Line #9 VideoGame/ReturnToCastleWolfenstein


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rtcw.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:The SS is in ''Big'' Trouble!]]
3
4	->''"So, advanced weapons, chemical and biological research, and now, the occult..."''
5	-->-- '''The OSA Director'''
6
7	''Return to Castle Wolfenstein'' is a FirstPersonShooter game developed by Gray Matter Studios[[note]]who were previously Xatrix Entertainment, best known for ''VideoGame/RedneckRampage'', ''VideoGame/QuakeII [[ExpansionPack Mission Pack]]: The Reckoning'' and ''VideoGame/KingpinLifeOfCrime'', and who would eventually merge with Treyarch, best known for the ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps'' series[[/note]] and published by Creator/{{Activision}}. It uses Creator/IdSoftware's ''[=IdTech3=]'' engine, and it was released in 2001, [[MilestoneCelebration twenty years]] after the release of the very first game in the series, ''VideoGame/CastleWolfenstein''. It's the third Id entry (fifth in general) of the ''VideoGame/{{Wolfenstein}}'' franchise, and a NonLinearSequel to ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D''.
8
9	The game is set during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, following the story of B.J. Blazkowicz, a soldier sent to investigate a secret/occult UsefulNotes/{{Nazi\|Germany}} plot. After being captured and escaping Castle Wolfenstein, he finds out the Nazis are resurrecting corpses as well as developing all manner of advanced technology (like a viral V2 missile, rocket planes, SuperSoldier cyborgs and so on), all of this fitting into a mysterious plot by UsefulNotes/HeinrichHimmler to revive an evil Germanic conqueror from past times. Naturally, it's up to Blazkowicz to put a stop to it all.
10
11	There's also a free standalone game running in the same engine and with the same thematic, called ''Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory''. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Originally]], it was going to be a free addon for RTCW, but that changed during the development. ''Enemy Territory'' was the last game in the series to be released before the death of ''Wolfenstein'' creator Silas S. Warner in 2004, though he had no involvement in the game.
12
13	In the [=QuakeCon=] 2010, Id announced that the source code of both this game and the multiplayer standalone game ''Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory'' have been released under [[MediaNotes/FreeLibreOpenSourceSoftware the General Public License version 3+ (GPLv3+)]].
14
15	Followed by ''VideoGame/{{Wolfenstein\|2009}}'' (2009).
16	----
17	!!''Return to Castle Wolfenstein'' provides examples of:
18
19	* AbandonedArea:
20	** The Defiled Church near Wulfburg hasn't been in use in centuries.
21	** Castle Wolfenstein, or at least a part of it, becomes abandoned late in the game as it gets overrun by zombies.
22	* AdmiringTheAbomination: Deathshead can't stop gushing about his SuperSoldier during the BossBattle, saying things like "Thus we see the superiority of the machine over flesh and blood."
23	* AFatherToHisMen: It's easy to miss, but one Nazi officer in the village can be overheard [[EvenEvilHasStandards lamenting]] how their own men were sealed in the catacombs.
24	* AllGermansAreNazis: Zig-Zagged. On the one hand, there are numerous German civilians in the levels, German resistance fighters (the Kreisau Circle) are essential allies without which the game cannot be won, and some levels feature [=NPCs=] whose death gives a NonStandardGameOver, [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment especially if the player causes it]]. On the other hand, this is balanced out by portraying Heinrich I as an evil conqueror, dark warlord, and SealedEvilInACan who presaged the dark machinations of the Third Reich. In reality, he was one of the more effective and benevolent Holy Roman Emperors who ended the Magyar invasions of Europe and helped create the modern German nation. Also, unlike most other World War II shooters, every German soldier encountered by B.J. is specifically noted to belong to the SS, instead of having regular Wehrmacht troops mixed in with them.
25	* AmazonBrigade: The Elite Guard are an all-female group of {{bodyguard\|Babes}}s to a Nazi commander by the name of [[BrawnHilda Helga]] [[TheVonTropeFamily von]] [[TheBaroness Bulow]], who is as mean as her name suggests. They are also reportedly bound together as part of a [[BlackMagicianGirl witch's coven]].
26	* AngryGuardDog: The X-Shepherds, which appear only in ''Tides of War'', are fresh dog corpses fused with spare parts from Proto-Soldiers. Basically, they are Deathshead's "hunting dogs".
27	* ArbitraryGunPower: 9mm ammo does more damage when fired by the Sten than it does when fired by the [=MP40=]. The 9mm Sten is even more damaging than the .45 Thompson, which renders the later almost moot.
28	* ArtificialBrilliance:
29	** The enemy A.I. has some remarkably good pathfinding and can actually circle around the entire level to reach you provided they have a clear path and you give them enough time to do so. This is only really noticeable if you go out of your way to dick around with the A.I., though.
30	** Zombies who can't reach you will hide behind cover until you move in reach. This is again only really noticeable at the start of the first catacomb level.
31	* ArtificialStupidity: Nazi soldiers have a baffling tendency to jump off of ledges and die from the fall damage. They can even jump in water in some levels, and inevitably drown in such cases.
32	* ArtisticLicenceHistory: In addition to all the [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade other]] [[{{Necromancy}} liberties]] taken with his character, the real Henry I ("Henry the Fowler") was a benign king who died in 936, seven years before the scene showing his entombment.
33	* ArtisticLicenseMilitary:
34	** Several German bases have foreign Waffen SS recruitment posters on the walls, somehow.
35	** Soldiers (or any other combat troops) wearing red armbands with swastikas in combat. Those were mostly worn by party members when on administrative duties or by soldiers and paramilitary during parades. Sporting that thing in combat would mean painting a target on one's arm.
36	** A Waffen SS battalion is stationed in a village, yet their banners on the walls have a Luftwaffe eagle as symbol.
37	** In the game, the average Wehrmacht or Nazi grunt packs an [=MP40=] submachine gun, with roughly one in ten soldiers using a [=Kar98k=] Mauser rifle instead. In real life this was the opposite, with the [=MP40=] being the rarer one. Of course, it makes for more fun gameplay to fight {{mooks}} equipped with less-damaging submachine guns than with bolt-action rifles.
38	** The Sten is a British weapon, and [[ReliablyUnreliableGuns one made to extremely loose specifications]] just to make sure they could make enough to rearm themselves after the disastrous early stages of the European war, so there's really no way nor reason by which the Elite Guards should be using them so extensively; although Germany ''did'' produce their own copies of the weapon, this was two years after the game's setting, during the final days of the European theater, to arm everyone who could conceivably use a gun but who wasn't part of the regular army in a desperate attempt to hold back the Soviets. It also works rather oddly, including an overheating mechanic that makes it ''stop'' firing rather than continuing to fire until the magazine is emptied, and also overheats (but in turn cools back down) ludicrously fast, after only about seven bullets in one burst.
39	** The Panzerfaust is incorrectly depicted as a reusable rocket launcher, when it was actually a disposable single-use anti-tank grenade (the Panzer''schreck'' was a reusable launcher, akin to the American Bazooka). It's made especially apparent during your foray into the X-Labs, where you come across ammo pickups for the Panzerfaust that ''visibly contain a full Panzerfaust'', yet if you didn't trigger an alarm in the previous level to get a guard to drop one, you don't actually get to use the weapon in question until you relieve an Übersoldat prototype of his. However, this depiction is inconsistent, as after you fire a rocket, [=BJ=] discards a launch tube and pulls out a fresh launcher from hyperspace as long as you have spare ammo.
40	** The [=Kar98k=], in addition to holding twice as much ammo at a time as it did in reality, is animated as if it uses an en bloc clip rather than stripper clips, with the bullets and clip both inserted into the weapon's magazine during reloads, even when a scope is attached and visibly in the way of the process.
41	* AwesomeYetImpractical:
42	** The American weapons, like the Tommy gun or the night-vision Snooper, do more damage than their Brit or German counterparts, but ammo is much more rare. [[JustifiedTrope You are, of course, deep behind enemy lines in Nazi Germany, so]]...
43	** The flamethrower torches regular enemies and lets your hear their screams of agony, but requires you get close and waste a few seconds of setting them on fire, which gets you easily shot in return, meaning it is best saved for use against the undead.
44	* BadBoss:
45	** Seems to be the MO of the SS Paranormal Division in general but [[TheBaroness Helga von Bulow]] takes the cake.
46	** When a group of SS soldiers find that they DugTooDeep and are now trapped in a tomb with the walking dead, they run back to the entrance only to find they've been sealed in by their own commanders.
47	* TheBaroness: [[BrawnHilda Helga von Bulow]], the commander of Elite Guards is an [[{{Jerkass}} egoistic and obnoxious]] [[FatBitch overweight]] dominatrix who has no qualms about [[BadBoss treating her subordinates like trash]] and [[WhatMeasureIsAMook sacrificing them]] to get whatever she wants. Even if it means waking an undead EldritchAbomination from its slumber.
48	* BareMidriffsAreFeminine: Many of the SS Paranormal division have midriff baring uniforms.
49	* {{BFG}}: The Venom Minigun comes the closest to this level of power, boasting 12.7 mm ammo in conjunction with an incredible rate of fire. It'll make quick work of any Prototype Ubersoldaten and vaporize regular mooks.
50	* BoringButPractical: Most of the time, you will rely on normal German weapons, such as the [=MP40=]. The Sten is mostly an upgrade over the [=MP40=] and is obtained in the first episode, yet will be one of your workhorses for most of the game with its good damage and the suppressor on the barrel.
51	* {{Bookends}}: The game begins and ends at Castle Wolfenstein in some capacity. Each visit has you exploring different parts of the castle.
52	* BookcasePassage: One is in Kessler's house in Wulfburg, it leads to a trapdoor connecting to a wine cellar underneath a tavern occupied by Nazi officers.
53	** Not quite a bookcase passage, but in the same village there is a house with a book that can be activated, which opens a passage on the floor and lead to some treasure.
54	* BossOnlyLevel: Downplayed. The 3 boss levels have a small amount of {{Mooks}}, but they're much shorter and built around an "arena" where you fight the boss, who is the largest threat of the level.
55	* BossTease: The game has [[SealedEvilInACan Heinrich]] appearing in the opening cutscene. The campaign consists of B.J. preventing this resurrection [[spoiler:which happens as the last battle in the game]].
56	* BrawnHilda: Helga von Bulow, the [[{{Jerkass}} obnoxious]], [[FatBitch overweight]] commander of the [[AmazonBrigade Elite Guard]].
57	* CargoConcealmentCaper: At one point, B.J. Blazkowicz must [[StealthBasedMission infiltrate]] into a heavily guarded area in order to infiltrate into a rocket facility. He enters said facility by hiding in a box at the back of a truck at the end of said mission.
58	* CombatStilettos: Part of the Elite Guard's {{stripperific}} costumes (see below). The clicking of their heels on the floor is actually very useful for tracking them, since they're pretty decent at flanking and deal heavy damage if they successfully blitz you.
59	* CreepyCathedral: The Defiled Church.
60	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Implied by one Elite Guard who warns two SS soldiers not to look at the ruins during the imbuement ceremony[[note]]of the Supersoldiers to turn them into Dark Knights[[/note]], otherwise their blood will begin to boil, and even more gruesome things will ensue, though she doesn't elaborate. It's not entirely clear if it's real or if she's messing with them.
61	* {{Cyborg}}: The Lopers, X-Shepherds, Proto-Soldiers and Super-Soldiers. The Lopers and X-Shepherds are particularly dangerous, because they can move fast and deal massive damage.
62	* DeadlyDoctor: Plenty of them: Deathshead, Doctor Zee and several other pistol-wielding eggheads.
63	* DefectorFromDecadence: A mission involves you rescuing a defecting scientist before the Nazi can kill him. He offers intel on the superscience the Nazis are working on.
64	* DieChairDie: Certain objects such as chairs can be picked up, thrown, and destroyed.
65	* DieselPunk: In spades. Mixed with a healthy dose of {{Ghostapo}}.
66	* DistantPrologue: The opening cutscene shows the sealing of Heinrich I in 943 AD. The actual game is set exactly a millennium later, [[DuringTheWar in 1943]], with the player attempting to prevent the [[{{Ghostapo}} SS Paranormal Division]] from reviving Heinrich.
67	* DugTooDeep: The SS Paranormal end up inadvertently unleashing a SealedEvilInACan at least twice.
68	* DungeonBypass: In the beginning of V2 rocket level if you manage to succesfully sneak into the open cage undetected, it will save you some fighting. Just lie back and enjoy the ride.
69	* DynamicEntry: You can kick doors down. It only seems to [[AwesomeButImpractical open the door faster]], though. And it's an effective way to blow your cover, alerting any nearby mooks to your presence.
70	* EatenAlive: This is what happens to Nazis who run out of ammo and get cornered by the undead. [[GoryDiscretionShot You don't get to see it, but you hear the screams.]]
71	* ElectricTorture: Doctor Zee in Castle Wolfenstein has an elaborate setup just for this, with a table to strap his prisoners to and two tesla coils on the ceiling to do the actual electrical torture.
72	* EliteMooks: Come in 3 varieties: the female SS Elite Guards who are equipped with silenced submachine guns and dodge and roll around alot, SS Black Guards who carry high-powered rifles, have higher than normal health, and wear headshot-deflecting helmets, and the Flamethrower Troopers[=/=]Venom Troopers who carry heavy weapons and have significantly higher than normal health.
73	* EmbeddedPrecursor: The Xbox port and PC "Game of the Year Edition" include a remake of the original ''Wolfenstein 3D''.
74	* EverythingsDeaderWithZombies: The Germans' meddling around with the occult has awakened hordes of undead beings. There are zombies, mummies, ghouls, undead warriors, and even occult priests.
75	* EvilIsNotAToy: The SS Paranormal Division has many opportunities to learn this lesson. It never quite sinks in and they keep dying gruesomely because of it.
76	* FanService: The female SS Paranormal Division soldiers, some of them have their [[NavelDeepNeckline uniforms unzipped at the top to show some cleavage]], while others have outfits that show their bellies off.
77	* FatBitch: Again, Helga von Bulow.
78	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Wilhelm Strasse, aka "Deathshead", is introduced as a secondary antagonist in this game. As the head of the ambiguously-named SS "Special Projects" unit, his role in the occult operations being investigated by the B.J. is initially unclear, but from the start he is deemed as "probably the single most dangerous figure in the entire Third Reich". Twelve {{Real Life}} years and two games later we find out ''precisely'' [[DayOfTheJackboot how dangerous]] the man is.
79	* GameMod:
80	** The game has at least 2 source ports, iortcw and Bibdendovsky's Rtcw, intended to run the game on modern systems with modern resolutions without needing to muck around with the config files.
81	** ''VideoGame/RealRTCW'' is a mod for the game that updates the game with higher resolution textures and weapon models, new weapons, new enemies (taken from the Xbox port bonus content), tighter gunplay, etc. It is available as a mod download on Steam, as well as on Moddb and Github. Like the source ports, it can run modern resolutions on modern systems without needing to mess around with the config files (it's built on the iortcw source port). It does overwrite the original game's save files, so you might want to back those up.
82	* GasMaskMooks: The Venom Troopers and Flamethrower Troopers.
83	* GatlingGood: The Venom Gun. It has a high rate of fire, but overheats at some point.
84	* {{Ghostapo}}: Half of the game runs on Nazi occultism and Nazis searching for deadly black magic artifacts, both taken up to eleven (RuleOfCool applies, naturally). There are also some references to genuine historical Nazi occultism along the way.
85	** The SS Paranormal Division's "Operation Resurrection" aims at raising a powerful warlord and necromancer named Heinrich I from the dead. They DugTooDeep, and woke up hordes of uncontrollable undead doing so.
86	** As for the historical references:
87	*** Nazi archeology. In RealLife, it was handled by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahnenerbe Ahnenerbe]], and did not aim at unearthing magical secrets. It dabbled in occultism however, due to UsefulNotes/HeinrichHimmler's influence and obsessions.
88	*** Speaking of Himmler, Heinrich I is based on King Henry the Fowler. Himmler believed he was the reincarnation of this king, hence the presence of both in the game.
89	*** Paderborn is not a village but rather a city, and it did have a center of Nazi occultism in a château in its vicinity (in the ''Landkreis'' of Paderborn, more precisely). That château's name was not "Schufstaffel" (which is obviously a name derived from the SS' full name, ''Schutzstaffel'') but Wewelsburg.
90	*** Several symbols of the Thule Society show up in the game, the [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/34/Broken_crossed_circle.svg/480px-Broken_crossed_circle.svg.png broken sun cross]] ("round swastika") in particular. In short, the Thule Society (''Thule-Gesellschaft'') was a German occultist and racist group founded in Munich right after UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, named after a mythical Northern country and its equally mythical race. The society sponsored and influenced a little workers party that would grow and become the NSDAP (Nazi Party). Several members of the Thule Society became members of the party, although it should be noted UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler himself was ''not'' a Thule Society member as it is often believed. In fact, Hitler moved to sever the party's links to the society, which disbanded in the 1920s, well before he came to power. It is likely that the society still exists in 1943 in the game, according to [[http://wolfenstein.wikia.com/wiki/Thule the Wolfenstein wiki]].
91	*** Mariana Blavatsky's name is a reference to UsefulNotes/HelenaBlavatsky, a 19th century Russian occultist and the founder of the UsefulNotes/TheosophicalSociety. Towards the end of her life, Blavatsky published various books on what she called "Root Races". She claimed that there was a once highly-spiritual Aryan race who used to hold vast mystical powers but lost them to due to the workings of the Semites/Jews (whom she described as secretive and obsessed with sex) and went so far as to say certain people (like various tribes in Africa) were incapable of being uplifted by civilization. Her teachings have been cited as an influence on Ariosophy, the esoteric movement established in late 19th and early 20th century Germany and Austria by Guido von List and Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels. The Thule Society derived some of its ideas from Ariosophy and had a major influence on the nascent Nazi party, though unlike Blavatsky, who believed the so-called higher races would slowly but surely re-emerge as "lower" races died out, the Nazis believed they could accelerate the re-appearance of the Aryans via a horrific campaign of extermination.
92	* GiantMook: The Protosoldats are a cross between this and straight-out mini-bosses.
93	* GoodGunsBadGuns: Being a game set in World War II, this should be obvious. There are several weapons that are used by both the Allies and the Axis in multiplayer, such as the Knife, Mauser, Flamethrower, Venom Gun, and Panzerfaust.
94	* GoryDiscretionShot: There are several in the undead-infested tombs where zombies corner the [=SS=] soldiers and massacre them offscreen.
95	* GunsAkimbo: On a few occasions the player is allowed to do this with the Colt .45 pistols.
96	* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: Lopers' legs have been replaced by some kind of electricity-launching machine and now walk around on their oversized arms.
97	* HealThyself: Medical backpacks are present in levels every now and then. The player can also heal himself by eating food.
98	* HistoricalDomainCharacter: UsefulNotes/HeinrichHimmler shows up to see his own plans ruined beyond repair at the very end.
99	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: In both StupidJetpackHitler and {{Ghostapo}} varieties.
100	** The Lopers, failed products of Deathshead's Ubersoldaten project, have a thing for getting loose and killing everything nearby. The accidents involved in the SS Paranormal Division's digs at Holstein and Paderborn end up similarly.
101	** Some Panzerfaust-equipped soldiers or Proto-Soldiers can manage to detonate said weapon on nearby corners or objects right in front of them, i.e. blowing them up in their face and the face of the soldiers that are close to them, although this occurs pretty rarely.
102	* HundredPercentCompletion: At the end of every level, the game shows you your level stats: how many secrets and treasures you found, and the time it took you to complete the level. Not really useful, except for BraggingRightsReward.
103	* HyperactiveMetabolism: Health can be restored by eating food, cold meals restore less health than hot meals though.
104	* IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels: "Can I play, Daddy?", "Don't hurt me!", "Bring 'em on!" and "I am Death incarnate!", although the first of these is present only in the console ports.
105	* IgnoredExpert: Professor Zemph, the scientist responsible for the Dark Knight extraction process, had also laid out a process for their safe retrieval. Too bad Helga was too impatient and arrogant to care. Reading his journal is telling:
106	-->''"Very upset with how things are progressing. The work is getting sloppy. Everyone is too much of a rush. Ignoring precautions. Certain corners just cannot be cut. Those old mystics were far too clever for that. Helga is the worst offender of all. And she is supposed to be overseeing us!"''
107	* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: The standard Nazi soldiers suffer from this because of their weapon, the [=MP40=], which is also inaccurate for B.J.; the American Thompson, in contrast, does not suffer from similar inaccuracy during full-auto fire, but ammo for it is so uncommon you'll almost never use it.
108	* InfernalRetaliation: The Undead levels sometimes feature fire undead who can spit fire streams to his attackers.
109	* InterfaceScrew:
110	** The crosshairs (Basically a circle and a dot) are normal while over an enemy. Aiming at someone friendly changes the crosshairs into a forbidden circle. [[FriendOrFoe Guess what color]] [[NonStandardGameOver the circle with a line through it is?]]
111	** Anytime BJ is set on fire, either by fire statues, fire undead or flamethrower soldiers, flames cover most of the screen.
112	** The "ghost missile" attacks used by Olaric and Heinrich temporarily make you blind.
113	* InterserviceRivalry: There's distinct friction between the Paranormal Division and Deathshead, most pronounced in a long note you find in the X-labs where he's added notes over an outline of their plan, constantly belittling them and outright telling them, when they ask for six Übersoldat prototypes to take part in the ceremony, he's keeping one to continue his own research and they'll just have to deal with it.
114	* JackOfAllStats: The Paratrooper Rifle. Doesn't fire as fast as a submachine gun, but hits a lot harder. Doesn't hit as hard as a regular rifle, but fires a lot faster. The scope only has a small magnification, but it doesn't sway at all.
115	* JustTrainWrong: The entirety of the trainyard level. Too many things to point out but the most blatant are botched couplers, absent fenders, and ridiculously small bogies and wheels. Also, the tracks are arranged in a way that would make any shunting outright impossible.
116	* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Deathshead]] manages to get away unscathed.
117	* KingMook: The fire zombies have miniboss-level health and a really annoying fire-breathing attack. Fortunately, there are only 2 of them in the entire game.
118	* LaResistance: The Kreisau Circle, Germans opposed to Nazism who help the Allies.
119	* LetsYouAndHimFight: It's a good idea to let the Nazis and undead/Lopers fight each other in order to save you ammo. Usually the undead/Lopers win, and then you can mop up whatever is left.
120	* LightningGun: The late game Tesla Gun, used primarily by Super Soldiers. You can scavenge it and use it against Nazis.
121	* LudicrousGibs:
122	** Can be triggered by explosives, high powered weapons, and having a body wedged IN A DOOR!
123	** You ''have'' to gib some enemies to make them [[WhyWontYouDie stay dead]]. Of course, they're fragile enough to be gibbed with bullets and kicks, but it's still annoying.
124	** It's also possible to gib unsuspecting targets by knifing and throwing a chair at them at the same time.
125	* MagicVersusScience: There's a hint of this sort of conflict amongst the Nazis involved in Operation Resurrection: Deathshead's journals indicate he feels the Paranormal Division is filled with crazy people obsessed with things that will not help the war effort, and he's ''really'' not happy that they're hijacking some of his own work for their own ends. His colleague Doctor Zemph has no problem dabbling in both the occult and in super-science.
126	* ManOnFire: It's sadistically satisfying to use the Flamethrower on Nazis and hear them suffering. ''Especially'' the Elite Guard. Our special tonight will be Nazi flambado.
127	* MeleeATrois: A few levels feature 3-way battles between the player, the Nazis, and the undead. For [[StupidEvil some reason]], the Nazis never consider an EnemyMine truce with fellow human B.J.
128	* MoreDakka: Starting with the [=MP40=] and ending with the Venom Gun similar to ''[=Wolf3D=]'', though this time your arsenal is rounded out with much more non-conventional weaponry.
129	* MythologyGag:
130	** The above picture is a reference to the title screen of ''Wolf 3D.''
131	** The ending, which features B.J bursting out of a brick wall and mowing down Nazis, is a reference to the ending screen of ''Spear Of Destiny'', which shows pretty much the same thing (except B.J. is using chainguns and isn't wearing a shirt).
132	** The first mission is called "VideoGame/CastleWolfenstein". The game plays with this in several missions involving infiltration in levels full of alarm switches.
133	* MyRulesAreNotYourRules: Uber Soldat's Tesla Gun's range far exceeds yours when you get the weapon proper. Furthermore, the Flamethrower used by Nazis easily burns you as soon as it touches you, but takes a second to burn an enemy. You also must fire it in a sweeping method to use it effectively.
134	* NavelDeepNeckline: Some of the female SS Paranormal Nazis have their uniforms unzipped to show some cleavage.
135	* NaziGold: Some gold ingots can be found as bonus treasures B.J. can find. They have eagle+swastika symbols on them.
136	* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunfight: Who'd've thought a 10th-century knight and his sword wouldn't stand much of a chance against a [[GatlingGood gatling gun]]?
137	* NeverBringAGunToAKnifefight: ...Now if you didnt save up ammo for that gatling gun...
138	* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The Dark Knight ritual in the final level turns three Ubersoldats, which could've been more than a challenge to the American intruder planning to disrupt said ritual, into significantly weaker undead warriors that have neither the weapons nor the armor they had before they were transformed. Makes you wonder why they didn't just use something like human prisoners of war.
139	* NightOfTheLivingMooks: Heinrich's army had these, and they are still active centuries later--much to the dismay of the SS Paranormal Division.
140	* NintendoHard: This game is noticeably more difficult than most of its contemporaries. Health pickups are quite a bit rarer than in other games, and Armor pickups are especially uncommon (for most of the game you'll usually have less than 30% to 50% of your total Armor). This is combined with the fact that enemies, especially EliteMooks, can mow you down very quickly too. This is especially noticeably in the last few levels.
141	* NoodleIncident:
142	** Mentioned by one officer in the Chateau Schufstafel: "what Blavatsky did back in Holstein" and another saying she almost got all of them killed. None of it is elaborated on any further.
143	** There are humorous notes scattered around mentioning various noodle incidents. In the Airfield mission there is a note warning not to brew coffee in the rocket fuel mixing system ([[MadeOfExplodium next to a condemned door that's blackened from an explosion]]). The other in the X-Labs explaining that a cholera epidemic happened when someone disposed of the [[BodyHorror X-creatures]]' [[ToiletHumor waste]] in the drinking water supply.
144	* NoSwastikas: The German version replaces them with two eagles resembling the ''VideoGame/QuakeIIIArena'' logo, and also scrapped other Nazi references, such as the ''Horst Wessel Lied'' song, which was the Nazi Party's anthem (its use is forbidden in Germany nowadays).
145	* OneManArmy: B.J.
146	* {{Overheating}}:
147	** The Sten, in addition to the reload needs, has this as another cap towards almost deadly shots.
148	** The Venom minigun also overheats when continuously fired.
149	* OhCrap: When you first meet [[ThatOneBoss the super soldier]]
150	-->"Well Agent Blazkowicz, is it? You are a most impressive specimen. It would be my pleasure to dissect you piece by piece. Let me introduce you to someone. Do not confuse him with the mere prototypes you've encountered. This is the pinnacle of all my research. ''Das Über-Soldat.'' The Super Soldier. It will be my pleasure to watch it destroy you." -'''Dr. Wilhelm Strauss'''
151	** The Nazis in the Catacombs who discover the ladder has been destroyed and they're trapped in the catacombs.
152	** In several zombie levels there are Nazis who flee from the Undead and end up running out of ammo and react like this.
153	* {{Prequel}}: ''Operation: Resurrection'' has a small campaign taking place before the first level of the PC game.
154	* PressXToDie:
155	** There is a set of buttons in the third level of the second mission of ''Operation: Resurrection'' which reveal a secret if pushed the right way. They're boarded up, complete with a red sign with skulls on it. One bad press, ''[[PressXToDie and]] [[YetAnotherStupidDeath it's]] [[GameOver the end]]''.
156	** The PC version has a CyanidePill you can kill yourself with. It's totally pointless, so it's possible it was put in by the developers as a joke.
157	* PrisonLevel:
158	** The first level of the original PC version starts with B.J. Blazkowicz escaping from being imprisoned in Castle Wolfenstein's dungeons.
159	** In the console versions, this level takes place after [[spoiler:Agent One and Blazkowicz are caught by Helga von Bulow's forces]].
160	* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Kessler, your contact in the [[LaResistance Kreisau circle]], impersonates a German officer on the radio to "confirm" Blazkowicz is dead. This means the village isn't alerted to your presence after your spectacular escape from the castle.
161	* ShockAndAwe: The Tesla gun. Lopers use the same technology as well.
162	* SealedEvilInACan: This is what kickstarts the plot, Simon the Wanderer, the wizard in the intro, realizes he can't kill Heinrich, so he seals him under the ground.
163	** Olaric is released when Helga von Bulow retrieves the Dagger of Warding, which gets her dismembered alive.
164	* SelfDestructMechanism: The rocket loaded with a chemical warhead and bound for London is conveniently equipped with one of these in the control room, you'll need to use it or else you will fail the mission.
165	* ShootTheMedicFirst: A valuable strategy in both the Multiplayer portion of ''RTCW'' and ''Enemy Territory''.
166	* ShoutOut:
167	** The cable car level is an obvious one to ''Film/WhereEaglesDare''. Also, one promo image (the page's picture) has Blazkowicz's face modelled after Creator/ClintEastwood.
168	** An occultist named [[Film/DrStrangelove Dr. Merkwürdigliebe]] appears as a hidden enemy in the village assassination level near the end of the game.
169	** The VideoGame/{{Doom}}guy's pain sounds can be briefly heard in the intro cutscene, while during the interrogation scene in the first mission, the interrogated prisoner makes the same pained yell as Doom Guy's death report in Playstation/Saturn ''Doom'' and ''VideoGame/Doom64''.
170	** In the opening cinematic, Simon the Wanderer uses a magic staff with a large yellow jewel on the tip, just like [[VideoGame/{{Heretic}} Corvus]].
171	** The saw trap in the Crypt level behaves like a similar trap in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade''.
172	** One of the officers in the Paderborn mission is named [[Series/HogansHeroes Major Hochstetter]].
173	** The Prototype Super Soldiers and the completed Super Soldier models being to mind [[EvilCounterpart evil versions]] of ''Franchise/RoboCop'' with hints of [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]] in the final models' helmets.
174	* ShownTheirWork: With some exceptions, most of the weapons you can wield were real WWII weapons that behaved more-or-less as shown in the game. Even the Venom, which you might take as part of the sci-fi aspect of the game, is actually based on the real-life [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fokker-Leimberger Leimberger gatling gun]]; the M3 "Snooper" Rifle's scope gives black-and-white imagery and not the (inaccurate) red or greenish tint usually seen in media.
175	* SpiritualSuccessor: Obviously it's got certain ties to Id's own ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D'', but the stealth-based aspects of the gameplay harken all the way back to the original Platform/AppleII game ''VideoGame/CastleWolfenstein''.
176	* SpoilerOpening: It shows Heinrich I. The player only gets a hint of his apparition in the last levels.
177	* StealthBasedMission: Two of them: One of infiltration, and one of assassination. These can be rather difficult to start with, as one of the objectives in both missions is to ensure that ''no alarms are sounded''.
178	* {{Stripperific}}: [[NotDistractedByTheSexy Don't get distracted]] fighting off the [[EliteMooks Elite Guards.]] There is also a lingerie-clad prostitute who is getting ready to service Major Hochstedder in Paderborn before you rudely interrupt them and put two in the Major's head. Marianna Blavatsky's outfit covers so little of her body it may as well be her underwear.
179	* StrongFleshWeakSteel: Downplayed. You can bust a hole in a stone/concrete wall by kicking it enough, but [[LudicrousGibs gibbing]] a corpse requires explosives... or the [[GatlingGood Venom Gun]].
180	* StupidEvil: The Nazis in the undead levels won't consider making a truce with B.J Blazcowicz even when they're outnumbered by the walking dead trying to eat them alive. Arguably {{Justified}} in the latter levels where the Nazis in question are the more fanatical Elite Guards and Paratroopers who are under order to both stop you and contain the undead outbreak, less so in the earlier Catacombs levels where the Nazis in the catacombs got sealed there by their panicking officers desperate to stop the uncontrollable undead.
181	** Doctor Zee electric torture/interrogation kill Agent One, who is implied to have died before revealing any information. He plans to do the same to Blazkowicz, which would kill his two sources of information and leave him with none.
182	* StupidJetpackHitler: Experimental germ warhead, mutants, Übersoldat, big fancy jet planes, electrically-powered miniguns, rocket planes, Tesla guns... you name it. This trope is the very basis of the franchise after all, even before {{Ghostapo}}.
183	* SuddenlyVoiced: The console ports add more cutscenes that give B.J. Blazkowicz actual spoken dialogue for the first time in the series.
184	* SuperDrowningSkills: Not B.J. himself, but the Nazis mooks who fall in water. They don't know how to swim and drown. Particularly funny to attempt in the "Baseout" level, which has a water pond in which the player can trick some nearby mooks to jump in to follow him.
185	* ThoseWackyNazis: The franchise runs on this trope, after all.
186	** Cultured variant: [[spoiler:The generals of the Resurrection project]] in the second infiltration mission.
187	** Torture master variant: The MadScientist torturing Agent One at the beginning.
188	** Officer with a conscience: [[spoiler:The defecting doctor]] in the Secret Weapons Facility missions.
189	* TheWallsAreClosingIn: One lever that is necessary to active to proceed further in the Crypt level also triggers this type of trap in the room it's found in.
190	* TimedMission: Once you reach a certain point in the Rocket mission, a 2-minute countdown for the launch of the titular chemical-laden rocket towards London will begin, though it's trivial to reach it in time and abort the launch.
191	* TitleDrop: The next-to-last mission is called "Return To Castle Wolfenstein". It's also spoken aloud twice, once in the intro cinematic by a Nazi excavator ordering a subordinate to contact Himmler, and again towards the end when B.J. is ordered back to the Castle for the final confrontation.
192	* TooAwesomeToUse: The .30 caliber rounds for the Snooper rifle are the rarest ammo in the game. Make those shots count. The .45 caliber for the Thompson and the Colt are slightly less rare, though they are in stiff competition with the 9mm Sten so running out of .45 rounds isn't much of a disadvantage.
193	* TooDumbToLive: The SS Paranormal Division are so wildly incompetent and arrogant that they cause no less than ''three'' incidents where they either accidentally cause an undead outbreak or manage to resurrect an ancient being [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder that very predictably betrays them]].
194	* TortureTechnician: Doctor Zee in the first level has just finished torturing Agent One to death and sends a guard to fetch you from your cell and do this to you. Naturally, he's the first enemy you kill in gameplay (the guard is killed in a cutscene).
195	* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: Helpful advice: don't manually save on either of the two stealth levels. If you happen to save in a moment right before being spotted (and thus, [[NonStandardGameOver ending the mission]]), you will respawn right before the mission ends again instead of at the last checkpoint. The only way to advance is to restart the mission from scratch.
196	* UselessUsefulStealth: Played with. While behaving stealthy will save you some trouble, enable you to eavesdrop on EnemyChatter and is [[StealthBasedMission outright required on certain levels]], it often also denies you some stronger weapons. For instance if you don't trigger an alarm in the Norway level, the panzergrenadiers won't even spawn, which means you won't get the panzerfaust before encountering the first [[HeavilyArmoredMook Proto Soldier]] in the following level, the X-labs.
197	* VariableMix: The in-game music consists of looped tracks that change in accordance to the situation.
198	* VideogameCrueltyPunishment: Shooting/stabbing/kicking German civilians (such as the unarmed women or members of the Kreisau Circle) results in an immediate GameOver. Even a single-foot kick is enough kill them, whereas several kicks are needed to kill basic Nazi mooks.
199	* WireDilemma: Let's just say that ''those'' silly Nazis really ''should'' have [[StuffBlowingUp read the manual]].
200	** Paraphrased:
201	--->''"So how do I disarm this thing?"''\
202	''"I told you, just clip the red wire! ...or was it the blue one? Agh, hold on while I go get the manual."''\
203	''"[[TooDumbToLive Never mind, they all look gray to me anyway.]]"''\
204	'''''BOOM'''''
205	* ZombieApocalypse: A localized exemple in the catacombs, which is contained by the Nazis sealing the catacombs to contain the out of control undead - with some of their own Nazis still trapped inside. In the latter levels the undead have somehow spread to the abandoned sections of Castle Wolfenstein, where the local EliteMooks are desperately trying to contain them.

Context VideoGame / ReturnToCastleWolfenstein