[OT] Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Game of the Year Edition

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp About a week ago, I bought myself Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Game of the Year Edition and have been playing it in both single-player and in multi-player. No offense, but it's a fun game!

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Evidently, one developer developed the single-player version of the game, while a different developer made the multi-player part of it. While both are very well done, each has a different "feel" from the other: the single-player has an engrossing story that mixes WWII action and suspense with a supernatural element added (kinda gives off an Indiana Jones-like feel to it, but you're a soldier instead of an archeologist ), while the multi-player removes the supernatural element and just pits a team of Allied soldiers against a team of Axis soldiers (by the looks of the uniforms, it's just Americans vs. Germans)... a whole different kind of fun, but fun nevertheless!

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp I remember having a blast (no pun intended) playing Castle Wolfenstein and Beyond Castle Wolfenstein on my Apple IIe way back in junior high (yes, I'm old ), but never got around to playing Wolfenstein 3D (of which RtCW is a sequel of sorts) when it was released in 1992. Well, lo and behold, the Game of the Year edition includes the full version of Wolfenstein 3D, which even works on my Windows XP.

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Overall, I'm satisfied with my purchase of this game. Has anyone else played this game, and if so, what did/do you think of it?


-G

It's one of the few games I played and finished this year. I agree that the multi-player isn't too bad, but I was super dissapointed with the single-player. ID knows how to make engines, I won't argue that, but I think that the games they make with those engines are generally uninspired. Everything was way too linear, the enemy AI was bad. It was one of those games that I've already played a million times before.

Having said that, it did look pretty good and had occasional moments of fun.

I bought this game last year, but sadly, it wouldn't run on my machine, so I ended up giving it to a friend. When Neverwinter Nights came out, I bought it, and it wouldn't run either. Having waited for NWN for 5 years or so, I went out and bought a new video card and another stick of RAM. All in all, NWN cost me $344.

:-(

Now I may just hit my friend up for RTCW and play it for a while!

Very disappointing single player game.

Get yourself Medal of Honour: Frontline, its much, much better.

IMO, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault is a much better game. And I prefer the MoH:AA multiplayer to RtCW's.

Never bothered with Wolf, since Medal of Honor and Day of Defeat gave me all the WWII gaming goodness I needed.

Medal of Honor has fantastic graphics, sound, and an amazing feeling of immersion. PLaying the game is like being IN Private Ryan. HOWEVER.....the gameplay is kinda iffy. The game literally cheats. The germans can go prone while you can't, and on later levels they have a startling sixth sense, able to shoot you on the first shot wherever you hide, and at an impossible rate of fire for the guns they're using. Not terribly realistic. I still like the game lots, tho.

If you have a copy of the game Half-Life, download the Day of Defeat mod (http://www.dayofdefeatmod.com/ ) for some of the best multiplayer action EVAR.

I've never had some of the problems you guys mention. Then again, I use the Mac version.

Anyway, I agree that the MP game is far superior to SP. But I had a ton of fun with the SP game as well... my only disappointment was the final boss, really. No strategy, just circle-strafing him worked really well.

Now I'm waiting on "The Russian Front," which is a total conversion that looks to die for...

ACHTUNG! RTCW kicked ass. The Enemy AI was diabolically lethal. You guys must be living on a different planet. The single player game was great and had an engrossing storyline, though I agree it could have been better developed. The graphics were amazing. I was terrified of the zombies and traps, and the killer cyborgs and other monstrous critters! It was an incredible game that beat my expectations.

I loved the multiplayer, too, which (refreshingly) relied on teamwork to save the day. It was great, promoting and rewarding cooperation and compromise instead of a mindless free for all killing spree like every other multiplayer I've tried (not that I don't like that kind of game, but I like having other options).

Nyarlathotep said:

ID knows how to make engines, I won't argue that, but I think that the games they make with those engines are generally uninspired. Everything was way too linear, the enemy AI was bad. It was one of those games that I've already played a million times before.

Click to expand...

Except that ID only had conceptual buy-in to the game concept, since they developed the original. They didn't actually code or develop RTCW beyond providing their blessing and some development guidance. Mind you, I completely agree with you about ID's lack of talent for designing an engrossing single-player game...just the fault for RCTW's single-player game doesn't really lie at their feet.

That said, RCTW's single-player was actually pretty good, IMHO. Was it terribly original? No. The AI wasn't bad, but we've seen better in older games. Compared to the AI in Half-Life, it was pretty weak. And while it wasn't given to the same level of cheap-shots as Serious Sam is, the 'enemy doesn't appear until you hit trigger spot X' became tedious.

Medal of Honor:AA was much more impressive from a technical standpoint, IMHO.

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Was there ever a game in the series released right after Wolfenstein 3D called Spear of Destiny? A third of the people I've asked answered "yes", another third answered "no", while the final third never heard of that game one way or the other.


-G