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I haven't played a first person shooter game
since Unreal and Half-Life. Real time strategy has consumed all my gaming time. After watching
friends play Return to Castle Wolfenstein, I was very impressed with the graphics, gameplay and
environments, in particular. So I tried it myself and was pleasantly surprised.
The story... you are B.J. Blaskowitz, a bad-ass American secret operative sent behind enemy lines
to stop Himmler's project in its tracks. The goal based, story line driven nature of the single
player mission set in the back drop of World War II's conflict is pretty interesting and in
multiplayer mode, insanely addictve. The core element of any shooter game is about the weapons and
the killings. Castle Wolfenstein's has an interesting mix of lethal weapons that includes luger
9mm, mauser 7.92 |
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mm, mp-40, sp-5 sniper, venom guns, grenades, rocket launchers and flamethrowers.
My all time favorite weapon is the sniper's rifle bolt action mauser. It's firing rate is very slow
but it packs serious stopping power and its scope is great for both sniping and scouting the environment.
As for the killings, your enemies include nazi soldiers, nazi operatives, ss guards, elite guards
(babes... by the way) as well as zombies and biomechanical mutant super soldiers. I was a bit dissapointed
that they dumbed down the blood and gore quite a bit. Nazi soldiers basically just fall down after getting
a head shot or riddle with bullets and skeletons just blow up into bits.
The AI is fairly smart but no where near as smart as unreal or Half-Life, but the AI in Wolfenstein is more
interesting. Nazi soldiers and guards may carry on an interesting conversation about what's going on, the war
efforts, how they feel, and even reveal part of the story line to you. So don't be too quick with the trigger
or you'll miss a valuable element of the game. A gaming winning element for me is definitely the beautifully
rendered and immersive environment that I've not seen since Unreal. The environments look so good that you
will want to pull a blanket over yourself in the snow stages. The environments range from the ominous Castle
Wolfenstein to peaceful village settings to cramped catacombs to horrific medieval churches and grave yards
to bomb ravaged german cities. The 3d graphics and attention to detail is award winning material. The game
however fails to immerse you into the main character (like in Half-Life), mainly I say because he never says
a word thru the entire game. The game's puzzles are very simple compared to Half-Life or Unreal and there are
no revolutionary feature like the bullet time in Max Payne, instead the focus is on the story and gameplay.
In conclusion, the fun factor in killing Nazi scum alone is worth a 4 planet rating.
Codewarrior's Rating:
4 out of 5 Planets
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