Rating: Summary: Great game but probably a disappointment to the pregame hype Review: I'll be the first to admit that I bought in to the pregame hype surrounding Return to Castle Wolfenstein's release. When the developers released their "Storm the Beaches of Normandy" level as a free multiplayer demo, they released what was probably one of the funnest online action multiplayer levels ever. While the new multiplayer levels included in the full version do not disappoint, after playing them for some time, they don't seem to have the same replay value as the beach demo that was released.Return to Castle Wolfenstein surrounds a WWII theme of Nazis and the occult. It comes with two versions: single player and multiplayer. The singler player version is an adventure in the mold of Indiana Jones and your solo American G.I. must battle Nazis, zombies and witches. The single player version has various missions with different objectives. In one mission, you must eliminate a specific person, in the next you must infiltrate a Nazi compound while not being detected and in another you can find yourself searching for a lost archaelogical relic that will prevent the Nazis from obtaining power. The single player missions are great fun and there are many weapons that are aquired throughout the levels with more lethal weapons available in the later levels. Impressive weapons such as several sniper rifles, flamethrowers and a few others either invented by the programmers or in theme with the WWII atmosphere. Return to Castle Wolfenstein allows fun gameplay elements such as sneaking up on Nazis in the middle of top secret conversations or fighting your way through levels with a knife to avoid making noises that will alert other guards. Probably the biggest complaint I have about the single player levels is that there aren't many included on the CD and it's over before you know it. The second version available in Return to Castle Wolfenstein is the multiplayer mode and it comes with eight maps that you can play via the internet with other gamers. The best thing about Return to Castle Wolfenstein's multiplayer mode is the teamwork required. Most team formats in FPS games have the same type of soldiers with the same weapons available for all players. Not so in Return to Castle Wolfenstein. You must pick a class of soldier to play (soldier, lieutenant, medic and engineer) which reflects the weapons you are permitted and the special abilities you can use. Some classes start with more ammunition. Each class has a specific function in the multiplayer map you pick and must be used in unison with other players and their chosen classes to complete the team's objectives. While medics might be reviving fallen comrades, lieutenants can call airstrikes on enemy positions, soldiers can use flamethrowers to sniff out enemy bunkers, engineers arm dynamite to blow up strategic walls, etc... If the price of Return to Castle Wolfenstein was lower, I'd give it five stars in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, the price was set by the game's developers to reflect the instant demand for a game hyped such as this. Amazon.Com is actually one of the cheaper sources for Wolfenstein as I've seen retail stores that charge as high as sixty dollars for this long awaited sequel. The price shouldn't be an issue though if the game's developers follow through with some of their promises to release many more multiplayer maps and an official map editor that will allow gamers to create their own maps. Already, websites have started releasing utilities for this game and it looks like it will have a healthy amount of mods (Modifications that either create or change new levels and gameplay elements.), new mulitplayer maps and other creative programs developed by fans around the world. Not a poor game by any means but I think PC gamers were expecting a little bit more for the price. If you haven't done it already, download the free multiplayer demo available on the internet to see how fun the gameplay can be. A game that is fun and entertaining and promises to be much more after the developers and fans have created many more new features for it.
Rating: Summary: (...) Review: (...)This is a great game. Graphics are top-notch, weapons are cool, sound is good, enemies are great looking, and multiplayer is the best thing about it (it's REALLY fun). Sure, the storyline may be a little cornny, there isn't a lot of blood/gore, the nazi's don't scream out at you in German, and the game takes a lot of ideas off others, but so what! If you can look past all that (and ignore all those comments), it's actually a good game. They may even fix some of these things in the future with a patch. Give this game a try. If you don't really liked the single player mode, you will like the multiplayer. Give it try!
Rating: Summary: Buy This Game!! Review: While playing through the game I kept saying "Wow I got to remenber this level and go back to it". But then I would say the same thing while playing the next level. The AI is excellent so watch out for those dang enemy soldiers, they will try to flank you. Castle Wolfenstein has a very good single player game with a multiplayer component that is heads and shoulders above most. Unlike some recent FPS releases this one is plenty long enough. A guy gets his money worth! Great Christmas gift for your 16 year old or even a gray-hair like me.
Rating: Summary: Wolfenstein.... the King of All First-Person Shooter Review: this game truely is the best game ever! i heard about Wolfenstein from one of friends. so i downloaded the multiplayer test and WOW! the graphics are amazing! the weapons are awsome and the game play is spectacular! so when Return to Castle Wolfenstein finally came out a couple days ago i went off and bought it right away. it is amazing! you can pretty much do anything in single player. the maps are sooo huge. the enemy AI in awsome too (much like No One Lives Forever and HALO) this game is very fun. i mean whats better than killing nazis and the un-dead? i highly suggest buying or atleast renting this game. you wont be dissappointed.
Rating: Summary: Needs More Work Review: Although Max Payne runs great on my system, this program fails to run. . . many video issues. Save your $. No refund after pkg opened!
Rating: Summary: Worth the (expensive) price - single or multiplayer Review: (...) In any case, I can comment (objectively) on the game because I have played it and I can say without a doubt that it's worth buying. Some of us can remember back to the Wolfenstein 3D which later led to Doom which revolutionized the shareware concept and finally brought the PC to a viable gaming platform. Of course, some of us can remember all the way back to the original Castle Wolfenstein of the Apple IIc days, but lets not go there... Anyways, gamers have waited long and hard for the chance to battle nazis once again and this game delivers. Castles are rendered in very nice detail on my Geforce, it almost starts to smell cold and musty in here (maybe that's me). The cutscenes are also well done and provide a nice prologue to each mission. The game's intro you'll probably only watch once or twice but it's one of the coolest ever! The music is very atmospheric and spooky, reminiscent of Quake. Whoever said the game crashes all the time must have a bad system or be using XP. Anyone who has "downgraded" to XP should've realized that nothing's gonna run on XP for a year (you think people would've learned after Windows 95.) In any case, I run the game on my non-XP system without problems. Who cares about all that, right? It's the gameplay you want to hear about. Again, this game delivers. You start off as expected battling those evil nazi's as you escape Wolfenstein. From there the game gets progressively creepier as you dive deep into the catacombs and discover both you and the nazis are fighting off terrors even more disturbing. (...)Without spoiling too much, you find out the dead start coming to life and lemme tell ya, these buggers are tough to beat. Ammo starts becoming a serious issue. Not to mention some of the demons have shields that reflect the bullets back at you. Once you meet the fire demon - that alone is worth the price of admission. Many of the zombies are just thick-skinned clods that are tough to kill, but don't think the enemies have bad AI. One of the head nazi's, Helga, is protected by an elite corp of women who can dodge, roll and even double team against you. Toss a grenade at em? They'll just kick it back at you (and they'll usually wait until just before it's ready to blow up too.) Very quick and very tough. Not to mention, the first time I snuck up behind one of Helga's elite guards, I had to stop and admire the "artwork". Last but not least, the game borrows a page from the success of No One Lives Forever (another great game) by allowing the player to sneak up on the enemy and listen to their conversations. It's also interesting to run into the occasions the nazis are too busy battling demons to worry about attacking you. This is probably the first game that has made me jump since Doom came out. The surprise factor is used a little excessively in my opinion, but you'll definitely get a few scares. Multiplayer is quick and responsive on a cable modem. I, of course, get pounded on mercilessly by the thousands of kids who are much better than I. The new interesting addition is the formation of team assaults where each member has a special ability (Lieutenants can call in airstrikes, medics can heal players, engineers can set dynamite, etc...). I find this difficult when joining existing games where I don't know any of the other members, but I figure people will soon be forming clans, similar to Mechwarrior, to exploit the advantages team based assaults can provide. No idea yet on invincibility hacks or other cheats, I get beat so bad it seems like they're all invincible to me. So there you go. I was worried the emphasis would be on multiplayer and the single player game would be lacking, but that is not the case. If you are into multiplayer battles, then you probably already have a copy of this game by now. Hope the review helped!
Rating: Summary: Sweet Review: Great single player, excellent multiplayer. You'll get your money's worth! Can you say Panzerfaust?!
Rating: Summary: half-life still reins Review: (the following review is for the single player return to castle wolfenstein.) my 3-star rating is given in comparison to half-life, which kept me amazed with both its plot line and variety of weapons from start to finish. maybe i was spoiled by this but, so far (three levels in), this is a pretty forgettable game. granted i haven't gotten all the weapons but.... complaints so far. where's the shotgun? (i don't read the weapons desciptions, (so's to keep them all a surprise) but the shotgun should always be one of the first weapons offered, for close-quarters combat.) why did they bother making both the 9mm auto, the thompson .45 auto AND the sten gun? they're all just variations on a similar theme. the secret rooms and treasure items are a blatant throwback to doom and quake - same clues, same idea. yeay, a secret room. and the plotline, well how many times has the nazi/sci-fi theme been done? cute how they get certain ideas from the raiders of the lost ark film series, but it's been done. in short, the only real innovation with this new FPS (so far)'s the flame effects (which really are quite cool). maybe i'm just getting bored with the whole FPS genre but, regardless of minor innovations, half-life remains the undefeated champion. i'd welcome any recommendations for different game titles (of different genres - maybe an aircraft-type motif?) from any half-life fans. time to try something new.
Rating: Summary: Could've been a contender... Review: First, let me say the graphics are fantastic. However, most everything else about the game falls short for me. It mostly has a 'been there, done that' feel to it. For example, there is a scene where you ride a gondola down a mountain. No One Lives Forever had that, and it was far better. In Wolf, you pretty much just ride it, where as in NOLF you had helicopters attacking you. In Wolf, you spend most of your time battling demons and zombies, not Nazis. This was a bummer for me and remided me of some of the levels in Thief where you had to fight zombies. This was fun for a bit, but it gets very tiresome and I longed to unload on some Nazi troops. The levels are very linear and rather booring. The biggest challange is that the zombies require a LOT of bullets to take down, and you'll find yourself in some tough situations where you have almost no amunition and no health. This means you'll replay something over and over to find a suitable solution, which can be fun but borders on repetitious. The plot is thin, and basically just gives reasons for all of the undead you're fighting. There are a number of weapons, but for most of them ammo is in very short supply so you'll only be able to use a small set of weapons most of the time. I've played many FPS games from beginning to end (such as Half Life, No One Lives Forever (my favorite), and Deus Ex). I love the genre, and I had very high hopes for this one. I'm very dissappointed with this product.
Rating: Summary: Best game of the year Review: This game has the best graphics since tribes 1&2. I love online gaming and this is the best game ever like I said it plays very well better than swat 3.
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