There's not a whole lot I can say about Wolfenstein 3D at this point that you haven't already heard or experienced, it's one of those early PC titles that either everyone knew about, or most certainly played at some point in time over the past 16 or 17 years. The PSN port of the game comes over pretty well, with controls mapped to the dual-shock that don't hinder the player experience, but with no options for customization either. There is incentive to play this title before the new Wolfenstein game releases from Activision, as certain bonuses and money can be carried over into the new title. Also, for someone like me, who hasn't played the game in years, it's certainly not asking much to plop down the $4.99 for the game to refresh my memory a bit.
Wolfenstein 3D still remains fun, and while nobody will argue that all aspects of the game have aged well, especially in the past seven or eight years where we've seen FPS titles really explode, it's hard to deny that the developers had something really special going on here. I remember really jumping into the game around 9th grade or so, only because someone had loaded the game up on the computers in our typing class, and after class we'd sit around and play for about 15 minutes or so until the bell would ring for the next class. It wasn't something I'd play at home for various reasons at the time, but it was definitely my first experience with an FPS title, and probably my only real experience with one until Goldeneye hit the N64 a little ways down the line.
There's an addictive nature to the game, despite the repetitive corridors, hard to navigate map, and the cheap enemy placement. I suppose that's in part due to the number of secret paths and treasure you can locate, but there's also something that just feels fun despite the flaws of the title, something that's particularly difficult for me to really explain properly. Fans will probably get what I'm thinking, but if you've never, ever played a Wolfenstein title from the early PC days, then I highly suggest checking it out, even if you have no nostalgic attachment to the game. It's certainly fun, and worth checking out even as a small gaming history lesson to see how far things have developed in such a short period of time. The leap in tech from this game to something like Call of Duty is incredible to say the least, and while most would compare technology leaps from the 8-bit Nintendo days to now for an impressive change, you could easily do the same here. Still, just like a good chunk of those old 8-bit titles, Wolfenstein remains playable, and actually fun.
My only real annoyance with this port is that the controls aren't customizable, I wish I could remap a couple things, and turn up the sensitivity a bit, but outside of that, there's nothing to gripe about here. The game plays exactly like I remember, and even though it's definitely showing its age in the visuals, I was surprised to see it look pretty decent on a larger display, after playing it for years and years on a 17" monitor. The addition of some sort of tie-in to the new game is nice to see too, for those of you that plan on picking it up. There's a lot of content in the game too, and for the price you're paying, I'd say it's certainly worth checking out, even for long time fans that have already played the game to death.
