Wolfenstein

Jul 31, 2008

Although it's been almost seven years since the release of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, it doesn't feel like it's ever really left us. In particular, its multiplayer went on to inspire the outstanding Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and 2007's Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. Meanwhile, the development of an all-new Wolfenstein was announced at QuakeCon a few years back, to be developed by Raven Software (Quake IV, the Soldier of Fortune series), and we've been waiting patiently to see it ever since.

That wait came to an end this week in Dallas at QuakeCon 2008, where Raven project lead Eric Biessman and id Software's Kevin Cloud were on hand to give us a close-up demo of the new Wolfenstein in action. Although it was only a brief look at a few snippets of levels, it looks like a solid blend of everything we enjoyed in Return to Castle Wolfenstein and many of the innovations in the FPS genre made since then.

Although it's not immediately apparent from the title, Wolfenstein picks up right where Return to Castle Wolfenstein left off. You, as elite OSA agent B.J. Blazkowicz, have dealt the Nazis a serious blow by defeating their occult division and paranormally enhanced super soldiers. But, of course, they're not quite ready to accept defeat. "The Nazis aren't ones to sit around," explains Biessman, "they're going to start new experiments, and they've found this energy source called the Black Sun." And so, as you'd probably expect, Wolfenstein will be a combination of straight-up WWII combat mixed with a few occult twists.

To start our demo, we took a short look at Wolfenstein's more traditional warfare, with B.J. using conventional WWII weapons. However, we're told the game won't be your traditional corridor shooter. "We've created this expansive environment, where the player can choose which way they want to take the battle to them," says Biessman, as our playtester works his way through German city streets crawling with enemy soldiers. As we take to the rooftops to literally get the drop on the Nazis, Biessman explains we could have taken other routes as well, such as simply fighting head-on or even using manhole covers to try and sneak behind them.

As we watch this portion of the demo, it's hard not to feel the influence of recent shooters. Gone is the old-school numeric health system where you'd have to spend time scrounging for first aid kits; in its place is the now-common regenerative health system seen in the recent Call of Duty and Halo games. Objectives are constantly fed to B.J. throughout a mission, and it'll often be up to the player to decide what order to pursue them in. At one point during the fight, B.J. jumps behind a mounted machinegun to fight off a wave of soldiers. We also saw that B.J. won't always be fighting alone -- he'll occasionally have fellow soldiers fighting alongside him; the demo section wraps up with B.J. finding a safehouse, where he's given his next mission.

Before this all starts sounding like a new Call of Duty game, there's the other side of gameplay, the part focusing on the Black Sun and the occult powers the Nazis are attempting to control. They've discovered a dimension between reality and the Black Sun called the Veil, and early in the game, B.J. gets an item that allows him to step in and out of the Veil at will, gaining different powers as the game goes on.

To start, B.J. has a power called Mire, which slows down time so he can get around obstacles or even heavy gunfire. In practice, it performs similarly to Max Payne's bullet time or F.E.A.R.'s slo-mo ability, adding a blueish saturated filter to your view and giving B.J. additional tactics to use as he takes on the Nazis. You can only step into the Veil for a limited amount of time, which slowly recharges, but while you're in there, not only can you move faster than your enemies, but they're highlighted so they're easier to spot, and you can also see secret symbols the Nazis have marked in the Veil, which they obviously never thought you'd stumble upon.

The highlight of this section of combat was a mini-boss fight against a heavy trooper wielding an experimental particle cannon weapon. Scrambling through the wreckage of the city, our playtester jumped in and out of the Veil as fast as it would recharge, keeping some distance from the trooper and only occasionally popping out to target some weak points on his shoulders. After a prolonged fight, the trooper finally fell, and we had a new prize: the trooper's particle cannon. This allowed B.J. to go on a short rampage with his new toy for a few moments before the demo came to a close.

Through the years, the Wolfenstein games have had a tradition of hiding various secrets and gold throughout their levels, and that will play a bigger role in this new Wolfenstein. As B.J. finds hidden areas and gold, he'll be able to spend money on upgrades for weapons and Veil powers. For now, id and Raven are keeping further powers under wraps, but you should expect that the hidden areas will provide an option for players to customize the way they play, rather than force them to search for hidden areas for fear of feeling gimped as the game progresses.

On the tech side, Wolfenstein uses what Biessman refers to as "id tech 4.5." The DOOM engine that Raven heavily modified to create Quake IV has been built upon even further, and the Havok physics engine has also been integrated, allowing for the physics effects that we've now come to expect from shooters. With our demo happening on an Xbox 360 (the game is also being developed for the PC and PS3), the graphics probably wouldn't be considered jaw-dropping compared to newer tech, but they're hardly outdated... at least for now, with the demo we saw in pre-alpha form and a release date still unknown.

And of course, there's the matter of multiplayer. While we weren't able to pry many details out of Raven and id, we know that it will hearken back to the team-based gameplay of Return to Castle Wolfnestein, this time working the various occult powers into the mix.

id Software has made a habit of using QuakeCon for big announcements over the years, so while we got a pretty good look at Wolfenstein during our demo, you can never be sure what other details might be revealed through the show (especially once John Carmack takes the stage for his annual keynote). So for now, we're happy to see B.J. back in action, and we'll be watching the rest of this week for any new info.