The Concept

Volf-ehn-shtein

Wolfenstein 3D is what put iD Software on the map. Wolfenstein 3D is what made PC gaming cool, what made action games on a PC better than those on a console. From Wolfenstein, we got Doom and Doom made networks cool. From Doom we got Quake, and Quake made Internet gaming cool and helped popularize the net in general. The Internet, as we all know, ignited and was the core of the longest sustained economic boom that America (and by default most of the western world) has experienced. Thus, Wolfenstein 3D is responsible for your current cushy job and the general level of prosperity we’re currently experiencing. That may be a “bit” of a stretch, but the connection is certainly there, somewhere.

Wolfenstein 3D took place during World War II, where you played one BJ Blazkowitz, a soldier on a mission to escape from the infamous…you got it, Castle Wolfenstein, occupied by the Third Reich . Apparently, anything and everything of value, including the Fuhrer himself, was located in said castle. Blazkowitz went through, taking down guard dogs (giant rats in the Nintendo-fied SNES version) , soldiers who cried “mein leben” (my life) in the most comic fashion and monstrous humans who ate hundreds of pounds of lead unleashed from BJ’s chaingun. Yes, poor old BJ had no rocket launcher, no shaft and no railgun. In a fit of pity, iD took the valued Wolfenstein license and allowed Gray Matter interactive and Nerve Software to give the series a facelift.

Old West pistol duel

Kick it to break it

FU too buddy

Modernization

Aside from the obvious technical improvements that would be required, gameplay and the story had to be overhauled. Shooters have not been the same since Half-Life, and a storyline that has the player taking out Hitler for a final battle is not exactly plausible. Gamers expect more these days. Sure you can have zombies, but can you justify them? Why exactly is BJ running around with a chaingun if they haven’t been invented yet?

Questions like that need to and do get answered as the game progresses. Granted, the answers are not the most convincing, but they do the job – think of the plot in RTCW like the one in the Mummy – an excuse to get some action. Characters in RTCW are as illogical as they are in the Mummy movies, stating the obvious or asking silly questions just to advance the plot. Thus, the writing is not as strong as it could be, but it is good enough to propel the player through the game.