At first I thought it was me being spoiled by more recent titles, or maybe that there was something seriously wrong with the game running on modern systems (aside from having to download a fix for the resolution), but I've played shooters older than this one while not running into similar problems.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein starts off great, with the first level providing a good challenge, while showcasing what's best about the game, that being its level design, setting and atmosphere. Everything after that feels like a mixed bag.

While the level design remains great throughout the later levels, the game feels all over the place from a mechanical standpoint. From useless mechanics, weird AI behavior, the traitorous fall damage and ladders, you can get frustrated at every turn. And in some cases, that's quite literal, as enemies take note of you within the same frame of turning around a corner and downing your entire health bar. Yes, the same enemies that struggled to hit you at point blank range and ran in circles as you shot at them a mere two rooms ago. I know this game is considered difficult, but this is not a healthy way to build up difficulty. It turns the game into a cheese fest at times, and that sucks out all of the fun. I want to beat the game by besting the AI, not exploiting it. Survive a battle because I played it well, not because the enemy randomly didn't shoot me.

Furthermore, this discourages usage of mechanics like leaning, as you cannot shoot while doing it. This will leave you vulnerable as you peek around corners, and if the AI decides to take note of you immediately, you're out of luck and approximately half of your health. All of this can become especially frustrating if you're nearing a point where you have to go down a drop to proceed in the level, but you may or may not take fall damage and die if you barely survived the prior fight.

Weapon choices also seem rather poor. You'll be mostly using what you find on the very first mission throughout the rest of the game, and by that I mean the MP40 submachine gun. Other weapons are either highly situational, straight up weaker than the MP40 even though they share the same ammo pool (which renders using them pointless), or weapons used by the Allied forces during WWII, which makes finding ammo for them almost impossible as the Nazis apparently didn't have access to it. Other than that, the rest of your arsenal is made up of powerful late game weapons that are best saved for bosses or elite units.

Despite all of these glaring issues, I do look back on my overall time with the game as a positive one. I loved running around secret Nazi labs, castles and European villages. While the gameplay feels like it's been outdated even in the year the game came out (it's certainly no DOOM II or Half-Life), the atmosphere and the level design offer a lot of fun, especially when the game works properly. It's a real pleasure to play when that happens...

If it happens...

[H1] If I had one word to describe this classic shooter, I'd go with "inconsistent" over "good". [/H1] At first I thought it was me being spoiled by more recent titles, or maybe that there was something seriously wrong with the game running on modern systems (aside from having to download a fix for the resolution), but I've played shooters older than this one while not running into similar problems. Return to Castle Wolfenstein starts off great, with the first level providing a good challenge, while showcasing what's best about the game, that being its level design, setting and atmosphere. Everything after that feels like a mixed bag. While the level design remains great throughout the later levels, the game feels all over the place from a mechanical standpoint. From useless mechanics, weird AI behavior, the traitorous fall damage and ladders, you can get frustrated at every turn. And in some cases, that's quite literal, as enemies take note of you within the same frame of turning around a corner and downing your entire health bar. Yes, the same enemies that struggled to hit you at point blank range and ran in circles as you shot at them a mere two rooms ago. I know this game is considered difficult, but this is not a healthy way to build up difficulty. It turns the game into a cheese fest at times, and that sucks out all of the fun. I want to beat the game by besting the AI, not exploiting it. Survive a battle because I played it well, not because the enemy randomly didn't shoot me. Furthermore, this discourages usage of mechanics like leaning, as you cannot shoot while doing it. This will leave you vulnerable as you peek around corners, and if the AI decides to take note of you immediately, you're out of luck and approximately half of your health. All of this can become especially frustrating if you're nearing a point where you have to go down a drop to proceed in the level, but you may or may not take fall damage and die if you barely survived the prior fight. Weapon choices also seem rather poor. You'll be mostly using what you find on the very first mission throughout the rest of the game, and by that I mean the MP40 submachine gun. Other weapons are either highly situational, straight up weaker than the MP40 even though they share the same ammo pool (which renders using them pointless), or weapons used by the Allied forces during WWII, which makes finding ammo for them almost impossible as the Nazis apparently didn't have access to it. Other than that, the rest of your arsenal is made up of powerful late game weapons that are best saved for bosses or elite units. Despite all of these glaring issues, I do look back on my overall time with the game as a positive one. I loved running around secret Nazi labs, castles and European villages. While the gameplay feels like it's been outdated even in the year the game came out (it's certainly no DOOM II or Half-Life), the atmosphere and the level design offer a lot of fun, especially when the game works properly. It's a real pleasure to play when that happens... If it happens... [h1] 5.5/10 [/h1]