Regardless of how you feel about playing solo or multiplayer, there is no denying that Wolfenstein is a great looking game. Based on a highly modified version of the id Tech 4 engine, the game is able to deliver cutting edge graphics that rival more recently developed engines. The modifications to the engine include depth of field effects, post processing effects, Havok physics, soft shadowing, as well as the addition of a supernatural realm called ‘The Veil’.
As with any new game release there is always the chance it may not run on your current setup, or at the very least, not run well. That’s the reason we like to bring you a complete set of tests based on new games such as Wolfenstein using a range of current graphics cards and some other not so current ones. This should give you a better idea of how the game will play on your current GPU, and if the performance is not satisfactory, we can also give an indication of what kind of upgrade will be necessary. Like most first person shooter games, Wolfenstein packs both single player and multiplayer components and thus had to decide what was the best way to test the in-game performance. While we would generally pick the most demanding side, after some preliminary testing we found that performance was much the same in both, with level design and complexity making for a more substantial variation in terms of frames per second. Ultimately we decided to test using multiplayer which allowed us to create and run a lengthy action-packed time demo. As part of our test we also collected screenshots for image quality comparison purposes. You will notice right away that Wolfenstein offers few tweakable visual quality settings. The game itself is not hugely demanding, but cutting down on visual effects to run on entry-level hardware is not a possibility. In such case, reducing the screen resolution is what you would need to resort to in most instances for a FPS boost.
