RecommendedSteam player
A wonderful classic i used to watch my dad play all the time as a kid.Show moreShow less
5 hours at review513 people found this helpful
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Return to Castle Wolfenstein pairs a solo campaign with team-based online matches, and mixes classic WWII weapons with fictional sci-fi-inspired gear. That gives you a choice between a focused mission and objective-driven multiplayer; it costs ≈ $1.20 at 
GOG. A player rating of 92% positive from 8,063 reviews adds context, but the campaign and modes are the practical reasons to decide whether it suits your plans.
The Steam PC version lists English for its interface. Steam players rate it 92% positive across 8,063 reviews.
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GGselReturn to Castle Wolfenstein РФ+СНГ+ВЕСЬ МИР Steam КЛЮЧAll-time low ~ $1.06across Steam & third-party stores
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Price History
Past 36 months · Updated dailyHistorical Low~ $1.342024-02Current Low Across Stores~ $4.28Fanaticalvs. Historical Low+219%
Prices cover Steam and 39 authorized stores; only legitimate offers are counted. The chart shows weekly market-wide lows and Steam's official price across the past 36 months.
Editions
01About Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a first-person shooter blending action and horror in a single-player campaign. As US Army Ranger William “B.J.” Blazkowicz, you infiltrate the Third Reich during World War II to stop Himmler’s plans involving science and the occult. Its arsenal mixes classic WWII weapons with fictional, sci-fi-inspired designs. Steam player rating: 92% positive from 8,063 reviews. The Steam PC version includes single-player and team-based online multiplayer. The supported interface language is English.
Credits
Composer
Bill Brown
Developer
Gray Matter Studios
Publisher
Bethesda Softworks
Lowest recorded in 36 months
$1.342024-02-23 · FanaticalBase game · same records as the chart above; USD history, not a regional Steam low.Language support
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Yes | — | — |
Steam PC edition data · 2026-10-23
02Before you buy
Solo and online play
The Steam PC version includes a single-player campaign and objective-focused, team-based online multiplayer. Multiplayer teams can play as Axis or Allies.
Language
English is the listed Steam interface language. Audio and subtitle support are not specified as available.
03Frequently asked questions
Is there a single-player campaign?
Yes. The Steam PC version has a single-player campaign starring US Army Ranger William “B.J.” Blazkowicz.
Does it have multiplayer?
Yes. Online multiplayer pits Axis and Allied teams against each other in objective-focused matches.
What kinds of enemies appear?
The campaign blends action and horror, with Nazis, the undead, and experimental mutant soldiers among its enemies.
Popular Steam reviews
Native-language selection · 10 reviewsSelected helpful reviews in this language show both recommendations and criticisms. This selection does not represent the overall positive rating; opinions reflect the version reviewed.
Not recommendedSteam player
Return to Castle Wolfenstein is one of the classic Wolfenstein games, made on the Quake engine in the early 2000s. While a lot of people insist this is one of the best Wolfenstein games ever made, an essential FPS of the early era, and still holds up today, I disagree. RTCW has its high points, but also abysmally low ones as well. (This review was based on a single playthrough, on what was basically medium difficulty out of three options.) Let's start with the positives. Positives Immersive Atmosphere The atmosphere and level design are amazing. Having any sort of weather effect adds a lot to a game, and RTCW wasn't afraid to get a little foggy or snowy. This obscures your sight, just like real weather would. It also has complex but logical lab layouts, making them feel like it could be a real place. RTCW builds a world that seems just as possible as the WW2 we learn about in 8th grade history. Cliche but Enjoyable Story The story is also worthy of some praise, despite its slight cheesiness. It's just what you would expect out of a Wolfenstein game: Germany is researching the occult and enhancing its soldiers with robotics. Eventually they get mechanized soldiers and you have to fight them. It's formulaic, but effective. It gets the point across and while the German soldiers do have comically fake accents, they and the Allied Forces generals are well acted and are pleasant to listen to. Unfortunately, the positives of Return to Castle Wolfenstein cannot outweight the negatives. While the first half of the game does not suffer from these problems, the ending levels are plagued with them. Negatives God-Awful Enemies The enemies are offensively bad in design. There is almost a sort of aimbot switch going on, where a single soldier can miss an entire magazine of shots but then land 20 of them in a row flawlessly (Even if you are strafing or peppering them with your own bullets), depleting over half your health and armor. Enemy snipers can also have the same problem, able to land shots at such a great distance that you can barely even see them, let alone snipe them back before half your health is gone. This "boosted" response time and accuracy is courtesy of the difficulty system, which isn't increasing the difficulty at all, just the omnipotence of the enemies. Notice how I do not say this game is HARD. It is just bad AI that leeches the enjoyment out of the game. While this is insultingly bad AI, it is tolerable through the use of cover and smart positioning. This goes out the window in the final three levels. F*ck Lopers and Super Soldiers The final levels introduce Lopers and Super Soldiers. Lopers are incredibly fast moving enemies that can either attack by using a massive electric AOE attack, or by jumping at you at an incredible distance. This jump is fast, nearly unavoidable, and does huge damage in a massive area despite no attack being visible. I was killed by a Loper 5 meters below me while on a catwalk above just because he was jumping around on the ground floor, but somehow still hitting me. Super Soldiers are even more offensively bad, as the prototype soldiers are quite content to spam endless rounds of either RPG rockets or minigun bullets in your direction with no pause. The complete Super Soldiers also use a Tesla Cannon, which is an electric beam (With infinite ammunition, of course) that will not miss, has nearly unlimited range, pushes the player back and deals staggeringly high amounts of damage with absolutely no drawbacks. All encounters with the Tesla Super Soldiers take place in rooms with nearly no cover or way to avoid their fire. This is horrible, unfair and unfun enemy design, and whoever thought these enemies were acceptable for public release need to reconsider their career choices. Mandatory Save Scumming The biggest problem with this game is the massive difficulty spike the player faces if they are not constantly quick saving. I do not look down on save-scumming, but when it is close to the only viable way to complete a game there is something seriously wrong with said game. The Quake engine is not designed for stealth, many enemies have near endless sightlines and can see you and shoot you well before you even know which direction they are in. And of course when they see you, the entire enemy compound somehow knows which exact rock you are hiding behind and go on full alert. This near instant change in the situation makes quick saving after every twenty feet or bit of progress the only way to not ruin an entire mission just because an enemy partially obscured behind a bush two miles away saw you peek out from behind a wall, or turning a corner and instantly losing 50 health & 80 armor to a single man with a Panzerfaust. Return to Castle Wolfenstein is more of a trial and error game than a proper skill and positioning FPS. Insultingly Bad Bosses The pinnacle of dissapointment lies in the bosses of the game. The first and final boss are hilariously easy, as they can only use melee and limited, easily dodged ranged attacks. The easiest and most effective way to beat them is to simply stand 10 meters away and pepper the walking sponges with bullets until they eventually explode. The final boss is even more of a dissapointment than the first, because after a whole 2 levels solely dedicated to padding the game length before the boss you get to face a heavily armored man that can ONLY use melee, and occasionally summons normal zombies to join the fight. The second boss of the game is more offensive than the other two simply for being one of the aformentioned Tesla Super Soldiers. The instant the fight starts, 8 out of 10 times he locks onto you with the Tesla gun and wipes out a solid chunk of your health before you can even attempt to find what little cover there is in the boss arena. It is a gimmicky dissapointment. A lot of the fans of RTCW are nostalgia blinded maniacs I specifically leave this here, not because of the game itself but because no matter where you go, any criticism of Return to Castle Wolfenstein is swiftly met with unending hate troll spam. Any forum you go on that talks bad about this game is met with thunderous dissaproval, let alone just this review. If steam hadn't removed the percentage approved feature on review ratings, you would see how many downvotes this review got. Not because its a bad review, but because the nostalgia blinded fans cannot imagine for a second that their precious baby is flawed in any way. You have no idea how many comments I deleted because they brought absolutely nothing to the table except troll bait attempts. If you want help in beating this crappy game, be warned. The community here is more likely to tell you to Git Gud than a Dark Souls player. No matter how good you are at games, they will INSIST you are bad and "can't handle a game that doesn't hold your hand". Not that you should get this game in the first place. Conclusion In summary, Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a gimmicky, broken piece of crap that happens to have a fantastic atmosphere and surprisingly good visuals for a game made in 2001. No amount of personal skill can help you overcome the bad AI and unbalanced weapons (I've been playing games for nearly 20 years now, you could not pay me to believe I have not "gotten good", especially when I've done Halo 2 on Legendary) Do not believe the nostalgia blinded fans, many of which will downvote this review and prove my point (Even though the ratings are supposed to be "Is this review helpful?" not "Do you agree with this review?") No matter what the price is, this game is not worth your money. Go buy Half Life, which came out 3 years earlier and is somehow better in every aspect, and still costs about the same as this game.Show moreShow less
10.4 hours at review133 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Return to Castle Wolfenstein is basically THE “I borrowed this game from a friend.” Game. You once again play as William “B.J.” Blazkowicz, sent in to stop those cuhraaaazy Nazis from messing with the occult and probably summoning the dead or something. RTCW is another game I had a lot of experience with back in the day, especially the multiplayer. The single player starts out in the same vein as Wolfenstein 3D, with Blazkowicz escaping a prison cell before torture with nothing but a Luger and a knife. Return to Castle Sniffenscratch runs on the Id Tech 3 engine, the same one they used for Quake III: Arena and Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force. It still looks good, especially for the time, and you get a bunch of neat little effects like shading and dynamic shadows. Oh baby those 2002 dynamic shadows. You have an assortment of weapons to play with, ranging anywhere from standard WW2 pistols and sub-machine guns, to more wacky Nazi super science like a chain gun that blows people up and a testla gun. There isn't much for crunch when shooting at enemies, however, unless you get a chance to blow them up. You do, however, kill most things with a well place head shot, so you can at least start pulling off some rootin' tootin' trick shootin' if you got the aim for it. One of the big draws to Return to Castle Chocula was the multiplayer. Which is funnily, deader than Hitler. But back in the day it was pretty poppin'. You played as either Allies or Axis and had a set number of objectives to complete, ranging from escorting an important item or destroying a defensive structure. The Allies would attack and the Axis would defend. It was also surprisingly enough a class based multiplayer instead of the usual arena deathmatch style like Quake III or Unreal Tournament. It actually reminds me of Conker's Bad Fur Day's multiplayer, or at least the Tediz vs Squirrel High Command mode. I'm pretty sure Return to Castle Dog Mug inspired the multiplayer for Conker's Live and Reloaded, but I have no way to actually confirm that. Mostly because lead designer: Chris Saevor won't return my calls or answer his door. There are more ways to play Return to Castle Huff'n'Puff than this version however. There is also an Xbox port that was ludicrously popular when it first came out, it also came with an extra chapter where B.J. went to Egypt. There was also a PS2 port but I don't care. If you're like me, and hurting to play the multiplayer, however, then you're looking in the wrong place. Most people who played Return to Castle Nintendo moved on to Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, a free multiplayer only spin off to RTCW. It's still kind of sort of active, so you can at least get a half decent game going to quench that mighty need and go back to playing puzzle pirates or whatever it is you do on your free time. Go play RTCW, you'll probably like it. Or don't, I'm not your dad. It's aged well, or at least to me, but I haven't really left 2003 mentally, so you shouldn't listen to me on the subject. Actually, do listen to me, I'm great. Return to Castle Shootin'Snatch gets Twelve strange robot Nazis out of fifteen. Polar bears are left-handed. The curator: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Dickbuttexperience#curationShow moreShow less
3.1 hours at review267 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
One of my favorite games of all time but i cannot recommend due to the fact they are selling a version that just doesnt work. I have attempted playing this steam version on windows 7 and windows 10, which makes little difference. If you attempt to change a single setting the game will crash or it will crash after completion of a level/start of a level and if it crashes it will never launch again even after reinstalling. The work around is installing Realrtcw which is an amazing mod that fixes problems, adds content, and they were even planning an online multiplayer at one point (not sure the status of that). Is there a catch? yes and that is that the steam version of the Realrtcw mod is ALSO BROKEN so you have to go to their website and get the mod there. After you do that, you should be having plenty of fun until you get to those shield enemies that got lost on their way to an Indiana Jones game.Show moreShow less
20 hours at review81 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
I used to think first-person shooters were all about the graphics. I used to think old games like this one just weren't worth it anymore in the modern era of action games. I was an idiot.Show moreShow less
8 hours at review259 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
this game is amazing it was one of my best ever in play station 2 but im sure you ask why i say not recommended and the reason is this game is not start in all ways yes most of peoples says it not running and i dont know why they selling this masterpiece when nobody cant play it at the end i have to say those other wolfenstein are total trash and this is real masterpiece most of my friends told me the game wont run for them too shame to developer because we cant play Return to Castle WolfensteinShow moreShow less
0.2 hours at review44 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
when graphics didnt matter, killing the germans did.Show moreShow less
2.2 hours at review211 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
I cant recommend the vanilla version sadly. Its crashing alot. For an example, the game crashes everytime i die lol, it also crashing when trying to pick a save. Stick with the disc version or use the mod "RealRTCW" Buy this and then download this mod instead: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1379630/RealRTCW/Show moreShow less
3.7 hours at review28 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
A classic for sure. My personal favorite WWII game....it's historically accurate in my book. Play If: You love shooting nazis, love shooting zombies, love ID games, are in love with old school shooters Don't Play If: You need shooters to be more "modern", need amazing graphics (in its defense this game was a graphical masterpiece in its day), like historically accurate WWII games, think shooters need regenerating healthShow moreShow less
9.4 hours at review188 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
***Warning*** I only thumb down this because it crashes on my Win7 64 bit system. Great game! :). Love this and Spear of Destiny. Pretty much started my PC experience. However, this particular game does not work on my machine. Please fix!Show moreShow less
0.1 hours at review26 people found this helpful
Source: original Steam user reviews. Helpful votes are an archived snapshot, not live data. Last collected: 08/15/2026.