Return to Castle Wolfenstein

The Good
I greatly enjoyed this game. You start off as an American P.O.W locked up inside the depths of Castle Wolfenstein. Then a guard comes in to check on you, and you drop from the ceiling and break his neck, steal his gun and get the hell out of there. Once out of the castle after a shitload of Nazis, you come into the Catacombs where you meet up with some friendly zombies and demons. It really just goes on like that. 7/10

The games visuals are pretty damn good on high detail, and while running on Id's Quake 3 engine, It's quite advanced. The character models are well detailed, and the enviroments are pretty interactive. You can knock down armour knights, blow holes in walls to uncover SECRET AREAS where there is treasure and sometimes meals to eat if your injured. For being quite dated, the texture detail, bump-mapping features, highly detailed sky and all things are excellent. The developers have did a good job with the graphics. 8/10

The sound effects in the game are quite impressive. While in the catacombs, fighting bosses and just lurking around dark areas, the music creates quite a creepy atmosphere. If you fire a weapon in a big room, if you listen carefully, you can hear the reverb. Your aresnal also sounds very realistic. 8/10

Depending on your system specs, this game offers great performance even on low spec machines. If you want total smooth performance on highest detail then you will need at least:- 1.2 ghz Pentium 3 Processor 64mb 3D Accelarator Video Card Sounblaster LIVE PLayer 5.1 Card

The Bad
Sometimes the game's cut-scenes can be a bit cheesy, but what's a game without cheesy moments, eh. Also, some character animations can be dodgy, but other than that, the game is brilliant.

The Bottom Line
If you like killing Nazis and monsters at the same time, then this is the game for you. And if you like playing online, there is a multiplayer feature, but you're better playing Enemy Territory online, its better. I would reccomend this game to anyone who enjoys an action-packed and scary FPS experience.

OVERALL RATING: 8/10

The Good

I truly feel that this should be thought of as an online game that happens to have a single player component, and not the other way around. The multiplayer game out shines everything else in this package. There is no death match option, but only team based play. Every well designed and expansive map pits the Allies against the Axis in a timed race to complete a variety of objectives. Some maps will have teams fighting for control of a number of flags scattered about the map. Others require one team to infiltrate an enemy held area, and recover some object, or destroy a target.

The four different types of players add a great deal more depth and realism to the multiplayer experience. Rather than having weapons and health laying around for the picking, what weapons and health you start with is all you get. And no lugging around 9 different weapons. You choose a primary weapon at the outset, and besides a pistol, a few grenades, and a knife, that is all you have. If you are running low on ammo you must ask a Lieutenant for more. Low on health? You had better hope to run into a Medic to patch up your wounds. If there is a door, wall, or piece of artillery to be destroyed, only the Engineers will be carrying the necessary dynamite and tools. The fourth player type, the Soldier, is the only class capable of carrying specialized or heavier weapons, such as the sniper rifle and the flamethrower. Because of the four distinct roles players must assume, teamwork is an absolute necessity in a way that it has never been in any multiplayer shooter before.

The games graphics are very nice, and run smoothly (on a relatively modest system) even with many of the visual bells and whistles turned on. The enemy AI is pretty good for the most part, but nothing amazing. The enemies themselves are interesting and varied. You fight everything from your standard Nazi soldiers, to zombies, skeletons, and leaping electrically charged Nazi cyborgs. You also have a nice variety of WWII era weapons... and some not-so-WWII-era weapons.

**The Bad**

The single player game left one wanting something more. It's a good FPS, as far as they go, but certainly nothing ground breaking in the way of gameplay. All the storys' content about the occult and the undead may be a turn-off to players looking for a more authentic feeling WWII shooter. This is certainly not a game that will gain praise for it's historical accuracy. After all, none of the Nazis seem to have ever learned to speak German.

**The Bottom Line**

This is a 'must purchase' for any fan of team based multiplayer first person shooters such as 'Counter-Strike'. If you don't like playing shooters online, this might be the game to change your mind. If you are a big FPS fan in general and are looking for a new set of enemies to gun down and missions to complete, this should provide an adequate amount of enjoyment.

The Good
Return to Castle Wolfenstein (RTCW) is the culmination of every trick in the FPS playbook. You play B.J. Blazkowitz, a capture American POW in Germany. The game opens with you killing a Nazi guard and taking his gun. Armed with only this weapon, you must escape Castle Wolfenstein.

The graphics in this game are absolutely breathtaking. From the textures of the walls and buildings to the facial expressions of the enemies and the various 3D character models, RTCW is one of the sharpest looking games to be seen on the PC platform. The game runs at a smooth rate on my P3 1gz, and there is rarely any slowdown. And the flamethrower effects are some of the coolest I've seen in years.

Some people were worried of the inclusion of the zombies and undead in the game. Rest assured, they are actually logically worked into the game. You'll find them in the early part of the game, and near the end. The rest of the time you'll be fighting Nazis.

The level layouts aren't simple, but they are logical, and could conceivably exist int he real world. Open aribases, close-knit villages, laboratory compounds, the list goes on. I love the environments you play in. They are extremely realistic, and almost impossible to get lost or confused in.

The sound and music are top-notch. I'm not sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if the sounds for the real guns are sampled from actual gunfire. And the music should be released on CD, because it is fantastic.

The objectives in the game are varied as well. Some are your standard FPS shooter fare, killing all the enemies or retrieving an object. But my favorites are the stealth missions. There are at least 2 missions that require you to get through the level without being seen, or make any noise that could give you away. A really cool way this works is if you are spotted by a guard, and he runs for the alarm, you can either shoot the guard before he gets there or shoot the alarm so he can't sound it. As you go through these levels, you can either take the route that makes sense or one that's a bit more difficult. It's the players choice, so it makes for a interesting game experience.

The plot of RTCW is not the best , but it's not bad. Most people don't know that Hitler was absolutely nuts on the subject of the occult. The developer's took this into consideration when making the game. The story unfolding through the cut-scenes shows us the Nazis interest in the occult, and B.J.'s fight against it.

The Bad
The game's near perfect. I can't think of any faults in it.

The Bottom Line
This game doesn't break any new ground in FPS fare. What it does do is present a fantastic romp through a pseudo-WWII game.

Final Verdict: It's a must own FPS.