Turin's Full Review: Return To Castle Wolfenstein Game Of The Year Edit...
The original Wolfenstein 3d was one of my favorite games in the Doom era. I enjoyed the more realistic feel to the game than other fps, which focused more on fantasy and the occult. The AI was also impressive back then, as the German soldiers would open doors, walk around halls and come up behind you. A feat I have seen in only very few other games since. Thus, I was eagerly anticipating the release of RTCW.
Graphics
The Graphics are gorgeous. I was much more impressed with RTCW than I was with Quake 3 Arena, the game whose engine RTCW is running off of (a modified version). The characters were very detailed and sharp looking, the environments were awesome, and the maps were planned out fantastically. The single player game flows very smoothly from mission to mission. They mix up the environments that you move through as you go, and each town/city feels unique as do all the various bases and outside locations. There were problems in single player with the graphics in the engine, but I will talk more about that in a bit.
Sound
The sound in wolfenstein is among the best that I have heard in any game. The truth is, I don’t really remember much of the music, but that is more because I’m too immersed in the game when I’m playing. The music and sound effects help do that. Each gun fires a little differently, each terrain sounds a little different when you move across it, the voice acting was even pretty decent for a game. The only complaints that I have for it, is the “breaking” sound effect. If you kick and break a chair, a grate, an object, or something hanging on a wall, it all sounds the same and a little lame, but I can live with that.
Gameplay
The gameplay is awesome. I spent I-don’t-know-how-many hours playing the mp beta/demo alone. In Single-Player mode the game engine has lots of problems, which I reiterate, I will get to. Thanks for the patience. When the game is working, it is enormous fun. I really enjoyed the first part of Max Payne (the mob-themed part), but I have enjoyed RTCW even more so than that at this point. The missions up to this point (I am about 10 missions in I believe, it’s hard to keep track cause the game keeps crashing) are very tactical. You have objectives to complete; some of which require being fast and some of them require stealth. In that sense it incorporates some of the concepts that I liked best about Operation Flashpoint. However, the game keeps moving, where in Op FP you often have to wait, or crawl ever so slowly.
In Multi-Player the game is just as awesome, if not more so. In MP mode, you join a server and have to pick to play as either the Allies or Axis team. You then get to pick your role: Soldier, Medic, Lt, or Engineer. Each role has certain bonuses and weaknesses.
The Soldier can use all the weapons available and has 4 grenades. Only he can use the sniper rifle, venom machine gun, flame-thrower, and panzerfaust (rpg).
The Engineer can only use the MP40 and Thompson machine guns (all units can use the pistol). The Engineer gets 8 grenades and his class only can drop, arm, and disarm dynamite.
The Lt. Only has 1 grenade, and he is limited to the same gun selection as the engineer. However, he can distribute and replenish ammunition to his teammates. He also can call down air-strikes.
The last class is the Medic. The Medic can only use the pistol and MP40. However, he can heal his teammates, his health regenerates, and he can resurrect fallen comrades. He also only carries one grenade. (Thus you see the importance of grenades, you can’t resurrect a person when they are scattered about the room.
In the MP maps, you generally NEED all the different roles to be filled to be successful. You can get away without having a permanent Engineer on your team (you can switch your job function and teams during the game, but at time delay penalties. You can also switch your role when you respawn after dying for no penalty). The maps are well defined (There are a myriad of nuances in the maps for you to discover. If you stand on a crate here, it just gives you perfect sniping position to an area over there, etc. The maps are very well balanced, and it’s fun to play as either side.
Controls
The controls are pretty typical for first-person-shooter these days. Every function is also customizable to fit your liking. All the controls are straight forward, simple and clean.
Problems
Finally we get to the problems: The game is in DIRE need of patching. What games aren’t in need upon release these days? Wolfenstein is ALMOST UNPLAYABLE in single player. I have not had any trouble running anything, or multitasking games, file transfer, movies, and multiple chat clients at the same time, even while typing epinions and reading the latest news on the War in Afghanistan and listening to music.
I sincerely suggest that you READ the README file after installing the game. Most games/programs you can ignore it, don’t do that with RTCW.
In order to get the game working on my machine, I had to install all the latest drivers, remove and reinstall my TV card and software, modify my registry, and download and install DirectX 8.1. I also eventually had to run some Norton SystemWorks 2002 utilities off the cd to correct any registry errors and check my hard drives, which thankfully had no corruption. I also had to reinstall and restore default settings and re-customize the controls afterwards. Why all the trouble? Well the readme will detail you in on some of the problems, and they admit to having lots of problems with graphics cards. I got wolf working, for the most part. The game still crashes about once every other mission. Usually, I can control-alt-del out and end the task, however last time it did horrible things to my display and I had to turn the power off and reboot.
Here are some tips to help you get running:
- READ the README. Please, it may save you a big headache.
- Get the latest drivers for your video card ahead of time. If you know what hardware is in your machine, you can go to your manufacturer’s website and dl an installer that will update your drivers. If you are hesitant or not sure how to do this, than I would try running the game first and seeing if you have problems.
- If you have a Logitech mouse with a scroll-wheel, then you should go to www.logitech.com and download the latest mouseware. THIS IS ESSENTIAL if you are running Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2.
- There is also registry patch that you need for older Logitech mice that will make the scroll-wheel work in RTCW and other games, though I haven’t had a problem in other games. You can get the patch for all operating systems here:
- Make Sure that you have DirectX8.0a installed (it comes on game cd if you need it) or run windows update and get DirectX8.1 from Microsoft.
- USE THE AUTO CONFIG OPTION in the settings menu. When I tried to increase the resolution over 640x480 in single player the game worked fine until I opened a door, then it crashed. In 1024 the game ran fine for about 5 minutes than it crashed. My friend had the same problem. If I tried to increase the texture detail settings, it crashed. If I tried to turn Light Mapping on, it crashed. My system can handle these settings. MY friend was playing at the computer store where he works on their demo gaming machine and had the same problems. He again encountered them at home. All three machines are high end machines, with top-quality components. He has a 1.2ghz Athlon with a Geforece3 and he claims “It’s funny how buggy Wolf is, considering it’s running on the Quake 3 engine. Especially when you consider how sickeningly my system handles Quake 3.” He runs Quake3 in 1600x1280 at max detail, with no slowdown. The only option I could change that didn’t crash the game was setting all the textures and color depths to 32bit.
Conclusion
Yes, the game was worth all the trouble, the crashing and risking data and hardware integrity by forcing hard-reboots is irritating and worrying. The game is extremely enjoyable when it’s working however. You may want to wait till the start releasing patches for it. It’s kind of funny, but trying to get to the official RTCW web page or activision’s wolfenstein page is about as fruitful as trying to play without crashing. I can’t ever seem to get there. If you don’t want to wait for the patches, I don’t blame you. The game still looks great at 640x480 in 32bit with normal detail settings. I would try installing, and check those tips I mentioned above. Good luck and have fun.
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