Castle Wolfenstein is a slow-paced stealth game set in World War II. The game's main objective is to traverse the levels of the castle to find the secret war plans and escape alive. Progressively higher military ranks are earned upon each successful escape with the war plans, and the game becomes correspondingly more difficult as each higher rank is achieved. There are 8 ranks, beginning with Private, culminating at the rank of Field Marshall.
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Thank god no one remembers this game exists, I just know Bethesda execs would salivate upon seeing the procedurally generated maps filled with boxes that take multiple minutes to open and immediately try to do a money pit mobile "remake"
Instrumental in giving birth to the "stealth action" genre that would go on to give us Metal Gear. The most interesting mechanic here is the AI's line of sight and how the Nazi guards detect the player. On one hand it's sophisticated enough not to trigger an entire room if one guard spots you, but at the same time there are several places where the guards seem to be able to see you through walls. The other issue I have with the game is that the layout of the rooms really doesn't impact the gameplay much. There aren't as many obvious ways to just sneak past the guards, rather you just pick and choose when you'll get into a gunfight with them. Having them surrender to you is also a neat idea.
The fact that this game spawned such a big franchise is telling of the state of video gaming in 1981. At least most of its sequels were better.
Before Metal Gear, there was Castle Wolfenstein. Mostly-unrelated to the famous FPS series aside from its name and WWII setting, it's still a pretty neat early experiment for the stealth genre with some entertainingly well-crafted gameplay scenarios for its vintage.
One of the grandpappies of the stealth genre that Kojima would successfully raise with the Metal Gear series. The controls have aged horribly and the chest opening mechanic is implausibly long, so it's best seen as a curiosity.
Still working out my feelings on this game, so the star rating may change. I do know that this was a game of many firsts. It's often considered both the first World War II video game and the first stealth game. Hideo Kojima gets all the credit for inventing the stealth game, but Silas Warner, by himself, made the first stealth game a full six years before Metal Gear came out on the MSX.
The goal is to escape Castle Wolfenstein, preferably with the Nazi war plans. The castle is randomly generated when you hit new game, lending an arcade or Rogue-like aspect to it.
You can disguise yourself with an enemy uniform, sneak past the guards, blow open doors, or just shoot everything. There are a lot of different ways to accomplish your goal. The best part is if you're caught or die, the castle stays the same, so anyone you may have killed on the way stays dead. So even if some of the spawn points of the guards are blatantly unfair, you can still make progress. But SS guards can follow you and appear out of nowhere, so you have to stay on your toes, though you can stick them up and take the bulletproof vests they wear. This game actually has speech in it. The guards will shout German at you if they see you. And all of this from a game made in 1981 because Silas Warner saw Guns of Navarone and wanted to make something like it.
I'll admit the controls take some getting used to, but I think, as a historical artifact, it's worth at least a look. And who knows? You might end up finishing the whole thing in two sittings like I did.
(Edit: You know what? 4.5 stars)
The goal is to escape Castle Wolfenstein, preferably with the Nazi war plans. The castle is randomly generated when you hit new game, lending an arcade or Rogue-like aspect to it.
You can disguise yourself with an enemy uniform, sneak past the guards, blow open doors, or just shoot everything. There are a lot of different ways to accomplish your goal. The best part is if you're caught or die, the castle stays the same, so anyone you may have killed on the way stays dead. So even if some of the spawn points of the guards are blatantly unfair, you can still make progress. But SS guards can follow you and appear out of nowhere, so you have to stay on your toes, though you can stick them up and take the bulletproof vests they wear. This game actually has speech in it. The guards will shout German at you if they see you. And all of this from a game made in 1981 because Silas Warner saw Guns of Navarone and wanted to make something like it.
I'll admit the controls take some getting used to, but I think, as a historical artifact, it's worth at least a look. And who knows? You might end up finishing the whole thing in two sittings like I did.
(Edit: You know what? 4.5 stars)