Achtung Baby, Wolfenstein Review
While most of id Software's staff is hard at work on DOOM3, a couple people hooked up with the crew at Gray Matter ( formerly Xatrix ) to put together the long awaited sequel to Wolfenstein 3D. Return to Castle Wolfenstein delivers.
While id has never been known for plot driven video games, RtCW has a fairly decent narrative to go along with it's "kill everything that moves" levels. Cut scenes done in-engine are well put together, even if the dialog is a bit off for a period piece ( I pretty sure during WW2 they would have said germ weapons, not Biological Warfare ).
The gameplay is smooth and "feels" like an id game-- smooth and natural. Its so classy, I would have forgotten it was a Wolf game until I say the "Objectives, Enemies, Secrets" counter at the end of the fist level.
Enemy AI is great. They duck and cover, use the terrain and call for backup. The EAX ranged sound on a good sound card is impressive. Conversations fade around corners and echo through stone halls in a beautiful way. The graphics are truely amazing. While only small tweaks to the Q3TA game engine were made, the flame thrower is perhaps the most impressive thing in video games today.
Overall rating 5.0 out of 5.2
