I'm English, so shooting at Germans is something of a family tradition. A tradition I'd rather not have to keep up. Game developers and the people who tell them which games to make however, think the idea of shooting Germans is something that will keep people buying. And apparently it does.
In Germany, Nazi imagery is banned from computer games. This meant when Return to Castle Wolfenstein was released a while back, the German version had you shooting Zombies instead of Nazi's. In my opinion the Germans have as much reason to shoot Nazis as anyone else but there you go.
Wolfenstien 3D. Yet - another - bloody - FPS - on the bloody - 3DO. Castle Wolfenstien is one hell of a place. All the occupants look identical. If you shoot them, they all fall over and lay dead in exactly the same as each other. Weirdly, so do the Nazi attack dogs. All the castle doors are blue. The Nazi inhabitants must have also stolen every suit of armour in Europe and decorated Castle Wolfenstien with them. To top this off, the ceilings of the castle are plain flat grey, as are the floors.
In Castle Wolfenstein the game play goes something like this. You'll walk into a very sparsely decorated room, perhaps a picture of Hilter on the walls, perhaps some eagles. In the room will be these formation dying Nazi's and perhaps a dog. Shoot them all. Quickly.
Move onto the next room and do the same.
Keep in mind at all times that Castle Wolfenstien is an all time classic. If it helps you can record yourself saying this oft said mantra and play it back. "Castle Wolfenstien is a classic, Castle Wolfenstien is a classic, Castle Wolfenstien is a classic, Castle ..."
At some point you'll find a lift. Get inside it.
How can this rubbish be a classic? Just not fun. It's boring. If you think about, Wolfenstein is like 3D Space invaders. Conceptually it is very similar. Shoot everything you see. Invaders had a challenge. Pace kept Invaders going. Wolfenstein 3D ain't got pace. It has got slow moving Nazis.
And because all the rooms look the same, it's easy to get lost. Which makes it doubly boring.
Not all that rare either!
3DO Kid.
Why it is classics, well becaurse...
1) It was one of the first games of this kind and certainly most influential. Concept find a key then door then exit was widely accepted in 3D shooters after Wolfenstein 3-D.
2) Level design is smart and imaginative. Certainly it suffers of the same textures used again and again - you lose your way quickly and always the same angle of placing the walls adds to the dizziness. But you`ll see that this game is the most of what could be done with engine if you`ll try to design level or two by yourself (editors are awailable for PC version).