Return to Castle Wolfenstein

by Aspyr

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005V55B
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: April 25, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,547 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #8 in Video Games > Mac Games > Action > Shooter

Product Description

Platform: Mac | Edition: Standard

Amazon.com Product Description

You are B.J. Blazkowicz, a highly decorated Army Ranger recruited into the Office of Secret Actions (OSA) tasked with escaping and then returning to Castle Wolfenstein in an attempt to thwart Heinrich Himmler's occult and genetic experiments. Himmler believes himself to be a reincarnation of a 10th-century dark prince, Henry the Fowler, also known as Heinrich. Through genetic engineering and the harnessing of occult powers, Himmler hopes to raise an unstoppable army to level the Allies once and for all.

You must first escape from imprisonment in the castle to report the strange creatures and happenings in and around Wolfenstein to the OSA. Your mission takes a drastic turn as you learn the depth of Himmler's plans and what you must do to defeat the evil he has unleashed. Your surroundings will be dangerous and hostile. The OSA is currently tracking activities believed to be associated with Himmler in locations throughout Germany, including villages overrun by the occult, hidden crypts, forests, air bases, secret weapons facilities, and genetic labs.

Enter a highly immersive story line driven by realistic, mission-based action gameplay, believable AI, and the Quake III engine. Arm yourself with an arsenal of weapons, including Luger 9mm, Mauser 7.92mm, MP-40, SP-5 sniper, venom guns, grenades, rocket launchers, and flamethrowers. The game also features a multiplayer mode pitting players in a team-based Axis versus Allies contest for frontline domination.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stunning graphics, smart AI, but not much innovative play, April 15, 2003

By 

HLB (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Mac) (CD-ROM)

Remember that Simpsons episode where Homer is sucked into a higher (three-dimensional) reality and has his mind blown for a little while? If you still remember the old Wolfenstein 3D, that may very well be how you're going to feel once you fire up Return to Castle Wolfenstein (aka RTCW--I'm lazy). The graphics are stunning, including highly realistic textures, fog, lighting effects, and of course nearly photorealistic opponents. Environmental sound effects and wonderful--often hilarious--voice acting round off the illusion. All cut scenes are produced using the in-game engine, and I'd say the only way to make them look better would have been to use live actors. Facial animations are well executed, and once you get a good look at the femme fatale Elite guards, you will realize how well your enemies are built ... er, designed. Your Teutonic opposition largely speaks English with a strong accent (and unless you know German, you'll probably be thankful for this), but they do throw in the occasional catchy "Schweinhund!" and "Mein Gott!" as you tangle with them.

The AI is pretty darn smart--these certainly aren't your Daddy's Nazis anymore. Your adversaries will dodge bullets (some are very athletic at that), seek cover, and call for reinforcements or retreat if the going gets rough. Don't expect the old grenade-around-the-door-post trick to work, either. Instead of waiting until it goes off in their faces, the hostiles will back off if they can, or even kick it right back at ya. What a waste.

As far as your arsenal (that Morrissey sure is a punster, ain't he?) is concerned, you'll be wielding an array of conventional as well as experimental weaponry, all of which are exquisitely animated and sound very rich and satisfying. Since the story takes place during WW II, none of your shooters are too kooky or exotic. Instead, great care has been taken to deliver the most realistic implementation of a fairly conventional weapon, the flamethrower. The sadist in you will appreciate the sight of your howling victims vainly trying to beat out their burning uniforms (this never works, by the way). Which reminds me: you don't have to be Joseph Liebermann to come to the conclusion that this game does perhaps not belong into the hands of little game enthusiasts. RTCW is surprisingly sparing in the display of blood and gore, but the death animations are still pretty gruesome. What is missing in spraying guts is made up for by anguished screams and wails.

Visually, RTCW is breathtaking, IF you've got a beefy Mac. I played this game on a Dual 1 GHz Mirror Drive G4 with 512 MB RAM and 64 MB VRAM (ATI), and have seen the occasional frame rate hiccup with all graphics and sounds settings cranked up. There's no shame in that--it's safe to say that RTCW is among the most demanding titles out there right now. If you want to run this on an older or less powerful machine, some tweaking (most likely sacrificing some of the eye candy for performance) is going to be required.

Game play in the single-player campaign is, as a matter of fact, surprisingly easy even at the "I'm Death Incarnate" setting. If you're willing to accept a health drop to 25 % or so as satisfyingly realistic, there are few situations that you won't be able to resolve with brute force. It's a different story in some of the stealth-based scenarios, where any detection by enemy forces means the mission's scrubbed. That said, the level design is superb throughout except maybe for the predictable and oddly Super Mario-esque final boss encounter.

The problem is that there's really not much to come back for in the single-player game. Once you've played through it, the surprise factor (which plunks you in some downright scary situations at times) is gone and that's pretty much it. However, if you're a multi-player enthusiast, RTCW is well worth your money.

Unlike with many games these days, the multi-player component of RTCW is not an afterthought to the single-player game, tacked on with maybe a handful of extra maps, but a separate, dedicated application which features a fundamentally different mode of play. You get to either head into battle as a soldier with your favorite firearm, wield and defuse powerful explosives as an engineer, coordinate the attack and call in supportive (and devastating) air strikes, or do the good thing and keep your buddies alive and in the action as a medic (helping them forego the lengthy re-spawn cooldown). I haven't played too many online games of RTCW, so my observations here may not be all that representative, but I can tell you, I didn't see too many medics out there ... engineers are indispensable on some maps because you can't get at the enemy without blasting through some door or wall, but other than that, it seemed to me that everybody wants to be a gun-toting soldier, respawning wait time be damned. So in many online games, the nicely thought-out specialization system does not come to bear, but if you have some good people to play with who are willing to take on the different available roles, it should make for a very interesting play style.

In summary: if you're passionate about multi-player games, RTCW will most likely keep you very happy for a long time. On the other hand, if you don't care much for the multi-player aspect and don't have money to burn, you may want to pass on this one. It looks fantastic, but in terms of game play, there's nothing revolutionary in the single-player campaign. You'll basically be throwing your money at (admittedly serious) eye candy. Maybe you won't mind. Otherwise, save up for Unreal II.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing..., May 2, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Mac) (CD-ROM)

I first saw this game in action on my friend's PC, and this game really made an awesome first impression. Afterwards, I found that this game was scheduled to hit the Mac in February. So, I preordered it on Jan. 16. On February 1, it was delayed a month. March 1, delayed another month. April, delayed another month. Thank god it finally came. It was worth the wait. First off, with even a low-end 3D card, the graphics ROCK. Gameplay is intense, especially in the quiet levels of the catacombs, but even nastier are the X-Labs. Think Alien with nazis and dark knights thrown in. Now, about the difficulty of this game: if you are like me, and usually play FPSs (first-person shooters) on normal or medium difficulty levels, PLAY THIS GAME ON EASY FIRST. At first, the game is pretty easy, then, as soon as you hop into the catacombs, this game starts to get HARD. The guns are awesome, my personal fav. being the Paratroop rifle. You can utilize the knife, luger, Colt 1911, MP40, Thompson, silenced Sten, Mauser, Snoop sniper rifle, Paratroop rifle, "Potato smasher" grenades, Frag grenades, Panzerfausts, the awesome Venom chaingun, and the very thoroughly done flamethrower. The absolute best part of this game is how the gameplay varies alot, from infiltration to escape, to raid, to rescue, to spying. This game is an absolute MUST-HAVE for any Mac gamer!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW!, August 18, 2002

By 

-=ES=- Enver (my mulitplayer name) ... - See all my reviews

This review is from: Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Mac) (CD-ROM)

To start out this game rocks.

Rating System- 1 Bad- 5 Great

The GRAPHICS 5-Great landscapes and the enemies are lifelike.

THE SOUND 4- Guns sound real , but sometimes its hard to hear what the guards are saying. Also the music is repeated a lot.

REPLAY VALUE 5- This has the most replay value out of any game I played (a large part of this is the mulitplayer is so fun!). The Single Player has easy, medium, and hard.

NOTE: Single player is very hard even on easy. It has taken me almost three months to complete it in easy.

The MULTIPLAYER IS GREAT!
Their are four classes you can be.
1.The soldier- Can have all the weopons i.e. Flamethrower, sniper rifle and the venom gun(chain gun).
2. The Engineer- The demolitions crew. Has dynamite and blows up walls, doors,etc. He also has the most grenades.

3. The Medic- Revives fallen teamates also hands out med packs. The Medics Health regenerates over time.
4. Lieutenate- Calls in air strikes and hands out ammo packs.

This is a great game that has come to the Mac.
I have to say Thanks to Aspyr for making it.
Please don't wait. Get it now.

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