Return to Castle Wolfenstein I’ll admit right away did not really impress me as I wanted it to. I was dreaming for some Nazi-filled horror tale- with mutated vicious looking monsters and a total shoot for thrills experience. Turns out it’s a half and half thing, RTCW is a good game but- its nowhere perfect because it does not really distinguish itself too much from its 3d-gaming counterparts. Half Life Counterstrike is roughly equivalent to Wolf in terms of gaming, and the single player mission is somewhat like No One Lives Forever. The game has good missions linked together with nice cutscenes, but nothing all too surprising or original.

Let’s give it the ol’ rundown.

Pros –

Some Nostalgic Feelings Here –

Return to Castle Wolfenstein is the sequel to the 3d game that started it all. If you said, no Doom is the 3d-game that started it all, you are dead wrong. Wolf 3d was the game that really pulled 3d-shooters to fame, and was the launching platform for ID software, the now great folks that give us the Quake legacy, and a soon to arrive Doom sequel. Wolf3d is a classic- and now it finally returns revamped with incredibly detailed graphics and a rather similar feel. Notably, the dungeon feel returns in this game. The general mood of the original comes back with the stone walls, and the red brick houses. The doors also swing close after you open them by yourself- which is a classic element as well. As a result, it feels pretty darned good to play this game as a classic gamer, the only problem is that the Nazi’s don’t scream their strange little sayings when they die- and instead have a rather unusual silent gasp…as they slouch to the floor but that’s ok.

Quake III Engine? Really?

The graphics are amazing, although they use an extremely outdated engine that has been running just about all 3d-shooters for nearly 2-3 years now. It’s definitely pushing more polygons than most games however, the character models are extremely detailed, and if you’ve played Max Payne, well then you have a pretty good idea. The levels are also designed extremely well, textures are mapped on so the game has a rather smooth, natural look. Fire is done particularly well- anyone who may recall the Wolf first-look shots of the Nazi holding the flamethrower may rest assured, it wasn’t touched up at all. Flames looks great in this game.

Multiplayer Rocks!

The shining feature of RTCW is the multiplayer action. In multiplayer, which best goes with teams, each player is given a role- to provide cover, call airstrikes, provide medic care, plant dynamite, and so forth. It’s an extremely team based experience, and requires a good group of friends that can learn to depend on each other. Although Half-Life Counterstrike is still far more popular and equally good, this may be a nice change of pace for those sick of the game….if that’s possible.

The negative thing that actually stems from multiplayer however is that the weapons are balanced, and so during the single player missions you may feel unsatisfied with getting the Venom or the flamethrower. They’re not as good as you’d expect them to be, especially the Venom which has a startup time to fire. It’s great for multiplayer but lousy for mowing down enemies in single player.

Cons –

The Lack of Bosses and the Puny Final Boss

You’ll actually know the final boss from the intro cutscene to this game, which is incredibly well made and unusually similar to Diablo. The plot’s simple, the Nazi’s are out to resurrect some immortal soldier and use him to fight in their army. The funny thing is, the guy’s not immortal, and does not know how to use guns. He tries to kill you with a sword, while you’re holding a rocket launcher. It’s pretty sad and pretty absurd. The game completely lacks good exciting bosses, as many 3d-shooters do now. They’re no longer bigger than life, the final boss is the same size as any other enemy, except he’s got a sword and a lot of life. Other bosses besides the final sword-wielding maniac in the game? Virtually non-existent but you can consider the mutant Nazis somewhat of mini-bosses.

A Rather Linear Game with Sneaking Missions?

For a rather unexpected twist the creators decided to stick in sneaking missions into RTCW, there are parts of the game where you actually just run about and try to avoid enemies or snipe them off, and if you sound the alarm the mission fails. In addition the maps are very linear, there’s only one right way, so it’s basically trial and error until you get it right. This plain sucks, because many times you won’t know whether you’ve tripped of a guard until its too late, and the mission will unexpectedly end, with the sounds of alarm sirens. It’s tough to judge when a guard can see you and when they can’t. At times you’ll walk beside them unnoticed, at other times, they’ll have eagle vision and spot you from miles away in the trees. It makes no sense.

Personally I would have preferred the original rush and run gameplay. Basically it’s the game keeping my life meter low and giving a sense of urgency, rather than the new wait and watch style of gameplay.

As Games Get More Realistic, They Get Less Scary?

I was in no way creeped out by RTCW’s atmosphere. It had all the right elements, but it was lacking something. The guards didn’t really have the “surprise I gotcha” feel to them, they seemed to be wandering about, mindlessly. In the original, they would run up to you, yell for you to stop, and angrily open fire; you could literally see the blazing glow of their guns in the animation. In this game, the guards seem to have lower IQ. They aren’t as active in hunting me down, they sort of wait for me to show up, and look aimlessly at me while they fire. Often times they’ll take cover before I do. The guards don’t chase me as I’d expect them to, since they outnumber me.

The reason for this decline in scare factor is partly due to the realistic nature of the game. Realism in video games have made developers more cautious about what they put in. The expected “chain-gun for arms” bosses do not exist in RTCW in the hideous form that I expected, they were mainly just big grotesque figures clad in armor. It was not really that scary. In fact RTCW is rather tame compared to the original which had far worse graphics. The blood and gore is really minimal- the guards you battle don’t exactly explode or “melt” into the ground as they did in the past. They simply fall- and there are no puddle of bloods in this game or any really creepy moments, i.e. surgical tables with body parts scatted about. I think they actually choose to do this to appeal to the ESRB rating, in order to get the MA rating. These days games have rating guidelines and are not as free to do as they choose, especially when the enemies look so life-like.

This is good news for parents though. This is a relatively tame 3d-shooter and should be acceptable for kids above 13 in my humble opinion. There are somewhat sinister scenes, like a dissection table, but nothing quite so that it’ll give them nightmares.

Bottom Line-

Rent or buy, depending on how hardcore you are. This game isn’t as hyped up as it should be, but its still rather fun for a 3d-shooter gamer looking for a change of pace. It should last a good 5-10 hours and the multiplayer well should last as long as you’d like.

The game has a nice flowing story, incredible graphics and cutscenes, and good ol’ Wolf action. While not innovative, it’s still worth trying, even with its flaws.



Recommended: Yes