Return To Castle Wolfenstein

Well, since Arktic pretty much has the DVD side of things covered (and im a poor pauper who doesnt own a DVD player), I\'ve decided to focus on one of my stronger areas - Games.
The original \'Escape from Castle Wolfenstein\' was the father of the first person shooter (FPS) genre. Far better and more intelligent than Doom, I still boot the original up sometimes because it\'s still a challenging game. Now, take a game of that greatness, add 10 years of technology and the Quake 3 engine, and you get \'Return to Castle Wolfenstein\'.
Just looking at the case, you know that you\'re in for a great time, but even these beautiful screenshots can\'t prepare you for the brilliance of this game... You start the game in the prison/dungeon of Castle Wolfenstein, a secret agent captured while his partner is tortured. You then progress to fighting in cable cars, through snow ridden towns and the, the game kicks in.... until the point you enter the crypt, you\'ve been fighting soldiers. You know from the story line that there is an occult theme to the game, but you can only learn tidbits by listening to guards conversations before blowing them away. Then, with a beautiful cinematic, it happens. The ladder leading down to the crypt is broken, the entrance behind you blocked by the blasting. The germans below you are scared, making a last stand as through the shadows and screams emerge the undead.... and you get a whole new dimension of gaming built in, not only fighting desperate germans trying to survive but unthinking zombies unaware of creators or alliances. Other levels include a gothic church full of Nazi Bodyguards of the female persuasion, U-Boat plants in the antarctic and archealogical dig sites. The games main flaw is that it is too short for the resourceful gamer. Overall I recieved this game on christmas day and was playing through it on hard mode by boxing day. That said, the playability is extremely enhanced by the multiplayer mode, with a number of scenarios including d-day, set out in the \'team-fortress\' style class system (soldier, which can carry any weapon including specials such as flamethrower, bazooka, venom or tesla gun, engineer, who can plant or disarm dynamite, officer, who can call air and artillery strike, as welll as generating ammo, and the medic who can revive players from limbo and generate health packs). The great thing is, unless the correct balance is struck between classes, the team will ultimately fail. As much as I enjoym charging into nazi territory with my pistol ready, only to switch to my flamethrower when the fools come to greet me, sometimes I will have to go as a supporting sniper or even a medic rather than lose.
\'Return to Castle Wolfenstein\' is a great game, and the enemy intelligence is brilliant, with your approach vital to the games response. For instance, if you take cover while trying to pick off enemy troops, they take cover and manouver around you until they can attack from all sides. If you come out guns blazin and kill three of Fritz\'s mates, he\'ll go running for backup, however if your aim isnt that great they\'ll kick over nearby tables and give you a pasting. Aswell as this they also have the now standard \'player throws grenade, soldier kicks it back\' action built in.
As you can see by this lenghty review, \'Return to Castle Wolfenstein\' really is worth your money although it may eat away at your social life, and i couldn\'t stop preaching about this game for weeks....
System Requirements:
4x CD-ROM , 128mb RAM, 800mb of space (although peronally I\'d free up about a gig),PII 400mhz or equivalent, and a 3D hardware accelerator
Strider

Added:  Saturday, April 20, 2002
Reviewer:  Strider
Score:
Related web link:  Wolfenstein Homepage
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