The sudden arrival of a public test release caught the majority of gamers by surprise last week, and in the days following the announcement the gaming community set up camp around the various download sites that would be hosting the file. After a longer than expected wait, caused by the terrible events in America, the code was finally released late on Saturday evening (roughly 11:30 PM GMT). Within moments all download servers became bogged down by the huge demand placed upon them.
After an evening of immense frustration, I eventually got my hands on it the following morning. Even then the servers were still backed up, with at least eight hundred people queuing on each download location. I immediately set up a LAN game on the office LAN (don't tell the boss).

First impressions of the front-end menu were not particularly good. "It looks like a Quake mod." I thought. Reminding myself that it was only a test release, I continued on to the game itself. Three work colleagues and myself relieved ourselves from the Sunday overtime by running around attempting to kill each other in amusing ways, using four very different spec systems.
Within minutes we were all hooked. The game ran superbly on all four systems, with no signs of obvious bugs (bear in mind that this was four professional QA testers playing the product.). The graphics and gameplay, with the atmosphere of the beachhead standing out in particular, impressed all four of us. The first time someone used the flame-thrower, the room erupted, with all four of us instantly going into limbo in order to select this as our new weapon.

After work I shot home to continue the fun. I was to be disappointed. After the pingless, lag free environment of a LAN, online play via a 56K modem was a hell of a come down.
Playing on Shiva's private server, hosted on his ADSL line, my ping started at 200. However, when the server started to fill up a little more things became worse. With six people in the server, including myself, lag spikes were frequent and long, rendering the game unplayable for me.
But what of the actual game, connectivity issues aside?

The Quake engine is evident throughout, with some of the weapon models looking vaguely familiar and yet still new.
The players HUD shows all the basics like health and ammo, with the additions of: a stamina bar which decreases when the player jumps or uses the sprint button, mission time and mission objectives completed and incomplete, a power bar which displays how soon certain items can be used again, and an optional compass.

Great detail has been paid to the player models, with some of the best skins I have seen in a game for a while. The Axis model trench coats are particularly well done, with a look of weight to them that portrays the real thickness of a Nazi greatcoat well. Facial animations are minimal at this stage, but no less well coded. The all over animation for the models is excellent, with the dying soldier animation standing out from them all (probably because that's the one I saw the most of ).

Weaponry is the most important aspect of any first person shooter, and this is where I was a little disappointed. The first three weapons in the "Two handed weapons" class (MP40, Thompson and Sten gun), are all very similar as I have seen so far, with there being very little to distinguish one from the other, apart from the actual model itself. Perhaps more playing time will prove me wrong.
The Mauser sniper rifle comes with the obligatory scope attachment, making it the sniper's weapon of choice. The player presses there their alternative fire button to raise the scope, whereupon they are met by a very unsteady magnified zoom. Leaving the scope still allows it to steady, giving the shooter a better aim. The Panszerfaust rocket launcher is a single shot launcher that delivers its cargo at high speed. It's a deadly weapon, with the major draw back being it's reload time, and the fact that it is so damned heavy you walk like you're stuck in treacle!

Speaking of heavy weapons, another gun that seriously slows you down is the venom mini-gun. This gun can wreak major havoc. Providing you have the time to fire it, that is, with the multiple barrels taking two seconds to reach firing speed. And once it's there? Well you have roughly four seconds of continuos fire before the gun overheats and ceases to work. Both these weapons trade off speed and manoeuvrability for mass destruction. If you are going to use either, be sure your squad is backing you up.
And then, of course, there is the flame-thrower. Kingpin fans will be in hog heaven. In fact most people will. The only draw back to this weapon is the fact that more than two in a server can cause some nasty lag, which on disorganised public servers could be a problem.
I could talk about the other weapons here, but I've covered the more important ones. Just look out for those sentry guns.

The gameplay itself is great fun, with the mission to get to the documents and transmit them providing set goals for individual squads. Send one squad to fetch the documents, while another secures the comms room. Despite my initial fears that it would be easy for the Axis to sit securely in their bunkers and pick off the Allies invasion force, one good engineer can turn the tide of the battle instantly. Teamwork will be a very large key to the online play of this game, if you want your side to win. A refreshing change from the one-man armies that are present in so many other online games.
The class system works very well, and a good clan will balance their squad carefully. Changing your role in a battle can have a serious impact to the flow of the conflict.

Overall, I am more than happy with this test release. I am bearing in mind that it is only a beta test, and Quake 3 underwent many test releases, and the final product was very different from all of these. Let's hope Grey Matter now listen to the gamers, and act on what we have to say.
There is a lot more to this test than I have mentioned here, but I don't want to spoil all the fun. Suffice to say, while not being particularly new or innovative, Return To Castle Wolfenstein is shaping up to be a heavy contender in the multiplayer gaming world.
Now, where did I put my Thompson?