User Rating: 8.6 | Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War XBOX
Return to Castle Wolfenstien: Tides of War RTCW, on PC was a fan favorite for many reasons, most of which revolved around a stellar multiplayer mode. The Same holds true for the XBOX incarnation (Tides of War) The single player game in Tides of War has had a fair share up upgrades however. The game now features several prequel levels the build up to the events of the original game. A few new weapons as well as some graphical polish over its aging PC counterpart. However with that said the single player game itself is very dry and run of the mill. Fortunately the game is carried by an above average story revolving around a soldier named BJ Blaskowits who is looking into the Nazi-Germany SS Paranormal division. BJ accompanied by Agent One and other comrades makes his way in, out, and beyond castle wolfenstien in his attempts to uncover Hitler's plans to amass an undead army. The main game is of average length and wont take experienced gamers very long to finish. A co-op mode along with multiple difficulties do add some to the replay value, but odds are it wont be enough to keep you coming back again and again. The multiplayer mode however, is an all together different story. Those with the Xbox Live service will find an abundance of replayability in the games very impressive online multiplayer offerings. There are 4 main online multiplayer modes. Elimination, Objective, Check Point, and Stop Watch. Elimination is your standard team based death match Objective challenges players to complete a set of goals, or prevent said goals from being completed depending on your side (Axis or Allied) Check Point has teams attempting to take all of 6 control points on the map. Stop Watch is like objective mode, however once your finished the sides switch and your challenged to beat your opponents time (or prevent them from beating yours) Every online game is based on teams, and how well those teams can work together. There are 4 character classes to choose from, all offering their own unique abilities to the team. Medics for example not only have the ability to drop health packs for teammates... But can also bring dead players back into the fray, avoiding sometimes lengthy redeployment time. Other character classes include Soldiers, Lieutenants, and Engineers all offering their own skills and abilities to the game play. The best part is, the game actually rewards you for working as a team. You not only get points for kills, you can also gain points for aiding your team by dropping ammo, Brining players back to life, or fixing broken gun turrets. Your not forced to work as a team, but you'll want too. The level designs are all very good. Every possible war scenario seems to be represented well. From a Beach Invasion scene to a war weathered European town, every famous WW2 scenario thinkable seems to be there. The levels are all also very detailed and large, offering multiple attack or defense possibilities. It can be difficult to keep up with the action at first because of the pure scale, but once you've got it down, its possible to coordinate sophisticated team strategies. The only downfall falls in the area of lag on XBL. Once in a while you will probably encounter a connection problem that's usually largely impart to the host server. However, If you utilize the Optimatch feature its very easy to get passed this problem as it allows you to see the quality of the connection the host is running. Overall, Return to Castle Wolfenstien: Tides of War is an accurate and improved port of the PC game. Its standard single player game is more of a diversion, riding the coat tails of an impressive online game. Its an easy recommendation to fans of shooters in general and an online experience every XBL subscriber should be pleased with.
