Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War

"The Tides of War are rolling in..."

NOTE:This review assumes you own Xbox Live. If not, then this game is only a rental, unless you like playing by yourself.

When Return to Castle Wolfenstein was released for the PC, it was praised for having a solid single-player campaign as well as an incredible multi-player aspect. Does it carry over into the console world? The answer is a resounding yes.

Graphics - 8/0

The graphics aren't pushing the Xbox to its limits, but they are very nice. There is some bad pixelization when you move in close to the walls, zoom into some random German woman's boobs, etc. There are some points where the developers seem lazy (i.e. you walk into a wine storage room and the wine shelves look like they're merely painted onto the walls), but it never really detracts from the gameplay. The framerate is rock solid on single player. If there is any slowdown it is very minimal and unnoticeable. However, when you get into Co-Op the game lags horribly. It seems as if the framerate has been slashed in half.

Gameplay - 10/10

RTCW has very solid gameplay. The weapons are balanced, and are in wide variety. There are Axis and Allies variants of weaponry, each with their own perks. There is no one gun that stands head and shoulders above the rest; those that are extremely powerful (i.e. the Sten SMG or the Venom) overheat quickly and require time to cool down. The game is realistic enough that you won't be able to survive by just going in guns a' blazing, but has enough Quakish feel to keep it from becoming a Tom Clancy game.

Multiplayer - 9/10

This is where RTCW shines its brightest. Multiplayer on Xbox Live is THE BEST. Period. There are four gametypes: Elimination (Team Deathmatch), Objective (Each team has a set of objectives they have to carry out to win; like Assault from UT), Stopwatch (Like Objective, but the teams switch sides. The side who completes their objective the fastest wins), and Checkpoint (Kind of like Domination from UT; Each time tries to control a number of points on the map). The maps on Multiplayer are wonderful, and vary greatly in size and layout. They take time to learn, but are not too hard to pick up on. In Multiplayer, you also have to choose between four classes: Soldier, Medic, Engineer, and Lieutenant. The Solider is your basic grunt, but has access to weapons the others don't (Sniper, the Venom machine gun, Panzerfaust rocket launcher, and the flamethrower). He starts out with two extra clips if you pick a SMG as your weapon. The engineer can set and disarm dynamite charges and repair machine gun implacements. He can use the M40/Thompson SMG and the shotgun, and starts with one extra clip. The Medic can drop health packs for people (There are no health and ammo pickups on mulitplayer) and can also revive them. This power comes with a cost, because the Medic can only use the Thompson/Mp-40 SMG's, and has no extra clips. Having a medic on the team also adds 10 points to every player's health. Nice indeed. The Lt. is one of the most powerful classes. He has the ability to drop ammunition for his team, increasing their firepower and longevity in battle. His real strength comes from his ability to call in air strikes, which drops devastating bombs onto the opposition. He also can use his binoculars to call in an artillery strike on an enemy position. With their special abilities, you would think some classes would be next to invincible. However, every time a class uses their special ability, their ability bar is depleted. This keeps a Lt. from giving his team infinite ammo or constantly bombarding the enemy, and keeps the medic from being invincible.
There is one problem with the multiplayer: lag. Too many people with low upload speeds try to make games with 16 people. It doesn't work too well. There are some dedicated servers which work well, but they're always full. Also, there is no function to bookmark your favorite servers, so you always have to slog through an optimatch screen.
Voice communication works great; there aren't too many whiny 5-year olds I've ran into. There is a little bit of showboating and smack-talk, but nothing you wouldn't find anywhere else. Sometimes there are people who don't really play too well as a team (Medics who don't heal, Lt.'s who keep all their ammo for themselves), but it's few and far between. TKer's have been rare, and the game includes a vote option to boot players and to change the map and game settings.
There is no split-screen multiplayer besides the Co-op mode, which puts two players through the single player campaign. This would be great if it was implemented like Halo; however, it seems this mode was just tacked on as an afterthought. It is extremely laggy, which makes it very unfun.

Replay value - 10/10.

This game is wonderful. Multiplayer will keep you hooked for hours. Also, if you beat the single player campaign, you unlock the original version of Wolfenstein 3D. Very cool, and very addictive.

Overall - 9/10

RTCW is a solid addition to your Xbox Library. A solid single player campaign, ridiculously addicting multiplayer on Xbox Live, and the original version of Wolfenstein 3D. This game is well worth your hard earned moolah.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/12/03, Updated 05/12/03