Dom Robinson reviews

Distributed by
Activision

I love first-person shooters, and it's taken me a while to get round to playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein, but it's certainly been worth the wait. Regular PC gamers will know that the original Wolfenstein 3D game was the one from id software that set the wheels in motion for Doom, Quake and the subsequent sequels and since their last PC game, Quake 3, was multiplayer-only I was crying out for a single-player game again and this one doesn't disappoint... much, but just a little.

The graphics are everything you'd expect from an id FPS - well-detailed and fast. I thought at first that the guards started to act in a slightly unrealistic way when you shot them and they do to a degree - the way they sort of statically slide down steps while still in a horizontal position, for example - but this doesn't cause too much of a problem when the rest of the game is as much fun as it should be. However, while it does look up-to-date compared to its origins, it still looks like it could have been made any time in the last 2-3 years. The audio holds few surprises, but it creates exactly the right kind of atmosphere, aiding the game as you creep up to the guards, often stopping for a little while to eavesdrop on an enemy conversation before storming in and shooting them all dead. Weaponry also hits the right note, particularly when you get behind the trigger of a gattling gun and aim at the Nazi onslaught.

I haven't tried the multiplaying section yet as I'm the type of FPS gamer who mainly sticks to the single-player mode. Originally, this was because I only had a standard 56k modem and the lag of online gaming was too much to bear. Since installing an ADSL modem though, my excuse is that I still get shot down in flames instantly, but I'm slightly more ready for it because what I can see onscreen is actually happening now and I'm not three seconds behind the other participants! However you play it, it's definitely worth a play while we wait for id to turn out a third Doom version. Just one slight final niggle - when you're killed for the first time after quicksaving a game, it'll load you back into the saved gaem BEFORE that, so you have to reload your last save. Why?

GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ENJOYMENT
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2002.

This game was played on a PC with the following spec:
Intel PIII 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM (133 Mhz), Voodoo 3 3000 AGP, Soundblaster Live! 1024.