Return to Castle Wolfenstein

List Price: $29.99 Discount Price: $13.69

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine

Customer Reviews:

simply awesome...a classic [Posted on 2004-05-01]
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

Another Milestone in Gaming? [Posted on 2004-09-20]
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.

Compatibility problems [Posted on 2004-10-16]
I have this game, it used to play on my win 98 but since I upgraded to win xp it doesnt work anymore. Does anyone know why? How can I fix it? I doesnt help changing the compatibility settings.
Thanx a lot.

Guilt-free genocide [Posted on 2005-05-21]
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.

pretty good  [Posted on 2005-11-07]
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!

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