System Requirements

OS: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Linux, MacOS 9.2 CPU: 400mhz, 500Mhz for Mac RAM: 128 MB HDD: 800MB VIDEO: 16MB Direct X 8 compatible card with Open GL support SOUND: 16 bit Direct X 8 compatible sound card Age: Mature

It's 1943 and nearing the end of World War II. The Third Reich are getting desperate to win and will try anything. They are dabbling with the occult to try and resurrect and evil knight. They are also genetically engineering super robot soldiers that have many highly advanced weapons. Finally they are putting attractive, nimble German ladies in leather outfits to stop you. You are a trigger happy US Army Ranger BJ Blazkowicz. You work for the Office of Secret Actions (OSA) and are on a secret mission. You must save the world from the Germans. If you fail, you will be forgotten and disavowed. You are the last hope and must not fail. This will be quite an adventure, so let's get on with the game.

There are seven missions with many parts in them. Some say the single player is short; about ten hours or so. It took me a little longer too with my busy schedule and holidays etc. Some also say the game is too easy. I don't think so as I found the bosses challenging. There are three difficulty settings: Don't Hurt Me, Bring Em On, and I'm Death Incarnate. There are many enemies you will encounter, and the AI is pretty good. For example if you throw a grenade and it still has time, they will throw or kick it back at you. On the other hand I found it amusing watching a general walking and as he fell off a castle wall. The AI is good but not perfect. You will encounter many dangerous enemies along the way. You will face German officers of all ranks and sizes. Some are genetically engineered and others will be female commandos. Even your average soldier will be wielding powerful or specialized weapons. Scientists and their creations will attack you as well. There are levels where you will even fight the undead.

The bosses are pretty tough in my opinion. Some bosses include Helga Von Bulow (even the name sounds tough), The Ultimate Soldier, and the Evil Lord Knight. Some say the Ultimate Soldier is tougher than the last boss. In my opinion they are all strong and shouldn't be underestimated. Given the enemies you have to face, let's look at the weapons available to you. There are pistols, machine guns, sniper rifles (the one with night vision rocks!), chain guns, grenades, dynamite, panzerfausts (rocket launcher), shock guns, and my favorite the flame thrower. The flame thrower is especially effective against the undead. Even though you have all these weapons available to you, you can't just go running around shooting everything in sight. Some missions require stealth and you can't sound alarms, plus if you shoot a civilian you fail your mission. Multiplayer handles weapons differently than single player. For example you can't wield more than one heavy gun. Also big guns have delays during firing and will slow you down.

Multiplayer is what Wolfenstein is all about. You will need many people to take full advantage of this game. In other words this is the ultimate LAN party game. There are seven maps shipped with the game. With each map there are several objectives to complete within a certain time to win. You can be the Axis (Germans) or Allies (USA), each have similar units with special abilities. There are soldiers (weaponry), engineers (break in, explosives, repair), medics (heal), and lieutenants (ammo, air strikes).

Here is a break down of the maps and objectives.

* Beach Invasion-You must invade or protect an Axis compound. To do this the sea wall must be breached. You then have steal or protect the top secret documents and transmit them. Or if you are Axis, prevent them from being transmitted. Finally an optional objective is to claim the compound and raise your flag.

* Depot-The Axis and Allies face off in an abandoned depot. There's an anti-aircraft gun and field operations area at stake. Both have to be protected or destroyed. The same goes for the East and West gate. There's also the optional objective of capturing the area and raising your flag.

* Village-In this map you must escape with the gold treasure or prevent it from being looted from the crypt. It then must be taken to the Allies truck, or prevented from getting there.

* Das Boot-The Axis have a submarine to protect from getting blown up. The allies must destroy it while a path needs to get cleared for it. There's the optional objective of claiming the central access room.

* Communique-The Axis are trying to transmit a top secret message and the Allies are to stop them by destroying the North and South radars. Assault-The Allies took a communications tower and must prevent theAxis from advancing or breaking in through a hatch. The Allies must keep their flag there and keep ownership.

* Castle-The Allies must infiltrate an Axis castle, get an Obelisk from a coffin and escape with it...alive. You have to blow up a couple gates along the way. The Axis of course must prevent this from happening.

From a Christian Standpoint, this game has a few issues. There is violence, but it's not really gory unless you blow someone up with a rocket or grenade. There is some swearing and occultisms. After all they are trying to resurrect the Dark Knight. The multiplayer test did not have any swastikas in it, but the final game is loaded with them. I don't understand why they are needed, this is not depicting actual history. It's a game. Some may be offended by this. Finally some of the females need more clothes. I know there are some in leather, but worse yet some are prancing around in bra and underwear. Funny how all the men are fully dressed at all times.

The game is easy to install in both Windows and Linux. The single player portion only works in Windows though. The graphics are amazing! The maps and characters are very detailed. The graphics were very smooth too, no choppiness whatsoever. The sound effects and music were good as well. Nice voice acting, the soldiers even had their own conversations going on! There was nice background music. Sometimes the soldiers were listening to the radio or Beethoven. Very well done. You may have difficulty with the game in Linux if you use ALSA for your sound system.

The game ran pretty stable but crashed to my desktop once or twice. The controls are your standard WASD and mouse. The interface was easy to use and get around. There are two executables, one for single player and one for multiplayer. Like I said earlier this is the ultimate multiplayer game, I highly recommend it for that reason. The game is a little expensive if you are looking for a single player, since it is a little short. Even though I highly recommend the game, I don't recommend it for kids due to the violence, swearing and lack of clothing etc.