Return to Castle Wolfenstein

Written By Thomas Goodwin

Every once in a while, a game is created that truly allows the player to feel an experience. While most games give a player a detached sense of entertainment, some games draw a player into the situation. One such game is Return to Castle Wolfenstein. With its great single player game and awesome multiplayer capabilities, I would recommend this game to any lover of the First Person Shooter genre. Return to Castle Wolfenstein is the only game I have played since its predecessor, Wolfenstein 3D, that could make me feel as though I am drowning the Third Reich in its own blood.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein's story has a vaguely Indiana Jones feel to it. Essentially, the Third Reich is trying to obtain items with supernatural powers to help them conquest the world, and as B.J. Blackowicz, a special operative recently escaped from an enemy prison, you are charged with the task of stopping this from taking place. This will pit you up against both the Nazi German soldiers, as well as the supernatural forces they have summoned to their aid. While the story is fairly interesting, driven mostly by notes found throughout the game, as well as conversations you can listen to before killing soldiers, I find killing Nazis to be more than enough to drive the game and keep me interested. With an exciting story, and enemies that everyone loves to hate, Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a winner. The game also has astounding visual appeal. Flames, grenades, gunfire, and characters look absolutely awesome. The game has nice physics, often leading to enemies falling through wooden handrails and falling down steps. Unfortunately, at times, the animations for these are not as perfect as I would have liked, however, they are not nearly as bad as they are in many games. A player also has many opportunities to listen to German soldiers speak to each other, and can enjoy listening in on their conversations. One such instance involves a drunken German soldier hobbling about slurring words like "stand at attention! You're a disgrace to the entire Reich". Features such as this, where such attention to detail is present, truly make the game great.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein's single player gameplay is absolutely awesome. The game involves indoor combat, as well as outdoor urban combat, and at many points in the game, a player will want to take precautions so as not to alert the entire base to his presence. At the beginning of the game, this is extremely difficult. Blackowicz begins the game with a mere knife and pistol, neither of which is very effective as stealth weapons. The knife is silent, but has no range. The pistol has plenty of range, but makes a good bit of noise. Needless to say, this leads to a lot of alarms being set off, and a few very bloody firefights. Thankfully, not far in the game, a silenced Sten machine gun can be acquired. This allows the player to wreak havoc on the Nazi German forces without their knowledge. Other weapons, such as the MP40, Thompson, Flamethrower, Sniper Rifle, Panzerfaust, and potato masher Hand Grenades can be acquired throughout the game has well. Grenades are timed, lasting five seconds before they explode. This, realistically, allows a player to time is attacks and use grenades as effective combat weapons, rather than merely to clean out confined areas. The AI seems to be pretty nice. Gunshots and fallen comrades alert enemies to your presence, making for an interesting game. Much like in the original Wolfenstein 3D, there are hidden areas where gold can be found and taken. These areas are often hidden behind pictures of Hitler or Swastikas, which must be broken to reach the secret section. There are also armories and barracks where weapons, ammo, armor, and health boosts can be found. Health boosts come in several forms, including beer steins, cold meals, hot meals, and health packs. Hot meals seem to be the most effective, with cold meals being the second most effective, and health packs and beer steins being the third and fourth most effective, respectively.

The most notable feature for Return to Castle Wolfenstein (as well as any successful First Person Shooter), in my eyes, is its multiplayer capabilities. With excellent maps, including urban, indoor, and outdoors combat, the multiplayer experience is truly an excellent one. When a player first joins a game, he must select which side he will fight for, that of the Axis, or the Allies. He then must choose his character class. There are four classes, including Soldier, Medic, Engineer, and Lieutenant. All classes carry a machine gun (either a Thompson or an MP40, depending on the allegiance of the character), a pistol (either a .45 Automatic or a Lugar, also depending on allegiance), a knife, and at least one grenade. This game undoubtably has the best implemenation of hand grenades of any game I have ever played. With proper timing, the grenade is a very effective offensive and defensive weapon. A Soldier can choose any other primary weapon to substitute the machine gun, if he so chooses. Unfortunately, a Soldier's choice of weapons is not affected by his allegiance. Having the most health points, ammo, and hand grenades also benefits him. A medic can regenerate his own health, heal other players, or revive dead comrades. An Engineer carries dynamite and wire cutters (to disable dynamite and destroy barbed wire). A Lieutenant carries ammo packs, which he can use to supply his allies, and air strike beacons, which can be used to call for massive air strikes, which are capable of wiping out all enemies in a fairly large vicinity. After this, the player must choose his primary weapon. This step is only available to the Soldier. The weapons available consist of the MP40, Sten, Thompson, Mauser (Sniper Rifle), Flamethrower, Panzerfaust (RPG), and Venom (Heavy Chain Gun). These weapons are very well balanced, each having its own benefits and downfalls. Both the Sten (which is more accurate than other machine guns) and the Venom (which fires much faster than lighter guns), for instance, incorporate heat into their use. When the gun becomes overheated, it will not fire until it cools down. The Panzerfaust suffers from a delay in firing time and players using it carry very little ammo. The MP40 appears to be less accurate than its Allied counterpart, while the Thompson appears to have a lower rate of fire. The Flamethrower has a wide radius, but a short distance. The Mauser has an extremely low rate of fire, and also suffers from inaccuracy unless the scope is used.
Permanent heavy machine gun emplacements are present in nearly every map. While extremely powerful, enemies using these weapons are extremely vulnerable to attack and, if overused, will overheat, rendering them useless for a period of time. A player assaulting one such weapon must be extremely careful not to be spotted, however, unless he is an extremely quick shot. This perfect balance, as well as the fact that a player may only carry one primary gun at a time, makes for an awesome multiplayer experience. The only down side, perhaps, to the multiplayer game, is that there are too few weapons available. It would have been nice to see more weapons from the Allied forces of World War II incorporated into the Multiplayer game, as well as a feature preventing Allies from spawning with weapons belonging to the Axis powers, and vise versa. Perhaps this will be present in future patches.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein is definitely one of the best First Person Shooters I have played. With a beautiful single player game, as well as great multiplayer capabilities, any fan of the genre will love the game. The only two downsides to this game are the few weapons in multiplayer, as well as the sixty dollars (regular edition) it will cost you at Electronics Boutique. Despite the greatness of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, price hikes as such will hurt sales of the game. There are very few games I would pay sixty dollars for, however, were I to do so, Return to Castle Wolfenstein would be the one game I would do it for.

Publisher   Activision   Developer   Gray Matter   Platform   PC

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