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| Erwin's Pages Central > Articles > Games Previews > Return to Castle Wolfenstein | |||
   
  
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Mein Leben!  It's almost time. Time to relive old memories. Time to skin some nazi's. Time to return...to Castle Wolfenstein. Wolfenstein 3D is the mother of everything we call FPS. When it was released, it was a revolutionary game that actually added the reality of a 3d action scene. Well, 3d is of course relative, since Wolf3D was played in a flat field, but still. SS officers, sturmtrupen and multiple versions of the Führer attacked from all sides. It was fun, fun, fun. Especially the death cries from the Germans were always good for a few laughs. And Wolf3D gave birth to other iD classics like Doom and Quake. Now Gray Matter, a relatively new developer, brings along with iD the sequel to this all-time classic. In Return to Wolfenstein you return to the dreaded castle as the same hero you were in Wolf3D (that Blezsinski guy, ain't it?). The plot goes a bit like this. Heinrich Himmler, one of Hitlers closest cronies, plans to unleash the once sealed powers of an ancient king also called Heinrich. This king, interested by the occult, could make contact with the Thule, a race of pure ethereal entities. If you knwo Star Trek: DS9, you could compare them a bit with the Pah-Wraiths. Anyhow, Heinrich wielded their powers to create a zombie army to reign the lands. Luckily, he could be stopped. But now, our good nazi friend taps into this dark power to create genetically induced monsters and creeps, to terrify the people. Indeed. Return to Wolfenstein will have many mutated monsters and mythical beings that are out for your blood. If you are afraid that Return to Wolfenstein won't have complex AI beings to battle you, you're (luckily for all of us) dead wrong. Nazi soldiers of course also crash the party, and the amount of electronic IQ given to those guys really is stunning. Forget the random roll-away and simple strafing manoeuvres. Return uses a nifty combination of scripting and behavioural routines. This plainly means that any unit has an own combat character, but also will ract accordingly to stress situations, and make the most appropriate decision. Example. You, armed with only a knife, attack a nazi soldier. The soldier will step back and blast you. but if you're armed to the bones, the soldier will either run away and call for help, or find a wall or table to hind behind, while exchanging fire with you. This kind of AI will deliver great surprises and challenging combat. The fun doesn't end here. The scenery, beautifully depicted by the almost obligatory Quake III Arena engine, will also be manipulateble. Imagine you standing in a tower. From the window, you see a German squad entering the tower from a storie below you. You then can shoot the floor, and take down the soldiers by surprise. By the way, Return to Wolfenstein also has the famous original secret areas, filled with ammo, guns and loot. Luckily though, these areas will not be blended blindly into the terrain textures, but be more or less pointed out by switches and stuff. So potential willing wallhuggers can breathe again now. Release Date: Out now Links > Return to Castle Wolfenstein Review > Soldier-of-Fortune.com |
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