Developer: Gray Matter
Publisher: Activision
Released: May 6, 2003
Completed: March 1, 2020
Rated: M for Mature
Before we get started, let's acknowledge the elephant in the room: with the Xbox itself now being 20 years old, it could technically be considered a "retro" console. As someone in their 40s, I refuse to acknowledge such a thing because it makes me feel old. Cool?
Anyhow, the original Woifenstein 3D (or 3-D, if you want to get really technical) was a groundbreaking game. Everybody knows this. True, it wasn't the first FPS, but it put the genre front and center for PC gamers. Always at war with the console heathens, the PC Master Race could point to Wolf3D as something consoles could never do in a million years. Eventually consoles did do it, though the Super Nintendo port was... not great, but still, for its time there was nothing like Wolfenstein 3D.
As big of a hit as it was, it's strange that it didn't see its first proper sequel until 2001, leaving a nearly 20 year gap between entries. There was Spear of Destiny, an entirely new set of episodes, but I always felt that was more of an expansion pack than a true sequel (or prequel, if you want to get really, really technical about all this). It seems strange to think the series lay dormant for so long, now that it's been revived by MachineGames, but in the interim there was a little game called DOOM that the guys from id put out. Not much is known about it, unfortunately, and it kind of came and went without much fanfare.
Before you grab the pitchforks and torches, I am very obviously joking. DOOM was a tectonic shift for not only the genre, but the entire gaming industry. Wolfenstein 3D looked positively archaic by comparison, despite only being about a year older. This is a long walk to say that people forgot about Wolfenstein when confronted with DOOM, but luckily for us, the folks at Gray Matter remembered.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein, or RtCW, is one of the finest shooters ever put out, in my humble opinion. In its original PC incarnation, it's a blisteringly fast, challenging, and beautiful (for the time) game that improves upon the foundation of its forefather. It leans heavily into the occult themes introduced in Spear of Destiny, creating an intoxicating blend of Nazi killin' with a touch of horror. It was worth every day of the long wait. On the Xbox, it's... actually not terrible.
I'd go so far as to say it's pretty damn good, really. It's nowhere near as pretty or as silky smooth as the PC version, but the core experience is intact. Other than the visuals, there's no concessions made to the game. Levels, weapons, and enemies, they're all here and then some with the Xbox version having an exclusive set of prequel levels leading up to the capture of series protagonist William "BJ" Blaskowicz that, to my knowledge, have never been ported or remade for the PC by the modding community to this day.
None of this is to say this is the best version of the game. Given the choice, I'd still go for the PC version any day, given the increased sharpness of higher resolution and the mouse/keyboard control combo. But if you didn't have a PC beefy enough to run this one back in the day, or you don't feel like fiddling with it to make it work on a modern system, the Xbox version is a reasonably good representation of the game. (The PC version is available on GOG.com if you want a relatively no-fuss, no-muss way to play it on a modern system.)
There's no polite way to say that the framerate is unstable, but it's not bad enough to ruin the experience. The PS2 version, subtitled Operation Resurrection, is far worse off and features longer, more frequent loading times. Here it dips and dives like it's learning to play dodgeball, but it's perfectly playable with the help of auto-aim to compensate for the lack of precision afforded by dual analog sticks.
RtCW isn't made much easier by this inclusion. It was difficult on PC, and it's still difficult on Xbox. Enemies are crack shots, and their bullets will eat through your armor faster than I go through a pint of Ben & Jerry's. Thankfully, the PC version's save anywhere feature is retained, and I strongly advise you get used to using it.
Though it's noticeably blurrier than its PC counterpart, RtCW doesn't look bad on Xbox. The lighting is still great, the environments are generally impressive, particularly the namesake castle itself, and the weapon and character models were on par with their contemporaries. The other side of the presentation, the audio, doesn't suffer at all. The addition of 5.1 surround sound is a welcome one, and the appropriately epic score sounds fantastic with its brass and big timpani drums booming.
Again, the control and the framerate are going to be the most divisive factors. Neither break the game, but there's no denying they pale in comparison to playing this one on PC. Nearly every button on the Xbox controller is used and there are multiple configurations to suit your needs, but having to cycle weapons will never be as effective as simply pressing a number on your keyboard to get right to your desired gun.
It's worth noting that even the game's multiplayer was ported over. In addition to the standard deathmatch and capture the flag games, the entire campaign can be played cooperatively with a friend. The Xbox Live servers were shut down ages ago, but you can still enjoy local multiplayer if you have friends. As an aside, how did we ever play split-screen multiplayer on 4:3 televisions? You kids don't know how good you've got it.
What matters most is that Return to Castle Wolfenstein is still a blast to play. From the instant it starts, the music and action gets the adrenaline pumping. The biggest disappointment is that the final boss is an absolute pushover, but reaching the final boss is no easy feat in and of itself. The bottom line is if you haven't played Return to Castle Wolfenstein, correct that mistake however you can. Even with its flaws, the Xbox version maintains so much of the PC version's greatness, I can't help but give it high marks.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein was completed on an original Xbox with no cheats.
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