Return to Castle Wolfenstein

Rating:
Summary: Very Good, could have been a lot more satisfying
Review: Remembering the original Castle Wolfenstein on my Commodore 64 in the 80's and how original, difficult and cool it was back then. The level of anticipation I had to play this one was very high. And it lives up to the anticipation, with a few criticisms.

Gameplay is excellent, if not repetitive, graphics are outstanding, without the open environment of a GTA. As result, the game is very linear with only one path to take to get you from one level to the next. Not that this type of game is bad, it is just very objective focused with little to explore other than achieving the objective at hand.

The biggest disappointment however, was the final scene, as I was able to beat the game on only my second try. It was too easy and not very satisfying. You go through a hundred or so levels to get to the climax where you're expecting a monster so hideous, that it will literally take everything you have and multiple attempts to defeat, but alas, the weapons in the game were too overpowering even for something as gruesome as Heinrich.

Very good, but too much effort for relatively easy payoff.

Rating:
Summary: Return to Castle Wolfenstein---Is one helluva game!!!
Review: Wolfenstein returnes to the pc like it did almost a decade ago. With all the monsters and shooting away nazis. The graphics are exellent and jeez I was so impressed by the AI its scary. Unlike older first person shooters where they just run up to you like crazy and shoot you up, they actually CARE about their own safty. They will retreat take cover, camp, and they shout orders to their comrades. The level disign is also pretty good (my favorite one is just the first level, castle wolfenstein itself). The levels are pretty diverse. You start the game when you are captured and await execution. Your buddy, agent one is already dead. A guard comes to get you and you come down on him and beat him up. You steal his luger and his knife, shoot everyone, and escape though a cable tram. Fight your way though town and catacombs before you finally defeat the fat beast to get the Dagger of Warding. The levels after that are the Forest Coumpounds, rocket bases, airfields, Secret weapons Facility, X-Lab, War Torn town, and then you return to castle wolfenstine to stop the resurrection of Heinrich I. The character detail is very good but not perfect-if you know what I mean. surely their 3D and detailed, you can see every one of them looks different their not the same looks, you can see the solidier or officers ranking insignia as well as their medals and the seal on their hat. These are textures however and are flat, their not 3D, they are 2D sprites spread across a texture wrapped around the wireframe base models, which are filtered by the graphics card to look smooth, models and textures that can also be affected by lights and shadows like in most 3D games, with the little details. The sound was exellent and if you combine that with Creatives Labs 6.1 sorround sound speakers and my Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 sound card. adding 3D high-quality hardware-accelerated realistic sound, combined with relaxing, but professional music sound tracks, perfect! The explosions go arond the room over your head and BOOM! explodes on to your screen. Some of the bosses in this game are really tough like, strangely however I had no trouble downing the final boss. You can play with up to 64 players in mutiplayer choosing either the Axis german or American Allied forces. unlike single player, you cant kick as a melee weapon resort and the maps are slightly different.
Ups: Great AI, good graphics, fantastic sound, gameplay, and level design.
Downs: Hardly detailed decals on textures, limited multiplayer options, and hard-to-find secrets.
Bottom line: great game with great technology, that I would strongly recommend for FPS fans. Well worth your money and the wait for id to finish this.
If I had to score this game on a scale from 1-100 I would give it a 91/100

Rating:
Summary: Return to Classic Wolfenstein
Review: It doesn't take long for humans to become nostalgic about the good times in their lives. Likewise, it doesn't take long for a PC game to be considered a classic. Id Software and Apogee's *Wolfenstein 3D* became one of the most revered PC games in the last decade.

For the two or three readers who don't know, *Wolf* launched the first-person shooter game from a gimmick to a genre back in 1992. It offered what every person on Earth wanted to do: run around a maze with a Gatling gun and mow down hordes of Nazis. Nine years later, Gray Matter took this title off the mantle and carried it into the 21st Century. With id Software's blessing, *Return to Castle Wolfenstein* is a sports car of a game, and a complete remake of a classic.

Obviously, then, *RtCW* was hyped. For example, the December 2000 issue of Computer Gaming World offered an "Exclusive first-look at the hottest shooter since Half-Life". It continued with "two years and counting after Half-Life, and the single-player shooter bar is about to get raised again". The overall impression was that of a story-driven WWII adventure.

Within the Walls

But *RTCW* isn't what it's cracked up to be. Computer Gaming World scooped a considerably more epic and intricate game than what actually shipped. CGW described, in step by step detail, a *Medal of Honor* style amphibious assault as the opening of the game. The player character was reported as taking an epic journey across Europe. CGW reported that friendly A.I. would fight alongside the player character, that bosses and enemies were vulnerable only at certain times with certain weapons, and that enemies would not spawn and would fight most intelligently, such as recognizing that your gun is bigger than their gun. Since CGW strongly implied these points to be expected in the final release, I foolishly lowered my guard and accepted the hype.

This was, after all, before anybody knew that id software would delay *RtCW's* release by a full year and have it redesigned. None of the attributes I cited above appeared in the released version of *Wolf*. Instead, *Medal of Honor: Allied Assault* would adopt the epic WWII mantle, while RtCW turned out to be another weekend shooter.

This should be no surprise, considering id software has always been about speed and violence. But I have to admit I'm getting tired of the current deluge of ten-hour titles, and id software's formula offers no respite. RtCW's story is pretty incidental for all of its cinematic air, as little more than shooting and explosions occur during play. Between levels, an orders update shuttles the player from one killing ground to the next. Most of the levels are your standard maze full o' monsters, only much simpler and easier than those found in previous id titles such as *Quake* and *Doom*. All enemies are vulnerable to guns and rocket launchers, and with no hit location, most levels are solved with your standard circle-strafe-and-a-machine-gun trick. Rarely will the player need more than a suppressed Sten gun and a Mauser K98, and rarely will the player need to do more than kill people and find the exit. Expository cut scenes stitch it all together.

Don't mistake me-all of this stuff is fun. I just don't like it when a game hyped as a *Half-Life* competitor turns out to be another run-and-gunner beat in two days. I especially don't like it when said game is an A-list title from A-list developers.

Return to Quake III

But let's give credit where credit is due. *Wolf* certainly competes with big-time shooters on the media front: this game looks and sounds great. The Quake III engine gets a work out with photo-realistic textures and lighting, while the snarls of zombies and undead warriors echo down stone corridors and into the marrow of the player's bones. And while circle-strafing is often the solution to beating enemies, their A.I is smart enough to take cover while reloading and to strafe-fire back at the player. I have to admit, from the flamethrower to the smoke to the late afternoon shadows, I find RtCW's effects gorgeous. Best of all, it runs smoothly even on my antiquated AMD 900 processor.

Finally, RtCW has a few nice features to liven up the play:

1.Ladders have cages to reduce those annoying "ladder deaths".
2.Helpful icons pop up to tell the player what to do, so he or she isn't banging away at every wall looking for secrets.
3.Venom soldiers are invulnerable to the weapons they carry, so don't get into a flamethrower fight with one.
4.The leaping Lopers charge no matter what players throw at them, though a Venom gun or a rocket launcher will make short work if the player is quick on the draw.
5.Humorous messages and orders litter the Wehrmacht bases and labs.
6.And, of course, plenty of Hitler portraits hang about for the players to vandalize.

In for the Kill

But make no mistake, this is an id software game; big on style and short on substance. If players want to kill a weekend chasing Nazis in a maze with a Gatling gun, *RtCW* is a good-looking, scary-sounding, smooth-running choice. If players want a little more meat on their first-person Nazi shooters, they need to boot up the *Medal of Honor* series.

Nope, in all the hype I was hoping for a game much more involved than it turned out, particularly since id and Gray Matter were remaking the granddaddy of first-person shooters. Still, Return to Castle Wolfenstein satisfies on other levels, and it will probably be as fondly remembered as its progenitor. It's no *Half-Life* killer, but it can kill some time while waiting for *Half-Life 2*.

Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite games!
Review: I normally don't play shooters but this game is very addictive! The graphics are good and the game play flows! You can waste many many hours on it.

The weapons are well thought out as you don't get enough of anything to make you unbeatable. There is something for everyone to like! My favorite is the paratrooper rifle and the sniper rifle.

The final fight was tough!

However, I did not see much difference between the medium level and the tough level.

All and all, you can't go wrong with this one!

Rating:
Summary: Game Defective
Review: I ordered this game, 'under the impression' that it was new. Hmmm, the box did not look new to me.
The main problem here is: the cd 'Return to castle Wolfenstein', is defective. It will not download. And yes, I have been in touch with the seller, but I have not been offered a refund.
At this point...I want a refund for a defective piece of material.
Question: If one does open the cd box...how is one supposed to download a game, hmmmm. I will not do business with your site again. You offer no help at all.
PS. I HAD to put "1 star" on how much fun is this game, in order to send this message.

Rating:
Summary: One Mustn't Forget One's Roots
Review: There are many great reviews for this game on Amazon already, so I'll skip straight to where I differ from many of them. Most of the negative comments I've read center around the game being too much like Quake 2, Doom, etc; especially the monsters. Let's address this concern with a few simple points. Since those are also Id games, they will of course have a similar feel. This is a sequel to Wolfenstein 3D, which I realize may be a little too old-school for some gamers. If this little beauty never crossed your 3.5" floppy drive, trust me; there were plenty of MONSTERS and BOSSES in Wolf3D in addition to regular old goose-stepping Nazis. If you're looking for a realistic representation of the WWII experience, you're definitely looking for love in all the wrong places (Check out Medal of Honor). What this game does do is a fantastic job of carrying forward the over-the-top atmosphere of the original Wolfenstein. A true spiritual successor to a gaming legacy like Wolfenstein pulled off so nicely will win me over every time.

Rating:
Summary: The Wolf is alright
Review: I have just started this game, and it appears to be a good game in all aspects. Good graphics, good mouse movement=good frame rate. Of course activision makes high quality games as always. .......peace: Romeo Henry Faison

Rating:
Summary: Previous reviewers for the game
Review: I wrote an review about this game previously, but I still do not understand why people try to insult the ID software programmers. First thing I want to mention is that people can choose to dislike the game, I can respect that, because different people have different opinions since this is a free country....brothers & sisters....but I do not respect people who are calling the game is "stupid" or "waste of money" etc..... without a reason and understanding the game's true plot, those comments are not respecting the ID programmers or the gamers community that respect ID software for many years, people really need to try to think about how to provide invaluable feedback. I know people are always comparing RTCW with Medal of Honor or some other games out in the market, but if you think carefully, ID's previous titles are always about shoot and kill and completing objectives and it has been that way for many years... but RTCW is loaded with a whole new story that deals with twisted science created by the Axis during WWII, is just like the movie "Indiana Jones-the lost ark....& the last crusade", something that involves with freaky stuff and twisted science.......maybe I am such a old timer to bring out movies like that.......and Medal of Honor's objectives is to "win the war". As I said earlier in my previous review, both games have different plot. Well anyway....its a disappointment for RTCW's fan to hear that ID decide not to release the expansion pack for RTCW called "enemy territory", they've said the other game developer(business partner) in england cannot meet the deadlines where they are busy with serveral projects in their hands, and the title will never be out on the market with a tight schedule like that, but they have mention the multiplayer maps for "enemy territory" are downloadable as a freeware in their official website.. hmmm..something to play with while you are waiting. I am just like the other ID fans..... looking forward to see that they can wrap up the title in the near future.

Rating:
Summary: Sweet game
Review: This game was really fun, i have a [bad] internet connection or i would play the multiplayer mod even more. The only problem is it has little to no replay value. It is great while it last and takes quite a while to beat. I would deffinetly reccomend this game to anyone with a high speed internet connection. This game has excellent graphics, i have a Geforce 4 64 MB and it looks great! Its always nice blowing away a few...before you have to go to class. The sound in this game is also excellent, you can actually hear the knife going in...when you stab them in the beggining scene. If you are a true gamer you got to have this game in your library.

Rating:
Summary: Play it in a dark room
Review: This game is not the same game as the original. The gameplay is different, the graphics and style of gameplay are different. But this is a good thing.

The best part of the first Castle Wolfenstein, in my opinion, was that (way back in the day) it was the first game that could make me jump in my seat. Playing it late at night, or in a dark, quiet room with the sound turned up, a Nazi swinging around the corner when you didn't expect him actually scared you!

Now, times have changed, and the original wouldn't do that for me any more. This one, however, did. Return to Castle Wolfenstein doesn't capture the room-to-room first-person shooting style of the original, but it recreates and improves so much on the feeling of suspense. Sitting crouched behind a corner, looking out, watching a guard walking his route, trying to time your attack so as not to draw the alarm can be so exciting.

Now have a patrol come up behind you while you're waiting to do that, and you have a real rush.

The AI is not the best I've seen, but it's certainly not the worst (Quake II anyone?). The little clues to tell you where guards will and won't be, the routes they walk, and how you can move quickly and quietly enough to accomplish your goal make the game almost as much a puzzle game as a first-person shooter. I haven't had as much fun with any FPS as RtCW in a very long time.