It gave shareware distribution a massive shot in the arm In generic function, if not in exact form, Wolfenstein decided on the video game guns we'd be using for decades. Every action-game kill-tool, barring only the shotgun introduced by Doom, is a variant of those. With the later SNES port adding the anarchic, multi-directional destruction of the flamethrower, and the Holy Grail of save-it-'til-you-need-it weapons in the form of the rocket launcher, that's every archetype of FPS weaponry locked down.
The short-lived, cathartic fury of the chain gun. The trusty-but-unspectacular machine gun. The short-range, desperation melee weapon.
It's another thing that Wolfenstein came up with. It's been unspoken, shared knowledge for so long that many now confuse it for a primal, inherent genetic memory, like the fact that bread is tasty or that wasps are bastards. In the same way that we all now instinctively understand the general tropes of how action games work, every gamer in the world understands the archetypal weapon tree of the first-person shooter. Sally forth, and I shall explain further. With its brisk, brainy conceits, it kickstarted the entire FPS race by setting the standard genre design model for about a decade. Faster, cooler, and more involved, Wolfenstein 3D was a stunning showcase for the advanced tech skills of dark coding mage John Carmack. Cyber Monday game deals: see all the best offers right now!Īlthough very basic first-person games such as Spasim and Maze War had existed in the late '80s, followed by first-person RPGs like Ultima Underworld in the early '90s, Wolfenstein accelerated the concept like never before.And that's precisely the kind of scale-up we're talking here. Okay, technically it refined pre-existing ideas into a newer, better format, but then, rocks and caves existed before we invented houses. Never in human history, except perhaps during World War 2 itself, has the process of shooting men in the face from a first-person perspective been more popular. You see, the FPS is fairly well-liked these days.