Catacombs Pack

I remember discovering The Catacomb Abyss by a magazine coverdisk, a few months after the release of Wolfenstein 3d. Even then, Abyss was starting to show its age. That said, I enjoyed the coverdisk version enough to eventually upgrade to the 3-episode registered version, as there's a surprisingly fun little game here, with more interesting environments and enemies than Wolf3d. Playing it again today, I suspect it hasn't aged tremendously well. I'd forgotten how heavily the gameplay is hinged around key-hunting, with finding not only secret areas, but secret areas within secret areas becoming mandatory pretty quickly. Still, it's worth a try if you want to see one of the very early stages in the evolution of the fps as a genre.

Make no mistake: Catacomb 3-D is an important game in the early history of FPS (though I'd contend not quite as important as Hovertank 3D; id Software's true first foray into first-person shooting). Sadly, it's one of many older games that simply doesn't hold up, offering an experience too simplistic [for most] by today's standard. Not only that, but its general clunkiness and quick descent into repetition make it a difficult game to commit to completing, even for the most eager of gaming historians. The contained "sequels" (Abyss, Armageddon, and Apocalypse) do little-to-nothing to expand on the core gameplay, and serve mostly as cosmetic improvements with more varied environments and enemies. Apocalypse does add a hub world element to the game, but it's a largely inconsequential change in all honesty. What I find most fascinating about this collection is the inclusion of the "Gamer's Edge Sampler disk," containing the original Catacomb game -- a shameless Gauntlet clone complete with top-down perspective. Also included on this disk would be a copy of John Romero's Dangerous Dave (an old-school DOS platformer which also fails the test of time), also present as part of this collection as a sort of added "bonus." I have to admit, the most entertaining part of this collection to me was reading through the sales pitch for Gamer's Edge subscription service, and reminding myself of the humble beginnings of the men who would eventually form id Software. Personally, I actually prefer the original Catacomb (and it's sequel The Catacomb) to the first-person "3-D" series. And that's coming from someone who has called FPS his favorite genre since the original release of Doom! I feel obligated to evaluate this collection honestly, and to warn that much of it simply doesn't hold up anymore for those looking for a "classic FPS" to enjoy. Purchase only if you're on a ques to "experience gaming history," or if nostalgia takes over you.

I never played these as a kid; I only found out about them later when reading about the history of Wolfenstein 3D, so it was a real treat when GoG republished them. The first two are 2D top down, four color fun, and you'll want to slow down the DOS emulator to play them. The rest actually hold up very well for 3D games. They are not hard, but they're long. As you get to the boss fights, they do have a bit of tactics involved, much like the Wolfenstein 3D games. Low resolution monsters popping out around corners or out of the ground are still creepy. I had a tiny handful of crashes, but otherwise the games were very bug free, no freezes, I didn't get stuck in any walls, no strange deaths. To tell the truth I actually enjoyed them a bit more than Wolfenstein 3D. I thought they had better artwork and a bigger variety of monsters. The only thing that bugged was the movement. In Wolfenstein 3D, you could set arrow keys to strafe and the mouse to look, but in the later Catacombs, you can't redefine keys, and there is no strafing, so both mouse and arrow keys just turn left and right, slowly.

These are really great games that I first played as shareware. Unlimited magic and cool enemies. The games have great atmosphere and you get quite a few in this pack. It's okay with a keyboard. I couldn't get a gamepad or fancy joystick to work too well but, the C64 mini jotstick works like a dream on this and some other games that I could get my other hardware to run with. You really only need one button anyway. That's how simple these games are. They are simple but fun!

2D catacombs, which are Catacomb and The Catacomb (different levels, mostly): Pretty neat for what they are. You know. Top-down Gauntlet-like action game. In glorious EGA without smooth scrolling. Run around, shoot monsters with either normal or charged shots that are nicely balanced, get keys for doors, get stuck on some levels because dev is a troll that doesn't mind dead ends if you use key on a wrong door, albeit it's somewhat fair as you can see for yourself which doors to open thanks to top-down view, related puzzles somewhat, shoot destructable walls which are marked on two directions and you have to blindly shoot everything if they are on other two directions. And so many potions that you just have to make sure to press heal button in time. Amazingly enough, they were the most fun games in the pack so kudos. Tho The Catacomb is a bit too long and spammy on tough enemies. 3D Catacomb: They took original Catacomb gameplay and put it in First Person View. While making it a disaster. Suddenly, charged shots barely do any more damage than normal. Suddenly, destructable walls aren't marked, making you spam shots. Suddenly, you can get easily stuck in walls while backpedalling. Suddenly, enemies are boring slow melee kind with many being bullet sponges. Not bulletsponges as in "wah, it didn't die from a single bullet into head", but rather "did I just smash CTRL 20 times to kill one guy?" I know better clickers than this. With monster girls. Just kidding, I hate all clickers. Overall, it's like they wanted to say "3D is a gimmick that will ruin gaming". Adventure series of Catacomb: Different devs actually made 3D Catacomb good. Almost. Some fine adventure with varied themes, you don't get stuck in walls, more varied enemies, secret walls are mostly marked. But make sure to play on Novice because Warrior enemies are bulletsponges. But then you get so many of powerups you will have no use on Novice. Sadly, despite creativity, it's too long and repetitive.