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)