The first modern shooter appeared 30 years ago and continues to influence how the genre works to this day
Modern shooters are action-packed, often leave little time to breathe and are among the most popular gaming genres of our time. But that wasn’t always the case – it wasn’t until the release of Wolfenstein 3D in 1992 that shooters really got going. MeinMMO uses 5 examples to show how Wolfenstein 3D has influenced the genre to this day.
The first-person shooter genre was founded by Wolfenstein 3D. Everything was new back then, there was no template, you had to look for an innovation around every corner – and Wolfenstein inspired so many things that can still be found in shooters today.
MeinMMO goes back to the year 1992 with you. A short journey through time to the early days of first-person shooters and uses 5 examples to show why Wolfenstein 3D was groundbreaking back then.
Heroes and weapons have been defined
Wolfenstein didn’t redefine graphics at the time – the intellectual predecessor “Catacomb 3D”, which was also created by Studio id Software, had already done so. Here you could release fireballs from the first-person perspective, which came pretty close to the first-person shooter feeling.
However, Wolfenstein defined 3D characters and tools in a way that we still use today. It introduced special “archetypes”. Role models that shooters still use as a guide today.
So the idea of an overpowering lone fighter was brand new to the genre. A character who has the skills to overthrow entire regimes, change the world, defeat evil. Numerous shooters based on this type of narrative are still appearing today.
It was the same with weapons. Here, too, Wolfenstein introduced certain types that are hardly missing in any shooter arsenal today. Among other things:
- The small pistol as a starter weapon
- A submachine gun with a higher rate of fire
- A rocket launcher with a lot of boom
- Slow-firing, single-shot rifles
A year after Wolfenstein 3D, the first Doom came onto the market and completed the weapon mechanics with important points: the shotgun made its debut and different types of ammunition for the weapons were introduced.
Doom’s developer studio: Also id Software with its iconic developers John Carmack and John Romero, who also laid the foundation for Wolfenstein 3D. Quake was added later, also a legendary shooter:
How a programming error led to brilliant mechanics in one of the greatest games of all time
Level building still influential today
Wolfenstein 3D went straight to defining the 3D environment for shooters.
The mixture of specific enemy types, which together with the level design ensure varying difficulty in almost every room, is still standard in single-player campaigns in first-person shooters today.
There are also hidden areas that remain hidden from the player if you just walk straight through the levels. Ammo, life, armor, secret levels – if you don’t look around, you’ll miss a lot.
Although you couldn’t look up and down in Wolfenstein 3D, the level designs of the time were still groundbreaking. What is almost considered “logical” and “self-evident” today was a giant leap in 3D level design for shooters back then.
World War II shooters were born
With Wolfenstein began the boom around the world war shooter, which has strongly influenced the genre. It wasn’t the first game played during World War II. But a real story with topics related to National Socialism in Germany was rare until the Wolfenstein release. Maximum on the basis of licensed games, the submission of which dealt with such topics.
In the multiplayer area, Call of Duty and Battlefield stand out for modern shooters that were created from a world war scenario.
Wolfenstein 3D has never taken itself too seriously. It wanted to be a little funky and helped with that with its cartoonish graphics. Incidentally, the basis for countless games that deal with the Second World War was created – such as the current Call of Duty: Vanguard.
However, this also led to the title getting into trouble with the authorities in Germany. The game was banned in Germany for a long time, albeit initially because of the violent scenes.
Again and again, however, the symbolism was criticized and sometimes given as a reason for the ban. The so-called “Wolfenstein judgment” came about in 1998, which ensured that unconstitutional symbols in video games were banned in Germany for many years (via grimme-game.de).
Only since 2019 is the original Wolfenstein 3D no longer banned in Germany.
Wolfenstein sets a high pace
The 3D shooters before Wolfenstein 3D tended to follow the slow-paced gameplay style that players were used to from RPGs at the time. Similar to the mental predecessor “Catacomb 3D” mentioned above.
So it was more of the gun-toting RPGs that kept a lot of the pace of the RPG role models.
Wolfenstein 3D turned up the tempo. The developers pushed the gameplay more towards “real” firefight. Hectic, lack of overview, chaos and panic can quickly break out – Wolfenstein became the first real shooter because it was no longer an RPG.
Not Dungeons and Dragons was the model, but rather the reality of a firefight.
This new frenzy in video games then also led to a whole new level of immersion. To this day, shooters rely on the feeling of merging with their character and forgetting everything else around them.
There are certainly other concepts for creating a high level of immersion. But Wolfenstein 3D took the concept to a new level and showed for shooters, but also many other genres, how to captivate your players with constant action.
If you want to get a taste of the gameplay from back then, we’ve included a suitable YouTube video for you here:
Mod support was suddenly a thing
Officially, only the spiritual successor, Doom, was modder-friendly. But even with Wolfenstein 3D, players at that time found the opportunity to bring their own content into the engine and thereby completely rebuild the game.
Wolfenstein 3D was one of the pioneers of the modding trend, and Studio id Software knew exactly how to deal with this passion for gamers – to encourage them, not suppress them.
When it comes to modding specifically, one cannot say that big shooters are directly influenced by it even today.
This is also due to the popular but closed console systems of PlayStation or Xbox, on which modding for “normal” players is only possible to a limited extent or not at all. The later focus on the multiplayer of many big shooters also stood in the way of modding.
Indirectly, however, the influence is enormous.
Hobby developers started their careers with modding, went professional and made their own impact on the development of many games.
The large scene of indie games would certainly be somewhere else today if id Software had decided to protect its blockbuster games from modding instead of opening them.
Although unintentional, Wolfenstein 3D created a legacy that will have an impact on the gaming market for a long time to come.
Wolfenstein 3D introduced some mechanics that feel very natural to us today. But someone had to figure it out first.
It shows the incredible creativity of the developers, who understood exactly what makes a good shooter back then. Such surprising but important innovations are rarely found today and are more often found in indie games.
Which game defined your relationship with shooters or gaming in general? Was there a game in your gaming career that really showed you the possibilities that games offer you? Write us a comment.
Reference-mein-mmo.de
