B
efore there was Doom, there was Wolfenstein 3D. The 5th of May 1992 saw the release
of Wolfenstein 3D, developed by the now- legendary studio id software. While the game was the third entry to the forgotten franchise, its shift to fast-paced first person shooter action was revolutionary for the time. Not only was Wolfenstein one of the first video games to truly embrace brutal, bloody violence, it proved so successful that it spawned an entire genre. 30 years on, Wolfenstein is fondly remembered
as the grandfather of 3D shooters - a genre that has dominated the industry for decades, particularly since the meteoric rise of Call of Duty. It’s a legacy worth celebrating, particularly as the
3D shooter genre continues to adapt and evolve in new and exciting ways - with the recent rise of the battle royale genre standing out as an exceptional example of innovation in the space. So as we pay tribute to a watermark moment
in gaming history, it’s only right that we sit down with John Romero, co-founder of id software and widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of the shooter genre. Lucky for us, Romero is due to speak at the upcoming Develop:Brighton, taking place from July 12-14th and organised by Tandem Events. Romero’s talk, a postmortem on Wolfenstein 3D,
will chronicle the journey that led id software’s founders to create gaming history. We’ll save you the spoilers, as I’m sure you’re as keen as we are to attend Romero’s session, taking place on Thursday, the 14th of July. That said though, we’re certainly not going to turn down the experience to pick Romero’s brain as he looks back on the game’s 30-year legacy.
A 30 YEAR LEGACY “In the beginning, [Wolfenstein 3D] was influential because nobody had played a game like that before,” says Romero. “And our choice of IP using Castle Wolfenstein was pretty unique. There was a category of world of World War Two games, mostly in strategy on computers back then. This
was nothing like that. “We didn’t even think of it as a World War Two
game really, we just loved the original Wolfenstein. It didn’t, we felt, have heavy World War Two overtones because it was so limited in its graphics and everything. It had a great story, and the original game was definitely inspired by World War Two movies. But when we made it, we weren’t thinking so much about that. We were thinking mainly just about run and gun.” Now, in the context of how games have evolved
since 1992, Wolfenstein is remembered primarily as a first person shooter. But when discussing its legacy, its place in the now-forgotten maze genre shouldn’t be overlooked either. “Wolfenstein was like, the most glorified maze
game,” Romero laughs. “Even though it was heralding a new way of playing games at high speed with that 3D perspective, the walls were all 90 degree corners and had fixed ceilings. Which was very similar to everything that had come before - from RPGs like Ultima, Might and Magic, Bard’s Tale, that kind of stuff.” The primary difference, of course, being the
focus on run and gun - maintaining the player’s momentum as they tear their way through the level. Encouraging exploration, sure, but always making sure that they keep moving, with id cutting any element of the game that they felt disrupted this high-speed flow - setting the groundwork for decades of shooters to come, including but not limited to id’s followup title, Doom. “After Doom, the explosion of shooters that
came out really showed a broad range of content and subject matter. Sci-fi, westerns, you name it, even in IP with Dark Forces (Star Wars), Jedi Knight and that kind of stuff. It really spread out after that point. Wolfenstein was really not the main focus, like it had been for that year and a half until Doom came out. “But Wolfenstein, to me, feels like it’s so niche.
Battlefield and Call of Duty are totally different things, with different timelines and everything. Wolfenstein is Wolfenstein, it stays there. I feel that
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