Wolfenstein SS



The Wolfenstein SS (also referred to as the SS Nazi or Wolf3D Guy) is an enemy from Wolfenstein 3D which makes an appearance in Doom II.

In Doom II, the SS appears as a blond, square-jawed man wearing blue coveralls and a sidecap, and carries a submachine gun. His eyes glow blue. Oddly, when he is wounded, he sounds like the Zombies when they take damage.

The SS Nazi inhabits only two maps released by id Software, MAP31: Wolfenstein and MAP32: Grosse. (In fact, he is absent from the latter on I'm too young to die and Hey, not too rough). He is not mentioned in the Doom II instruction manual, presumably to avoid a spoiler.

Combat characteristics
The SS Nazi attacks by firing two bullets at a time, which are slightly less powerful than the player's bullet; unlike the Trooper, however, he tends to fire repeatedly as long as his enemy is in sight. When killed, he drops an ammo clip containing 5 bullets (10 on I'm too young to die and Nightmare!).

Wolfenstein 3D sprites include only "head-on" attack sequences. Because that engine did not allow monster infighting, it was unnecessary to depict other angles, and id Software did not make new sprites for Doom II showing these other angles. Therefore, the SS Nazi always appears to face the player when firing, no matter where the actual target is, which can be confusing because the SS Nazi are just as likely to engage in infighting and killing each other as the other former humans are. Also, one of the aiming frames has pink pixels between the legs, possibly due to a palette conversion error. In Wolfenstein palette editors, that color or a very similar one is often used to represent "transparent."

Tactical analysis
The SS guard in Wolfenstein 3D was a feared marksman whose high rate of fire, low pain chance, and unusually large hit point total forced the player to know exactly where he was on each level and ration its health pickups accordingly. Such challenges exist in Doom II &mdash; the SS guard's closest Doom II analog is probably the Chaingunner, and there are of course much tougher monsters besides &mdash; but this is not one of them.

Although a single SS at close range can inflict significant damage (his rate of fire is half that of a chaingunner), their main distinguishing feature is now their inaccurate aim, which sometimes allows a skilled player to clear 80% of a large room without even pulling the trigger. Perhaps for this reason, SS Nazis are rarely included in third-party levels &mdash; the end result, especially in close proximity to other monsters, is more often comic relief than a pitched battle between good and evil.

If the chaingun is used against a group of SS Nazis on Hey, not too rough, Hurt me plenty, or Ultra-Violence, the player should watch his ammo stock carefully, since he is usually expending at least five bullets for every five-bullet clip he recovers. The plasma rifle dispatches SS Nazis fairly rapidly, while a single shotgun blast is fatal only about half the time (or perhaps a bit more often at point-blank range). However, a chainsaw can be useful, but only at corners and/or narrow rooms and dead-ends.

Inspiration and development
Although the engine considers him to be the same height as other zombies and the player, the SS Nazi appears shorter on the screen, because his sprites are unchanged in size from the originals.

His alert and death sounds are spoken in German; they are "Schutzstaffel" (literally, "protection squad") and "mein Leben!" ("my life!"), respectively. The Schutzstaffel (SS) was a paramilitary organization active during Hitler's tenure in Germany.

Appearance statistics
The IWADs contain the following numbers of SS Nazis: