Return to Castle Wolfenstein (quasi-review)

[fahlim003]

I recently fired up Return to Castle Wolfenstein after a 7 month hiatus. I had initially only first tried this game within the past year as I until recently did not have the means to properly run this game. RTCW was one of many games but still I had always heard good things and it looked quite good.

At the outset, the graphics are quite good and the atmosphere feels authentic and in-character. The weapons seem pretty good and ammo is supplied appropriately, not short and not in excess. I didn't get very far before I discovered or rather encountered situations where alarms and or other enemy AIs weren't alerted by essentially nothing. It would happen many times where I'd try to kill a single enemy in isolation and no matter I tried an alarm would be set off and consequently nearly all other enemies in a given area. This doesn't happen in large sparse areas but in buildings it seems to occur without fail. This was disappointing although RTCW isn't marketted as a stealth-type FPS but it lends itself to this specification with alarms and walking patrol sentries. This aspect is essentially what killed my progress in the game and why there was a 7 month lay-off. I still liked the unrealistic aspect of being able to kick someone to death or rapid-fire stab someone. They fit in nicely, call it a touch of id. I also enjoyed the fact head-shots meant KOs, no matter what gun/weapon. Accuracy at long range obviously was something to consider outside the rifles but all in all it's not hard to pick off some guards easily and conserve ammo on the whole.

Recently I was trying to purge installed games off my computer when I came upon RTCW again and decided to take it for potentially final spin before uninstall. I was still wary of the impending auto-alarm crap but I was presented with something to the opposite. The alarm business was no longer and issue and much of what I enjoyed from before remained. Not only but more stealthy aspects were coming into play with the Mauser scope, the Sten (silenced machine gun), and the silenced Luger. These were all welcome and speaking for myself, someone who thrives on stealth games (Thief, Metal Gear, etc..) it was the more the merrier. However, my change in attitude towards RTCW was short lived as I embarked upon the Catacombs section and what lies in store; the undead. Simply put all these stealth-type weapons and foundations set earlier in the game (albeit implicitly but not by much) went straight out the window as not 'waking the dead' is not option. A lesser concern is that of the 1 shot KO, which again proves useless and more or less calls into question why one has so many silenced weapons and only receives said weapons such a short time before they are rendered 'overkill/unnecessary' thanks to the zombie dezinens.

So I'm at a crossroad as to push on past the undead or to abandon ship again... for good. There's a lot to enjoy about this game and I bet the MP is solid too but at the same time there are some questionable AI tactics and general planning issues that for me, cannot be overlooked. Feel free to discuss RTCW and all it's facets.

[BHvrd]

All I can say is I loved it on the Dreamcast. The single player was good and all but the multiplayer was to this day the bomb.

The maps were gigantic and well paced, fun as hell. I really wish they would release this on PSN like they just released Call of Duty Classic, it really deserves it. Enough can't be said about the multiplayer, it's just plain awesome and beats nearly every online FPS to date.

When you played this, Half Life (fragbox), and Quake 3 Arena back in the day, todays FPS's just don't compare.

[Emuaust]

Wait, did you say Dreamcast? o.O

[PapaStu]

Wait, did you say Dreamcast? o.O

I second this....

[Greg2600]

I thought it was a great game on Xbox. The controls were not as well designed as some other FPS though. It retained the fun of the original, which was also unlocked and playable!

[BHvrd]

Wait, did you say Dreamcast? o.O

Whoop guess I did, meant to say Xbox, MAI BAHHHD!

Quake 3 was Dreamcast though.

[Ed Oscuro]

I also played RTCW recently, got all the way through it easily and found most of the secrets without too much trouble.

Too many of the weapons are useless and some aren't differentiated enough to be useful (Thompson for example), and the Venom pretty much blows everything else away. I was able to go toe-to-toe in melee with some of the undead for a while without taking any hits, which is always fun. Definitely isn't enough ammo for many guns.

As I recall I mainly tried to use the scoped Mauser; and grenades are good too - of course some other weapons have to be used at points. One thing that ticked me off were the stealth missions - they didn't protect against saving in a place you couldn't continue from, and I had to use a console command to restart one of those missions. Fake stealth, yuck. RTCW was probably one of the earlier FPS games to introduce the often-reviled stealth missions (of course that's relative - I recall Medal of Honor having it and that game's significantly older-looking, but only just a couple years older). Most developers do them poorly and I don't think Raven was any exception.

Bosses were really hit and miss; some were incredibly tough (the one that gets backup in the form of pistol-wielding scientist goons on a ledge above was the hardest part of the game) due to not enough space to mess around with, while others could be taken care of pretty quickly if you had room for maneuvering. The final boss was doubtlessly one of the greatest letdowns in gaming; I never was impressed with the big bad they set up for the game (even though the intro movie started out in an epic fashion) and the laughable send-off he gets seconds into that battle ties that up.

There were plenty of good points - much of the airport mission, many of the interior and exterior areas. Some of the secrets were aggravating with bizarre out-of-sight triggers. The horror areas were generally pretty cool, although that one lab was arghtastic. I spent a long, long time looking for a simple exit - I always consider it a sign of bad design when I've found most or all of the secrets for an area but not the next exit!

It was decent for a single play, but I don't mind not having paid full price back when it came out.

[jonnyutah]

i loved this game. it was so much fun. it took the nazis and implemented the dark paranormal science scifi and married it with the realistic stealth aspects of the game.

The first time playing the underground tunnels was amazing. you had the undead after both you and the nazis at the same time. then you had the monsters that reiminded me of original quake at times.

What do you think of the new wolfenstein? without spoilers ofcourse. is it similar to rtcw? better? is the atmosphere dark and moody? I may pick up a used copy of wolfenstien on ps3. i'm in the mood for a good fun ww2 shooter.

[fahlim003]

As noted elsewhere, I recently completed RTCW and I suppose I can now make a more cohesive and complete statement about the single player campaign.

Initial thoughts upon completion:

1. Length - the single player campaign on normal is quite short, less than 8 hours with about 50% of the secrets found. I know not of any after game bonus for collecting all but it seemed there was no explicit benefit to finding everything pardon obtaining weapons sooner than normally and or getting more ammo. A bit of a let down here.

2. Final boss - Ed, you weren't kidding to say it's one of the biggest letdowns, in-game or otherwise. Really weak. Venom and Panzerfaust mop this guy up without any hassle or real strategy. As Ed also mentioned, the UberSoldat enemy (boss at the end of Norway and bosses before final mission) is far more challenging thanks to actual retaliation in the form of ammunition. Heinrich I does nothing if you keep your distance and dispatch him quickly. No need to even get rid of the hench-undead-men in the final battle either. The boss of Norway, first appearance of the UberSoldat with the scientists shooting from above was tough, but in a good way. For the game to end as it does combined with the length issue leaves a lot to be desired.

3. The Undead - initially I made somewhat of an issue regarding the undead, and while they are more challenging than most everyone pardon the proto-UberSoldats and paratrooper SS units they do take away from the otherwise ok stealth aspects. Thankfully, the undead play a small role so it could actually been seen as livening up the game-play (ignoring length).

4. Weapons - again, I agree with Ed in that many weapons are quite useless (single player only) which isn't surprising given the lack of resources where to procure American ammunition covertly. The Thompson and Colt are both nearly useless, although the Thompson is more powerful and faster than the Sten/normal German machine gun so it's good to use in a pinch. I never used the Colt, I never used the Tesla gun, and I barely used the Snooper, as good as it is. Like the Thompson, Snooper is a good gun to use in a pinch, mostly 1 shot per area I'd say as there aren't many instances that are close together where it can be used. Limited ammo again prove fruitless-ness for an otherwise great gun. I too liked the Mauser scoped, and unless quiet discourse is what was called for, the Mauser was the go to gun. Sten was probably the most used with Mauser and then Paratrooper rifle coming afterwards. The PR was incredibly powerful at close range and good accuracy for short-range sniping, pretty handy overall. From what I've read, online/mp provides a second calling for most of the unused guns which makes me wonder why they weren't online exclusive.

5. Stealth - this isn't Thief but apart from the undead, and some parts early on some stealth can be used and effectively. It's a part of the game I quite enjoyed and while the depth/intricacies of Splinter Cell or the aforementioned Thief, it's a nice departure for an actual FPS stealth game, even if in limited capacity. Silenced weapons sure help it along although as mentioned, there are times when thanks to AI seeing through walls/buildings/to scenes of death sometimes tripping an alarm is unavoidable which is annoying. The sight distance is also I think quite absurd but perhaps this is to account for realism? I'm not sure but if the game was longer and had more to the stealth aspect it was definitely one of the better points found here.

Presently I am contemplating the online game although I do want to finish up other FPSes on the back burner (BioShock, SS2, etc..) but overall RTCW single player was worse than it should have been. It's lacking in a lot of places which potentially leaves a player wanting more. MP however can be argued to address this although it's hardly fair given how 1-dimensional the first game (W3D) was.