Return to Castle Wolfenstein

aka: RTCW
Moby ID: 5385
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

Two secret agents are captured while they are investigating Nazi Germany's occult activities in Castle Wolfenstein. Agent One is subsequently tortured to death by his interrogator, but B.J. Blazkowicz manages to escape his cell by killing the guard.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a first-person shooter and a reboot of Wolfenstein 3D. The game puts the player in the combat boots of Blazkowicz, who will first have to escape the castle and report back to his superiors, and afterwards restart the hunt for the SS Paranormal Division. This division was founded by Heinrich Himmler and is trying to find the grave of Saxon warlord Heinrich I to bring him back to life. The player's arsenal includes among others a Luger, MP 40 submachine gun, Mauser rifle with sniper scope, flamethrower, dynamite and grenades.

The game also features a multiplayer component in which players are split into Axis and Allies sides with each a set of objectives to complete.

Spellings

  • 重返德军总部 - Simplified Chinese spelling
  • 重返德軍總部 - Traditional Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

251 People (165 developers, 86 thanks) · View all

Return to Castle Wolfenstein is powered by
  • id software's Quake III Arena technology
Production, development and technical assistance provided by
  • id software
Director
Executive Producer
Art Director
Programming
Character Artist
Technology and AI Programming
Texture Artist
Technical Lead Design
Lead Level Designer
Level Designer
Models and Animation
Animation
Scripting
Writer
Sound Design
Production Coordinator
Controller
Additional Programming
Additional Level Design
Spec. Ops. Consultants
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 85% (based on 43 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 193 ratings with 13 reviews)

Not QUITE a classic... but quite good.

The Good
RTCW's enemy AI is brilliant; in the single-player game, enemies act intelligently, and in concert with each other, making for a challenging experience. Levels are set up strategically -- it'll take some thinking to work around some of the missions! The plot involves Nazi mysticism, steampunk supersoldiers, and zombies... what's not to like?

Oh, and a survival horror game with GOOD voice acting? Wow. That's almost a violation of some law...

The Bad
Some of the weaponry is remarkably unrealistic -- torch someone with a flamethrower, he'll simply sit there unruffled and shoot back at you until he dies. For that matter, you can do the same thing... making the flamethrower effectively useless, except against zombies (the enemies that can't shoot at you). The Tesla Gun, in the hands of a level boss, can kill you from so far away you can't even SEE who's shooting you... but when YOU get it, it's a remarkably short-range gadget, and not at all reliable.

For a game that plainly had so much thought in the level design, I found the "level bosses" to be remarkably vanilla... Big Bad Uglies that require you to pound on them unmercifully until they die. In the meantime, they'll kill you five or six times, so make sure to save... whoopee. In this day and age, I expected something more akin to Half-Life, as opposed to an updated "level boss" system.

The single player game is remarkably short, finishable in under ten hours without much stress. Given the cost of the game and the hype, I (again) expected more.

The Bottom Line
A fine, if short, WWII themed shooter, with lots of fiction/horror mixed in. Skip the level bosses, and it's a great, strategic, thinking man's game. More than worthwhile, once the price drops a bit...

Windows · by Dr.Bedlam (55) · 2002

Great Game, however, has some minor problems

The Good
The game has excellent graphics and sound, even when up close. The AI is extremely intelligent. The enemies run away from rockets and grenades. In some cases, the enemies even kick grenades away from themselves or throw them down steep areas. The game menus are highly customizable. The game also contains a VERY useful save-game function. This game also requires strategy AND shooting. Some areas are very interesting because of this.

The Bad
The weapons are belittled and enemy abilities are exaggerated. Some enemies require multiple head shots from the mauser rifle (which in real life, will kill you in one shot even if you are wearing heavy armor). The game also contains some bugs. For example, the "oh so powerful" Super Soldier BOSS on one of the levels contains a bug. If you take a few steps back immediately after entering the room, the BOSS will remain in one spot. This makes it extremely easy to kill him.

The Bottom Line
Great game. If you like World War II type games which require strategy and shooting, this is the game for you.

Windows · by Pavel Yeloyev (5) · 2002

A real "Popcorn" game!

The Good
Action gaming at it's best!! Or at least pretty close to it... Nevermind, RTCW is a blast to play, with cool weapons, great production values, and a series of well designed set-piece based levels. Both the single player and the multiplayer mode (which plays like a WW2 Team Fortress) deliver a solid entertainment experience, which holds it's own with the best the FPS genre has to offer.

The graphics are truly incredible, I won't comment on the flamethrower and it's amazing particle effect since everyone knows by now that it's super-cool, so I'll just stick to the enemies who feature the most impressive 3D character modeling I've ever seen. The Quake3 engine delivers an impressive amount of detail, but the developers maximized the engine and delivered the graphical equivalent of what Half-Life did with the Quake2 engine.

In addition the game has hundreds of looks for individual soldiers, and a randomizer feature keeps them fresh by changing little details on each enemy (a patch here, some googles on this one, beard on that one, etc.), not to mention that the animations are really good and make each character moves like the real thing during combat.

The music and sound is also veeeery cool, and I would like to go down on record to thank the developers for returning to that age-old fps tradition of having "undestructible" foes. No more wussies that get shaken by a well placed hit, or "puzzle" bosses which require a specific hit to be done... The new Wolf does it like it once was: gigantic monsters that simply take all your ammunition to bring down, and who shrug off rocket hits. Not to mention that they land 2 hits and you are gone... Yay!!! :) Beating those monsters sure makes you feel good!

The Bad
There are only 2 problems with this game. The first one is it's lack of innovation, sure the game is fun and all... but we've done it all before. Aaaaalll of it, and in some aspects, better too (like the sneaking parts). No matter how much fun I had playing the game, in the end it all feels like one big Deja Vu.

The other problem I found with the game is... well, the direction it took. Let's see, as "new" as the game had to be, the premise itself was that it had to be an homage to the good ol' Wolf 3D, this means that a lot of stuff had to be included in the game that was acceptable once, but not so anymore. For starters the game is super-arcadish, the story is a joke (it makes Metal Gear Solid's look like Shakespeare), the WW2 feel is sorely lacking, and details like the "secret doors" are heavily overdone. By the time the mission objectives told me that I was to destroy everything as I saw fit, and that "the fate of the free world rested on my shoulders" I pretty much assumed that the developers realized the direction the game was going and decided to go all-out to try to capture that "So bad it's good" feel. But I think they blew it.

I guess the one thing that hurts the most (besides the story and the ending . Bleurggg!!!) is the wasting of the WW2 premise. The whole thing serves simply as a backdrop for the clothes, weapons, vehicles etc... merely a cosmetic choice that has little or no impact on gameplay and which pales in comparison to games like Medal of Honor... Of course, this all serves the arcadish-feel the game goes for, and some will defend that this is what it was supposed to be... Well, all I can say is that "updating" a game should mean more than just offering the same gameplay under a new shiny 3D engine. That's it.

Oh, and Heinrich (the final boss) is a joke. I just waltzed around him with my mini-gun aimed in his general direction and ended the fight in no time...

The Bottom Line
It sure is entertaining!! And it sure looks good!!! If that is all you want then I guess this is for you. For the rest of us, this is one hell of a fun game, but it's no classic. Just like with the new Planet of The Apes movie, when it comes down to it, 20 years from now people will remember the original Wolf 3D as a classic, not this one.

(still RTCW is a million times better than the new Planet of the Apes! Don't get scared!! ;))

Windows · by Zovni (10504) · 2007

[ View all 13 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Return to Castle Wolfenstein appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Castle

Castle Wolfenstein is based on Castle Wewelsburg which Heinrich Himmler used for occult rituals and practices.

German index

On February 28, 2002, the English version of Return to Castle Wolfenstein was put on the infamous German index by the BPjS. The German version followed April 30, 2002.

For more information about what this means and to see a list of games sharing the same fate, take a look here: BPjS/BPjM indexed games.

In addition, the game is violating §86a of Germany's penal code (for using characteristics of unconstitutional organizations), therefore it is illegal to produce, distribute, import, export and use it in the public. But this does not mean it is illegal to just own the game.

German version

For the German release, the story was altered: You fight against the "Wolf-Sekte" (Cult of the Wolf), which is very dangerous to the freedom of the country because of their dark experiments.

That's it. Nothing else. No word of Himmler and his dark plans, no Nazis at all. It is clear that this "background" was made up for the only purpose of getting the game past the German feds - the word "Nazi" is a red sheet for them. They altered some of the names, too: Himmler is now called "Holler" and Oberst von Bülow has been renamed too. With this new storyline, the game makes absolutely no sense.

The funniest thing about this is the packaging which shows Doktor Zan (appearing at the very beginning of the game when he fries our comrade) - and on his jacket, you can clearly see the Nazi emblem (an eagle sitting on a circle in which is a swastika).

Even more changes to the German version, most of them regarding speech:* The "Horst-Wessel-Lied" (a Nazi song) was changed to a classical piece - the same is being played on a record player in the first outdoor mission. Seems they put it together in a hurry. * A picture of the "Führer" (Hitler) was changed to an odd-looking guy without beard but with the well-known army cap. Found in a more-or-less secret room in the village (accessible via the rooftops). * a speech of Hitler about the Reichstag (map: dam) was deleted and replaced by classical music * The speech "Wie geht's, Willie?" (How are you, Willie?) has been replaced by "Was ist passiert, Willie?" (What happened, Willie?), removing any sense from this talk. * A drunk soldier in the wine cellar under the cafe (map: village1) babbles: "Shut up you slowenian swine". In the German version, the word "slowenian" was removed. * In the labs, someone asks "What are your orders, Herr Oberführer?". This was changed to "What are your orders, pack leader?". * A voice of the generic German soldier was changed: In US, he said "Halt, Schweinehund!" (Stop, you pig!) - in Germany, he says "Halt, Verräter!" (Stop, traitor!), removing the profanity.

Language

Some posters in the game, don't have a German description, but it is in Dutch!

Music

  • Record players can be heard playing either Für Elise or Moonlight Sonata, both composed by Germany's own Ludwig Von Beethoven.
  • Bill Brown's score for this game was influenced by war movies made during the late 50's to the late 60's. Movies like The Bridge on the River Kwaii and The Dirty Dozen.

Technology

The developers included a unique set of motion captured animations for each character. Gray Matter also incorporated a skeletal animation system so they could articulate the models in a fluid and realistic way.

They also incorporated a brand new music system to change with the scene, much like LucasArts Imuse system.

Weapons

Gray Matter Studios really did their research for this game. In-game, you find the following guns:* Luger, MP-40 and the Sten which use 9mm ammo. * Colt and Thompson that requires .45caliber. * Mauser and the FG42 that require 7.92mm.

These guns were manufactured and commonly used during WWII. Gray Matter even included a temperature gauge for the Sten, since the real life counterpart had a tendency to burn the hands if the user sustained fire for a period of time. A sizzling sound would trigger every time your hands would be burnt. The developers also took great efforts in modeling the guns and stock cartridges.

Some weapons in the game are fictional, but the M1S Snooper Rifle does really exist. It is based on the M3 Carbine and uses .30 caliber ammunition.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • April 2002 (Issue #213) – Best Weapon of the Year (Flamethrower)
  • GameStar (Germany)
    • Issue 03/2002 - Best Game in 2001 (Readers' Vote)

Information also contributed by Der.Archivar, Medicine Man; RobbertC, Scott Monster and Xoleras

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Kartanym.

Macintosh, Linux added by Corn Popper. Windows Apps added by Plok.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Indra was here, JPaterson, Jeanne, phlux, AdminBB, Zeppin, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger, Titan10, FatherJack.

Game added November 21, 2001. Last modified March 14, 2024.