Wolfenstein 3D Mod Reimagines All Characters As Retirees

Wolfenstein 3D is 30 years old now, part of the retro milieu that kick-started the FPS genre, but a modder wonders how it would in a later setting.

Image from a Wolfenstein 3D mod that shows the game in a retirement home.

In the early days of the first-person shooter genre, there was Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake, all of which were made by the same studio. With id Software about to start on its next project, fans will no doubt be wondering what will be next out of the gate from the long-running developer. As one of the progenitors of the early days of FPS gaming, the 1992 release of the Nazi shooting action title helped set the bar for future releases. The game itself is quite old at this point, and one modder has wondered what the game world would be like years after the end of Wolfenstein 3D.

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Uploading the file to ModDB recently, user OKducky has created the somewhat offensively named “Oldfartenstein 3D,” an add-on for Wolfenstein 3D that takes place several decades after the events of id’s classic game. Set in 1973, so around three decades after the original game which takes place during World War 2, the mod imagines the likes of an aged B.J. Blazkowicz running into his old enemies in a retirement home and having to take them on all over again.

OKducky describes it as the answer to the question of where all these people went. Images on the mod page show a gray, balding B.J. making his way through the aforementioned retirement home, gunning down hordes of the enemies who have now retired themselves. It features ten new maps, complete with new graphics, sounds, and music, as well as some tweaks to the gameplay. The creator said they made it to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Wolfenstein 3D, a game that originally came out on May 5, 1992.

Image from Wolfenstein mod showing an aged B.J.Blazkowicz shooting retired enemy soldiers.

Along with id Software’s game being three decades old, there was also the multiplayer entry Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory that became free on Steam recently. Itself being 20 years old, there is evidently still some love left for the more retro entries of the series. While there are still games coming out, with the latest being 2019’s somewhat lackluster VR game Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot, there will always be a lot of love from the community for the older installments, particularly Wolfenstein 3D.

Predating the likes of Doom, which took the idea further and popularized it more, Wolfenstein 3D is a game which helped create the FPS genre. It’s not surprising that it continues to be talked about in this day and age. OKducky’s mod is one more example of how people will always return to the classics, giving them a new lease on life and imagining up new scenarios for the likes of B.J. Blazkowicz.

Wolfenstein 3D released in 1992 for PC and has been ported to multiple platforms.

MORE: A Brief History of Doom Developer Id Software

Source: ModDB