Criticizing Wolfen

[Raziel236]

Why does everyone love wolfen so much? I've played it and it has a multitidue of problems which really marr the gameplay experience:

-Unfair traps/one hit kills
-Total lack of health or items or mana
-aeon mana which doesnt work
-Infinitely spawning ettins
-the worst sprites in existence
-OP enemies
-infuriatingly placed enemies

and a clock puzzle that is basically impossible unless you're the mage.


about the only things good about it are the music and the map design is not bad, and yet I constantly see it referred to as a favourite hexen wad, why is this?

[Clownman]

...I'm sorry, but what?

Are you talking about Wolfenstein or some sort of Hexen mod...?

[amv2k9]

Are you talking about Wolfenstein or some sort of Hexen mod...?

Wolfen was made by LilWhiteMouse. It's a Hexen mod with new levels, some new enemies and at least one new weapon; a blunderbuss. I don't think it works properly in ZDoom anymore because it's so old, which may explain at least some of those issues.

[Amuscaria]

Just how many Hexen mods do you know of, at the point that Wolfen was made? It's ancient, and at the time it was made, it was the best Hexen mod there is.

[DoomRater]

I have a copy of 63a lying around SPECIFICALLY to play it.
-When aeon mana works it specifically addresses the lack of health/mana pickups depending on class
-ettins aren't hard to kill you know, especially with passive aeon abilities replenishing your stats
-clock puzzle is totally doable even with fighter fists, but it's easier if you grab his aeon weapon first

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The battle with Mouse herself may seem infuriating but I found it loads of fun. I wouldn't recommend trying it without first getting enough aeon mana for passive abilities

Seriously the lackluster final battle was my one and only complaint. You even get plenty of audio warnings for all the instadeath traps.

[BFG]

that mod is quite old now.. I remember the DECORATE coding was even the old style format.. and this is the ZDoom forums, so you could make your own HeXen wad with all the qualities that you like...

[Arctangent]

I wonder if it would be worth going back over Wolfen and updating its ACS, Decorate, etc. to modern versions and using the update to fix some of the wonkier implementations. Could be worth a shot if LWM is fine with that.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

Well, I'm glad someone else is baffled by how absurdly praised Wolfen is. To me it's just barely average with a lot of gimmicks that were cutting edge ZDoom stuff at the time but haven't aged well (and were never that good in the first place). Most of the rest of the ZDoom-Hexen WADs are at about the same level or worse, and only a handful of the vanilla ones manage to be better. The pickings for Hexen are pretty dire.

[Hisymak]

I really like Hexen and I've played several Vanilla mappacks like the official expansion pack Deathknights of the Dark Citadel, Caldera, Temple2 and several single-map wads. When I ran into Wolfen and started playing it, I said to myself: Cool!!! Finally there is some Zdoom project for Hexen!!!
And I played through it with enthusiasm. Well, today I don't have much time to play and seek for any new and modern and probably better Zdoom projects for Hexen, but I prersonally consider Wolfen being a foundation stone of Zdoom-Hexen projects. Wolfen itself is pretty good and atmospheric and brings some new experience to Hexen, like Aeon mana and its effects, new enemies and weapons, interesting puzzles, traps, and use of ZDoom features at all. I really liked the levels and their design, especially Oes Bog, as well as music.
On the other hand, of course, wolfen has also its weaknesses, no doubt about that. Despite being really outdated (which is really fact, but I don't know what could ZDoom do and not do in the time Wolfen was created), it could have better sprites for the new enemies (some are quite ugly) and Decorate work. The most of new weapons and enemies are actually copies of Heretic or Doom weapons and enemies. Like one boss is exactly Iron Lich, Mouse is exactly D'Sparil and the Aeon weapons are exactly ethereal crossbow or firemace or something.
You mentioned that Wolfen doesn't run properly with newest version of ZDoom. I played Wolfen with Skulltag 0.98d and I think it ran perfectly, the only thing that really did not work was the well-known Flame Mask bug (which is caused by different name of Flame Mask actor, I checked it in ACS).
The two things I disliked about Wolfen were, that you gain the full Aeon power (secondary Aeon attack) as well as the fourth weapon very late in the game, so that you cannot utilize them in their full potential, because you have just very few opportunities for it (practically, you have them only for the last lava-themed map). The second thing is the very final boss battle, which is... practically nothing. It's not challenging at all, however, you at least can see a cool animation of Ettin's transformation into some beast.

Summary:

+ Yay, finally a Zdoom project for Hexen
+ Very nice atmosphere and design of levels
+ Good and fitting music
+ Brings new possibilities and ZDoom features into Hexen, like Aeon mana and special effects, new weapons and enemies
+ Interesting puzzles and traps
- It's short
- Some sprites look ugly
- Most of new stuff are copeis or Heretic/Doom stuff just with different sprites
- You gain full Aeon power (and also normal weapons) very late in the game
- Aeon weapons are rather useless
- The final battle is a letdown

[DoomRater]

When Wolfen was created DECORATE wasn't fully matured. I don't know if entirely new actors could be written. I konw that entirely new weapons could not be written so some crossover from other game weapons is expected.

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Mouse is a bonus fight! But hey if you ever get a grudge against the project owner, you can just go to here and take it out on her over and over.