Mein Leben!
+ Its an old game that is still fun
+ Hilarious death screams
+ Stabbing zombies with a knife
+ Cheap to buy on the Xbox Marketplace (800 MS points)
+ Leaderboards and Acheivements make it fun to come back and try to beat your previous score.
- No multiplayer
- The German phase "Mein Leben!" is pronounced incorrectly.
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Hail to the grandpappy of all shooters. The ideas and elements of Resident Evil and Call of Duty fuse together to make one of the most respectable FPS games of all time. And this classic shooter that many people have grown up with has made it to the Xbox 360 (and Playstation 3) for the price of 800 MS points. The good news is that it is a very good port, offers a welcome leaderboard, has a few acheivements to unlock, and still feels like the good game you know and love. The bad news is that Wolfenstein 3D is actually better than some modern FPS games because it actually has a smooth and relaxing gameplay.
Wolfenstein 3D's one-and-only singleplayer takes place mostly in the evil Castle of Wolfenstein, and in this hellish dungeon there is an evil and supernatural project known as The Veil being constructed by WWII Nazis that you must stop. You begin the game inside a room with a dead body lying sappily in front of you (a fellow who probably was shot by you early). You are nothing more than the typical annoynous bruiser with the name of B.J. who has been captured and tortured relentlessly by Nazis, and now you must escape. You start the game with just a mere pistol but this weapon can do much damage to your foes until you can find bigger weapons. The game takes you through about 6 different "episodes" with different levels, secrets, and objectives. The objectives are very simplistic as they were in the original Doom; all you have to do is find an elevator at the end of each level to reach the next floor while finding keys to locked doors. You can get points for killing nazis or collecting hidden treasures and ammo which makes Wolfenstein 3D a little more complex. There are 12 Xbox Live acheivements for you to collect as well as an Xbox Live score leaderboard, so many players can feel like they have a reason to play through the game a few times on different difficulties.
The sound for Wolfenstein 3D is just laughable. Your enemies range from a number of Nazi soldiers, and all of them have a hilarious and distinct death scream when you kill them. Keeping a serious face is hard when you stab a Nazi with a knife and hear him scream like a parriot. Like I said, the sound is laughable. Other sounds include the automatic sub-machine guns that have a hicup when they loop, but the pistol is formally loud and clear. The original music returns for the game, but some of the MDI songs that you remember seem to have been edited a little.
There is nothing wrong with the graphics. Honestly, the game looks and runs fine on the Xbox 360. Its definetely not a step forward in our technology today -- every level looks almost the same except for wider rooms or different textures on the wall. The ceiling is fixed to the same position on each level which litterally simplifies the game down to bare minimun standards, but for some reason the horizone-based shooting seems to feel alot more comfortable. The game uses sprites to display enemies, and to decorate rooms with surreal skeletons locked in torture gibbets and posters of Adolf Hitler on the wall. You won't be immersed simply by looking at the graphics of Wolfenstein 3D; you have to use your imagination to experience Nazis meets Zombies. And when you do, the feeling for killing these monsters is even more rewarding.
The only bad thing about Wolfenstein 3D is that it is a very simplistic game and is prone to get repeatitive very quickly for those who have been brainwashed with modern day games like Halo and no longer know what a good FPS is. If you buy this game on the Marketplace with high expectations and without any knowledge of what the original game was like, you will more-than-likely be crestfallen. Wolfenstein 3D is even more simplistic than the original Doom, which seriously reserves 800 MS points worth of purchase only for the diehard Wolfenstein fans. And that would be me. For all the rest of the Wolfenstein fans, this is a must have if it isn't available on your new PC.