When the wall is breached, the Allies must fight off the defending Axis forces as they move to their objectives in order, such as destroying a radar installation, then stealing war documents, then finally escaping out the back entrance.

The general progression of each map runs thusly: while the Allied team gets an Engineer in position at a crucial wall and arms dynamite to destroy it, the Axis team has (roughly) 30 seconds in which to get in defensive positions for when the dynamite goes off. Finally, there is the Lieutenant class, of which there can only be one on a team, but Lieutenants can select any weapon, can issue orders to teammates using the quick voice chat, and call air strikes by dropping smoke grenades. Engineers get dynamite and pliers (the generic “engineering tool”), which are both absolutely essential to completing any of the objectives in the maps, but again, they can only pick from SMGs as their weapons. Medics can revive incapacitated team-mates with their syringes, and drop medikits on the ground which can be picked up by other team members, but they can only select from the SMGs. The Soldier is the most well-rounded, and can select from any of the primary weapons in the game, from SMGs like the MP-40, Thompson, and Sten, to the Mauser rifle, Panzerfaust, and the Venom minigun. Multiplayer is solely limited to a team-versus-team mode, of Axis versus Allies, where in the majority of cases, the Allies need to bomb their way into the Axis base, then steal or destroy some vital object and make their way back out again, while the Axis team is solely tasked with defending themselves until time runs out. In multiplayer, RTCW takes on a gameplay style that few other games had tried at that point. Also, much to the disappointment of the more hardcore Wolfenstein fans, the German soldiers now speak accented English instead of actual German – on the other hand, though, one could argue for the “translation convention” here, in that BJ probably studied the language enough to understand it. The music, unfortunately, isn’t very much – the longest “song” in the game is only about a minute long, and the music is often repeating infinitely, but it’s composed in such a way that it provides background audio and is never extremely loud or irritating. All of this is supplemented by an excellent soundscape of ambient noise, machinery, real alarm klaxons, powerful gunfire, and orchestrated music.

The “photo-sourced” look has held up surprisingly well, and the Quake 3 Arena engine’s graphical muscle makes sure that everything is rendering believably as well, including what might be the best-looking flamethrower effect in the history of video gaming, that even the game’s own sequel couldn’t hope to one-up. The character models are excellent as well, using real faces and real German uniforms. Everything from Castle Wolfenstein itself, to the village of Wulfberg, to the V-Weapons Complex and the Uber-Soldat laboratories is absolutely spot-on in terms of atmosphere and texture work, and it’s not easy to get lost, even given the relative non-linearity of certain maps. Thankfully, outside of these two utter stinkers of missions, RTCW‘s level design is excellent. By the end of these sequences, though, it’s great to back to fighting the regular Nazis again. The “zombie” sections almost feel as if they go on for a bit too long, but the level design is still just as believable and well-made as the rest of the game, and the Half-Life-inspired scripted sequences break up the monotony. So at certain points during the game, you will find yourself going through old tombs and churches within Germany, where you will fight zombified knights, whose shields can deflect your bullets, and other zombies who can attack you at a distance with their ghostly skull projectiles. The central element of the game’s story, Operation Resurrection, has the SS Paranormal Division unearthing the remains of Heinrich the First, a “dark knight” from Germany’s storied past who possessed powers that could help Germany win the war. In true keeping with the Wolfenstein 3D style of including not only more “traditional” World War II stylings but also more fantastical elements, RTCW takes somewhat lengthy detours into the supernatural.

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