WSJ's "middle" addons (Eisenritter and Heimzahlung) - Which do you prefer?

Wolf Skevos-Jones is obviously a well-known author for his four full Dos addons (as well as the WoV demo), as well as the more recent Totenkopf SDL. Having played Totenkopf SDL, I won't be playing the Dos version of that mod. And I know that Coming of the Storm rocks, so obviously I'll be playing that. However, recently I've been playing his "middle" addons, Project Eisenritter and Opertion Heimzahlung, and I've surprisingly liked them to quite different extents despite expecting them to be roughly on par with each other.

When I started Project: Eisenritter, I couldn't help but think the design was a bit lackluster. Later on that seems to improve some, but by Floor 12 I was disturbed by one of my worst pet peeves of Wolfenstein 3D games - full out boss guys being used as normal guards in some cases. It reminded me of many Mario/Mega Luigi mods, and I ended up quitting for that reason.

So I was a bit skeptical heading into Operation: Heimzahlung, but now I've made it to Floor 16, and to my surprise, it's been a great addon IMO. Hard guards are used to guard many key items, but they are not just flat out bosses. And the design seemed, at least, to be on a par with Eisenritter, but I've enjoyed it a lot more and plan on finishing it for sure.

But those are just my opinions, and most people seem to praise all his works. So that's why I'd like to see the overall answer to the question in this poll, in addition to any comments you may have to make.

I chose "Project Eisenritter". I love the way this progresses through different designs, and WSJ's bourish guard sounds. The mapping is also great here, and the music just as.

To date I've only played through "Operation Heimzahlung" one time, and that's almost eight years ago. This took me a very long time to get through, and I'd love to go through it again one day in SDL, hopefully. I was never a big fan of the beginning; the outside levels usually took me several hours to get out of, let alone the guards that could not be killed, released with the trigger of an alarm. The graphics and sounds here beat those of "Eisenritter", though.

I also choose Eisenritter. It was the first WSJ add-on I've ever played and the 3rd Wolf3d add-on I played after Spear Resurrection and EoD.

Unlike Heimzalung, I have always liked having more weapons in your arsenal in Wolf3d and the Flamethrower and Rocket Launcher is what convinced me to play Eisenritter. I was stunned when I first encountered and used the Blitzgewehr.

Once I found out about Coming of the Storm, it trumped Eisenritter on my favorite mods to play (at that particular time).

The only things I like about Heimzalung are the maps, graphics, and the 8 bit versions of the RTCW music used. Totenkopf DOS and Heimzalung are my least favorite of all the WSJ mods, but any WSJ mod is worth playing.

I currently rank Eisenritter 3rd on my favorite WSJ mods, behind Totenkopf SDL (1st) and Coming of the Storm (2nd)

I agree Eisenritter does have many positives over Heimzahlung:

-Some better music
-A bit more environmental variety
-More weapons!!
-Less excessive ammo supplies
-Probably some things I missed...

However for me it is unfortunately mostly ruined by the use of full-out bosses as normal guarding guys in the later levels. I have the same problem with Mario and Mega Luigi's mods; I haven't finished one of them because of it. I wonder if they got that style of designing from Eisenritter. I also was no more a fan of anything outdoors in Eisenritter than I was in Heimzahlung, and thought the earlier Eisenritter maps were fairly bare bones in design.

While Eisenritter does seem to be a preference between the two by many, I do happen to know that I'm not alone in my thoughts. Executor, author of the excellent recent release of "Wolfenstein Sextilogy", wrote reviews of both Eisenritter of Heimzahlung on the DHW forums a long while back. And while giving Heimzahlung an excellent write-up, he too called Eisenritter the overall weak point of WSJ's career - just like I view it to be overall. But of course, all our opinions are different.

Nonetheless WSJ's an awesome author, his Totenkopf SDL only grew further on me as I played more of it, and I'm sure by what I've read that Coming of the Storm, his only full Dos mod I have left to play, blows both Eisenritter and Heimzahlung out of the water. I'd actually like to ask a question: is your favorite full Dos WSJ mod CotS, or do you have a different favorite?

I guess I'm really alone in liking Heimzahlung better...maybe I should keep going on Eisenritter.

It just seems to tell me something that, Executor aside, everyone else thinks Eisenritter is WSJ's better effort.

Wolf, I know you don't like big bulky bosses as normal guards and all (you seem to be alone with that), but it's one of the better reasons to for you to use a weapon that is not the chaingun if you want to take them out quickly. Besides, when they die, you get some ammo back instead of a key.


It's really not that bad unless you're playing in the hardest mode.

I guess I could make something cool out of Eisenritter (or a Mario/Mega Luigi mod) when using bigger weapons.

But personally I'm just not sure I think this style is fit for Wolfenstein mapping.

Granted, though, if you don't mind the huge guards, there are certainly things Eisenritter has going for it over Heimzahlung - the extra weapons undoubtedly chief among them.

And I don't think I'm completely alone on this. Obviously no one but me whose posted on this thread seems to mind, but Executor complained about this feature when reviewing Eisenritter on DHW.

To each their own I guess, but I'd rather face tougher new enemies and big boss guards than millions of pesky normal guards.

Saves a lot of room with the maps too while greatly retaining and increasing the challenge.

Would some people please tell me how to get Project Eisenritter?

Shooter-the-Empero wrote:Would some people please tell me how to get Project Eisenritter?

http://www.belowe.com/prjeisen.zip

Thank you.^^

You can find most mods listed in the add on section at the Dome. Links are listed in the left hand column of Dome News.

http://www.wolfenstein3d.co.uk/news.htm