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Return to Castle Wolfenstein
...continued

The story is weak and the core gunplay isn't completely satisfying. These problems are compounded by the fact that there are very few surprises along the way, either in terms of unexpected gameplay elements or especially interesting scripted scenes. Even though the game takes only about 10 hours to finish on the default difficulty setting, it actually begins to drag a bit during the last few levels leading up to the anticlimactic final boss battle. The single-player game does not involve the go-for-broke, over-the-top shooting sprees of Serious Sam, the incredibly satisfying gunplay of Max Payne, or the density of scripted sequences and surprises of Alien vs. Predator 2. It's thoroughly competent and technically excellent--but it's also rather sterile and passionless.

Regardless of the single-player game, the multiplayer game is worth the price of admission. Bypassing the traditional deathmatch and capture-the-flag modes by not even including them, Nerve has implemented a team-based game that combines the best parts of Unreal Tournament's goal-oriented assault mode with the class distinctions of Team Fortress. Each map features a unique set of goals that must be accomplished in order for one side to win. Generally, these goals involve one team destroying a series of barriers to reach a final position, at which point they must either blow up some structure or steal an object and return it to an extraction point. The other team, meanwhile, must successfully defend these objectives for a specific period of time. One map, called Depot, provides targets for both teams, forcing each one to play offense and defense simultaneously.

Each time you respawn, you can choose from four different classes. Soldiers can use all the game's weapons. Engineers can both plant and defuse the dynamite needed to destroy goal structures, and they can also repair the mounted guns that appear in various fixed positions throughout the different maps. Medics can drop health packs and revive "dead" teammates, permitting them to instantly respawn where they've fallen. Each medic also provides every team member with 10 extra starting health points. Lieutenants can drop ammo packs, and they are the only class equipped with binoculars. Lieutenants can also call in air and artillery strikes, which cut a wide swath of destruction at their target point.

All four of the classes are useful and necessary. Since there aren't any health or ammo packs in the levels, the medic and lieutenant are both critical to keeping the team supplied. The soldier is the only class that can access more than the basic weapons, and the mission targets can't be destroyed (or successfully defended from a planted explosive) without the engineer's skills.

Team-based play is only as good as how easy it is to coordinate team actions and how seamlessly you can fulfill your class role. Wolfenstein is successful here as well. The game uses the quick speech system first implemented in the original Tribes. Any piece of information worth saying within the context of the game is two keystrokes away. The great inspiration Nerve had is to couple these canned statements with appropriate information on the HUD. If you call for a medic, a symbol will appear above your head, and medics on your team will have a waypoint added to their onscreen compass. Requests for ammo are handled similarly, only the requests are routed to lieutenants. The HUD also includes a complete yet unobtrusive list of your teammates, their classes, and what area of the map they're currently in.

The way that respawns are handled further enhances the team-play element of the game. Instead of simply respawning as soon as you die, reinforcements are only available every 30 seconds or so. This waiting period provides an incentive for staying alive, but it also means you'll often respawn with a group of your teammates, at which point you'll naturally start moving together. This makes spontaneous squad groupings a lot more common.

Two other multiplayer modes are supported. One is just like the objective-based game, only the teams switch sides after each round and must beat each other's times, making it almost exactly like assault in Unreal Tournament. The other mode is a derivative of Tribes' capture-and-hold game, in which each team must secure and defend as many checkpoints as possible. At the end of the round, whichever team controls the most checkpoints wins. So far, both of these are lagging far behind the objective mode in terms of popularity, at least as measured by the number of servers running them.

Only eight maps are included in the game, and only seven of them are available in objective mode. This isn't as bad as it sounds, however. The multiplayer game doesn't really become fun until you start to learn both the goals and the layouts of the maps. Since each map is large and complex, it's better to have a small number that you can begin to master in order to start actually playing them effectively. Learning the nuances of just these eight maps is a daunting task. Rather than adding much value to the game, more maps would simply increase the chances of you and your teammates not knowing where you are or what you should be doing at any given moment.

It's a sad comment on the state of PC gaming, but perhaps the best thing about multiplayer Return to Castle Wolfenstein is that it's complete and stable right out of the box. Everything works and works well. About the only thing missing is bot support. The Quake III net code was good to begin with, and at this point in its life cycle, it's the best in the industry. The built-in server browser is efficient and gives you plenty of options for filtering games.

In a weird inversion of the typical shooter model, Return to Castle Wolfenstein features an amazing multiplayer component coupled with a good if somewhat underwhelming single-player game. Then again, fans of id Software's previous 3D shooters should be familiar with this model. But honestly, Return to Castle Wolfenstein is well worth buying for the multiplayer game alone, so the fact that you get a solid single-player game in the box can only be considered a bonus.

 

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