Thanks the lord real nazis weren’t like that!

I can remember the first time I played Wolfenstein 3D, it was somewhere in 1993, the first FPS (first person shooter) in the history of gaming. I instantly fell in love with it, the idea of being the Allies bad guy, making my way through endless corridors of blue stone, blasting Nazis along the way, was somewhat exciting. I still have the 3 ½ diskette containing this classic in my collection. Many years have passed since that unforgettable moments. I was hopping Id would do a sequel somewhere. But then it came Mirage, a gaming company unknown for most of us, claiming they had recreated the classic, still based on the original idea but adding all the delightful tweaks of today’s technology.
But this so-called tribute to Wolfenstein 3D does everything, except bringing this old classic back to life.


Plot 4/10

In Mortyr’s world, the Nazis won the 2 World War, by using a time machine, changing some past and future events. You assume the role of a member of the anti-nazi resistance of the future, sent to destroy the time machine and halt the Nazi’s world domination plan.
The game begins inside a church with you standing behind a soldier with a knife in your hand, that reminds me something... (the original game started the same way but in a prison).
You kill him, pick up his gun, go out and start shooting soldiers. Then you keep doing this making your way through many levels until you collect seven pieces of something (it doesn’t matter what these things are but you will need them to travel to the future again). That’s about 1/3 of the total game.
After grabbing them all, you are presented in the future where you have to find the damn machine and destroy it to save the day. Instead of just going to the place and blow the evil artifact away, you will first have to make your way through a dozen of buildings like shipyards, robot factories, train stations, submarine docks, and so on till you finally reach the place where the machine is hidden. I don’t mean this a completely bad thing, if you go direct to the artifact and destroy it, the game won’t last you more than a few minutes. But the programmers could have made the trip with a bit of sense, putting some more consistence along the way.


Gameplay 3/10

This is a first person shooter, that means you watch the action as if you were seeing trough the eyes of the guy you are controlling. But this guy has some sort of bionic ability to see miles away. By pressing a couple of buttons you can see what’s happening out there, so you can see nazi guards patrolling before they discover you. This feature emphasizes the sniper mode, but will bother you after the first moments, because aiming when looking at enemies in a range so close (especially with the mouse) is the shooters worst nightmare. Sometimes enemies will appear out of nowhere behind your back, even when you have checked and rechecked the area, knowing there was nobody there just one second ago. That happens because of the game scripted events, that means you have to do something for the computer to activate a determined event. In this case you go to a place, grab some item and then the event is activated (the soldier appears). This feature can be a good thing the first few times but it gets so overused after a while that you will even predict it.

Some soldiers have certain “gifts”, more believable in other genres, but definitively out of place in an action game. Like the soldier’s aforementioned ability to materialize behind you, or to shoot you with their little guns when you’re hiding a couple of kilometers away (actually I was trying to snip them the same way!).
Hitler would be proud of this kind of soldiers, he could have conquered the world a dozen times with these so well-trained infantries!
And the final complaint is about the futuristic part. While playing the game in the nineteen forties the game is just mediocre, but when you start the future journey all the Wolfenstein wannabe issue is thrown away adding an “I-tried-to-be-original-but-failed” feel. I purchased this game because I wanted to play more of the same Wolf-3D stuff, if I wanted a futuristic theme I would have bought Quake or Unreal instead.


Graphics 8/10

Yes, they are pretty good. The rain and snowing effects are very well done, and the futuristic nazi propaganda mixed with modern painting style will make this alternative reality more convincing.
But good graphics can’t do anything on their own; they need other factors to be good in order to shine, in this case the graphical part alone won’t substitute the lack of other more important elements such as enjoyable gameplay.


Sound 6/10

If the visuals are three dimensional, the sound should be the same too. But it isn’t, at least not enough to convince me. The effects are average, and the soundtracks tend to cut in the middle of the action.


Replay Value 5/10

From the beginning of the game till the traveling part, the game has a lot of replayability. But when you start blasting people in the future it gets boring almost immediately, maybe even the first time you play the missions (perhaps that level in the futuristic city was the only good of the lot).


Fun Factor 3/10

If you are a FPS gamer who finds playing as a sniper with some hot action along the way not very exciting check yourself for a pulse.
But if you like doing so for more than 30 hours against the same enemies in the annoying and repetitive Mortyr’s world then pay the shrink a visit.


Overall 5 out of 10

After playing this game, people who didn’t played the original Wolf-3D will wonder why a game like that was so successful.

If you want a good “silent-shooter” with sniper elements, play Thief II: The Metal Age or Deus Ex. If you want first-person combat with weird weapons, play Unreal Tournament. If you want a migraine, then by all means check Mortyr out.