Catacomb 3-D box art
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Catacomb 3-D (1991)

id Software

DOS

3.36 from 14 ratings

37 members have it in their collection · 1 playing now · 9 backlogged · 6 wish listed

How long? Main story 2h (from 2 logged playthroughs)

Catacomb 3-D is the third in the Catacomb series of video games, and the first of these games to feature 3D computer graphics. The game was originally published by Softdisk under the Gamer's Edge label, and is a first-person shooter with a dark fantasy setting. The player takes control of the high wizard Petton Everhail, descending into the catacomb of … Read more
Catacomb 3-D is the third in the Catacomb series of video games, and the first of these games to feature 3D computer graphics. The game was originally published by Softdisk under the Gamer's Edge label, and is a first-person shooter with a dark fantasy setting. The player takes control of the high wizard Petton Everhail, descending into the catacomb of the Towne Cemetery to defeat the evil lich Nemesis and rescue his friend Grelminar. Catacomb 3-D is a landmark title in terms of first-person graphics. The game was released in November 1991 and is arguably the first example of the modern, character-based first-person shooter genre, or at least it was a direct ancestor to the games that popularized the genre. It was released for DOS with EGA graphics. The game introduced the concept of showing the player's hand in the three-dimensional viewpoint, and an enhanced version of its technology was later used for the more successful and well-known Wolfenstein 3D. Read less
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Details

Developers
id Software
Publishers
Softdisk Publishing
Genres
Shooter
Themes
Action, Fantasy, Historical
Series
Catacomb

Release dates

  • Nov 1991 (North_America) DOS
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Rating distribution

5 stars
2
4 stars
3
3 stars
8
2 stars
0
1 star
1
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Community All Reviews Statuses

scoopings

Review scoopings 3/5 · Dec 24, 2024

Such Excellent Execution Of A Much Sought-After Concept (Except Meh Maneuvering)

Preliminary: Wow. The Look of this feels like a true mid 90s first person game. This has such a strong Feel and I'm already on the 3rd floor/level (there are supposedly only 20 levels? they're going real quick. I assume the difficulty escalates soon and this is just to introduce the mechanics. either way, hats off to em). The tune …

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Preliminary: Wow. The Look of this feels like a true mid 90s first person game. This has such a strong Feel and I'm already on the 3rd floor/level (there are supposedly only 20 levels? they're going real quick. I assume the difficulty escalates soon and this is just to introduce the mechanics. either way, hats off to em). The tune is good tho I assume it repeats for the entire game, so that'll get old. And the fart sound when you run into things is silly lol. Also, the controls are a bit wonky, but intuitive enough. A bit frustrating turning around and whatnot. Other than that, I'm loving this! And surprised that I'm borderline hooked!

Day 1

I loved how quickly it was set up and loaded up. I love how expansive its capabilities are. And I love that you just walk over items to pick them up etc. The Look reminds me of a free software for creating first person adventure games I played around with for a while. So much to love. I found out the hard way I wont be able to use savestates at all :-p We'll see how that goes. Fortunately there's a Save feature. Other than the maneuvering still being quite annoying sometimes, this is really awesome for 91!

Day 2

Welp, I took a long break cuz I'm so hooked to my OSRS Ironman right now, but this kept calling my name. It's just such a "first"

And upon returning to it, I was still thrilled by the feeling of running from enemies dramatically yelling "ah!" or enemies popping out etc. And even some new enemies on the Third Floor/Area 5 however it's called. Still the same music and feeling a bit like you just get a certain color key to pass a door repeatedly. But it truly feels like the first of its kind.

I decided to call it quits after Area 5. It still really was impressing me, and could've been a 4 star, but the meh navigation coupled with poor collision masks of corners/walls, and this not being a genre I usually get hooked to, combined to make it just a 3 star and move on in the end.

Look: 8/10 More for beingt he first to have this vibe than anything else.

Sound: 7.5/10 Good tune. Very repetitive

Play: 8/10 Very impressive settings. Poor maneuvering and navigation. Mostly really fun tho it was fun to truly yelp and run around and kill enemies quickly etc.

Feel: 8/10

Attachment: 8/10

Overall: 7.9/10

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1 Comment
Frump

Review Frump 3/5 · Dec 15, 2022

Pre-Wolf 3D and still good

Fascinating look at the origins of id Software. Far from their first game but you can see the ideas that become Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM starting to coalesce in the ether of the Two Johns' minds. It's a simple maze game where you just hammer the CTRL key to shoot fireballs at monsters and walls. That's about it. It's not …

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Fascinating look at the origins of id Software. Far from their first game but you can see the ideas that become Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM starting to coalesce in the ether of the Two Johns' minds. It's a simple maze game where you just hammer the CTRL key to shoot fireballs at monsters and walls. That's about it. It's not refined. It's not what id is famous for but the primordial gloop is there. And really, it's still surprisingly fun even 32 years later. For all of the technological achievements that id is known for, what they really understood is what made games fun and that shows through even here. A lot of indie devs should look at this game as a fundamental in game design.

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