Original Review Date: August 22, 2017
Wolfenstein is perhaps the strangest series of FPSs to date, and it’s not because of the combination of fighting the Nazis, the Occult and Sci-fi machinations of the two as games like Rise of the Triad one-up Wolfenstein’s campiness. As a series of games, each iteration of Wolfenstein manages to reinterpret the core idea of shooting Nazis from the original Apple 2 “stealth” games into first-person perspectives of the originals where the fragility of the player and the pace of each game attempts to imitate the illusion of stealth as a first-person shooter. Even in the development of Wolfenstein 3D, stealth was always meant to be viable with the action, which is perhaps what makes these games distinct from other old-school FPSs/iD games as it’s not all about the action.
This balance of action and stealth is what the three soft-reboots have attempted to polish in a strange continuity of both narrative and mechanics that has created a complicated series that has shifted as much of its tone as its gameplay over the generations. Return to Castle Wolfenstein is the first of these reboots that harkens back to the intentions of Wolfenstein 3D showcasing the series’ potential as a hybrid of the old and the new schools of FPSs as well as the flaws when one approach to combat impacts the satisfaction of the other. Compared to the most recent reboot by Machine Guns, Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a game you have to tolerate its decisions for difficulty and its underdeveloped ideas for first-person stealth to redefine the simple thrills of ruining Nazi parties with the undead.
Metallgetriebe Wolfen This is Not
If you are expecting Return to Castle Wolfenstein to handle WW2 in a nuanced manner that follows a lone soldier tracking the paranormal division of the Nazis to free the magical ritual that has imprisoned the Germanic King Henry the Fowler who commands the dead, then you clearly have never played the original which featured Mecha-Hitler and Frankenstein mutants. However, if you are expecting the story to play off its campier elements based on real history with a straight face and a hidden smirk, then you will also be somewhat disappointed. Even in the moments that show some level of humor like the delivery truck with cheese and sausage, the game remains tone-deaf to its serious and silly natures.
As someone who remains shocked that a character nicknamed B.J. would become his own personality as an FPS icon, the lack of character in Return to Castle Wolfenstein is understandable. It’s a shame then that the story itself and other characters add nothing to the game other than a colorful cast of villains and real-life locales based on real history, and a blander cast of supporting characters for mission briefings. Even the occult and sci-fi influences add little to no substance for most of the experience as the campaign feels heavily grounded in reality with only a few rare occurrences where undead, super-soldiers and femme fetal S.S. soldiers add more personality to the experience. The same can also be said for the gameplay which often feels like another WW2 shooter until you get a Tesla Cannon or a Mini-gun to remind you are playing a Wolfenstein game.
The Wolf-In-Stein’s Clothing
As an FPS that came before DOOM, Return to Castle Wolfenstein is placed in an interesting circumstance to innovate Wolfenstein with its origins as well as incorporate modern innovations that came after the success of its successor. This is largely evident from the much larger arsenal for Blazkowicz as he is equipped with pistols, carbine rifles, mini-guns, flamethrowers, various sub-machine guns, anti-tank rockets and the Tesla lightning gun. On top of the wider variety of weaponry with more utility than different rates of ammo usage, some of these weapons come with silencers, scopes and duel-wield handguns. While these new ideas are not groundbreaking, they do distinguish Wolfenstein from iD’s other FPSs as far as mechanical differences along with Return to Castle Wolfenstein's differences in it’s the game’s pace and its level-design.
Levels themselves are far more compact, interconnected and mainly linear compared to the maze-like design of the original, which isn’t necessarily a bad change. As a result of the high damage output of enemies on every difficulty and the aim reticle increasing with movement and with the fire-rate, the player is encouraged to peek around corners and learn enemy placements for repeated runs which can be done with less caution. Modern linear FPSs usually have one direction of an approach with the scenery surrounding them more for show than for exploration. Unless the areas are distant away places or many buildings clustered together, there are a lot of distractions such as secrets for supplies and pointless treasures as well as deviations on the main path to hide away the linearity of the game. Even in these more scripted environments, there are often various means to explore the layout such as the Dam level and the game mostly never forces the stealth play-style on you except for two levels.
These two levels are mainly scripted environments in open areas where a misplaced shot can spell game over because another guard will trip an alarm from far away, and their inclusion otherwise diminishes an experience that manages to encourage both reckless and cautious players. Alarms themselves were incentives for the player to use silenced weapons or to destroy these alarms before large encounters, and the lack of fail states and absurd enemies throughout most of the game to penalize one play-style makes this issue larger than it really is. Unfortunately, the same could be said for the forced combat scenarios that will rob any player from the satisfaction in completing a level without alerting the guards. Although future games still suffer from this latter issue, Return to Castle Wolfenstein stands out because of how limited they are as alarms in normal levels do not spawn more enemies nor does every encounter encourage total mobility nor camping around corners. The result of all these undeveloped ideas makes Return to Castle Wolfenstein want to have its stealth return and make it action-packed too, which are two completely different rhythms of play and different rules to adhere to.
The One Time Where Punching Nazis for Being Nazis Is Okay
As much as there are a lot of issues with Return to Castle Wolfenstein, perhaps it’s with too high of expectations after the third reboot of Wolfenstein to expect previous games to flesh out as much of its narrative qualities as well as have as much polish to today’s gameplay standards. Even with games like Strife (1996) and the immersive sim genre, FPSs were attempting to incorporate more storytelling potential and mechanical deviations of the same FPS mechanics. This isn’t even including how groundbreaking the multiplayer team-based mode was at the time, so perhaps the single-player of Return to Castle Wolfenstein mainly wants to revel in the spectacle of shooting Nazis for the sake of fighting them along with the evil forces beneath the earth and in the desire of power in men. Even if it’s not the main features like previous iD games, the campaign holds up much better than a majority of modern FPSs that run for a similar length of time.
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