Have Fun Sturming the Castle
Developer: Gray Matter Studios (sp mode)/Nerve Software (mp mode)
Publisher: Activision (all guided by the watchful eye of id Software)
Reviewed by Johnny_Was on 12/28/01

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Warning: may contain spoilers.

First Impressions:

Graphics:

As advertised. Built on hyperbole and the Quake 3 engine, Return to Castle Wolfenstein boasts some of the most believable environments of any title this year. There are catacombs and crypts, a defiled church, a bombed-out town, a base in Norway, the Chateau Schufstaffel, and, of course, the fabled Castle Wolfenstein, all of which are rendered with an eye for texture and detail that is unerring. Iron has rust spots, moss grows on stone, and the flame effects will have you reaching for the unguent.

The cut-scenes are, frankly, a little bland: they look nice, and it's really neat that the characters teeth move independently of their mouths (the first time), but, boy, they sure crawl like molasses and break the flow of the game. The character animations in-game are especially fluid and lifelike. Soldiers run, roll, and shoot very smoothly. In multiplayer, the models actually bend at the neck and waist so when the player looks skyward, or turns to look at you running past on fire, it's really easy to tell where their attention is - a nice touch.

Enough has been written elsewhere about the technical features of the Quake 3 engine, so I'll not reproduce them here. Suffice to say that it showcases all the alpha-blending, specular lighting and curved surfaces a player could ever want. What really stands out is the artwork, and here the folks at Gray Matter have done an exemplary job.

The soldiers all have highly detailed uniforms replete with medal and insignia; some are even sporting bandages or torn clothing, adding subtly to the gritty ambience. The game is less bloody than I'd expected - Quake 3 has inured me to the detritus you get when a character explodes, so maybe I'm just jaded - but I think Wolfenstein is fairly restrained in this respect. The only time players get turned into "chunky change" is when they shake hands with the business end of a rocket launcher, or two-step with a grenade. Even then, the resultant mess appears to be toned down from Quake 3: Arena.

A final graphics note: smoke effects are, without a doubt, the best I've ever seen in a computer game. Smoke has mass and depth in Wolfenstein: players get lost in it.

Sound/Music:

The sounds are excellent throughout Return to Castle Wolfenstein: from the dull hiss of the Sten gun cooling to the bone-cracking air strikes, all are sharp and crisp. In multiplayer, there are quick voice chat commands so, without typing, participants can say "Incoming," or "You're welcome," or "Need backup," in accented English. Players can also say "Hello," and one of my favorite sounds in the game is the Axis version of this sound bite: it comes out as "'Allo," and is said in such a friendly, matter-of-fact manner that it never fails to make me giggle.

The music is a brooding, if uninspired, affair, and you'll probably turn it off fairly quickly: stealth is a significant aspect of many missions, and the music tends to disrupt the tension rather than heighten it.

Gameplay:

Return To Castle Wolfenstein is the sequel to Wolfenstein 3D (1992, id Software), which was arguably the game that started the first-person genre. Return is set during WW II: the player is cast as Army Ranger B.J. Blazkowicz, who has been sent to do battle with the Nazis and their undead hordes. Apparently, the miscreants have been experimenting with supernatural forces and it's up to B.J. to put the kibosh on the whole program.

The odyssey begins in a prison cell, but before it's finished you'll have traveled all over Eastern Europe -- in a straight line, mind you: there's no non-linear story telling in this game. With stops in an alpine village, an underground crypt, a forest compound, a secret weapons facility, and a heavily guarded dam, among others, you'll never be bored by your surroundings and you'll tour some genuinely believable locations.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein is your standard first-person shooter: you make your way through each level, dispatching baddies until you reach the end where you're presented with a splash screen detailing the time you took, the number of attempts you made to finish it, how many secrets you found, and then you move on. You cannot be sidetracked: some doors just refuse to be opened. Some levels require stealth and some do not. Occasionally, you'll have to fight a "boss" monster to complete a section. The game has some shocks, such as enemies popping out of unexpected places, but that's about as deep as the game play gets.

There's nothing really revolutionary here, at least not in single player (see below for comments on multiplayer): it looks great, it sounds great, it just leaves no aftertaste. Wolfenstein also has some mission variety. At points, the player is tasked with sneaking aboard a supply truck, shepherding a panzer tank through a bombed-out town, and assassinating officers in a villa. This is all fine and fun, but somehow it just feels…slight. Part of the problem, I'm sure, is how fully multiplayer hooked me: I had to force myself to go through the single player component. Also, seven of the eight multiplayer maps are based on locations in the single player game, so when I got to them I'd already seen them, I knew the layout, and I wasn't as immersed as I should have been.

Another problem (for me, at least), is the level-ending splash. This sometimes occurs at arbitrary points -- a hallway or an air duct, for example - rather than organically at the exit to a location, and makes Wolfenstein feel more like a video game than I'd prefer. Other titles, No One Lives Forever and Thief 2, say, have also had level-ending splash screens, but they didn't bother me because I had multiple objectives to pursue. Additionally, the splash only showed up when I'd achieved those objectives and gotten out of the location, so they still felt like missions.

Return To Castle Wolfenstein has a fine pedigree, but it's like a new car: it has the gleaming chrome, the buffed leather interior, the shiny glass, mirrored hub caps, and the horses under the hood. However, the sooner you realize that it's just a stylish, souped-up version of your old clunker, and all it really does is get you from A to B, the happier you'll be with it.

Enjoyment:

I had, and continue to have, a blast with multiplayer. While single player is fun, it feels a bit hollow and undercooked. The code is solid, stable, and virtually bug-free.

Multiplayer:

This is the real juice of the game. Return to Castle Wolfenstein is the first title I ever purchased for single player where I was quickly seduced by its multiplayer game. Players can connect to a server through the in-game browser, which downloads a list from the master server, or through GameSpy. You'll then be asked to select a side, Axis or Allies, and a class: choose from Soldier, Engineer, Medic, or Lieutenant. Each class has its own skills and abilities. For example, the Soldier can use the heavy weapons, while the Engineer receives more grenades and can plant and disarm dynamite. Alternatively, the Medic can hand out med packs and revive fallen comrades, and the Lieutenant can hand out ammo and call in air strikes. Each is essential to a winning team.

Return's multiplayer game was built by Nerve, [Editor's note: Gray Matter? Nerve? id? Anyone noticing a motif? - Banshee] and they've addressed some of the typical problems of multiplayer gaming. When players die, they can either wait to be revived by a Medic, or they can press a key and go into a limbo state. The latter lasts anywhere from 3 to 30 seconds: during this time they can watch the game and wait to be respawned with the incoming "reinforcements." If the player is not revived, and does not hit the key to join the reinforcements, he or she may wait for the next group (or for a friendly passing Medic to bring them back). It's a very elegant system: there are no health stations on the map, nor ammo packs, and players must work together to achieve their objectives.

What are these objectives? Well, there's no traditional deathmatch mode here, where everyone shoots everyone else. Instead, one of the maps calls for the Allies to destroy some Axis radar towers, while another takes place in an Axis submarine pen where they must prevent the Allies from sinking the docked U-Boat. Each map has multiple goals: players must gain access to a certain area, destroy a target, and defend an objective; all have appropriate layouts. My personal favorite is a bombed town that has half a dozen "control points." In that one, there is a courtyard in the middle of the map that usually ends up containing the last two disputed flags, and most of the battle centers around that spot: it's really fun to fight in such a concentrated area, and it gives a genuine sense of trying to gain ground over an adversary.

The multiplayer component also has some nice administrative features. Did someone from your team shoot and kill you? No problem: a message pops up asking if you'd like to file a complaint against them. If that player gets a certain number of complaints, he or she is kicked off the server. Bored with the map? Fair enough: call a vote, and everyone playing can decide to move on to the next one.

The maps are large and well designed; you really need to learn them to be an effective player. Additionally, the classes are extremely well balanced. This is the most fun I've had online with a shooter since the first Quake was released and I learned what a rush this genre could be.

Overall Impression:

If you're not able to play multiplayer due to technical restrictions, or if you only like single player gaming, wait until Wolfenstein is a bit cheaper, and then buy it. It's a fun ride; just don't expect it to change your life. If you're a multiplayer fan who digs the shooter form and is looking for something more involving than the usual deathmatch, then you should stop what you're doing and go get a copy: it's like a 240v blast in a copper bathtub.

Marketing Efforts Towards Women:

Zero - see the pictures below. You can only play as B.J. Blazkowicz. Much of the advertising for Return to Castle Wolfenstein features some female Elite Guards from the single player game wearing tight black leather and cleavage. There is also a fairly hateful stereotype in the form of an overweight German woman who comes to a messy end. The one or two female NPCs you meet just stand around looking scared and heaving their bounteous bosoms while you rescue them from their tormentors.

Furthermore, there are no female player models for multiplayer. On the Planet Wolfenstein message boards, people are making the argument that there were no women fighting in the war. This is just plain wrong, but even if it weren't, no one was getting revived a hundred times to get sent back into the fray, either: you can't play the "historical accuracy" card unless we all get one life and when we're dead we have to go play something else. I expect that someone will make female skins soon enough, but Activision has made a serious omission by not including them with the release. Some of the more delicate male, ahem, members of the community have expressed some unhappiness about "seeing women being shot and stuff," which seems odd to me because they never complained about the abundance of female player models in Quake 3: Arena.

Randomly, when you play as the Allies in multiplayer, you will spawn as an African-American, so obviously someone was thinking with a politicized mindset. Why they couldn't have added a sex assignment option before you select your class is beyond me.