Return to Castle Wolfenstein

Released in the same year as very realistic Operation Flashpoint, this title tries to present the topic of war from a completely different perspective. Perhaps the technological advancements of the 1940s were so fast that people's imaginations were running wild with the most crazy theories. I do love the aura of mystery, especially if it revolves around horror and/or technology.

The Paranormal

I wish the creators put more emphasis on this topic to stand out from others even more. I feel like the game is a bit inconsistent in this regard, some levels resembling other shooters full of regular soldiers. On the other hand, maybe that's good because the game has some variety, and it uses those non-human enemies to adjust the difficulty as the story draws to an end. What I find lacking is the reaction of our protagonist to the supernatural events. It kind of feels like it's absolutely normal to him, and because he's not included in the cutscenes between missions, we don't see him discussing this phenomenon with his superiors. There's something more than winning the war at stake here - what if this information gets to the public? What if the unleashed dark forces can't be controlled by those who summoned them? Is it the end of the world as we know it?

Music

It's not exactly my favourite style (symphonic) and, on its own, the intro theme sounds more like an fantasy RPG than a WW II era shooter. There are a couple of clichés here, like typical military style snares, but maybe they're unavoidable. I do feel the aura of mystery, though; some sounds are creepy as hell and go far beyond what you'd expect from orchestra-like sounds on tracks like "Graveyard" or "Ravaged Town". Mixing is great, you can really feel different layers of sound (instruments being closer or farther away from you) and the space/reverb are right on point, spicing up the mystery. RTCW music feels much more original than, e.g., the MoH:AA soundtrack, leaning maybe towards dark jazz vibes. On a side note, I can imagine some string parts being played on an electric guitar through some heavy distortion and making a kick-ass metal song.

Gameplay

The major difference between RTCW and other shooters I've completed recently (Q2, Unreal, Doom 64 PC remaster) is how "tactical" I can be in this one. There are 3 ranged weapons to choose from: one regular sniper rifle, an experimental silenced one with an IR scope and a paratrooper rifle that is a great compromise between a fast machine gun and a slow sniper rifle. I feel like there are plenty of opportunities to take cover and decide how to approach the situation. On rare occasions, I had to resort to quick-save-load marathon e.g. when a stronger enemy appeared in a corridor with no place to hide. Overall, I think you can choose your style of gameplay and pace here. Paranormal enemies "scale" too fast though, and provide a much greater challenge than regular humans, which kind of makes sense in the world. My impatience took over at times and I did cheat a bit, but not as much as in e.g. Doom 64, where some levels were unbearably confusing.

Conclusion

I do regret not playing this game when it came out - for reasons unknown to me, it wasn't so popular in my town, and I don't remember any of my friends playing it. It has a much more interesting setting than, let's say, Soldier of Fortune and a campaign diverse enough to justify completing it again, perhaps with one of the mods like RealRTCW or Castle Gothicstein.