Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War

"From a single player perspective, this game leaves much to be desired"

This game, which garnered critical acclaim and many Game of the year (GOTY) accolades on the PC finally found itself ported to the console. Sadly, it didn't retain all that made it so enjoyable on the PC.

Since I am a single player (SP) as opposed to a multiplayer gamer (MP), it is important to recognize that this review only pertains to the single player campaign.

Graphics
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This is actually a very competent job of porting to the Xbox. In many games, one finds numerous jaggies and graphical translations that just don't ring true. For the most part, this game does not have any of that. The levels are built well and rarely slow down. There were a few areas where the frame rate dropped, but not so numerous that it is worth criticising too heavily on. Weapons are drawn well and animate nicely. Levels are often spacious and there are nice secondary touches (like breakable street signs, wall signs) that help to immerse the gamer further into the Wolfenstein world.

Sound
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Sound is very well implemented, from a surround sound perspective. The weapons in the game generally have a great feel and sound, but a few of them feel completely wrong as well. Depending on which weapon you have, you will notice the difference. The score, while excellent in composition, is completely over-killed. By my count, this game contains about 5 pieces which rotate as per the level of tension in the game. These orchestral pieces, while wonderfully arranged, become a massive annoyance and leaves the gamer praying for a new sound on each level. Keep praying because it isn't happening here. You will hate the music by the time the game is over. Mark my words.

Story
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One doesn't really expect much in the way of story when picking up a game like this. As happened in the original Wolfenstein 3D, the idea was to throw you head-first into a game and have you attack the nazi's as soon as possible. Not much has changed really. Your character is a special guy in the US army. The story basically has you watching a bunch of government/army guys fretting about what to do with the next nazi weapon or freak scientist...and there's a lot of it that gets regurgitated over the course of the game. As B. J. Blazkewitz (sp), you embark on corridor crawl after corridor crawl, to find out who is behind the mess. That's the story in a nutshell, save for the zombies, which is another thing altogether.

Gameplay
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This is standard FPS fodder, meaning that you will not find anything to exciting or revolutionary. The game pits you against a good number of enemies and does offer up a good challenge. There is some rudimentary puzzle solving, but nothing that will leave you thinking for very long. There are a large number of secret areas, but truthfully, what's the point of having a secret area if there is no real reward for your exploration? I didn't go treasure hunting very much because there didn't seem to be much reason or reward to do so.

And then there are the zombies. At last check, this was a story based on Nazis bent on world domination. How is it then, that the undead find their way into this game? The implementation of the undead was a very bad decision, since it made the experience feel much less legitimate. Many people enjoy WWII shooters for the sense of realism involved. One feels the same way here until they run into the army of the undead. If people wanted to shoot zombies, they would get a zombie game. I personally wanted people with guns to shoot back at me, which is partly why I'm annoyed with this title.

Difficulty
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This game is not difficult. The AI is not greatly intelligent and sometimes makes very boneheaded decisions. They will duck and cover though, giving you a reason to be a bit more patient with your approach. Killing zombies are no big deal either. Near the end of the game, the difficulty does get ratcheted up a bit, but it is still manageable. Of note, the final boss fight is a decent one and is quite hard to finish.

Overall
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This game failed to inspire me at all. I found myself going through the motions more than waiting eagerly for the next story progression, running and gunning as opposed to planning ahead, and generally cursing the soundtrack for being so repetitive.

Rest assured that the single player campaign is an average experience, aided by the fact that the game is very long and will have you playing for many hours before you start to see the end in sight.

In good faith, I cannot say this is terrible, but concede that it was an adequate FPS for the console due to the length and standard (trust-able) FPS gameplay. Recognizing that there are plenty of other competent FPS games for this console, it makes the most sense to pick this game up on PC, where it truly shows it's brilliance. On the Xbox however, it falls well short of that mark.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 04/30/07