10 out of 10 people found this review helpful.
Wolfenstein reborn? I think not!
Date of Review: Jan 13, 2000
I have a problem. I see a new First Person Shooter (fps) at the store, and I have to buy it. Mortyr especially caught my eye, because it was supposed to be an un-official remake of a classic; Wolfenstein 3D. Even though it wasn't on sale, and my favorite game magazine PC Gamer hasn't reviewed it yet, I bit the bullet and bought it. Boy oh boy what a mess.
I'll start off with the good. The game's graphic engine certainly has potential. Although it doesn't stand up to the Quake3 or Unreal engines, it has an impressive list of features, including; dynamic lighting effects, transparent textures, volumetric fog, reflective textures, realistic breakable glass, bulletholes, and weather effects like rain and snow. Just walking around in some of the buildings in the game really shows off what this engine can do. Breaking the glass windows is especially fun, because it just looks so cool.
The potential stops there.
Installing and starting the game is easy. But immediately from the start you can tell this game was rushed. The game just feels sticky when you move around. It is hard to describe, but it just isn't smooth like it should be. After shooting the first nazi, it looks like maybe 3 frames were used to make a death animation, and it just looks horrible. The aim of your gun is always to the right of the crosshair, which is extremely annoying. The Artificial Intelligence is non-existant, enemies see you and walk towards you. I would say it is like Wolfenstein, but at least Wolfenstein does everything smoothly. Blood looks pink on the walls and on the damage-textures of the enemies. Gameplay is extremely brainless; find door that needs key, find key, unlock. All sound effects that aren't ambient are muffled, even explosions. For instance, you more likely to hear water running in the room next to you then a gun firing right behind you. I'm not even kidding.
I'm sure I can think of more things that this game does wrong, but my fingers are tired. Anyways, I had to write a review on this because I was very upset that I had paid full price for it, and I didn't want other people to make the same mistake.
If you are really interested, try a demo first. Otherwise you will probably be sorry.
