Hi everyone I'm Jack Red, considering I had to fully replay Blood through Blood: Fresh Supply. I think it is finally time to tackle one of my biggest FPS comparisons ever. I always wanted to do this for a few years now. Easily one of the most controversial FPS topics in history. Everyone has different taste, I am only speaking my opinion on this alone.
Where I compare the trilogy of id Software FPS games that left a huge impression against three truly amazing Build engine FPS games. That's right, some of the absolute finest classic FPS games are about to go head to head. Right in front of your eyes well not the way you would want it but at least I am not holding back from doing it.
Round 1: Duke Nukem 3D vs. Wolfenstein 3D & Spear of Destiny (yes both mission packs)
Before anyone freaks out, I have a reason to include Spear of Destiny in this comparison. Funny enough, the entirely of both Wolfenstein games was in 1993. Also despite some changes, you could easily confuse the two games. So I figured also because I am giving all the episodes to Duke 3D. Just not the PS1 exclusive episode, although there is a mod recreation that has it included.
Let's be honest, this is actually much tougher than it appears to be. Two of the finest uses the word 3D in a game title. Excluding PS1 exclusive episode, Duke 3D has seventy three levels. Yes I am also counting the three expansions included in Duke 3D Megaton Edition. Wolfenstein 3D series has a whopping one hundred twenty three levels.
I felt most levels are well designed that can be replayed constantly. It is no secret Duke: Nuclear Winter & both mission packs for Spear of Destiny are the worst here. There is more gore in Duke 3D including those in cut scenes. But I felt Wolfenstein 3D had a better enemy variety. Obviously, Duke 3D has more weapons in comparison.
Both of these heavily requires keys to access areas. Yes there are secret levels including a particular Wolfenstein 3D level with Pac-Man ghosts I'm not kidding. I do enjoy listening to Duke's voice overs even those done by someone else in Duke Caribbean: Life's a Beach. Duke 3D has easier to follow map screen.
You also have power ups that can be use whenever you want in Duke 3D. Keep in mind, just Wolfenstein 3D goes by the amount of lives. Although, most of these games does have a save feature. Obviously, a lot of great work went into majority of these games. Wolfenstein 3D helped jump started a popular genre that's going incredibly strong today.
Yes there's a lot of great mods for both of these games. I do like both characters you play as in these too. I would say Wolfenstein 3D has more confusing level designs since those are more of a maze in concept. Personally, I loved when many classic shooters had a lot of depth compared to what it was becoming.
Thankfully, shooters has become great again during the last decade. Duke 3D does have some mature content. Wolfenstein 3D depending on versions could show references to the Nazis including Adolf Hitler himself. Obviously, both of them are pushing the limits what would allowed in a game for their time.
Wolfenstein 3D has more rememberable sound effects for finding secret areas. Yes, Duke 3D does references a few franchises like Doom, Star Wars & The Simpsons? There's a few Simpsons references in this game. Wolfenstein 3D does suffer for not having different types of ammo. In just Wolfenstein 3D, all three of your guns uses the same ammo.
Duke 3D does have more ammo variety. Also it is top to compete with a FPS game that has both jumping & a jet pack. Yeah, you can fly around some levels while using your jet pack. This alone does spice up the game play. Don't count Wolfenstein 3D out just yet. Wolfenstein 3D with Spear of Destiny included has more bosses.
Yes I know, both mission packs reused the same bosses that are simply reskinned bosses from the main game. But I still have to count them once for this blog. I should mention, Duke 3D's fifth episode that was an anniversary episode broke the long standing FPS boss role. Obviously, this genre changed a lot over the years.
Yet I meant for those particular era shooters, Duke 3D allowed more boss fights within a single episode. Although, most of them are from previous episodes. Also two of Duke 3D's expansions has the Cycloid Emperor as the boss. There's a few differences between on things but it is still mostly the same boss fight.
I am not going to lie, there's so many enemies in these games it's ridiculous. Technically speaking, all three final levels for Spear of Destiny games has no real enemy amount. This is because of respawning enemies only fought here. Just going by that logic, Wolfenstein 3D has more enemies. Honestly, this strongly comes down to personal taste.
Are you more into killing Nazis in a series of levels set up like a maze or are you more into a parody on action movies with great voice overs & enjoy paying strippers? Truthfully, I have a difficult time trying to decide which is slightly the more satisfying game for me. I personally enjoyed the hell out of both these classics like no tomorrow.
I felt I can cheat health items in Duke 3D by drinking water fountains or water leaking from broken toilets. I swear I didn't come up with this lol. In that regard, Wolfenstein 3D ends up being more of a challenge to play. You have to know when to expect enemies. Sometimes, multiple enemies coming from a directions will suddenly enter the room you're in to ambush you.
Sure, most bosses in Duke 3D are vastly different. But I can rely on the same strategies to defeating them. Not so much in Wolfenstein 3D's case. Some bosses can fire a lot at you thus greatly damaging you. Some bosses can hit you from a notable distance too. Hitler technically has two health amounts for a boss.
Yes, his first phrase is in a machine suit. But his second phrase is when he decides to fight you more directly outside that suit. Often do you hear of killing Hitler in a video game? Not very often, now that's a difficult thing to compete against. Duke 3D ends up being easier also due to the levels not being set up like a maze.
Some levels can be beaten rapidly quickly because of it. I do enjoy so many levels that trying to nail it down to a handful is very difficult. The visuals in both games are mind blowing for their time. Yes you have to get use to opening a lot of doors in Wolfenstein 3D. Sometimes, keys work on other things than a door in Duke 3D's case.
I liked you can get lives a few ways in Wolfenstein 3D. Although Spear of Destiny removed that feature out entirely. Yes, some versions of Duke 3D does let you choose levels. Some versions like Xbox 360 version had the now famous rewind feature. You can watch up to a particular point then resume playing it.
This is very helpful to getting around difficult areas to avoid enemies. Some enemies in Duke 3D does a lot of damage if you aren't careful. Truthfully, Duke 3D has a character I like more with great power ups & excellent voice overs from the man himself. But even with many stuff it has over Wolfenstein 3D.
I got to be honest, I do prefer more of a challenge in playing FPS games. I always hold Duke 3D in such high regards. But Wolfenstein 3D has some truly impressive level designs for it's time. Even if you aren't crazy about the amount of levels in these games. I strongly felt more challenged by the bosses in Wolfenstein 3D games in comparison.
Let's be honest, the new version of Cycloid Emperor was too easy for me. Sure Duke 3D's fifth episode does have him traveling several locations around the world. In one expansion, he gets to explore most of Washington D.C., another expansion he already at the Caribbean. No it doesn't state exactly where since there's a lot of islands in that part of the world.
Duke: Nuclear Winter mostly takes place at the North Pole. Honestly, this expansion for a few reasons was mostly better than both mission packs for Spear of Destiny. The problem I'm having here is Duke 3D ends up being more of my thing. Yet Wolfenstein 3D does have more a challenge since you might not have a map to help you out.
Unless, you have a version that does or using a website with maps for this game. You are more likely to get confuse trying to figure out where to go. Usually something like this could give a game like Duke 3D the win. But here you have so many enemies per a level. At times, it does change up the enemy roster to making the game more challenging.
Not just that, Duke 3D's hardest difficulty can be cheated if you know the method. Which is a take of Doom's Nightmare difficulty with respawning enemies. But unlike Doom, you have to blow them up to prevent respawning. Otherwise this is essentially a twist to Come Get Some difficulty. Sure, I do prefer the difficulty names in Duke 3D more.
I just felt Wolfenstein 3D had a slightly bigger impact on me. You have little to nothing to help you out. At the same time, you will quickly adapt to how these games works. So it isn't too unforgiving to forcing you to rage quit. Also there is story told in Wolfenstein 3D. Obviously not as colorful as Duke 3D's mature way.
Wolfenstein 3D did receive some truly amazing ports. No I'm not counting the homebrew Genesis port. The same can be said for Duke 3D. I should mention, both franchises went through a radically different direction with these games. In Wolf 3D's case, it was to revive a forgotten franchise. Now Wolfenstein series is one of the biggest requests for Bethesda.
Honestly, Wolfenstein 3D's impact on gaming is simply too big for me to ignore. A more personal challenge overall for many great reasons. Sure I do like the sound tracks in most of Duke 3D more. But those sound effects are classic. I also felt the enemy variety was notably better too. As much as I respect Duke 3D, Wolfenstein 3D games for the most part ends up being a better experience.
Winner: Wolfenstein 3D & Spear of Destiny
Round 2: Blood vs. Doom 1 & 2 (every expansion)
Originally Blood was going to be release by 3D Realms. But the rights to Blood got bought by Monolith just prior to it's release. So technically speaking the Duke 3D team made episodes 1-4. The new team made what was suppose to be episode 5 to suddenly become episode 6. This is because The Cryptic Passage for Blood came out before the team's own expansion.
I should mention The Ultimate Doom & Blood Plasma Pak are similar. Both add an new episode as well as fix up some glitches in the games respectively. Let's be honest, both of them are hellish FPS games that everyone wants more of. I'm in the same boat with the characters. I would even say it is closer since I like Caleb slightly more than Duke Nukem while a huge Doomguy fan.
Now I felt Doom 2 should be included since it did come out in between both versions of Doom 1. Although, Doom 2 sure got a couple of expansions. Just like Spear of Destiny to Wolfenstein 3D. There is a few changes but you could easily confuse the two. For that reason, also because I'm a huge fan of the first two Doom games.
I decided to include it, now I know some people might have a problem with me doing that. Let me be honest with you. Doom 2 is still one of my personal favorite FPS games ever. But the same can also be said for Blood. In bosses alone classic Doom series excluding Doom 64 has four different boss monsters.
The Icon of Sins doesn't actually count among enemies you killed. It is a parody of John Romero himself I'm not kidding lol. In vice versa, you have five boss monsters. Including a god named Tchernobog whose essentially a boss version of Arch-viles. Sure depending on difficulty, The Cryptic Passage for Blood has two to three Cerberus boss creatures at once.
I should mention, all of Doom's story is in text. Only The Cryptic Passage done that while the sixth episode didn't give much to go on for it's story. But there are cool cut scenes within episodes 1-4. You though Blood wasn't dark needs some personal help. We have a guy who killed the spider boss then rips out his friend's heart to drinking their blood.
Keep in mind, his friend was dead covered in a web surrounding his entire body. To be honest, both have a great variety of enemies as well as weapons. Obviously, Doom does have a better weapon set. I do like some of the sixth episode's exclusive enemies in Blood. Sure most of them were different variation of the cultists.
But the last new variation of them introduced is a boss. You heard me correctly, they look similar to the regular cultists until you do enough damage. They transform into a beast that loses control. Depending on difficulty, you could be facing two of them or a few more. Blood in it's entirely has fifty three levels.
Truly a solid number but combining the entirely of Doom 1 and 2 into the mix. OMG, I can not believe the amount of levels is this high. They actually have one hundred sixty two levels. Damn, that's a lot of demons. I will say the Cyberdemon is hands down my favorite boss character. Both these games has an incredible sound track with amazing sound effects.
Both also nailed using the map screens respectively. I would say Doom technically has more of an enemy variety. Although this alone could come down to personal taste. I would say even comparing shotguns is tough. Both the default shotgun in most of classic Doom games is equal to the shotgun in Blood.
Only the Super Shotgun ends up trumping them with a major ammo problem. I would say Doomguy gets more fun weapons to use. But Caleb gets surprisingly more interesting stuff in his arsenal like a voodoo doll. For those that don't know, in a particular culture's belief. A voodoll representing someone can deliver any pain or injury to whoever it's been use on.
In other words, you potentially could kill someone regardless of the distance between you & your target. This concept does exist in Blood, sometimes it can harm you but more so for your enemies. I should mention, most bosses in Blood does appear more than those in classic Doom series. I felt the levels are very good in both of these.
I do think both can be huge to surprisingly big for FPS on their respective engines. Honestly, majority of Final Doom has okay levels with a few I don't like playing at all. I actually felt all of Blood is replayable. Obviously, I really love the art work in both these games too. Sure, Blood does have power up usages similar to Duke 3D giving it an advantage.
In most classic Doom games, among getting a power up it already being used. Yes there are some of those in Blood as well. But you also got stuff in your inventory you can use later like a med pack or jump boots. Yes you can increase the distance or the height of your jumps by using it. There is no jumping at all in Doom.
Thus some particular spots requires a near perfect accuracy in moving speed. Trust me, some of the expansions in a few spots could take a while. I felt Doom has notably more enemies coming after you at once. Although, there are spots in Blood where you got to deal with a lot of enemies. Especially going up against the spider boss who can only spawn spiders.
Obviously that's the single worst boss of these games. Except it sorta more of an actual boss fight than taking on The Icon of Sins. They're in the same boat except The Icon of Sins can summon all kind of enemies. Also for the most part, it is strict how to damage it. So in an sense The Icon of Sins is actually worse than her.
I will be honest, I'm also a huge horror movie fan. I simply love the passion the team behind Blood had for them. A few levels are based on parts of The Shining. Blood 2: The Chosen does use a few more references from that movie. There's another level called Crystal Lake that does have a Jason reference.
There also is a Freddy reference in the game as well. But strongly The Evil Dead franchise had a major impact on this game. They even went out of their way of making smaller, evil Calebs coming out of a window. This is a direct reference to a particular scene from Army of Darkness. The same scene got parodied in Leprechaun Returns.
Also those movies had an impact on Duke 3D as well. Let's be honest, Doom is dark since most of humanity got killed. You are the solo survivor literately fighting through Hell several times. But the story of Blood ends up being even darker than that. Caleb with his friends gets betrayed by their god. Each boss from the first four episodes called one of them with their god directly killing Caleb.
Thus the true story of Blood is a dark revenge story. Also what he does to most of those bosses in cut scenes is pretty mess up. Like Duke, Caleb also has some truly great voice overs. He actually says some of my favorite lines ever in a video game. I kinda wish we knew a little more about Doomguy directly.
I felt by the end of fully replaying Blood, I understood what kind of person Caleb truly was. He is a monster that's willing to do whatever it takes to get even with a god he once workshop with his friends. Also I am truly blown away by The Cryptic Passage for Blood & No Rest for the Living episode for Doom II.
Both of these were absolutely amazing works. Sure Blood: Fresh Supply does have all six episodes in one place but man it sure had some serious problems. In fact, if I was directly comparing that version here. Doom would easily win here I'm not kidding. Blood simply appeals more to me than Doom. This is a case, it's so close that trying to find someone big enough will be very difficult.
In this case, those cut scenes, Caleb's voice overs, The Cryptic Passage levels were truly mind blowing & the overall art work. All of this was just barely enough to beat Doom 1 and 2. Also, there's a lot of hits or misses on Doom's side. I am aware other people made most expansions for Doom 2. Essentially three different teams worked on Blood.
I felt overall all of it comes together way more than the entirely of classic Doom games. I should mention, Steam screwed up how to use the Master Levels. Thankfully GOG & Xbox One port nailed it. I should mention, the achievements here. Technically speaking, both of them has some great achievements.
Slightly more fun on Doom games though. Blood is virtually the more violent game here. Both of them got some sickening death animations. I also liked you can burn enemies with them running for a brief period before they die. How often do you see something like this in a video game? Probably more common than killing Hitler.
Overall, I highly recommend these games to people. But Blood is more of my personal taste. It comes off like a Duke 3D based on horror movies that can easily stand on it's own. At the same time, it felt more bad ass than I hate to say Doom can be at times. Blood does have some great songs while I do think Doom does have better sound effects.
Winner: Blood
Final Round: Quake vs. Shadow Warrior
I will be direct to say I'm actually not crazy for both these games. Sure there are things I like in them. Quake has some of my favorite weapons but I also could say that for Shadow Warrior as well. Quake is more actual 3D FPS game that broke new ground at the time. Shadow Warrior comes more off like a gem that a lot of people remember.
I should mention, there is a new line up of Shadow Warrior games that I still haven't got to fully play. It is a long story not actually related to this blog so it's a story for another time. Quake did receive a few ports that I never got to play like on Sega Saturn & Nintendo 64. If a publisher was found in time, PlayStation 1 would've had it's own port.
Shadow Warrior does have a more interesting main character Lo Wang. There isn't much know about the character you're playing as in majority of Quake. Unlike the previous FPS characters I talked about. I am actually not a fan of this guy. Both of these games are gory in their own right. I do find parts of Quake somewhat interesting.
I do prefer the weapons in Shadow Warrior. Sure it does get more ridiculous almost like the first Turok games. Yes, I did own the first two Turok games on Nintendo 64 a long time ago. I haven't play many FPS games where you use a sword to kill your enemies. Well oh okay it's a Katana more commonly known as a samurai sword.
Quake is more of a game where modding can get very crazy. Shadow Warrior does have some outrageous references including Monty Python, TMNT, Sailor Moon and a parody of Chinese movies. I am not going to lie, this might be the most offensive game I'm covering here. I would say it doesn't go as far as Redneck Rampage series.
A game series also made on the famous Build engine. Quake is one of those games inspired by H. P. Lovecraft stories. Quake has two expansions as well as a free episode for an anniversary a few years ago. Shadow Warrior was suppose to have three expansions but ultimately gotten two of them. Both of them have an interesting story how they became available.
Twin Dragon came out sometime after the original game for free since it was a commercial failure. It didn't sell enough to make it into a franchise at the time. Eventually, a company that's also connected to Serious Sam series recreates a reboot. In other words, it more recently became a franchise. Wanton Destruction was suppose to be already out but got loss.
The same company responsible for some of the finest FPS expansions around that era was on the verge on closing down. A former employee found a part of it, not long afterwards. The full expansion was release online for free. You can buy all of it as Shadow Warrior Classic Redux. But you can download Shadow Warrior Classic on GOG for free instead.
Shadow Warrior Classic Redux does a great job in everything it promises. Sadly, for me it kept crashing hard on me. I will say the achievements were a lot of fun to go for lol. I felt the free episode for Quake, Dimension of the Past is easily the worst. I felt more effort was in most expansions than this.
Honestly, all expansions in this particular case is canon to their respective games. I would say the stories in Shadow Warrior's expansions to me was more interesting. Wanton Destruction has Lo Wang finishing Zilla for good. Twin Dragon forces Lo Wang to take on his evil twin brother Hung Lo. The actual this team made a cut scene for it's ending was impressive.
Usually, most expansions would've gotten text base endings than this. Sure it might not be as well made but I still felt they pulled it off. Shadow Warrior has more interesting level designs but a more unbalanced difficulty. I strongly felt the enemies in Quake is more unbalanced in comparison. Shadow Warrior has forty six levels which isn't bad for a FPS game to have.
Quake has seventy three levels in it's entirely. It's a real shame MachineGames didn't hit their free episode out of the park. The current team working on Doom & Wolfenstein games. Honestly, I felt their level of skills would work better for Quake II. Personally, I'm actually a fan of Quake II. These games are a different insanity test awaiting to happen.
I felt Shadow Warrior had more rememberable bosses. I believe you do fight most bosses several times including Zilla. Oh well I have to give it to Quake in how to select the Nightmare difficulty interesting. Quake has a hub that's split up in two parts. The first half is representing your difficulty level.
Honestly, that's more interesting then simply selecting it like normal. The second half is representing which episode you want to play. But you have to play them all in order to get the final level. I got to be honest, the final boss kinda sucks. No literately he has to be killed in a rather stupid way At first, you think eventually enough ammo fired on the boss would kill him.
But no what you are suppose to do is reach a portal. Then wait for this orb to go inside the final boss. If you go into the portal at the correct time, you'll kill him wtf right lol. Come on, I can remember taking on Zilla & Hung Lo much better than this. Also some of the jokes present in Shadow Warrior are kinda funny for their time.
For me this is difficult simply because I couldn't get into these games like those in the previous rounds. Sure Quake on Sega Saturn is something that shouldn't been possible but a team found a way. Shadow Warrior has never been on consoles. Yes the newer games are on consoles before anyone got to say anything.
I will be honest, I do prefer the enemies of Shadow Warrior more. I do like the knights in Quake though. Let's be honest, the actual look of Quake isn't aging well. Most of these games can truly stand the test of time in most aspects. But for graphics, Quake doesn't have that going for it. To be more honest, Yes I have seen footage of it's N64 port.
To me, that looked better than it's original version sorry if you disagree with me. I also liked the death animations more in Shadow Warrior. You can blow up enemies into pieces or cutting them in half with your Katana is so sick. Sure, to some degree you can blow them up into pieces in Quake as well. It just doesn't look as good in comparison.
The sound effects are good enough to get the job done in Quake. But damn the sound tracks for Shadow Warrior are great. I do like some songs from Quake though. But PC gaming services are a little funny about having the songs to play or not. Mostly due to it being licensed from the band Nine Inch Nails.
Sadly, this was John Romero's last id Software game over problems with Quake. Romero recently made a spiritual expansion to Doom 1 called Sigil. Shadow Warrior had three different teams while four teams worked on Quake with the most recent being a few years ago. But in the long run, Shadow Warrior is slightly more of my taste.
This is one of those choose your poisons. Would you rather play a more difficult game or would you rather play an endurance test done differently? I do need to point out, the levels in Quake are surprisingly small in comparison. I felt more impressive details are in Shadow Warrior levels. Let's be honest, this was close in a few areas.
But among a closer look, Shadow Warrior has what it needs to win this comparison for it's team. Quake is a game that you must quickly memorize stuff. There is more curve balls waiting for you as the game goes on. But in Shadow Warrior, you can more easily get around some of the traps. Also like Duke 3D, you do have an inventory as well as power ups.
Personally, Quake did use power ups better but Lo Wang still has more helpful stuff in his inventory. Also damn some of his weapons are truly something else like a nuke weapon. Shadow Warrior was likely parodying Turok series with the weapons alone. Quake was obviously the more serious game here.
I will be honest, I do prefer more levels to be longer. Sure some of them might have frustrating puzzles. But at least, it will take more skills to do it all. I am not saying Quake sucks with it's challenges because it doesn't. I just felt Shadow Warrior has just enough to be a more satisfying experience.
You also get some interesting game mechanics like controlling a toy car with a remote or driving a few vehicles. Which this was prior to the genre doing games with that. Although third person shooters more likely uses that concept like Gears of War series. Quake was evolutionary for the genre for sure.
At the same time, Shadow Warrior attempted a concept that eventually became a stable for the genre. Obviously, around the time of it's release. There was a solid line up of FPS games that came out the same year. Thus shadowing it from most people see what I did there lol. Truthfully, Shadow Warrior is slightly the better game for a few great reasons.
Winner: Shadow Warrior
This was more difficult than I could possibly imagine. Three very close showdowns of the finest FPS games ever made. It really did come down the slight things they had to determining a winner. I completely left my bias side at the door. I can recommend most of what I talked about. Just do not play the following I will be listing down below...
1. Duke: Nuclear Winter
2. Both Spear of Destiny mission packs
3. Quake: Dimension of the Past
4. Final Doom (both halves)
I felt there's plenty of great stuff to keep you going for years to come. This genre keeps getting more interesting over the years just like fighting games. Honestly, I hope most who gets to read this can understand my decisions. I wanted to deliver such a difficult concept for a comparison blog. Of course, not everyone will agree that's fine.
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