Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory

"Who am I kidding? It's free... and good!"

Return to Castle Wolfenstein, for those who bought it, offered enough high adrenaline killing in the multiplayer rounds, but didnt quite have the depth of less deathmatch-style team based shooters like Battlefield 1942. It wasn't a great value for the price, which is why Enemy Territory comes as such a pleasant suprise.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is a completely free full game that you can download and play for absolutely $0. It expands on the ideas in the original while keeping the same excellent gameplay intact. And when it inevitably gets a bit old, it hardly feels like you've wasted 50 bucks.

Gameplay

6 maps here, but for free who can complain? They are well designed and nice to look at. Each have the two teams Axis and Allies going at it with set objectives in place. Teams have to bring a tank from point A to point B, blowing up obstacles and stuff. Players can choose from different classes, such as the basic grunt with access to an array of weapons or more specialized units like covert ops, who can throw smoke grenades and steal enemy uniforms. Having a good balance of units is essential to a team's success.

Gameplay is fast, frentic, and very fun - it feels like a standard quake deathmatch infused with team play and objectives, which creates an incredibly addicting game. It is also helped by the addition of a feature that tallies kills, objectives, and such to give out Experience points. Much like an RPG, these points can build your character's rank, unlock new weapons, and give you advantages like faster reload time. There are a variety of ways to get points - a medic who stays back and heals people can earn as many points as the guy who sends a roomfull of guys into outerspace via Panzerfaust.

Very addictive, very well designed gameplay warrents a 10/10.

Graphics/Sound

Nothing to complain about here. Very nice graphics, nice fire effects, good, gory explosions. The soundtrack is good and guns are relatively good sounding. The constant crack of gunfire, screams, and explosions that goes on through the game help create an immersive atmosphere.

OVERALL: An excellent game even without the whole free part. It does get old after a while but not before you have had an obscene amount of play time. And you can always come back to it for a quick round. If it cost money, it would get a 9/10, but because of the generosity of the game makers Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory snags the full 10/10.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/09/04