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Dom Robinson reviews
Activision 
- Windows 98/2000/ME/XP
- Intel Pentium II 400Mhz
- 128Mb RAM
- 16Mb 3D graphics card
- 700Mb Hard Disk Space
- DirectX 8.0
I love first-person shooters, and it’s taken me a while toget round to playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein,but it’s certainly been worth the wait.
Regular PC gamers will know that the original Wolfenstein 3D gamewas the one from id software that set the wheels in motion for Doom, Quakeand the subsequent sequels and since their last PC game, Quake 3, wasmultiplayer-only I was crying out for a single-player game again and thisone doesn’t disappoint… much, but just a little.
The graphics are everything you’d expect from an id FPS – well-detailed andfast. I thought at first that the guards started to act in a slightly unrealisticway when you shot them and they do to a degree – the way they sort of staticallyslide down steps while still in a horizontal position, for example – but thisdoesn’t cause too much of a problem when the rest of the game is as much funas it should be. However, while it does look up-to-date compared to its origins,it still looks like it could have been made any time in the last 2-3 years.
The audio holds few surprises, but it creates exactly the right kind ofatmosphere, aiding the game as you creep up to the guards, often stopping fora little while to eavesdrop on an enemy conversation before storming in and shootingthem all dead. Weaponry also hits the right note, particularly when you get behindthe trigger of a gattling gun and aim at the Nazi onslaught.
I haven’t tried the multiplaying section yet as I’m the type of FPSgamer who mainly sticks to the single-player mode. Originally, this was becauseI only had a standard 56k modem and the lag of online gaming was too much tobear.
Since installing an ADSL modem though, my excuse is that I still get shotdown in flames instantly, but I’m slightly more ready for it because what Ican see onscreen is actually happening now and I’m not three seconds behindthe other participants!
However you play it, it’s definitely worth a play while we wait for id toturn out a third Doom version.
Just one slight final niggle – when you’re killed for the first time afterquicksaving a game, it’ll load you back into the saved gaem BEFORE that, soyou have to reload your last save. Why?
SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC
PLAYABILITY
ENJOYMENT
OVERALLThis game was played on a PC with the following spec:
Intel PIII 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM (133 Mhz), Voodoo 3 3000 AGP, SoundblasterLive! 1024.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.