Before playing the latest and greatest in Wolfenstein gaming, I ended up (last summer) playing through an original xbox era game (thanks, Backward Compatibility!) titled "Return to Castle Wolfenstein".  This game was originally released back in 2001, and I had tried playing a demo of it on my Power Mac G3 at the time, but the thing was so choppy I, disappointed, put it down (and totally forgot about it, until last year).

This game takes place before "wolfenstein" on the xbox 360; although this series's timeline is so convoluted and rebooted who really knows if this is actually true, or just my impression.  The game takes place in 1943, World War II is right in the midst of things, and you play the role of BJ Blazkowicz, and american army soldier sent to investigate (and take out) the SS's paranomal division.

The game is pretty much a shooter which reminded me a lot of classic Wolfenstein 3D in the way it handled, just with much better graphics.  Compared to today's graphics it's nothing to write home about, but it was still a rather fun game to play.  For a plot breakdown just head on over to the wikipedia article (I don't want to repeat what's already elsewhere).

I played this game on easy more since there are no achievements in the original xbox and I was just interested in the game play and the story of the game. Here are some things that came to mind while playing this game:

• Even on easy mode I died...a lot!  This was quite surprising.  But with unlimited lives dying a lot isn't really a problem. 
• Wolfenstein 2009 really seems like a sequel to this game.  I wish I had played this first.
• What the heck is up with the dominatix nazis? I get the paranomal ghosts and ghouls and I can suspend disbelief about that, but the design choices made are really a #facepalm when it comes to women in this game.
• Even on easy the game still made me jump and twitch, and I was surprised when I was being attacked by things off screen. Not bad for a game that's 20 years old!
• Undead are still not my favorite type of enemy in a game. I'll take robots or humans any day.  The undead creep me out, even pixelated.
• Wait, did they just awaken Dracula as the final boss in this game?!?!?!
• The graphics were really dated.  Back in 2001 I would have not imagined that this would be the case 20 years down the road.

Overall it was a fun game to play, despite the #facepalm moments.  I'd give it a  7/10.