Wolfenstein Review [PC]

Let's get this out of the way, I'm a huge Return to Castle Wolfenstein fan.  The 2001 PC shooter was the reason why I missed so many classes in my last year of University.  As an example of how much I played that game, by the time the free sequel, Enemy Territory was released, I had reached the top 500 players in the world.  I know, that's not the highest rank or something to boast about but it's to illustrate where I'm coming from when I tell you that the 2009 version of Wolfenstein was a disappointment.

The new Wolfenstein doesn't reinvent anything on the story front.  You're once again B.J. Blaskowicz, all-American hero of blowing S*** up and Nazi killing machine.  It's once again set in World War II Germany but instead of storming a castle, you're tasked with completing missions via a "town hub".  But this new direction of gameplay is a very simple attempt at creating a non-linear experience because in the end, it's still start at point A, go to point B, return to point A.

For those of us that remember RtCW, that game had some very interesting weapons and balances between them.  Wolfenstein doesn't change up the formula much in terms of the staples - machine guns, grenades, and even a particle beam, but the one thing that is different is the use of an ancient mystical medallion which grants you supernatural powers.  The "Veil" powers that you get from the medallion are Sight, Mire, Shield, and Empower.  Sight is a form of X-Ray vision that allows you see hidden passages and enemies while Mire slows down time.  Shield and Empower are pretty much self explanatory where Shield is...a shield, Empower allows you to penetrate enemies' shields.

Besides the supernatural powers, which you do gain rather early on in the game, is the weapons upgrade system.  Using gold that you find throughout the levels, you can place weapon upgrade "orders" through the in-game menu system that allows you to change the way stock weapons behave.  You have options to enhance your guns with silencers, larger ammo drums, and even reduce recoil for higher accuracy.  There's enough option here for players to find a favorite and upgrade it to their hearts content but you're not going to be able to upgrade every single weapon and you probably wouldn't want to anyway.

Level design is very basic, with your requisite farms, villages, hospitals, and other corridor-ed buildings.  Unfortunately, the enemy AI doesn't make bland surroundings any more exciting.  The variety is there, with all types of crazy Nazis, insectoids, and Paranormal soldiers but they are all rather stupid.  There's nothing new here and the enemies seem like they have learned nothing in the last eight years from the previous game.  The one thing that did break up the monotony of battles was the boss battles.  These aren't very epic but they were certainly on par with other shooters of recent memory and a large improvement to the uninspired regular fights.

Visually, Wolfenstein isn't stunning but the graphics are definitely an upgrade from 2001 and would be on par with recent games such as Velvet Assassin.  Which isn't high praise but the game could have looked a lot worse seeing as how the game was built using a modified Quake IV engine.  All the weapons' sounds are replicated faithfully while the soundtrack gets the job done with moody classical scores and creepy sound effects when required.  Again, nothing ground breaking.

The whole single player experience isn't the longest and took me about nine hours to complete - which isn't too bad for a first person shooter but if a game such as Monkey Island can push eight hours in one episode, a $59.99 game should offer you a bit more.  Which leads me to the biggest complaint I have with Wolfenstein - its multiplayer mode.  The original RtCW had maps that could be scaled to 64 players but in contrast, Wolfenstein is officially only supporting servers with a maximum of 12 players.  In 2009, a PC gaming culture that is dominated by MMO's and the like, 12 player online multiplayer is absolutely unacceptable (unless your name is Blizzard.)  I'm not sure if Raven/Activision will increase this player count but towards the end of the review period, I did notice some 16 player servers but those were never fully populated.

Online multiplayer has a total of three modes, Team Deathmatch, Objective, and Stopwatch.  Team Deathmatch is exactly the same as any other shooter.  Objective is where one team is tasked with completing a set objective while the other team tries to stop them.  And Stopwatch is basically Objective but with a bit of time trial thrown in.  Having spent two weeks with the multiplayer, I have to say that there is absolutely nothing here for players of other multiplayer shooters except for GI's and Nazi skin packs.

It's unfortunate that Raven didn't do much to update Wolfenstein for 2009.  With a bland story, mediocre single player campaign and an embarrassing online multiplayer component, this is a shooter that PC fans will not be happy with.  Long time fans of the series will be highly disappointed, while there's nothing here to attract new players except for the supernatural WWII themes.  A better single player experience can be had by playing Half Life Episode 2 again while waiting for EA to release Battlefield 1943 on the PC for a true multiplayer experience.  Return to Castle Wolfenstein 2 this game is not.