Hidden Treasures of Wolfenstein 3D

Unsung Screenshot. Taken from ModDB.

A week ago we reached an important milestone when in comes to the history of first-person shooters: 30th Anniversary of Wolfenstein 3D. This game may not be an actual first title in its genre or even the franchise, but the third FPS by id Software played a key role in their later achievements. Which is why this classic definitely deserves more credit and popularity than it usually gets, but that's easy to see why a debut of Blazkowicz isn't talked about as much as DOOM and Quake.

Despite the charm that comes with the simplicity of Wolfenstein 3D, generally people rightfully note how this classic didn't break the ground as much as aforementioned future titles did. While I don't view this as a weakness of "grandfather of the first-person shooters", the truth is that there's not much interest in it. I've already talked about the franchise back in January and this time I would like to do something similar to an "article" where I've mentioned certain custom campaigns for Warcraft 3 by talking about some prominent total conversions (or whatever I should call the) for Wolfenstein 3D.

Operation Eisenfaust: Origins.

Released back in 2012, Operation Eisenfaust: Origins seems to be one of the first projects when you try to search for more Wolfenstein 3D content, and it appears to be a great start for diving into this world. This total conversion offers its own take on the origins of Operation Eisenfaust that lead to the creation of those damn mutants. You're taking on the role of Blazkowicz who went on to investigate a camp tied to the Operation after defeating Hans Grosse and escaping the castle Wolfenstein. But he gets caught and become the part of horrible experiments of the Operation Eisenfaust.

Origins showcase a lot of impressive technical features that weren't part of original Wolfenstein 3D, taking the full advantage of Wolf4SDL source port. That's especially true for the new remastered version of the campaign published in 2021 with the aim to enhance the visual immersion and interactivity of the mod, as well as bring Operation Eisenfaust: Origins closer to Wolfenstein franchise while also distancing it away from controversial SonderKommando Revolt that was cancelled following its controversy.

DOOM: Legions of Hell.

I didn't really think about community content for Wolfenstein 3D until seeing "Playing DOOM in Other Games: Is It Worth It?" video by Dwars. He started it with Legions of Hell and obviously got me curious about how things are going for Wolf3D. Not that I followed that desire for a long time (and would argue that I'm just scratching the surface) and now it would be right to acknowledge the project that showed me that there's more to this game than official levels, expansion and "simple" maps with episodes when it comes to community content.

There're two versions of DOOM: Legions of Hell: the one for DOS version of the game from 2007 and updated version of the project for Wolf4SDL with better performance and fixes in Christmas Day of 2012. Similarly to Ultimate DOOM, here you'll get four episodes of familiar-yet-different content with (from what I've seen) original maps using DOOM's visuals, weapons and demons. A loyal marine sent to Mars following a distress call where he witnesses that something went wrong. It really does look pretty impressive, and it's definitely worth checking for those who enjoys both classic first-person shooters from id Software.

Unsung.

While previous examples stayed close to popular franchises, Unsung is one of those total conversions that got to explore something new, sort of speak. This stand-alone Wolf4SDL project is set in World War I, welcoming players to follow Allied Trench Raider in his adventure to illuminate the German Artillery Bunker despite all odds and horrors of that time. Besides an authentic weaponry, you will also make use of a lamp and gas mask as you would have to avoid poison gas and getting burnt by flamethrowers.

Not only Unsung makes use of unique textures and music, but there's also quite a few of cutscenes that enhance your gameplay experience. I don't think I would be wrong to say that this total conversion is one of the unique ones over there (Unsung even has a Dreamcast port; although not exactly finished, but there's a source code out there), and I hope that Wolfenstein 3D will get its time to shine with more impressive projects being created and released in the future. Perhaps my "optimistical predictions" would become true, and we get to see an official re-release of the game for all current platforms that surely would result in rise of popularity for "grandfather of first-person shooters".