Admittedly, when you think of id Software, you almost always immediately think of Doom. And why wouldn’t you? The game revolutionized and put the FPS genre on the map. Of course, there will always be someone who mentions the “Grandfather of first-person shooters” in Wolfenstein 3D.

Backhanded as that may sound, it’s true that Doom wouldn’t exist without the baby steps taken in Wolf 3D. We’ve talked before about how the Wolfenstein series has dipped its toes into the horror genre from time to time, but never really gotten into just what made the original game tick. Well, with the game having its 30th anniversary today, it’d be ridiculous to overlook not only why Wolfenstein 3D was monumental at the time, but also just how scary the game could be.

The story for Wolfenstein 3D is pretty simple: The original trilogy of episodes centres on protagonist William “B.J.” Blazkowicz, an American spy of Polish descent, who must destroy the Nazi regime after having been captured while trying to find the plans for Operation Eisenfaust. From there, following the discovery and thwarting of Operation Eisenfaust to create an army of undead mutants in Castle Hollehammer, Blazkowicz infiltrates a bunker under the Reichstag to take out Hitler.

While you could argue that there’s some contention as to giving Wolf 3D the “Grandfather” moniker, since id themselves had created Catacomb 3-D (which really was the first example of the modern, character-based first-person shooter), there’s no denying that the former set the standard for future FPS games to follow, with multiple weapons, a key system, and so on. According to Tom Hall, who directed Wolf 3D, the original concept was to incorporate the stealth mechanics of the original Castle Wolfenstein by Muse Software. However, the “brutal, fast nature” of Wolf 3D‘s gameplay necessitated dropping this mechanic. In its place, Hall requested that the levels have secret rooms for players to stock up on ammo (and points from treasure).

And despite initial appearances of simple pick-up-and-play, Wolfenstein 3D‘s gameplay is different than Doom‘s. Like Doom, players start out with a pistol and simple melee weapon. You don’t have much in terms of ammo, but the enemies are simple to defeat, and aren’t as numerous as in later levels. However, in Wolf 3D, enemies detect the player faster, and will fire faster. You also don’t have the luxury of armor, meaning you’re going to get hurt pretty quickly if you aren’t careful. If that’s not enough to get the tension going, the levels are claustrophobic in design, missing the openness of Doom‘s levels. The limitations of the engine also provide more tension in the form of guards that have a habit of hiding right next to the doors as you open them, resulting in ambushes that will take off several chunks of life by the time you turn around and retaliate.

B.J.’s movement is also different than Doomguy’s. Whereas you had a sense of momentum in Doom as you started and stopped, BJ will start and stop on a dime when walking. And if you’re running, you can zip around the levels at ridiculous speed. This fast-paced movement can lead to unintended jump scares if you’re not careful, as entering a room you haven’t cleared out with Guards hiding in the corners will result in a quick death. On the other hand, veteran Wolf 3D players will still fly around the level, taking time to alert guards and then pick them off as they funnel through the door, or use the chaingun to mow down an entire room upon entering it.

In keeping with the theme of deceptive simplification, Wolf 3D‘s enemies aren’t particularly varied, but do have some nasty habits, particularly in groups. German Shepherds are your basic melee enemies that will damage you up close. Guards (the brown shirts) are your basic shooter enemy that will go down in 1 to 4 shots, can be stunned in their attacks, and are easy to defeat by themselves. However, they have that previously-mentioned habit of hiding in corners next to doorways, and will do significant damage from behind if the player is careless.

Things get tougher with the Machine Gun-wielding SS (the blue shirts), who have a higher firing rate than Guards, but do share the same reaction time and can also be stunned. The white-clad Officers are the fastest in both reaction time and firing, and are often found in groups, making them second only to the Mutants in terms of pain for players. Mutants are probably the most dangerous standard enemy. Not only do they have zero reaction time when seeing the player before they open fire, they also don’t “announce” their presence like the Nazis, which again, if you’re running through the level, this can be deadly (and result in more jump scares).

As you might expect, sound plays a big part in Wolf 3D in terms of its atmosphere. Bobby Prince composed the soundtrack for Wolfenstein 3D, and while it doesn’t have the same adrenaline-pumping effect that his work in Doom or Duke Nukem 3D had on players, it still pulled emotion out of players. Tracks such as “Get Them Before They Get You” and “Searching For The Enemy” evoked a stealthy feeling as you tried to escape Castle Wolfenstein, while “Suspense” and “Lurking…” had that tension-inducing effect as you tried to plan out your next move with only a few bullets left.

The music is only one portion of the atmosphere, since you’ll become acquainted pretty quickly with that door opening sound. It won’t take much to raise your heartrate when you’re down on health and ammo, and you know the guards are searching for you. And then there’s the iconic phrases each enemy has when detecting you. From the Guards shouting “Achtung!” (though it still sounds like “Hurt dog!” due to the low quality) to Hans Grösse’s “Guten tag!” greeting you before he unleashes his dual chainguns, it’s once again a case of the sound upping the scares.

Even with all of the atmosphere and just plain gory goodness of blowing away Nazis (and Hitler does get blown up quite spectacularly), Wolf 3D shows that it’s still very much a precursor to Doom, which is even more apparent today. The limitations of the Wolf 3D engine are on full display, with the maze-like levels that don’t offer much nowadays in terms of variety. Once you’ve cleared out the enemies, you’ll been hard-pressed in the later levels if you’re trying to find keys to progress, as there’s no real defining “landmarks” in the levels to help orient you, nor is there a minimap to help point you in the right direction. Adding to the irritation is B.J.’s habit of getting stuck on walls in the more narrow corridors, which can be a death sentence if you’re trying to strafe and avoid being shot.

And while it might be seen as handy to have your guns drawing from the same pool of ammo, there’s not exactly a lot of variety between the Pistol, Machine Gun and Chaingun. You’re never compelled to cycle through the weapons to find one that is more effective on certain foes, as once you grab the Chaingun, you’re going to stick with it for the rest of the game. This is in spite of the bosses being able to have things like dual Chainguns or rocket launchers.

But hey, this is where that whole laying of the groundwork for Doom started. After all, Wolfenstein 3D had sold over 250,000 copies by the end of 1995, and snagged several awards. The game received more love not long after its initial release in the form of a prequel trilogy of episodes entitled The Nocturnal Missions, and even a standalone sequel episode. Called The Spear of Destiny, this episode veered into Doom territory with B.J. eventually getting sent to Hell itself and battling the Angel of Death. And not long after Wolfenstein 3D‘s release, you had other companies hopping on the first-person shooter bandwagon (using the Wolf 3D engine, no less) with games like Corridor 7 and Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold. And even after Doom exploded, the Wolf 3D engine was still put to good use in Apogee’s over-the-top cult classic Rise of The Triad in 1995, which was directed by Tom Hall.

One could go further on about Wolf 3D and its influence, but it’s pretty apparent that id was onto something back in 1992. And while id Software never did work on another Wolfenstein game, you don’t have to look very far to see Bethesda having taken more than a few cracks at the series, with some performing better than others. Regardless, Wolfenstein 3D, while admittedly dated and not as addictive as Doom, is still fun to play for those old-school gamers, and even for those wondering what all the fuss is about. If you consider yourself an aficionado of the genre, but haven’t at least played one episode of Wolfenstein 3D, you owe it to yourself to see where it all started.