Throwback Review - Return to Castle Wolfenstein

One of the best FPS games of all time, Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a sequel to Wolfenstein 3D and showcases some of the tightest gunplay mechanics ever.

GAMEPLAY



The game has you playing as the ultimate badass who is extremely skilled at dispatching the Nazis in various varieties. The gameplay reflects that, by providing a lot of guns that range from Luger, MP40 all the way to flamethrowers and Tesla guns. Moving is very fast and you can get through game's levels at breakneck pace. That pace elevates the shooting set-pieces into a high-octane battles where every bullet and every last bit of health matters. The game does not make guns much stronger than each other meaning there is a healthy variety in your battles where you will not hesitate to use guns that are usually perceived as weaker than their counterparts. Levels are very well designed and memorable, thanks to the globetrotting nature and some well done colour palletes that showcase the atmosphere that is incredible.

STORY



The story follows an prototypical American hero who actually origins from Poland, BJ Blaskowicz, in his efforts to stop Deathshead and Heinrich Himmler in finding the artifacts that would provide the unstoppable occult soldiers to their army. Sadly, due to how old the game is, there is no subtitles, so if that makes a problem for you, story could be ignored alltogether. Gameplay makes it easier to stomach that. The story can be given plaudits for giving the player various locations like Norway, Germany, Cyprus and thus making the game rich in scope and variety. 

GRAPHICS



The game is obviously old, so the graphics are not the best for today's standards. But they still hold up, and the gunplay is similar to today's games, but more fast. Locals and building look pretty good except for some textures up close which kinda blend together. Guns in your hand look pretty detailed and realistic, along with flame coming from the flamethrower which was hailed at the time as an incredible graphics accomplishment. Water is nicely textured along with snow. Biggest problems are the character models who look pretty bad. Their textures are pasted together making them look like a blender and the same goes for the main character whose model you see only in cutscenes that are rendered in engine. 

VERDICT

Return to Castle Wolfenstein is still an incredible classic that deserves to be played even today. First time players should be mindful that it comes from a different era of gaming altogether and features old-school gunplay where covers are not really encouraged and graphics are a bit dated. This can be fixed with mods that are plentiful. The biggest fun in the game comes from shooting a great variety of enemies and travelling through some of the beautifully realized levels that are almost maze-like.