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Return to Castle Wolfenstein Review
Stephen Leyton
00/12/0000
The daddy of all FPS returns. Return To Castle Wolfenstein is the nicest looking first person shooters to date, but does it live up to the hype? Read on to find out!
It is a fair statement to say that without Wolfenstein we probably wouldnāt be playing the games we play today. Wolfenstein was one of the first ever 3D games, it actually created the first person shooter genre. Yes before Doom and Quake there was Wolfenstein, a first person shooter that caused quite a stir putting you in control of a US Soldier who had to kill as many German Naziās as possible. However it wasnāt as āRealā as you thought, as you progressed through the game the enemies started to turn in Zombies and other dead beings. So can the developers take the originals surreal yet realistic setting even further?
It seems like years since we first heard about the development of Return To Castle Wolfenstein, like everyone in the industry we jumped for joy when we heard that Wolfenstein was to make a comeback. Using the Quake 3 engine with improved modifications from the developers Gray Matter, Return To Castle Wolfenstein is certainly the First Person Shooter on our Christmas list.
The game is split up into two main areas Single Player and Multiplayer. The Single player mode puts you in control of a US Troop who has to single-handedly bring down a secret organization called the Third Reich. The organization headed up by Himmler is creating an army of Monsters and Undead capable of annihilating the Allies once and for all. This is where your mission begins, starting off with only a knife you must escape the dungeons in which you are held captive and eventually by any means bring down the paranormal group. However like the missions brief say: āIf you are placed in a compromising position where you might divulge information regarding your mission or the OSA take your own life by inserting your Cyanide tablet.ā Which brings us onto our next topic, unlike the other first person shooters that are flooding the market at the moment, Return To Castle Wolfenstein takes the original winning formula, shakes it around a bit and adds a whole stack of new features to really give the franchise a new lease of life. Little things from taking a cyanide tablet, to using a machine gun to destroy nearby enemies and environments make this game totally refreshing and enjoyable. The environments are also interactive, and sometimes hold secrets to special items with value. Many objects around the levels can be interacted with; there are more things to do than simply pressing buttons or pushing a lever.
The graphics are simply stunning, but what else would you expect from the Quake 3 engine? The textures are crisp, detailed and well defined which is always a valuable feature to a game like this, whilst the character models are also very impressive ranging from Nazi troops and Generals to the full on undead Zombies and masked knights. As with Quake 3 the lighting effects stand to impress with flickering lights, and fantastic fire effects, which have to be the best, we have ever seen in a game. It really is great fun when you get a Flamethrower as you can easily take out all of the enemies in one room by torching the place.
A.I probably one of the most important aspects of a game like this, something that if it hasnāt been developed well can often make a game look silly and unrealistic. Thankfully the A.I is second to none in Return to Castle Wolfenstein, the enemies are quite easily the smartest computer controlled characters you will ever have to fight against, which is good in our opinion but can also prove to be a nightmare to others. Enemies will use the surrounding environments in any way they can to protect themselves from your fire. A confrontation in corridors is always amusing as the enemy soldiers will come out and shoot at you and then retreat behind an open door, reload their guns and then try to attack you again. In the meantime they have called for help and you have two others guys taking you out from behind. Like we said it would never be easy.
The sound throughout the game is incredibly atmospheric and sets the scene well. You can hear strange noises from different directions as you play through the game, and if you are quiet enough you can hear the enemy soldiers talking about the current situation, leaving them easy targets for you to pick off one by one. You could however throw a grenade into a group of Naziās surprising them as slowly the grenade ticks down till boom. Watch them fly all over the place.
So this leads us onto the Multiplayer side of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, offering an intense team based action where up to 64 players can play on screen at once. The multiplayer side of the game is really designed for more than 4 players, which is why they are describing it as team-based multiplayer action, there really is no point playing with only two people as the game because almost impossible to play. However crank the number of players up to 16 and you have the best first person shooter game to date, I kid you not.
