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pretty good

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: November 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

i got this game for mac it is exelent the graphics are great and the ai is good the only problem is that i can not get to multiplayer! i think this game is great anyway!

Guilt-free genocide

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: May 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I suppose if there are two groups whom it's acceptable and almost encouraged to slaughter, it would be Nazis and zombies. It's the only time a defendant could be on the witness stand and confess to his own benefit "Your Honor, they were really asking for it." Which is what makes Return to Wolfenstein so much fun. It's a historically accurate gothic WWII supernatural FPS. One of those rare combinations you throw in a blender and it comes out all yummy.

I'll briefly echo all the other compliments here: nearly photo-realistic graphics; pinpoint control, targeting, and collision detection; silky smooth operation in XP. Voice acting is believable. Weapon and explosion sounds are appropriately metallic and jarring. And the undead are scary as hell. I've played many of the good survival horror franchises, and none except Silent Hill 1 freaked me out like the zombies in Wolfenstein. It was a rare stroke of genius to introduce the Nazi grunts as sympathic victims of the undead hordes, showing scenes of your enemy's enemies devouring them alive. This creates a real hesitation and apprehension about the player's role that exacerbates the fear. In other words: me scared, good job.

So, if it rocks so hard, why not five stars? Well, this little revelation hit me about halfway through the game: instead of being the best Castle Wolfenstein it could be, id decided to make a very good cross between Medal of Honor and Wolfenstein. Which is a very good thing, but remember what set the first Wolfensteins apart from the rest were the exploration and "secret area" goodies. RtW would have been great if every level had been more like Paderborn (the best stage of RtW): more dungeon crawling, deeper and more inventive secret areas. I'm imagining innovative and useable secret goodies that enhanced gameplay, hidden by new concepts of concealing secret doors. You know, play to your strengths rather than copy someone else.

As it is, Return to Wolfenstein is a fun, pretty, and often scary offbeat shooter that's just a hair below the best of the more traditional WWII FPS.

Another Milestone in Gaming?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: September 20, 2004
Author: Amazon User

As most of you are aware, the video and PC gaming industry loves to hype games. In the last six years or so the games that got a LOT of attention prior to release include Unreal, Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal 2, Black and White, and of course, Doom 3. As you can see from this list, not all of these games lived up to expectations. Considering the tremendous amount of hype that heralded the return of Wolfenstein, does Return to Castle Wolfenstein live up to expectations?

Mostly yes. The graphics in this game are definitely good, and they seem to approach photo-realism in some ways. It helps to run this game with a good video card, and I can tell you that although Return to Castle Wolfenstein was released in 2001, my Radeon 9800 graphics card still strains a bit if I turn all the settings up. The sound, level design, weapons, and enemy AI all are very good too.

Nevertheless, most gamers would agree that this shooter was not the milestone it was expected to be. Some complained that the single-player adventure is mediocre, but I thought it was quite good. I guess there's only so much you can do with a first-person action game, and if the previews in the PC gaming press get too exciting, one should expect a let down.

So should you buy Return to Castle Wolfenstein? If you like playing action games on your PC, then by all means get a copy. At the price, you'll get a really good value because this game is as good or better than many of the newer, more expensive shooters. Moreover, playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein can lend you an idea of how games evolve and how gamers react to them.

simply awesome...a classic

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I've beaten Medal of Honor, Soldier of Fortune, Half-life, Opposing force, to name a few, and RTCW is my favorite. It is better than Medal of Honor hands down in my opinion, because the atmosphere, weapons, excellent enemies, and the immersive gameplay are just so much better. The flamethrower alone puts all other flamethrowers in other games to shame. The enemies are downright scary. I dont remember being so immersed in a game since Thief or System Shock II. Nazis and the occult, what more could u ask for? mwahahaha

One of the best WWII first-person shooters ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The first time I came in contact with RTCW was when some friends of mine and I played the Beach multiplayer demo at a LAN gathering. Basically, everyone who played it went through a religious realization of how great the multiplayer experience was, and we all looked forward to the official release.

I was certainly not let down at all. Although the Beach was still by far the best multiplayer map in the game (and easily one of the best multiplayer maps of all time), the others were still excellent. The ways in which all the various classes of players could collaborate made the game team-orientated in a very original way. Although the engineer was the only completely necessary class in most cases to win a match, having an even distribution of players using all the classes made for a much easier time in achieving the objectives. For instance on the beach map, the Allies needed to retrieve some documents inside Castle Wolfenstein. In order to get inside the castle, engineers were required to plant dynamite and blow the castle walls (Axis engineers could diffuse the dynamite). Medics keep the engineers and other players alive to carry out the task, lieutenants feed everyone ammunition and throw airstrikes to eliminate the opposing threats, and soldiers employ a panzerfaust, mauser sniper rifle, venom (handheld gattling gun), or flamethrower to provide additional protection. Though RTCW was not the first game to invent player classes, it employed these classes in new ways that provided for fantastic gameplay.

Also, the single-player campaign was excellent and I still consider it one of the best of all the games I've ever played. I thought the storyline was pretty cool, and enjoyed how the writers weaved together fact and fiction concerning WWII and Himmler's work in the paranormal. The main character is BJ Blazkowicz, a captured US soldier who escapes from Castle Wolfenstein and encounters both Nazi enemies and undead demons in an effort to thwart the Germans and win the war for the Allies. In addition to the weapons listed in the multiplayer description, the game also features such weapons as the Thompson, MP40, Colt, Lugar, pinapple grenades, and potato mashers. My favorite single-player experience is a level later on in the game when Blazkowicz is required to sneak throughout a German village and eliminate eight important generals. The village is armed with an alarm system and if an enemy spots him, they can pull the alarm and the level resets. Basically, the level requires a player to use only a knife or a silenced weapon and contributes to the invention of the Covert Ops class in the sequel to RTCW, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, which is another game I very highly recommend (also, the game is free).

Very Good, could have been a lot more satisfying

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: October 28, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein---Is one helluva game!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: September 28, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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

Return to Classic Wolfenstein

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: September 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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*.

One of my favorite games!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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!

One Mustn't Forget One's Roots

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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.

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