Playing this game is like being wasted! (And I mean that in a bad way). It's a classic case of "needs DOOM auto aim badly". First person shooters are a disaster on consoles because of the controller (should be a mouse instead). Wolfenstien is no exception. I keep hearing people say, "This game is soooo awesome!" I even know a couple people who are hooked. All I can say is that if you've played a PC first person shooter, this game falls WAAAAAAAYYY short of acceptable. I watched my friends play first. I had a hard time spotting players. I had a hard time spotting which players were on the same side as my friends. I thought the game was drab-looking. Since it's a WWII setting, I let it slide. I had reservations on the control of the cursor, but my friends said it was like Halo, which ain't TOO bad. I bought the game. I tried the single player mission on easiest just to get a feel for things. At first, walking around and looking aren't too bad. Then you get shot at and have to return fire. It is next to impossible to hit the enemy. My cursor was all overe the place. "Shoot the enemy in the head to kill him" the instructions said. YEAH RIGHT!! I'm struggling with aiming in his general direction! It's like being drunk. The AI hits me rapidly with every shot. Never missing. The AI also wakes up even if I'm not even in view yet! I hear him shout at me, but I am still around the corner! How the hell did he know? Am I wearing tap shoes? Since the visuals are dark and gray... and the characters are dark and gray... good luck picking out your opponent. In the single player game, I couldn't tell the difference between a vase and a bad guy. And I have a kick-ass 55 inch screen! Yet I felt blind. Everything is kinda mushy. Most games probably are, but you really need more clarity in a game like this where enemies are so far away... and shooting at you. I tried to play the online games. I joined a team. These guys were good at it. But even they had a hard time just going down a ladder, I noticed. Quake II never had that problem. It was easy. Shooting people was impossible. First, you have to be able to tell who they are. Not easy since pretty much everyone is some sort of gray color and the resolution is too mushy to see at a distance what their identities are. My friends say "Oh, it's easy... the Germans are the ones with the longer coats." HUH? Then I got into some firefights. For those of you who like the game and are good at it, I have one question... "How the hell do you aim and move at the same time without suddenly looking up or down?" I spend all my effort just centering the cursor! Forget about aiming! I died... and I died... and I died... Two things could have been done to this game to make it hugely more enjoyable: 1)DOOM-style aiming as a default option. This would work well with a controller. 2)More attention to identifying opponents. I know the theme is WWII. But I think they should have scrapped that drab colorless setting for a more colorful (and therefore more identifiable) theme until EVERYONE has HDTV. THEN they should bring back Wolfenstien. Games like this need much higher resolution. Not 640x480. Until I get HDTV, I think I'm staying away from console shooters. The only redeeming quality I can see for this game is that it's online with microphones. That is something that puts it above its PC counterparts. But with monochomatic and blurry graphics and quirky aiming messing up my experience, I can't recomend this to anyone who has played PC shooters. If you don't have a PC, you won't know what you're missing and this will probably be a great game for you. I was surprised at just how many people liked the first 007 game. It was crap. But kids without PCs didn't know the difference and thought 007 was great. Probably be the same for Wolfenstien. I'm going to play online with my friends and give this one more shot. If it still sucks as bad as it did initially, I'm trading it in to get at least $25 back. I'm really frustrated and disappointed.
Other Helpful Reviews for Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War
The good: graphics are really nice, co-op, online mode is good, smart AI The bad: lag in co-op and online play, lets start out by saying this game is better the the pc version released a few years ago (before t... Read Full Review
By --Sub-Zero-- | Review Date: Sep 24, 2007 | XBOX
This is one of those games where you constantly play it for 3 or 4 days nonstop and then you finish the single player mode but its only then that you start playing the Xbox live mode for another 3 or 4 days nonstop. The ... Read Full Review
