-family port also replaced her, with an Uber Mutant or Death Knight, depending on the level pack.
  • Trans Grosse doesn't have any new tricks either, much like Grettle. As Spear of Destiny is partly tailored towards players who already beat the 6-episodes of Wolfenstein 3d, this battle will be cut and dry for veteran players.
  • Despite being a final boss-battle in hell that would seem epic on first impression, The Angel of Death in Spear of Destiny also falls into this due to him being like Otto Giftmacher with a new skin. At least there are specters that might get in the way and make it a little more difficult, but you'll end up dodging the green energy projectiles with as little concern as with Otto, while you spam your Chaingun.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • E3L10, the secret level of Episode 3 with the Pac-Man ghosts and a replica of a layout from the game's. The way to the level requires solving a lengthy maze, but the level still became one of the most well known easter eggs in the series. Naturally, the story doesn't really bring this up again, assuming BJ finds this secret floor.
  • The secret floor of E6L10, stands out for featuring three copies of Hans Grosse and being the only level outside of Episode 2 to feature Mutants, in the original DOS 6-episode release. However, you can also find a Pac-Man ghost inside a secret closet if you go exploring enough which again doesn't tie in with the game's setting.
• Breather Level:
  • The whole of Episode 3. It has some rough spots but after the Mutant hotel that was Episode 2, this one really eases back on difficulty, being even easier than Episode 1 in many way. The levels are usually very short, and the only new enemies, the Officers aren't usually placed in manner that makes their speed and quick draw a big danger, and fighting Officers is typically much easier than battling Mutants. Hitler isn't the hardest boss the game has to offer, and his stage is very light on resistance compared with later boss levels. Despite all this, Hitler as the episode boss is one of the most remembered parts of the game, along with his Ludicrous Gibs death animation.
  • E4L4 is pretty relaxed and akin to an office floor with a light garrison. The layout is very easy to navigate with only one optional maze-like rocky sector (and even that's not too hard due to the rough grid-like layout). This level is after a moderately difficult level if you bypassed the secret floor, after a fairly tense optional secret floor (if you took the secret exit on the previous floor), and before a moderately hard floor where the episode begins pulling less punches as you advance towards the castle's boss.
  • The whole of Episode 5, while hardly a cakewalk, is much less maze-like and more straightforward than the episode before and after it. Offsetting this simplicity, the episode occasionally has you encounter rooms packed with a staggering amount of guards, making the episode have a more action-oriented experience rather than a puzzle-like one. ^note One of the reasons for this is the episode was designed exclusively by John Romero. His design philosophy was to have levels that are oriented around a central hub, providing a sense of direction. As a result, the John Romero episode is one of the most highly-regarded parts of the game and in a way was a precursor to one of Romero's most famous works, the opening Knee-Deep in the Dead episode for Doom, where he designed every level for save for the final one.
  • E6L5 is very straightforward by episode 6 standards, with a very linear sequence of rooms holding thrilling fights that you can rush into guns blazing if you so desire. The final stretch has a long stretch of niches that you can clear at your own pace or you can rush all the way to the end, push open a secret area and have a pulse pounding fire fight with lots of SS Soldiers and some officers.
  • E6L8. After the torturous labyrinthine nightmare that was the previous level (see below), the map in this level is almost ridiculously straightforward. It seems that the developers were being merciful to the players who had suffered finding their way to the exit of the previous level. The only problem to consider here in this level is the few amount of health pickups scattered around, which can be daunting if you play the harder difficulty levels, unless you happen to stumble upon the secret areas.
  • In the prequel episode Spear of Destiny, Floor 17 (the Ramparts) is a breather. The preceding floor has a very complex design with a heavy concentration of Nazi soldiers and has the difficult, unpredictable Übermutant as its boss; but this one has the simplest design in the episode. Despite the large number of enemies (especially on higher difficulty levels), the wide space allows you to dodge their shots more easily. All you have to do is collect the two keys (located respectively in the west and east sides) and then sprint into the southernmost doors to make your way to the exit; you can even surpass the PAR time and collect a large amount of points for doing so. The following level is Floor 18, which is the last in the game and is not only very difficult, but is also divided into two phases (with the second one taking place in Hell, and each phase having its own boss).
• Catharsis Factor: You get to kill Hitler. Horribly inaccurate? Yes, but you get to kill Hitler! And he doesn't just bleed and fall over like every other boss but instead explodes into a pile of gore.
• Cheese Strategy: For the patient players playing the DOS port, it is possible to safely clear out many rooms of guards by diagonally stabbing the knife into a doorway ^note (or almost any 1-square-wide 90-degree blind turn) as the Nazis dutifully come through single-file to their deaths. It is a sound strategy for 100% Completion on E4M10 due to the overwhelming number of officers in the area.^note This only works for levels that contain rooms that force the guards to funnel through a single passage, if there are two near-by doors, then you are not as safe from sneak attacks.
• Covered Up: Woe to those who hummed the "Wolfenstein 3-D theme" without realizing where it truly came from...^note The title theme is an Adlib OPL-2 rendition of "Horst Wessel Lied", the official anthem for Nazi Germany throughout the 1930s and the Second World War. Knowing this, not many have heard it due to its affiliation with the Nazis, so it's understandable why many will affiliate it with the game over the actual Third Reich
• Cult Classic: The SNES port that is. While it won't be scoring high marks for its low framerate and resolution, there are SNES gamers who still remember the SNES port as their first version of Wolfenstein 3d, potentially before getting curious about playing the original DOS release. It helps that the censorship gave the game a certain charm due to bizarre elements like Mutant Rats, and Staatmeister being the replacement for Hitler. The main visual change for Hitler was that the mustache was shaved off, and he's a generic Take Over the World villain.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • The mutants, especially in groups of three or more. Mutants do not make a noise when alerted. They can also shoot you in a split-second, and they will aggressively shoot at you in tandem. They also deal a ton of damage, even from across the room. Every other enemy in the game will make a noise when they see you and take a second to aim their weapon before shooting you. Ports of the game outside of DOS nerfed their damage calculation (otherwise, fighting them with a game-pad console would be infuriating, due to slowed turning speed).
  • The Officers can be just as bad. While they don't take much and are a little slower on the draw than the mutants, they hit rather hard and they're the fastest human mooks in the game. A likely cause of death in later episodes is an Officer getting the drop on you and hitting you with a point-blank round. In groups, they can bring the pain, and/or force you to retreat if they have SS or Mutants backing them up.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Pushable walls were quickly christened "pushwalls".
  • The Mini-Mecha that Hitler pilots during his boss fight has caused fans to label him as "Mecha Hitler", in spite of not actually being cybernetically enhanced in any way.
  • For German speaking countries where Banned in China was in sanction, in German gaming publications, early internet message boards and software distribution sites. the game was nicknamed "Hundeschlitten 4C", "Hundefelsen 4E" or any other combination of the German words and synonyms for "hound" and "rock" and any letter-number combinations possible, since "wolfenstein" roughly means "Wolf stone."
• Faux Symbolism: Take a look at the maps of Episode 2, level 5 and Episode 6, level 3. Also, check out the map of Episode 3, level 8, even though it's not as blatantly symbolic as E2L5 or E6L3.
• Game-Breaker:
  • The Macintosh-Family ports and their derivatives added two new weapons: A flamethrower and Rocket Launcher which behave like a plasma gun and rocket-rail-gun respectively. If you use them well, they can decisively mow down a horde of Nazis in seconds, and bring the pain to the bosses as well. It seems the game wasn't balanced around their inclusion and they make some fights a bit too easy.
• Genius Bonus: One of the soundtracks in Episodes 3 and 6 has a Morse Code message in the background:
  TO: BIG BAD WOLF
  DE: LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD
  ELIMINATE HITLER
  IMPERATIVE: COMPLETE MISSION WITHIN 24 HOURS
  OUT
• Genius Programming: As Ronnie of Digressing and Sidequesting attests to, the game's use of Raycasting gives the illusion of 3D in a game that's actually as 2D as Super Mario World.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: For obvious reasons, this game was very popular in Israel during The '90s.
• It Was His Sled: Even those who haven't played the game know that the last boss is Adolf Hitler in a mech suit.
• Lady Mondegreen: Some players thought the bosses in the SNES game would say "Come here warrior!". ("Commin' for ya!")
• Memetic Mutation: The idea of a villain called Staatmeister has become a potential meme itself as an example of lightening the tone of a game to meet content restrictions on a media platform (As Per Arne of Encylcopedia Obscura hilariously put it: "Novon vill recogneisse me wissout my trademarck mustashe!"). Staatmeister's giant guard rats further reinforce this.
• Narm:
  • The voice acting for the DOS release of Wolf 3D can be So Bad, It's Good, due the the non-native German lines spoken in the game.
  • The 1-sided versions of the enemy and boss sprites don't do any favors for immersion but some can look especially ridiculous.
    • The Attack Dogs look comical, crab-walking towards you like they're on wheels and can't stop facing you.
    • The Death Knight can look goofy, with their stiff posture, due to looking like their arms are paralyzed into a fixed position with their forward-facing miniguns. The lack of arm motion just feels off, while the Grosse Family at least distracted you from the simple sprites by looking like they're lugging their miniguns by pointing them downward when moving.
• Narm Charm: The SNES removes the references to Nazi Germany and turns the plot into a generic Take Over the World plot where Staatmeister has mutant rats guarding his bases along with officers who seem casual about their job, half-heartedly yelling "Stop!" or "Halt!" and letting out a hilariously throaty "OoOHH!" when killed, which is simply recycled and pitch-adjusted down for stronger enemies (and sounds even funnier). The giant rats have stereotypical cheese wedges to eat, which you can pick up for health. All the bosses, save the Ubermutant, let out a hammy "Comin' for ya!" when alerted and Staatmeister himself comes across like a generic James Bond villain in a typical secret lair. Finally, the removal of the blood and gore further lightens to tone.
• Nightmare Fuel: A given, as this was a game that takes place during The Holocaust. Throughout the levels, you'll see piles of bones or puddles of blood/urine on the floor,^note the latter colored blue for in the final release bloodshed on the walls, decayed corpses inside of jail cells and even full skeletons of murdered captives in cages. All the above makes taking down Hitler one-on-one all the more satisfying. Has a page.
• Nintendo Hard: A classic example. This is an old school game with an old school difficulty level. Enemies can kill you in just 3 or 4 shots at full health, are all equipped with hitscan weapons, and health and ammo is a lot more scarce than in Doom or Quake. Charging blindly into a room guns blazing like in Doom is a good path to "Nazi bullet bumrape". Instead more methodical room-clearing is encouraged, especially on the higher difficulties.
• Once Original, Now Common: Naturally, being the game that more-or-less set the template for the first person shooter genre, it's a given that the game has fallen victim to this. In fact, it's a common complaint of newer reviews (especially the GBA):
  • The biggest thing that makes this game hard to appreciate is how there is no variety in the environments beyond what texture is applied to the wall — every single room is made up of walls of fixed lengths at 90-degree angles and a single universal height, making it very difficult to tell where you have and haven't been if it weren't for the enemies you killed lying on the floor. With how basic the game is, it may be hard to appreciate that there was once hardware that actually struggled to run this. Notably, the Super Nintendo and more basic IBM compatibles that lacked advanced features (like a math co-processor) could have difficulty rendering this game at an acceptable frame rate.
  • The other thing is the fact that Doom came out only one year later and basically took every innovation this game made and improved upon it in just about every way, on top of introducing innovations all of its own, which can make this game feel very underwhelming by comparison - Doom II, another year later, even outright brags about it by having a secret level that perfectly replicates the first level of Wolf 3D, with a new secret room attached that shows off all the things Doom can do with its environments that Wolf 3D couldn't. While Doom isn't free from this reaction either, most people can agree that it helped work out a lot of the kinks in Wolfenstein's concepts and holds up much better.
  • Even among fans of "classic"-style shooters, it tends to suffer, due to its wonky pseudo-stealth elements and emphasis on Hitscan. Of course, Wolfenstein came out long before FPS designers had realized the difficulties hitscanner enemies tend to impose.
• Paranoia Fuel:
  • Hearing a door open and you didn't open it. They're coming for you, somewhere...
  • Some of the music. Especially the distinct and ominous boss music. Any door you open could lead straight to the boss and they won't stop chasing you until either you, or they die.
• Polished Port:
  • The Macintosh port. Based on the SNES port, minus its bowdlerization, but retaining its automap feature, and additional weapons - this version in particular also boasted a complete graphical and auditory overhaul (With the Atari Jaguar port's sprites and textures which were redrawn at twice the resolution of the original DOS version). But at the same time, enemies had their directional sprites removed, incidentally removing their ability to patrol around levels and be stealthily killed, and Bobby Prince's memorable soundtrack is replaced with Brian Luzietti's rather blander, military sounding one. Todd Dennis' compositions on the 3DO shows off an orchestral soundtrack that definitely top Luzietti's ones.
  • The 3DO port is also a neat way to experience the game, inheriting the perks of the Mac port and is perhaps a rare gem of a game on the console. The controls might take a moment to get used to but they'll let you move nimbly through the levels and respond to hostiles swiftly. The resolution once again is much better than in the DOS port (though it still lacks directional spites), the soundtrack was replaced with crisp CD Audio by Todd Dennis, and the release also the contains remakes of the original six DOS episodes, in addition to the abridged level set featured in the Mac port.
• Porting Disaster:
  • The SNES version. Besides removing all the blood and Nazi references, the port suffered from awful graphics, low FPS that makes it virtually unplayable at times, horrible controls, simplified level design, enemies that can't be sneaked up on because they always face the player, and bad sound effects. It's notable that despite being a less advanced game, the framerate is just as choppy as the Doom port ^note The lack of a Super FX chip for hardware acceleration probably didn't help. and the hit detection is so sketchy, you can hurt enemies you can't even see and vice versa.
  • The GBA port has all of the problems of the SNES version, along with some form of programming error that causes music to simply not play in during gameplay unless you tinker with emulator settings or use a fan-made patch. What makes it really galling is that this game runs on a more primitive engine than Doom, yet that game was ported to the GBA with none of these issues.
• Sequel Displacement: Almost everyone thinks 3D was the first game in the series, but it's actually the third. Muse Software released two Castle Wolfenstein games in the early 80s.
• Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: Finding all the treasures in every level is not required to complete the game, but going treasure hunting will require you to find secret areas and comb all levels thoroughly and you only reward is a higher score, extra lives and a refill to your health from the extra life bonuses. 100% speedruns will require the player to literally be sidetracked by all the gold and treasure.
• Signature Scene: The battle with Hitler at the end of Episode 3.
• So Okay, It's Average: The Spear of Destiny Mission-Pack Sequel had this reaction from many reviewers. It was generally regarded as an okay level pack that was alright but not remarkable. The highlights include two technically new bosses, the Ubermutant and the Death Knight who are potentially some of the hardest bosses yet, while the remaining three bosses are technically like reskins of bosses already featured in Wolfenstein 3d. The final level is notable for taking place in some part of Hell which would become a major central theme for the Doom series and its monsters.
• That One Boss: The Death Knight in Spear of Destiny. It doesn't help that both he and the entire stage is surrounded by absolute swarms of regular mooks either.
• That One Level:
  • The entirety of Episode 2 could count because of the mutants but here are some highlights:
    • E2L4 starts out with one (on the higher difficulties) facing you as soon as you begin, and if you don't have a Machine Gun or Chain Gun with you, you're screwed. This level is notable for having the highest amount of these damned mooks, which can be a daunting challenge if you play at the higher difficulty settings.
    • E2L6 also has you starting off against a mutant, and reinforcements not far behind, on higher difficulties. The real nightmare of this floor is the maze-like section you have to find your way through, while dealing with lurking mutants and, if they are alerted, a room with up to 9 SS Soldiers at the end. This is perhaps the hardest level of the episode, and a major hurdle your first time through the episode as it's likely that you may get hit with some cheap shots navigating the blind corners and running into mutants and guards.
    • E2L8 is yet another notorious map. Not just because of the mutants (and the regular sections are actually not that confusing), but because of a secret area that leads to an insane amount of pushable walls that seem to go nowhere and showing birdcage-sized room after birdcage-sized room in a labyrinthine concoction of monotony; varying with either nothing or collectibles. Also, there are TWO doppelgangers of Hans Grosse hiding in one of these rooms; the first being located at the center of the labyrinth, and the second located at the northeastern part of this monotonous maze. The main reason for these insane amount of secret walls is to find the elusive Easter Egg secret that contains a sign that says "CALL APOGEE, SAY AARDWOLF". Unfortunately, this is only featured in the original 1992 version of this game; later versions will just replace it with a pile of skeletons, rendering the search for the sign completely out of the question. It's telling that the Mac-family remix of this level toned down the maze tremendously in favor of a much more manageable secret area with assorted enemies and goodies, making the experience much more interesting.
  • E3L8 is a huge pain in the ass, with lots and lots of ambushes. The biggest offender, though, is the giant swastika room at the start, along with the rooms surrounding it, all swarming with Officers and SS soldiers. Make even the slightest noise, and they all converge on you at once from all directions (with even a few enemies from adjacent rooms joining in.) And even if you think you've killed them all, the rooms are set up to stagger their arrival, so there's probably still one or two more wandering around, waiting to get you when your back is turned.
  • Episode 4 is where the game starts having more difficult and confusing levels, especially past level 4.
    • E4L5 itself is quite manageable in difficulty, but the map is rather rude because a key to finish the level can only be gained by a mandatory secret that isn't obvious. If you don't have a map of the level, then you'll probably be stuck smacking every wall until you finally locate the key.
    • E4L8 is fittingly perhaps the hardest level of the episode, with a lengthy layout and nearly reaching the limit for maximum number of guards on the original engine. It's a good example of how you don't even need Mutants to make a painfully difficult level, as the Officers alone will make life difficult with their fast movement speed and the almost labyrinthine layout of the level where they can take you by surprise at point-blank range. To top it off, the exit elevator has a staggering number of SS Soldiers waiting inside and they'll take you down fast if you're hoping for a quick and easy run to the exit switch.
  • Episode 6, is predictably a rough ride almost non-stop.
    • E6L1 is particularly fearsome for a starting level. The map is comprised of some ridiculously long stretches of hallways that have perpendicular corridors which almost always contain an Officer to ambush you when you least expect it. It gets worse on the harder difficulties where if you're not careful, you can expect to lose at least more than half of your health due to how damage calculation is indicative on those settings. And these corridors-with-perpendicular niches compose a good third of the entire map, meaning you had best tread carefully if you want to make it out alive. Fortunately, after that part of the map, the hallways become far less confusing and more linear, but you still have to look out for yourself because of the sheer number of mooks that will come to greet you. The level also stands out as an example of how not to design a custom map, due to the tedious, repetitive gameplay of the niche-halls.
    • E6L6, the one level just before the infamous seventh one. While the map isn't particularly as dauntingly sizable compared to the very level that comes after it, it more than makes up for it with its confusingly asymmetrical corridors that can haze your progress to get to the critical locations. Add to the fact that there are unexpected ambushes lying around these corridors and the dangerously acute awareness of the mooks once you open fire, and you've got a rather unforgiving, adrenaline-filled level to complete.
    • E6L7 has a bad reputation as well. It really helps to see a 2D map of the level to understand why.◊ Add in the over 140 soldiers in the map and be prepared for unexpected ambushes that can easily drain half your health.
    • E6L9 is perhaps the most adrenaline-filled boss level of the original six episodes, with a simple layout, but a staggering number of guards between the start and the boss. Be ready to deal with an overwhelming swarm of guards at a moment's notice.
  • Levels 16 and 18 from Spear of Destiny qualify, due to the swarms of guards (including mutants) that occupy the rooms of level 16, and the Death Knight in level 18 plus the fact that you start in a very disadvantageous room with mutants guarding the exits to safer ground.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: A mild issue with the Mac-family ports of the game is the lack of directional sprites, leading to enemies doing a "crab walk" due to always facing you; this also eliminates the possibility of sneaking up on dormant guards. However, the technical improvements helps make up for this as there's still a nice visual experience to be had. Some players still prefer the DOS editions as its pixelated graphics add a retro appeal to the game and it does have unique content like the Spear of Destiny Mission-Pack Sequel.
• Underused Game Mechanic: The Spear of Destiny prequel and its mission packs each have you battle a demon in order to prove that you are worthy of wielding the titular spear (which you've already collected at that point). Wouldn't it be more interesting if you actually used the spear, which is a holy relic with many religious affiliations, to fight those demons? Apparently the people behind the motion comic tie-ins to the 2009 game thought so, since they depict B.J. as using the spear to kill the Angel of Death. The Fan Remake of Wolf 3-D, Brutal Wolfenstein 3D made the spear a usable weapon in its final level of the Spear of Destiny Campaign.

---