Return to Castle Wolfenstein

Return to Castle Wolfenstein has a good enough story, good shooting mechanics with a decent variety of weapons, and nicely paced gameplay. The game really rewards you for thinking about how you will deal with each time you encounter enemies. Don't get me wrong, it may not be one of the most strategic shooters out there, but it strikes a nice balance between letting you be slow and methodical while also rewarding mechanical skill. The game has a few stealthy sections that keep it from getting too monotonous as well. It's definitely one of my favorite shooters overall.

In short: The Bad: - The stamina bar does not belong in this game, throw it away. For example, the final boss very much needs you to sprint like a madman at all times to avoid a very annoying, blinding homing attack. You're better off bunnyhopping. - Underutilized item system. I got a portable healing item. Once. And it's underpowered and it blinds you when used. Also it was a secret. - Stubborn, unstaggerable, inconsistent, etc, enemies. Soldiers eating miniguns to the face without flinching, sometimes shooting you with seemingly perfect accuracy while sprinting at you, those electric enemies that throw themselves at you and kill you within seconds, that can also hurt you through ceilings. The tesla super soldier boss. The bosses generally aren't very good. I guess the last boss is the best one, but even that is ruined by the stupid stamina system. - All of the mandatory stealth parts. Stealth should always be optional in a Wolfenstein game. This series is about kicking down doors and making nazis eat shit in the loudest and most lead filled way possible. Not about tiptoeing around and making sure the enemy doesn't spot the tip of your shoe from 2 miles away. - Once again, GoG are too lazy to change 2 lines of code to allow modern resolutions to be selectable. Oh well, at least the game ran fine otherwise. Also the mouse aiming/sensitivity just feels off in general. - USELESS TREASURE THAT HAS NO PRACTICAL USE. Just for the shits and giggles and completion I guess. It would have been cool if getting a certain number of treasure upgraded your max health/armor/ammo capacity, etc. Also, armor pickups are insultingly rare a lot of the time. - And a bunch of other stuff I can't think of. The Good: + Schut nazis. + Game still looks decent for it's age. + Occasional humor Verdict: Just play The New Order or the original. Or at the very least mod this to the point where it fixes all the stupid frustrating bullshit, unpolish, unbalance, and other jank.

Return To Castle Wolfenstein isn't a game that gets talked about much whenever the series is brought up in conversation, which is a damn shame. It's a great realization of the series unshackled from the limitations of Wolfenstein 3D. One of the game's best strengths is its variety of missions. The campaign has BJ running the gauntlet of everything from ancient ruins filled with undead horrors, to science labs full of horrific experiments and even a V2 rocket base. On top of that, the game is built on the Q3 engine, which lends the movement and shooting mechanics a smooth, responsive feel on top of German soldiers that can be surprisingly tough to fight, with special mention going to the German paratroopers whose FG42s will make mincemeat out of you in the latter half of the campaign. It's a classic that's well worth experiencing, rivaled only by Wolfenstein: The New Order.

Between nowadays archaic Wolf3D and over the top, cinematic driven New Order there is RTCW, reboot of the series from 2001. While story begins almost the same as old Wolf3D, it quickly goes its own way. Instead of traversing endless mazes, you will visit titular Castle Wolfenstein, catacombs, bombarded city, secret labs, villages... Secret hunting, however, it still there. Game encourages stealth approach. Some guns can be equipped with silencers, and by not alerting Nazis you can easily kill them one by one, instead of all at once. Sometimes stealth it's mandatory, but most of time you can play in all-guns-blazing style if you prefer. Enemies are varied, despite being limited by story setting: from Third Reich troops through zombies to Ubersoldaten. Graphically, game aged rather well - locations look realistic, as well as weapons and especially soldiers uniforms. And last, but not least - orchestral music composed by Bill Brown perfectly matches gameplay. It easily steals the spotlight and holds up even today. However, RTCW is not perfect. This is probably the only FPS where I wish there were less weapons: pistols, Thompson and Snooper are almost never used. Explosive weapons are also underwhelming, Nazis will run away from grenades every time. SS Female Guards appearance steps into weird leather fetish territory, which I feel does not match rest of the game. Also I wish enemies spoke proper German, instead of English with German accent with couple "jawohls" here and there. Subtitles aren't THAT scary :) And lastly, RTCW won't run on modern OS at all unless fanmade high-res patch is applied. While I understand that GOG wants to preserve game as it was released, but additional checkbox for patch during installation would be nice :) Despite being nitpicky in previous paragraph, I consider RTCW the best game in the series. I recently came back to it after many years and I was surprised how well it has aged. Highly recommended.

Grew up with Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, which I liked a lot, but it was filled with as many bad levels as there were great levels. Finally played Return to Castle Wolfenstein way way later, and RTCW is basically just "what if MOHAA was excellent 90% of the time instead of ~33% of the time?" -the game. On top of that, the guns feel more fun to use than MOHAA's, and RTCW has secret hunting that rewards and incentivizes exploration and re-playthroughs. Also character movement feels smoother in RTCW, and kicking doors open feels fun (and is faster than opening by hand). RTCW is a top 5 FPS game of all time IMO.