PlayStation 2

Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Operation Resurrection

Return to Castle Wolfenstein looks to be one of the top players in the FPS genre for the PS2. With solid and entertaining game play this one should stick around in my regular gaming rotation for sometime. I would recommend this game to all fans of the First Person Shooter genre and any WWII era fanatics. While it may not always be historically accurate, it is pretty darn close. Besides, isn’t fun to kick a little Nazi ass every once in a while?

Normally, when reintroducing an old school figure that owns such mass popularity, there's always something there in the final product that wasn't in the original, be it through a water pack, a change in perspective, or the ability to slow motion kick off walls, all while doing triple axel flips and shooting hollow tipped bullets in every which direction. But Activision has gone far to make sure that Wolfenstein makes good strive to be itself through its latest incarnation. I can't think of one time, where the game is taken out of context, not a one.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Operation Resurrection loses big on the PS2 because of its lack of multiplayer modes. As is, the single player game is fun the first time through, but you'll be hard-pressed to find a motivating reason to go back through it. Still, if you're looking for some no-frills first-person action, RTCW: Operation Resurrection will do the job and do it well. But rent first, as, depending on what you're looking for, the game's limiting lasting power may or may not be worth the fifty bones for admission.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Operation Resurrection is a great game that is only hindered by the limitations of the platform and perhaps the ambitiousness of the designers. After all, they did include excellent multiplayer modes on the Xbox so we know it’s possible on the console.

Overall, RtCW on PS2 is a great port of a popular PC title that is a fun and worthwhile FPS title despite a few flaws. Ultimately, most FPS fans will have a blast with this one but I would still recommend caution since once you beat it you may not see much reason to go back and play it a second time unless you just have to try a harder difficulty or want to try and find all of the treasures. For those of you who are new to the FPS market or Wolfenstein, this is a good opportunity to see a re-made version of an old favorite that started the whole popular FPS market that we know and love today.

If it sounds like I'm being too harsh on Wolfenstein, that's not my intent. It's just that it's difficult to be enthusiastic about a good game that's been eviscerated like, well, a Nazi zombie. I'd be very curious to know exactly why the plug was pulled on the multiplayer component, but obviously it just made more sense to release the single-player portion and cut losses. While players new to the FPS will like Resurrection, many gamers will lose interest before completing the campaign. Without any multiplayer value there is no justification to drop cash on this thin package, leaving it a rental for the curious.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein has always been a pretty uninteresting single-player game, but the other versions made up for this deficiency with solid multiplayer. Without any of that to cushion the blow, the PlayStation 2 version of the game is a real failure that sits near the bottom of the always-growing stack of first-person shooters available for the platform.