Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War

"RTCW + Live = Bliss"

Oh man.

I thought I truly loved Ghost Recon. I thought no shooter would match the intensity of one shot, one kill. I'm happy to report I was way wrong.

RTCW rocks. Ghost recon is still quite good mind you but man, this thing is a whole new beast. The interaction among the character types is flat out awesome (and just think, we're still in the early ''I want to use the biggest gun possible'' stages..) so it can only get better.

Gameplay
8/10
This is a tough rating to give as the rating really varies depending on whether or not you have Live. As a single player game I'd rate RTCW among the top games but not as good as Halo, Ghost Recon or even Desert Storm. Still, the single player is pretty good. The controls are very solid and fully customizable (you can map Halo's control perfectly if you wish). So there are no complaints there.

In single player there is a large variety of weapons and tons of levels. The AI is great in some ways, terrible in others. The enemy reactions to your presence are good. When they see you they will call for help (which I haven't yet seen answered...) and duck behind things. Also, they have to reload just like you do and they are usually smart enough to do it while taking cover. The problem comes with the reaction, or more accurately the lack of one, when being shot. They just don't seem to care much. They don't even seem to flinch. It is not as bad as in 007: Agent Under Fire where your bullets just seemed to bounce around like Nerf darts, but it is still annoying. I mean c'mon, I'm jamming a knife into your back and you can STILL turn around to shoot me?! Blah.

Problem two with the single player is the annoyance of seemingly random ''puzzles''. By ''puzzle'' I mean annoying area you must find and clear of enemies before a random door magically opens. This is what really brought down Jedi Knight 2 in my opinion and it is a bit of a problem here too but not nearly to that level. My essential complaint is this; If you are going to require me to blow up some doors I should be able to blow up ALL of them. I mean, are some of them made out of some type of super Nazi wood or something making them impervious to explosives? At least make them metal or something so I have some clue of what I am supposed to be kicking in.

Still, with these complaints the single player is pretty good. The environments are more open than those found in MOH: Frontline and the enemies are smarter than most despite their ignorance of pain. It isn't great play, but it is good enough.

Of course, the REAL reason to buy this game is the online play via Xbox Live. I am a Live junkie and not ashamed to admit it. More accurately, I am a Ghost Recon Live junkie. I hated UC and despite having it for more than 5 months, have yet to try MechAssault online. Surely nothing could dethrone the masterful Ghost Recon!

Wrong.

RTCW flat out rocks on Live. The game searches are very fast, dedicated servers abound (already!) and the entire menu system just feels good. An early complaint I had with GR was the sluggish menu and it nevery really improved, it just became tolerable. This game clearly has the benefit of seeing what worked and didn't among the early Live games.

The game also seems to be able to handle a few more players without lag than could Ghost Recon. In GR finding a 10 person game that didn't lag like mad was a rarity, it seems to be pretty close the norm in RTCW. Certainly the players have gotten smarter about who should host and who shouldn't and the dedicated server helps too but that doesn't make it any less satisfying. The game can officially handle 16 players but so could Unreal and Recon so we'll see how that goes.

Once you get into a match you are immediately given spectator status where you can fly ghost-like around as an observer. This is quite useful for newbies (like we all are right now) to get a sense of the map before jumping in. You can, at any time, press start to pick your team and personel type.

You have 4 choices of personel: Soldier, Luitenant, Engineer and Medic. Each has unique abilities. Soldiers can use any weapon in the game (you choose which weapon you will spawn with), Lt.s can call in air strikes and resupply others with ammo packs, Medics have very limited weaponry but can drop health packs and bring back recently killed teammates with a shot, Engineers are also pretty limited but are the only class that can set the all important bombs and operate mounted guns.

So everyone picks soldiers with rockets right? I mean that's what everyone does in Unreal! Well, thankfully no. Maybe this is the case in Team Deathmatch but most people play Objective. This is similar to Siege in Ghost Recon where one team attacks, one defends. The goal for the attackers is to plant a bomb (engineer required!) on one or more targets on the map. The defenders try to stop them. A team without balance will flat out lose.

Soldiers tend to do the grunt work of keeping the enemy away as well as handling sniping duties. Since they are constantly shooting they will need to be resupplied by the Lt.s ammo drops. Additionally, since they tend to be in the line of fire often they will need the medics. Both sides need an engineer (attackers REALLY do) to either drop or disarm bombs. I am quite surprised to see that only 3 days after the game's launch people are already working well as teams and balancing the classes. Usually people just pick the biggest gun possible. Thankfully in this game that won't get you too far.

During matches there are no weapon, health or ammo pick ups except those dropped by other players. This means that the game doesn't end up as a race to the best weapon placement like many shooters ::cough:: Unreal ::cough:: do. There is a far greater emphasis on soldier placement and tactics. Excellent.

Now, for you trigger happy folk out there you can play team deathmatch if you would desire to do so for some unexplainable reason. I'm sure you'll find plenty of other non-thinking drones there to play with. As for everyone who has brain cells, Objective mode will be more than enough. There is also a time attack mode where the teams switch off offense/defense and see who can complete the objectives first.

Live play also offers downloadable content at some point in the future so there are chances that things like Capture the Flag or King of the Hill may still show up. Also, new maps are almost certainly to come. For now, there are plenty so don't worry.

The offline multiplayer is far more limited. There is NO competitive play offline. You cannot play objective or deathmatch on a single Xbox. You can do it via system link but single system play offers only 2 player coop. There is no 4 player split screen of any type.

Graphics:
7/10
It's a 2 year old game and it shows. Colors often seem a bit washed out (perhaps going for realism but c'mon, there are zombies...realism?) and textures are nothing special. Still, the frame rate is solid and the bodies sure look neat when they explode. Of course there is the still unmatched awesomeness of the flame thrower graphics too...

Sound:
9/10
Played in stereo (or even moreso in 5.1) this game rocks. The ambient noise is incredible in every respect. You can hear shots directionally, hear the air strikes coming overhead, pinpoint calls for medics by sound alone. Awesome stuff. Custom soundtrack would have been fun though.

Replay value:
10/10
Duh, it has great Live play. It will last you easily until Halo 2 hits.

Overall
9/10
RTCW is ultimately more than the sum of it's parts simply because of the incredible Live play. Ghost Recon is still a more complete package but I'll say that RTCW will likely become my favorite game to play on Live. The single player is pretty much but the Live is just flat out awesome.

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