Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Mac)

List Price: $29.99

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	ATI 100-435317 Radeon X800 XT Mac Edition for G5 256MB AGP Video Card

Customer Reviews:

An excellent game with great replayability [Posted on 2002-10-27]
Return to Castle Wolfenstein is, in a word, excellent. The single-player campaign is adequately long, but action-packed and thoroughly wonderful; there are quite a few changes of scenery, and the underlying plot is entertaining. There have been a few complaints about the occult nature of the story, but I didn't find this offputting at all.

Multiplayer is where this game really shines. The maps included with the game are incredible (especially the famous mp_beach), and these can be suplemented by hundreds of custom-made maps available online at sites like . Objective-oriented, team-based gameplay as it has been implemented in RtCW is something you simply can't miss out on. Also, take note that the bonus maps included in the non-Mac "Game of the Year Edition" can be found online as well ... don't despair that our PC friends are gaining the upper hand on us!

And of course, the graphics are wonderful, as you can tell from any screenshot. This comes with a hit in performance on anything but the newest Macs, though: on the highest graphical setting, the game slowed down noticably at graphically-intense moments of the game (i.e. large, open areas with lots of enemies) on my 800 Mhz G4, 512 MB RAM iMac (with a GeForce 4 MX card).

So if you think you've got the machine to handle it, you will not likely be dissappointed with this game!

Stunning graphics, smart AI, but not much innovative play [Posted on 2003-04-16]
Remember that Simpsons episode where Homer is sucked into a higher (three-dimensional) reality and has his mind blown for a little while? If you still remember the old Wolfenstein 3D, that may very well be how you're going to feel once you fire up Return to Castle Wolfenstein (aka RTCW--I'm lazy). The graphics are stunning, including highly realistic textures, fog, lighting effects, and of course nearly photorealistic opponents. Environmental sound effects and wonderful--often hilarious--voice acting round off the illusion. All cut scenes are produced using the in-game engine, and I'd say the only way to make them look better would have been to use live actors. Facial animations are well executed, and once you get a good look at the femme fatale Elite guards, you will realize how well your enemies are built ... er, designed. Your Teutonic opposition largely speaks English with a strong accent (and unless you know German, you'll probably be thankful for this), but they do throw in the occasional catchy "Schweinhund!" and "Mein Gott!" as you tangle with them.

The AI is pretty darn smart--these certainly aren't your Daddy's Nazis anymore. Your adversaries will dodge bullets (some are very athletic at that), seek cover, and call for reinforcements or retreat if the going gets rough. Don't expect the old grenade-around-the-door-post trick to work, either. Instead of waiting until it goes off in their faces, the hostiles will back off if they can, or even kick it right back at ya. What a waste.

As far as your arsenal (that Morrissey sure is a punster, ain't he?) is concerned, you'll be wielding an array of conventional as well as experimental weaponry, all of which are exquisitely animated and sound very rich and satisfying. Since the story takes place during WW II, none of your shooters are too kooky or exotic. Instead, great care has been taken to deliver the most realistic implementation of a fairly conventional weapon, the flamethrower. The sadist in you will appreciate the sight of your howling victims vainly trying to beat out their burning uniforms (this never works, by the way). Which reminds me: you don't have to be Joseph Liebermann to come to the conclusion that this game does perhaps not belong into the hands of little game enthusiasts. RTCW is surprisingly sparing in the display of blood and gore, but the death animations are still pretty gruesome. What is missing in spraying guts is made up for by anguished screams and wails.

Visually, RTCW is breathtaking, IF you've got a beefy Mac. I played this game on a Dual 1 GHz Mirror Drive G4 with 512 MB RAM and 64 MB VRAM (ATI), and have seen the occasional frame rate hiccup with all graphics and sounds settings cranked up. There's no shame in that--it's safe to say that RTCW is among the most demanding titles out there right now. If you want to run this on an older or less powerful machine, some tweaking (most likely sacrificing some of the eye candy for performance) is going to be required.

Game play in the single-player campaign is, as a matter of fact, surprisingly easy even at the "I'm Death Incarnate" setting. If you're willing to accept a health drop to 25 % or so as satisfyingly realistic, there are few situations that you won't be able to resolve with brute force. It's a different story in some of the stealth-based scenarios, where any detection by enemy forces means the mission's scrubbed. That said, the level design is superb throughout except maybe for the predictable and oddly Super Mario-esque final boss encounter.

The problem is that there's really not much to come back for in the single-player game. Once you've played through it, the surprise factor (which plunks you in some downright scary situations at times) is gone and that's pretty much it. However, if you're a multi-player enthusiast, RTCW is well worth your money.

Unlike with many games these days, the multi-player component of RTCW is not an afterthought to the single-player game, tacked on with maybe a handful of extra maps, but a separate, dedicated application which features a fundamentally different mode of play. You get to either head into battle as a soldier with your favorite firearm, wield and defuse powerful explosives as an engineer, coordinate the attack and call in supportive (and devastating) air strikes, or do the good thing and keep your buddies alive and in the action as a medic (helping them forego the lengthy re-spawn cooldown). I haven't played too many online games of RTCW, so my observations here may not be all that representative, but I can tell you, I didn't see too many medics out there ... engineers are indispensable on some maps because you can't get at the enemy without blasting through some door or wall, but other than that, it seemed to me that everybody wants to be a gun-toting soldier, respawning wait time be damned. So in many online games, the nicely thought-out specialization system does not come to bear, but if you have some good people to play with who are willing to take on the different available roles, it should make for a very interesting play style.

In summary: if you're passionate about multi-player games, RTCW will most likely keep you very happy for a long time. On the other hand, if you don't care much for the multi-player aspect and don't have money to burn, you may want to pass on this one. It looks fantastic, but in terms of game play, there's nothing revolutionary in the single-player campaign. You'll basically be throwing your money at (admittedly serious) eye candy. Maybe you won't mind. Otherwise, save up for Unreal II.

Great FPS Low Firepower [Posted on 2004-04-02]
This is a great first person shooter for OS X if you own a G4 iMac or other lower end G4 machine. Haven't tried it on anything lower than my G4 667 powerbook, but the Powerbook seemed to have all the Processing power this game needs. This is a really good translation of the old third person game Castle Wolfenstein, and a much improved rendition over the original Wolfenstein 3D.

All in all, great bad guys, great single player and great network play without having to have the latest/greatest Mac to push it. Tons of fun.

A near classic, runs flawlessly in Leopard [Posted on 2008-01-04]
This game is old enough for all to know pretty much what there is to know about it. It's great. I played it originally a few years ago when it was still new to the Mac platform. Thought I'd try it again on the latest Macbook Pro, and it runs without error. If there's any little thing wrong, it's that I can't seem to tweak the settings to take full advantage of the good graphics card in the machine, but it's probably just that compared to Quake 4 (or any of the latest games) RTCW's graphics lack detail and thus look dated. A minor point. If you've never played it, dive in knowing that the latest Mac OS will not give the game hiccups. If you've played it before, you know there's a high degree of re-playability built into the game. Go forth and knock yourselves out!

Return to Castle Wolfenstein works fine on Mac OS-X [Posted on 2008-05-29]
While this isn't a newly released product, it's still a good one. I was greatly relieved to find all the familiar 'suspense inducing' trappings from the PC version affectionately recreated in the MacIntosh version. Following the adequate instructions for installation offered few problems during installation and the game performed as expected from there. There appears to be little to no difference between the versions. The PS/2 version of RTCW added about four to five levels prior to entering the castle, so I wasn't sure what the Mac Version would be like.

I was a big fan of RTCW from the PC version and still glad to find it so well represented now that I live on an Intel-based Mac Mini.

Click here for more details and discount information...