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Return
to Castle Wolfenstein
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...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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