Monday, July 15, 2019

Wolfenstein 3D: Episode VI

Soon, this grand saga shall draw to a close. General...Fettgesicht will fall to my barrel and all shall be well. Couldn't you use Himmler or something? Why make up a nonsense German name? Its not like Hitler did everything on his own.

E6M1, straight off the bat we have to deal with three officers and limited supplies of ammo. Thanks...Romero. I'm just going to assume this one's Romero's fault. I run out of ammo, like a noob, and then get slaughtered by two SS. Is this going to have a freaky difficulty curve? Or a difficulty rollercoaster? The difficulty in this level comes primarily from having to carefully alert officers hiding in a cubby hole on the sides of a long hallway. Because of this, if you're backtracking the level becomes annoying to navigate.

E6M2, MP-40 straight off? There's a sign. I discover on this level that enemies can shoot through walls at some angles. That's real great. I'd complain about the programming if it wasn't an early shooter. The early part of the level is designed with lots of single blocks creating a cris-cross effect. They're clever here and have some enemies get alerted by sound and some wait for you. Creates a bit of tension.

E6M3, you know iD, its real hard to save at the start of the level if I have to kill a thousand guys at the start of the level. Also, iD, I know I said I liked the usage of a constant emblem, but that doesn't mean the entire level has to be made out of Swastikas. If I didn't have a map I'd really hate this level.

E6M10, a secret level with a new wall texture? I mean, I question how you pistol started this bad boy. This level has four little sub-levels, each focusing on some kind of theme. The problem is you're not really given the ammo to deal with these little sub-levels. You're effectively trapped if you don't start with a chaingun and full ammo. You can bypass all this if you're clever, but that hardly seems fun. I'm starting to notice that a lot of the time when I die, enemies are usually firing from places I couldn't see. Its very tiresome either carefully walking through corridors or carefully jumping in and out of cover.

E6M4, this is rapidly testing my patience. A dog off to the side. I'm glad we didn't see Episode 7, because I'm sure that would've had a level where you were surrounded by SS at the start. Guess that's why there weren't any actual sequels. I'm starting to see this as less fun and more slog.

E6M5, I'm surprised. I would've thought somebody was going to be waiting for me on this level with a bat. Someone keeps promising me that. Someone keeps lying. Instead its that damn morse code track again. What is this, the third time? Did nobody testing play a level with this track more than once? Don't they realize how annoying it is. It's just a couple of bars over a morse code message. And a high-pitched whining noise in the background.

E6M6, the first half of this is an intense chicken with its head cut off scenario. A very satisfying series of twists and turns for the main level, providing a tricky setup for the enemies to ambush you. The final stretch has just enough enemies to kill you in a head-on confrontation.

E6M7, this one's a bit of a slog. You've got four obvious secrets areas, which are nice, one required secret, not so nice. There's one final giant maze full of tricky enemy placements. I'm on the edge about it.

E6M8, what's this, a castle inside a cave? Another castle in a cave? It that a new wall texture? This late? Another slog, but slightly more enjoyable than usual.

E6M9, really, an enemy at the start of a long level the player is likely to have lost a lot of health on. Thanks iD. Also, you hid all the health and ammo inside secrets. Thanks iD. General whatshisface goes down easy, but once again the battle is more in the hordes of enemies between him and you.

Death Count: 50
Final Score: 946100

Well, that was an experience.

1 comment:

  1. What do you mean, "nonsense German name"? I'm German and there were at least five kids at my school called Fettgesicht.
    Although now that I think about it, it might only have been us other kids calling them that...

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