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I honestly didn’t think that I would live to see the day when someone would get the idea to combine “Brutal Doom” with “Wolfenstein 3D“. Well, that just happens to be the case with Zio McCall’s “Doom II” mod “Brutal Wolfenstein”, and funny enough. I did discover the mod by a pure coincidence. You see, shortly after that I wrote my post about Rich Douglas super awesome “Wolfenstein 3D” orchestral re-recording album. I just thought for myself “I wonder if anyone has made a Brutal Doom-like version of Wolfenstein 3D?“.



Well, long story short. I started to look into the matter. So after just a couple of minutes I found out about Zio McCall’s “Brutal Wolfenstein“. However, what’s strange is that I have never ever heard of the mod before (I guess that it’s one of those well-kept Internet secrets?). Anyways, I downloaded the v5.0 demo of BW, and the installation went really smoothly (I just had to fix the latest version of Zandronum in-order to get the BW v5.0 demo to work).

I actually didn’t have to do all that much, since I already had “Doom II” and Zandronum installed on my computer. So I was good to go in less than 30 minutes, and let me tell you what. I haven’t been this excited to play a Wolfenstein” game since forever. Furthermore, this was actually the first time that I’ve played Wolf 3D in a very long time (I think the last time I played Wolf 3D was in the late 90s or early 2000s).

So in a way, it was “almost” like I got to relive what it was like for me to play Wolf 3D for the very first time as a kid (I was about 10 years old at the time, and the year was 1993). Well, right off the bat, even though “Brutal Wolfenstein” v5.0 is “just” a demo. It’s still one hell of an impressive mod. I mean, just the fact that you actually get to play through the whole first episode of Wolf 3D blew me away (you get ten levels of awesomeness to enjoy), because I didn’t expect that from a demo (I expected to get a couple of levels at max, but not a whole episode. So that was a pleasant surprise with no doubt).

Other than that, I couldn’t help to notice that “Brutal Wolfenstein” offers more options that Wolf 3D ever did. I’m not even exaggerating either, because you got just as many options (if not more) as you got in “Brutal Doom”. So that means that you could play around with different settings and options for hours (if you feel like it that is). It’s also worth pointing out that you can play around skins and whatnot in BW (just like you can do in “Brutal Doom” or “Project Brutality”.

However, be sure to back everything up before you play around with any skins, mods or such. Because if your unlucky, then you could end up with an unplayable version of BW (the game might not even start). I for one felt like I didn’t need to add, tweak or edit anything. So I just booted up v5.0 of BW and played the mod as it was. Well, I sure don’t regret that, because I had a real blast with the mod. I did thought about one thing before I started to play the mod though, because before I kicked-off BW I got to pick a game difficulty (you got the very same option in the original version of “Wolfenstein 3D”).

Well, I did pick “Bring em on” difficulty (which is the third hardest one out of five), and I sure don’t recall Wolf 3D being all that hard on that difficulty. My point would be that BW is a whole lot harder than the original “Wolfenstein 3D”. The main reason behind that would be the fact that enemies can blow your head off, or toss hand grenades at you. You also have to worry about sharp shooting snipers (they use Luger rifles), because even if they don’t manage to paint the walls with your brains, they will still cause you a lot of damage no matter where they hit you.

I also believe that there are more and smarter enemies to be found in BW than there is in Wolf 3D. So if you combine all those factors that I just mentioned, then you get a pretty rock solid FPS challenge ahead of you (I did try to play on the hardest level, “Hitler’s revenge!”, but that one is tough as nails). It’s also a matter of mastering each weapon that you got at your disposal (when you should use a certain weapon, and how to use it), knowing your enemy, and using stealth as much as possible (you will be outnumbered most of the time, so you must use guerrilla tactics and smarts in-order to survive).

So, all in all. I have to say that “Brutal Wolfenstein” hit the head on the nail with its v5.0 demo, because BW is like a mix of the best retro parts of Wolf 3D, the most brutal parts of “Brutal Doom” and the fun and joy of killing things in “Doom II”. Simply put, BW is a must play for everyone who loves Wolf 3D and FPS games in general.

Pros:

+ Plenty of new and brutal ways to kill your foes

+ Tons new and awesome weapons

+ New enemies and animations

+ A remade soundtrack

+ Better graphics (think “Brutal Doom”)

+ You got a whole lot of different options to play around with

+ The soundtrack kicks-ass!

+ The demo is HUGE!

Cons:

– There is a bug that stops you from reloading your guns manually

– Sometimes the enemy A.i ain’t no smarter than a bag of peanuts

– There are some bugs that are yet to be fixed (for example, sometimes your hits don’t count as a hit)

Gameplay: 5/5

Graphics: 5/5

Sound/music: 5/5

Controls: 5/5

Replay value: 5/5

Verdict: 5/5

“Brutal Wolfenstein” might just be the best version of “Wolfenstein 3D” ever created. Furthermore, “Brutal Wolfenstein” pretty much tops everything that’s been released in the series so far. Hell, BW even beats most of today’s FPS games. In other words, if you like FPS games, then do yourself a big favor and download BW as soon as possible. Trust me, you’re going to have a blast!



Title: Brutal Wolfenstein

Developer: Zio McCall

Format: PC

Genre: FPS

Resolution: Highest possible on PC

Release date:

Difficulty: Hard

Spent time: +10 hours

Average grade internationally: N/A

PEGI age rating: +18

Price: Free



Robin “V-Act” Ek

Editor in chief

The Gaming Ground

Twitter: @TheGamingGround

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Tags: Brutal Doom, Brutal Wolfenstein, Brutal Wolfenstein V5.0, Doom II mod, PC Gaming, PC preview, Wolfenstein, Zio McCall