Wolfenstein is a first-person shooter video game co-developed by Raven Software, id Software,
and Endrant Studios and published by Activision.
It is the sequel to Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and uses the id Tech 4 engine.
The game was released in 2009: in North America on August 18, in Australia on August 19, and
in Europe on August 21.
Gameplay Plot
The story is set in the fictional town of Isenstadt during World War II, which the Nazis
have taken complete control of in order to mine rare Nachtsonne crystals necessary to
access the "Black Sun" dimension.
As the game progresses, happenings in Isenstadt become stranger.
Locations include the town's sewers, a tavern, a hospital, a farm, an underground mining
facility, a church, the SS headquarters, a dig site and caverns, a cannery, a radio station,
a paranormal base, a general's home, a castle, an airfield and a large zeppelin.
Story In an introduction sequence, special agent
B.J.
Blazkowicz steals a medallion from a general from the German battleship Tirpitz.
Discovered and captured, he unwittingly unleashes the power of the medallion, which kills all
his foes for him.
Hijacking a plane from Tirpitz, he escapes and returns to the OSA headquarters.
During a meeting there, he learns that the medallion needs crystals called Nachtsonne,
mined only in Isenstadt, to make use of its full power.
The Nazis have begun digging for crystals, led by a general named Victor Zetta.
Blazkowicz is sent to Isenstadt, but his cover is blown by an unknown informant.
He then meets up with agents from the Kreisau Circle, a resistance group dedicated to freeing
Isenstadt from the Nazis, and with them, makes it to Isenstadt.
In Isenstadt, he meets the brothers Stephan and Anton Kriege, who run the Black Market
where Blazkowicz can upgrade all of his weapons and powers.
He also meets the leader of the Kreisau Circle, a former schoolteacher named Caroline Becker.
Becker sends Blazkowicz on a mission into a dig site, where he frees a young Russian
named Sergei Kovlov.
He also finds an exact copy of the medallion that he found on the Nazi warship, which Kovlov
calls the Thule Medallion.
Kovlov introduces Blazkowicz to the Golden Dawn, a group of scholars who specialize in
the occult, led by Dr. Leonid Alexandrov.
The youth also shows Blazkowicz how to use the Thule Medallion.
With a crystal provided by Kovlov, Blazkowicz is able to enter the Veil, a barrier between
the real world and a dimension known as the Black Sun.
Using the Veil, he manages to escape.
As Blazkowicz completes more missions, he gains new weapons and new defensive and offensive
powers for the Thule Medallion.
Eventually, he manages to kill General Zetta, who turns out to be a monster when viewed
through the Veil.
The Black Market, the Kreisau Circle, and the Golden Dawn then move to a new location
in downtown Isenstadt to escape retaliation for Zetta's death.
Shortly after the move, Caroline Becker is captured and held in a nearby castle.
Blazkowicz helps the Kreisau Circle stage a rescue mission.
He confronts Zetta's replacement, Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse, who is eager for revenge
after the events of Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
During a struggle, Caroline is killed by Hans Grosse, Deathshead's henchman.
Upon Blazkowicz's return to Isenstadt, Stephan Kriege informs him that he has killed his
brother for being a mole and betraying both Blazkowicz and Caroline.
Blazkowicz then finds out that a Nazi superweapon, powered by Black Sun energy, is about to be
fired at the city from a zeppelin.
He boards the airship, where he discovers that Dr. Alexandrov is also a traitor.
Alexandrov's treachery is rewarded only by an execution at the hand of Hans Grosse.
In order to prepare the weapon, Deathshead and Grosse enter the Black Sun through a portal
that Nazi scientists had excavated and reassembled.
Blazkowicz jumps in after them.
In the Black Sun, he encounters Hans Grosse guarding the machine that powers Deathshead's
superweapon.
Grosse greets him in a mechanical suit outfitted with two chainguns, and a Thule Medallion
identical to Blazkowicz's.
Blazkowicz kills Grosse by jamming the Nachtsonne crystals from his medallion into Grosse's.
He then destroys the machine, but Deathshead flees through the portal before B.J.
can capture him.
The explosion takes out both the portal and the zeppelin on the other side, effectively
destroying all ways of accessing the Black Sun.
In a post-credits cutscene, Deathshead is seen clambering out of the zeppelin wreckage,
screaming in frustration.
Development Wolfenstein uses an improved version of id
Software's id Tech 4 video game engine, the technology behind Doom 3 and Enemy Territory:
Quake Wars.
The game was developed by Raven Software for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
The modifications to the game engine include depth of field effects, soft shadowing, post-processing
effects, Havok physics, as well as the addition of a supernatural realm, called the Veil.
While in the Veil the player has access to certain special abilities, such as the power
to slow down time, to get around obstacles that exist in the real world, or even to be
able to defeat enemies that have an otherwise impenetrable shield The multiplayer part of
Wolfenstein was developed by Endrant Studios.
Wolfenstein is the only recent id Software game not planned to have a Linux port, with
the person in charge of Linux ports at id Timothee Besset commenting that "It is unlikely
the new Wolfenstein title is going to get a native Linux release.
None of it was done in house, and I had no involvement in the project."
On the day of Wolfenstein's release, the first PC patch was released to address several issues
with the online multiplayer component.
The multiplayer development studio, Endrant Studios, soon laid off some of its workforce
after the completion of the development of Wolfenstein's multiplayer.
Motion comics Four promotional motion comics, each about
three minutes long, were released.
Each was based on a particular installment in the Wolfenstein series and served as a
nostalgic reminder.
The first one recreated Wolfenstein 3D's escape from Castle Wolfenstein, the Hans Grosse killing
and the final battle against Adolf Hitler.
The second was based upon Wolfenstein 3D's prequel game Spear of Destiny, and recreated
its final battle, in which B.J.
fights the cybernetic Death Knight and the Angel of Death for control of the Spear.
The third comic was based on Return to Castle Wolfenstein and recreated the battle with
Olaric, the destruction of an experimental V2 rocket and later the final battle against
Heinrich I.
The fourth comic was based on the Wolfenstein's own cinematic introduction and shows B.J.
infiltrating a Nazi battleship and stealing the first Thule medallion.
Reception The game has scores of 71/100, 72/100 and
74/100 on Metacritic, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
IGN gave the game a positive review, though said of it "...you can't help but wish that
they developed the kernel of ideas in this game into something more.
As it is, this new Wolfenstein comes off as an engaging, if otherwise forgettable, shooter".
As a result of low sales figures, Activision laid off employees from Raven Software.
Sequel
The next chapter in the series Wolfenstein: The New Order was developed by MachineGames
and published by Bethesda Softworks, and launched on May 20, 2014 in the US on the PlayStation
3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows platforms.
The ninth installment takes place during the 1960s in an alternate history world where
the Nazis won World War II.
Players will assume the role once again as series protagonist William "B.J."
Blazkowicz.
References
External links Wolfenstein at MobyGames