Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001) (VG)

Director:

Drew Markham

Writers:

John Carmack (story)
Steve Goldberg (writer)

Release Date:

November 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

You play a World War II American intelligence agent who must stop various Nazi special weapons projects predominately involving the occult.

Plot Keywords:

Nazi | Occult | American | Germany | Monk

Cast

Tony Jay	...	The Director (voice)
James Alcroft	...	Jack (voice)
Neil Ross	...	Higgs / Nazi Soldier #2 (voice)
Jonathan David Cook	...	Heinrich (voice) (as Jonathan Cook)
Charles Napier	...	Murphy (voice)
B.J. Ward	...	Nazi Cmdr. Helga Von Bulow / Nazi Woman #1 (voice)
Drew Markham	...	Nazi Soldier #1 (voice)
Peter Renaday	...	Monk (voice) (as Pete Renaday)
Jim Ward	...	Nazi Soldier #3 (voice)
Gaille Heideman	...	Nazi Woman #2 (voice)
Cam Clarke	...	Nazi Soldier #4 (voice)
Matthew Kaminsky	...	Lt. B.J. Blazkowicz (PS2 version) (voice)
Jim Piddock	...	Agent One (PS2 version) (voice)
Brian Mysliwy	...	Army Major / Egyptian #1 / Prologue German #1 (PS2 version) (voice)
Brian George	...	Egyptian #2 / Prologue German #2 (PS2 version) (voice)

Also Known As:

Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Operation Resurrection (USA)
Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War (USA)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Colour:

Colour

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Germany:(Banned) (uncensored version) | Germany:16 (modified version) | UK:15 | Australia:MA

Company:

Activision

Trivia:

In Paderborn village, in the psychic's house, there is a letter to a doctor Merkwurdigliebe. Dr. Merkwürdigliebe, meaning Dr. Strangelove, is a character from Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (1964).

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Medal of Honor: Frontline (2002) (VG)

Soundtrack:

Fuer Elise

Not as good as it should have been...

I've been getting into Quake III engine games (Alice, Heavy Metal: FAKK2, Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force) and have become quite a fan of Id Software's creation. However, like the other games, this was also extremely -- and disappointingly -- easy. In fact, I would regard this as perhaps the easiest game I've played so far, though it will give you your money's worth in game time. I found that as many good points as this game had, it also had bad points. (Note:-I haven't played this online, so my review pertains simply to the single player campaign mode.)

One of the most disappointing things is that you only battle the monsters for 1/4th of the game, the rest is played against the Nazi's who are often very tedious and simple opponents, particularly in the first 2/3rds of the game (though it has lengthy periods of excellence, mostly involving long ranged combat in bombed out cities). However, when it gets to the monsters it is worth the wait! The Lopers come into the game just when you're getting tired of the routine opponents. The game play and strategics for the monsters are quite interesting. For instance, you have to contend with zombies holding shields; if your bullets hit the shields, they will ricochet and depending upon the angle you might get hit.

Many have argued that this has a weird or even stupid storyline... I strongly disagree with that! It's one of the highlights. Unlike Aliens versus Predator 2, this is not just a story ripped straight from a single movie or movie series. Maybe you can say it contains nods to Raiders of the Lost Arc, Lord of the Rings, etc. in there but it's much more varied than most games, with more originality. The game, in fact, successfully balances the cult side with the credibility lended by the Nazi side, and whilst throughout most of the game you are only fighting humans, there is an ominous sense of dark things to come.

The introduction video is perhaps the best directed computer game animation I've seen. However, the in game videos offer very few rewards given that most of them are chat and take place in the Allies command office.

The design was handed over to Gray Matter Studios, and whilst it is really decent it is not as good as it could have been. Even some of Quake III Arena's mods have better textures than this game. Still, all of the creature designs look remarkable. And the maps are often a real joy to play, even if the levels are somewhat short. (I fail to see the relevance of the run-through-and-not-be-detected missions; if you want that style game play, there's Frank Herbert's Dune -- not the more famous Dune game, but a barely known game -- which got very bad ratings because of it.)

It's a remake of Wolfenstein 3d from 1992. The original Wolfenstein was nothing sensational. It was notable for being one of the pioneers of it's type for PC, but I played better such games on different machines. One of the worst things about the game was the awful sound fx, though with PCs at the time they were particularly weak in sound. Many have argued that the fact that the Nazi's in Return to Castle Wolfenstein scream at you in German accented English, and not the German language of the original, is disappointing. Whilst it would have been cool to have them scream at you in German, it wasn't necessarily weaker because of it. The music in the game was not very original, and whilst it was good it also was very repetitive, until near the end where it became mysterious.

The most disappointing thing about the game was it's length. On the middle difficulty setting, I found this game too easy. It always has you on the edge of your seat as for the timing of the fights, but the fights themselves are nothing especially challenging. And the end of game baddy was remarkably simple. He will keep you occupied for a short while, but once you've learned how to fight him he is easy. Maybe if he summoned up his skulls a bit more, it would be a different story.

Some decent graphics, good gameplay, excellent design (including some remarkable maps)... but all in all, it falls short of being a brilliant game, and is the weakest Quake III powered game that I've played. 7 out of 10.