Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM altered the video gaming experience forever when they hit. Rather than making a little avatar on the screen move around, suddenly the gamer was playing from their own perspective, staring over the barrel of their own gun as they run through mazes shooting up bad guys.
It's a genre that keeps evolving but those 3D worlds have some interesting quirks in them. Here's a list of some of the strangest:
Red Barrels Always Explode When Pierced By Bullets
Sometimes they exploded when punched, stabbed or whacked with a crowbar too. But the point is, if a barrel is red, be cautious around it, because it'll explode rather easily.
You Run Faster When Holding a Knife
Seriously, without a heavy firearm, you're free to move much faster. In the world of first-person shooters, there's really no danger of tripping, so in a 3D maze, you can ignore the "no running with scissors" (or machetes) rule.
You Can Fit ANYTHING In Your Pocket
One the hallmarks are the first-person shooter genre is gradually getting bigger and better weapons. Shotgun, assault rifle, flamethrower, massive belt-fed machine gun - they all seem to fit in your pocket without any trouble. Oddly enough, there are limits on ammunition though.
Coloured Doors Are Locked
But there will always be a key card of the same colour, located somewhere in the level, that will open it.
Green Liquid is Harmful
Much like red barrels always exploding, stay away from green liquid at all costs. After all, that's radioactive material - and it seems that ever 3D maze with big guns seems to have radioactive material somewhere!
Helpful Items Are Just Lying Around
It doesn't matter if it's a Nazi stronghold, a research facility on Mars overrun by monsters or even a post-apocalypse nuclear power station: weapons, ammunition, first-aid kits and even food are just scattered around for a gun-toting hero to power-up with. Of sometimes they're sealed in crates...
Crates Break Into Splinters When Pierced
Much like the exploding barrels, crates in first-person shooters aren't very resilient either. A swift kick, a few bullets or a shotgun shell and it's raining splinters. Interestingly, the contents of the create are never damaged by the violent methods used to open them.
Sadly, real life isn't this simple. If only one could carry everything no matter how large and only needed to remember to avoid green liquid and red barrels, things would be much simpler.
Of course, the lack of demons that shoot fire from their eyeballs is kinda nice. Everything is a trade-off.
