Project 51 - Return to Castle Wolfenstein

Just playing level 2. Very difficult! Opponents’ accuracy is around 100% (that means they hit you with almost every shot, even from afar). They also spot and hit you through bushes and trees, while you have only little chance to see them.

But anyway - I like it! So if you’re on the hunt for a challenging singleplayer addon for RtCW give this one a try.

P.S.
It is advisable when you understand russian - level descriptions and cutscenes are in russian. I don’t speak russian, so I have no idea what’s going on there - besides that I have to kill everything that walks and wields a weapon. Maybe english subtitles would have been a good idea.

Michael

How do you laod this map

Good advice passerby! That V3 station rope shot took me forever to figure out (I had to quit and ask on a forum when I played it).

hmm link doesn’t work.. yelp
thx

damn, sorry about that! The link now works (it really didn’t before, honest). Anyhow, cheers :-}

I was asked to review Project 51 from a Planetphillip reader, so I downloaded the game without any expectations. I didn’t read the posts, comments or even look at the screenshots so that I could walk into it completely open-minded.

Project 51 begins in a casual fashion where the player is popped into a 1940’s European environment. You start near a river with a large house and a bridge after a couple of cut scenes that set up the plot. Since the cut scenes were in another language I couldn’t really follow the plot, but that didn’t stop me. You will have to battle through many wide open suburban areas with farm houses and city streets. A lot of the material is new and done quite well. There are some new plants and trees that provide an environment for Spring and there are some new market areas in the city that have some great visuals for a convincing European environment. I was pleased to see some new textures & objects because it gives the mod a look of its own. There is still a lot of original content from Return To Castle Wolfenstein that you will recognize and the mapper did a great job arranging all the architecture into realistic city streets and spread out buildings in the farmland. For example in Screenshot 11, using the correct floor and wood ceiling texture reveals an old worn down barn. I also really enjoyed the Church even though we could only view one side of it. The stucco texture in screenshots 23 & 24 adds some realistic roughness to the masonry giving it a solid look. I’m not going to spoil anymore of it but be assured you will see some great mapping and use of architecture to immerse you into the levels.

The gameplay is exactly like RTCW due to the over-use of soldiers. Granted you are in enemy territory, it would have been nice to fight some other characters. The enemies are not too difficult in the regular setting and there is plenty of health/ammo spread out to keep you alive. Some of the maps will require you to backtrack and find health to progress. Even quicksaving didn’t always help. This can be irritating because I had to look for health that I left earlier in areas that were already cleared out. One thing that really got on my nerves is the AI’s ability to aim with almost no error. You will always take a hit from each enemy because as long as they see you, they will hit you at least once. If you can strafe and duck quickly enough, you can use cover to minimize these hits. There are also some stealth levels where if you hear the alarm go off, it’s game over. I enjoy these stealth levels because it breaks up the action and causes you to focus on your surroundings and where the enemies are.

The best aspect of Project 51 is the size of the mod. There are many levels with varying environments to keep you interested in progressing. Most of the missions are simple “find the papers” or “flip the switch” with the addition of cut scenes to show you what the switch did. The rest of the time you will either engage in firefights or hide in the shadows to progress.

Negatives:
- Repetitive enemies
- Non-English without subtitles
- Backtracking for Health

Positives:
- Massive mod
- New objects/textures
- Stealth levels
- Many different environments

Conclusion:
I loved it! I may read up on the internet to find out what the storyline is, but I still enjoyed the game. It is action packed and requires the player to use all their FPS skills. My favorite aspect of Project 51 is the environment. I’ve always loved the old stone buildings and farmland. I spent many hours over several days trying to finish this one. So prepare to engulf yourself into a large immersive mod.

My Recommendation:

This is an excellent mod for RTCW. It is very difficult but not impossible: enemies have better eyesight and accuracy than you, so you have to advance carefully and thoughtfully. ALL of the enemies are human, which I like. No zombies or psycho electrical hosebeasts here.

Passerbywhoplayshalflife’s tips in comment 9 above are very helpful. I would add that one issue with the mod is that every time you boot it up you have to sit through an interminable cutscene in Russian - but there is a workaround. When the cutscene starts, go into the console. Type “\map pro3″ and hit Enter; the screen will mess around for a while but eventually you’ll be at the beginning of map 3 with no weapons and no sound. Quit the console, hit Esc, and quit to the main menu. Now load your last quicksave and there you go - it sounds tedious but it’s much quicker than waiting for the cutscene to finish!