Mod 2: Wolfenstein: The Original Missions

Name:Wolfenstein: The Original Missions
Number:2
Year:1997?
Mod for:Doom
Modder:Las Rojas
Genre:FPS
Difficulty:3/5
Time:1 hour and 30 minutes (unfinished)

I don't know what I can lay the blame on here. Myself? Eh. I guess. This ended up being a mission in torture. At the end of my Wolfenstein 3D review, I am hopeful. Meanwhile, here at just the fourth Wolfenstein related game, I'm exhausted. What good have I missed? I've got nothing much to say about it. Its Wolfenstein, with Doom game logic. That works in places and others...not so much.

Weapons:
The same as Wolfenstein. 2/10

Enemies:
The same as Wolfenstein. 4/10.

Levels:
I realize there were only minor changes, but some of the changes are not good changes. I should not have to deal with elevators in a game that doesn't deal with them. While LZWolf is putting in-level elevator support, its the quick kind. Also, those secret levels. 2/10

Atmosphere:
There's kind of a charming atmosphere to this despite the quality issues. Which I guess is code for it's better than the sum of its parts. Something made me want to complete the entire game, again, for the fourth time. There's something charming about a colorful game about killing nazis. 0/10

Graphics:
With Doom's lighting engine the game feels wrong. Unnecessary. Plus the odd graphical improvements from the original artwork looks weird. 4/10

Sound/Music:
A mismatch of sounds that were taken from random other games, but I'm sure in actuality were taken from Wolfenstein Mac. Music is going to be bad depending on your soundfont. 3/10

A 15 out of 60. I think I'll fudge the math on that to a 14. That makes it the best mod so far. Which isn't shocking because the other competition is Barneystein.

What's this? Nocturnal Missions is next on my mod list? Eh....I guess I should see the secret...no, that's how...ah. Who knows what's next. Besides not Wolfenstein. Maybe...maybe something anime-related.

WolfenDoom: The Original Missions: Off the Rails

Now, we move onto the second episode. The one where things go south. I guess I enjoy the first episode, but that's just because I keep coming back to it. I think I've played this episode like 2, 3 times. I think that was more because I could, not really because I wanted to.

E2M1:
Hmm, I remember this one. The one with a big gap of nothing at the start before the big reveal of mutants. Or undead as I call them, because there's nothing really mutanty about Frankenstein's monster. I wander through the level vainly trying to find the one meant to sneak up on me, before stumbling into the level exit. Upon which, I provide a noble effort, but ultimately get killed. At first glance, the undead still seem a credible threat. They still suffer from not being as quick on the draw, but they'll kill you if you don't stop them quickly.
Despite finding all the rooms and secrets, I left three enemies alive...somehow.

E2M10:
At first I thought this was the Pac-Man level, but no, that's Episode 4, I think. This is just a blue maze. The music track's nice in my soundfont for once. That's good. Sounds like it was in some other Apogee game though.
The level exit's close to the start, because most of the level is behind secret doors.

E2M2:
Ah, the clever ambush level. Starts off with a couple of guys behind you, but not immediately behind you. Nothing much of interest beyond a window outdoors that shows that I am indeed getting higher. Oh, and can't forget the broken promise about secrets.
At this point, despite playing around 15 minutes, felt the urge to do LITERALLY anything else. I'd scrap this completely and just switch to a total overview, but there are some new levels in this. Let's see about them.

Map 32:
Why 32 instead of 31? They apparently link back and forth so which one you pick is arbitary, except this is the easier of the two. It appears to be a take on Dead Simple from Doom 2. Except its all Trans Grossman. Except due to a weird quirk they don't seem to be able to shoot. So you can just knife them. Try that anywhere else and you'll be dead.
Then you get to the outside ring and get slaughtered. There are four bosses in corridors that open when switches are pressed, and four bosses in corner pillars outside. I'm sure there's some way to beat this legit, but as my patience was already gone, I just cheated my way through. There's four switches on the boss pillars, and one opens the level exit.

Map 31:
There is no way to get to either of these maps as far as I can tell. Which is good, because they're bad. This one is some weird swamp cavern full of the undead. There are some rooms on the side full of more mutants. Oh, man, this is bad.

I guess I'll talk about my overall opinion next time.

WolfenDoom: The Original Missions: E1

Well, its been about a month since my last Wolfenstein-related entry, and seeing as my current choice of next FPS game, Terminator, is too short to do anything but one entry on and too long to complete in one afternoon. Time for WolfenDoom: The Original Missions. Not to be confused with WolfenDoom (for Wolfenstein) or anything else. Originally released sometime in the '90s. I say sometime, because, well, I don't know exactly when this particular WAD was released. Whole bunch of these Wolfenstein for Doom games were released on a particular day in 1997, at least on IDgames archives. However, because I am a lazy human being, or more precisely, one with someone who prefers not to waste his time setting up another Doom port when I still haven't gotten a working Mac emulator, I will be doing NightFright's ZDoom port. Which in of itself is an update of C.J. Mullen's version. Like all good projects with a mixture of internet handles and real names, I'm sure this will go smoothly.

As I start up the game, I am greeted by a strange version of the Wolfenstein theme. Curious. Is it the fault of the midis? Or is it a choice of soundfont that greatly clashes with what the game was intended to sound like? I don't know, but this is the first time I've had a game suffer in this department.

E1M1:
Well, it goes into the game proper. Someone forgot to turn on the lights. What's with this ceiling? The control scheme feels...wrong. The sounds...wrong. The weapons...wrong. The sound effects feel like they've been taken from Jedi Knight. One was from Quake. There's also enemy stepping sounds now. I imagine most of this stuff was taken from the Mac version. I can imagine both a professional or a non-professional looking at the pistol sprite they have and okaying that. That looks very wrong. Armor instead shows you how much treasure you have on that level. Clever. Other than that, its the first level of Wolfenstein. Nothing to complain about yet.

E1M10:
Get this, instead of a strange purple wall, there's just a brown/grey one. Now, I don't know if its Doom or if I just know my way around now, but I didn't think this was so bad this time around. Its still the strange, self-entangled, weirdly placed door level. I also noticed I was an efficent killing machine. That's Doom, in Wolfenstein every encounter could mean my death. Still couldn't get all the treasure and enemies, apparently I missed some of them. Despite there being nowhere for me left to go.

E1M2:
There's a weird bell in the music for this one. Actually the whole track is weird. This level tries to be some kind of chateau instead of the dungeon I presume the original was. Some kind of outside area that wasn't there. Not a bad attempt. When moved to Doom, Wolfenstein maps feel a lot more emptier and bigger. Despite being a fast boy, Doomguy feels slower than BJ.

E1M3:
Adding elevators to the original Wolfenstein levels. Not just elevators, but an elevator in front of a long secret corridor. Now, having an outside can be a bit ambiguous, but elevators? In-level elevators? I mean, if you want to do that for an original level, that's fine, but Wolfenstein is supposed to be a series of floors! I'm also starting to question if I should use turbo or not.

E1M4:
Didn't notice it before, but there are a lot of cross hallways in this level. If this were a video LP this level would consist of five minutes of backtracking compared to 3 minutes of action. I've got a lot of health but I'm struggling to keep above 20 in ammo, I think this is due to the way the games calculate damage. In Wolfenstein, anyone can be killed at any time and enemies are quick on the draw. In Doom, its much less extreme in terms of damage output. Also, most secrets, after being activated, don't cleanly disappear into the ceiling.

E1M5:
While in general the first three episodes are better than the later ones in terms of design, I can't help but feel there are still issues. Several rooms basically exist for there to be enemies in for no apparent reason. Almost every room feels like a torture chamber, an office, or a storage room. Maybe a few dog kennels or prison cells. Given my opinion on how every level feels the same, is it any wonder I don't like replaying this?

E1M6:
Just a bunch of jewels in a barracks for some reason. Another level with an outdoor view. Doesn't seem any higher. That about sums up this mod, doesn't it? Another frelling elevator too. I realize I bring this up in some way almost every level, but Wolfenstein always feels weird in the level design department. Too abstracted to be realistic but not abstracted enough to fill in information yourself. Space is folding in on itself in this mod and I don't like that at all. Going by the last level, this area should be the last level. I just...hugh.

E1M7:
So...its a garden on the upper level. That works. Not the strangest thing I've seen. This is a mess of wooden hallways I checked out of mentally pretty quickly. Probably was a mistake to do this so soon after the proceeding game. There's an interesting gauntlet in the center of the map where you're trapped between two groups of guards behind walls and pillars, but only if you really wanted to do that.

E1M8:
11 secrets, but more than half the treasure is in a single unsecret room. Most of those secrets are in the form of a series of rooms. I don't remember how I felt at the time, but now they feel lame. That's what happens when it just looks like you're pushing walls up, I guess. Another fountain outside. Getting less workable now with this stuff.

E1M9:
What, no windows outside? You know, its weird seeing this level without a massive ceiling. Hans is...surprisingly, just as lethal as in Wolfenstein. Maybe less lethal. And somehow my time is only an hour. What. The boss theme sounds really...screwy.

And the outro music sounds like complete garbage now. Apparently a minor change in how the horn sections sound is enough to make an okay soundtrack sound terrible. That's not going to be annoying at all.