Tuesday 6-Aug-2002 12:00 AM We get chatting with id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead and Activision producer Jonathan Moses on forthcoming Wolfenstein shooter, Enemy Territory Clearly id Software realised it had bit off more than it could chew with what was to be an add-on for World War II first person shooter, Return To Castle Wolfenstein. With a list of updates as long as your arm, including new character classes, new weapons, a slew of new multiplayer levels, a single player campaign and Bot support, the announcement of Enemy Territory as a stand-alone package may have come as a surprise, but in all honesty raised no more than a handful of eyebrows. As it stands, this is one big game. We recently had the chance to catch up with the Texas developer at Activision's Activate event in Ireland to find out why we should be getting excited about BJ's return.
For Enemy Territory, id Software has taken the popular squad-based multiplayer gameplay of the original and used this as a base on which to build for both the single- and the multiplayer game. Half-Life aside, Return to Castle Wolfenstein has become one of the most-played multiplayer slugfests on the 'Net, with what many consider to be the finest team-based antics this side of Counter-Strike. And id knows this. Bringing this frantic gameplay to the singleplayer is simply the way forward.
The game sees you reprise the role of Nazi-basher BJ Blazkowicz, thrown behind enemy lines and up against the toughest of the Reich's troops. However this time you're not alone: Wolfenstein has gone squad-based. "We're taking the team based/squad-based gameplay that you have in multiplayer and bringing it to single player game," says Activision's Jonathan Moses as he introduces us to Enemy Territory. "You have a squad of US Rangers and Special Forces guys to help you meet your objectives and [these bots] fill in the roles of the Engineer, the Lieutenant, the Medic and Soldiers, and play alongside you and follow your orders to help you meet your objectives and finish off the mission." The singleplayer missions play much like more complex versions of the multiplayer from the previous game, with you barking orders at your troops such as "Follow me" or "Medic!", rather than at a player thousands of miles away at the other end of a modem. They'll play as a team, follow your orders and once obstacles in your way have been taken care of, such as gaining entry into enemy bunkers or breaching enemy lines of defence, they'll go on to carry out the mission's primary objective.
Enemy Territory introduces two new character classes to the mix. Well, strictly speaking it's actually one new class, the Covert Ops guy, and one altered class, the Engineer, but with the new weapons, skills and objectives this brings to the Engineer's gameplay, it may as well be two new classes.
"The Covert Ops guy is like the spy for the team," Moses tells us with a grin on his face. "He's able to steal uniforms, sneak behind enemy lines and reveal information [to your team]" Our immediate impression is that this sounds like a character which should appeal to fans of the sniper, those who shy away from too much confrontation. Strap on the garb of the opposition and, in theory at least, you could saunter in to the enemy base and complete the mission while your team mates were still being peppered with bullets somewhere on the perimeter. The biggest change to the Engineer's repertoire is his ability to build items on the map. Escort him in to position and he can maintain his ground by building guard towers, gun placements and even forward Spawn Points, saving your team-mates' tired legs each time they're re-born into the world. There has been a conscious effort with the Engineer to make the class more useful throughout the entire game, rather than just a handy chap to have around for blowing up the odd wall or two. One of the levels we were shown had us trying to gain access to an enemy base by blowing open the doors to the base with a tank, however the route is interrupted by a collapsed bridge. "Without this bridge built, I would be able to jump across as would any of my team mates on foot," Moses explains, "but what we really want is to get that tank across.". It's up to the Engineer to put his handy woodwork skills to good use, completing the route for you and your pal Sherman. Jump on board the tank and you can drive on to your secondary mission objective. Oh yes, did I mention there are driveable vehicles in the game?
One of the biggest changes to the game's dynamics, in both single- and multiplayer, is the addition of what id calls the "Command Map". Hitting the appropriate key brings up a highly-detailed map of the play area, complete with your team's placements, objectives and all sorts of other pieces of vital gameplay data which would have been like gold dust to players of the previous game. "The Command Map is really cool when you play the game," Hollenshead chips in, "because before you were restricted to line of site, to whatever you could see going on around you, or voice communication. Now you can literally see all of your teammates, where they're positioned on the map, and if you've got a Covert Ops guy he can actually spot enemy troops." Hollenshead envisages a scene where one team is positioned behind a barrier, what's waiting around the corner is unknown. A troop of enemy soldiers armed to the teeth with flamethrowers, rifles and rocket launchers, or a clear through route to the mission objective? Simple: "if there's something you can't see across and your covert ops guy has snuck in through a secret tunnel or something, you can all look at your maps and say "Hey, we can't go this way because they're all waiting for us here, so let's go the other way".
Enemy Territory manages to include a varied selection of both new and novel armaments while remaining faithful to what was around during World War II. There's a portable version of the belt-fed, Maschinengewehr MG-42 machine gun, the German FG42 Paratrooper's rifle and, specially for us over here in Blighty, the British equivalent of the FG42, the Browning Automatic. And in case you were wondering why there was a grenade stuck to the end of the US soldier's rifle in one of the four shots released recently, this is the new grenade launcher, a rifle attachment we're assured was available at the time. The most interesting of the new items, however, has to be the land mine. They may be the blight of modern warfare, but you'll be grinning like a Cheshire Cat as you get to play with them in Enemy Territory. Planted and armed by the Engineer, these booby traps lie under the soil, and while they may show up on your Command Map, they're completely invisible to your opponent, unless he chooses to send a Covert Ops guy ahead to scout the area. "The Engineers can arm or disarm land mines," chuckles Hollenshead, "so if you're walking along and you step on one, if you don't move off of it you can call an engineer over to disarm it from underneath you so you don't blow everyone up.". Nice.
While we're sure id has a lot more to show on Enemy Territory, this was all it was willing to show us at this time. As to when it's out, well that'll be "When it's done". Before the presentation ended we were lucky enough to get time to fire a few questions off at both Jonathan Moses and Todd Hollenshead. Here's what they had to say:
What were your reasons for making Enemy Territory stand-alone?
Hollenshead: Well, I think the big thing was that we didn't want to have ownership of Return To Castle Wolfenstein to be a factor in the purchase of it. If you really liked the things in Enemy Territory, or you really were a hardcore multiplayer fan and you wanted to do the cool stuff in the multiplayer, you didn't have to buy Return To Castle Wolfenstein first. And then from a content standpoint, I think that a lot of the stuff we wanted to do really lent itself to shipping an executable with the game.
So it doesn't include the orignal game, then?
Hollenshead: No, it doesn't include Return To Castle Wolfenstein.
Bot AI players was something sadly missing from Return to Castle Wolfenstein. How pleased are you with the result?
Hollenshead: The behaviour over all is very impressive because if you think about it, it's a pretty sophisticated dynamic in the teamplay when you expect Lieutenants to provide ammo and Medics to provide health, and what have you. The computer guys actually do that and understand about the objectives and be able to guard different points and help you out; and unlike a lot of players online they actually listen to you if you ask for stuff.
Moses: And when you die you can take over from any Bot. If I was playing a co-operative game with two of my buddies and a big squad of Bots, we don't have to sit there and watch the Bots have all the fun.
Can you jump in and out of the Bot players in singleplayer, too?
Moses: We're still working out exactly the details. At this point our Bot AI is so good that we don't expect that will ever be necessary.
Hollenshead: It's a bit of an issue that if you die you have to fail the mission and restart, or if you let all your buddies die and not have anybody to help you out and accomplish your mission.
So the singleplayer game will be squad-based too?
Moses: Yes, the single player will be squad-based. The Allied team will always be you and a team of AI-controlled bots who follow your orders.
Hollenshead: [The singleplayer game] is effectively the same system which is used for you and your buddies to play in a squad-based system. In terms of the singleplayer progression, you have objectives and those sorts of things.
Do these objectives form a storyline for the singleplayer game?
Moses: Well, the story is that you are BJ and his squad of Rangers going behind enemy lines, in to enemy territory. You'll go to various environments such as Egypt, villages, secret bases...
Hollenshead: It's not so much that you're by yourself and there's this linear progression storyline, it's more like you've got this squad of guys and you need to do certain things to stop the Axis guys. You're the behind-the-lines agent, but as opposed to being by yourself you actually have support. There's more than just the European World War II theatre, there's some other stuff going on. It's more sort of a fifty-fifty singleplayer-multiplayer, whereas with Return To Castle Wolfenstein, the vast bulk of the development effort was on the singleplayer, story-driven experience.
Moses: The story is very much like a Wolfenstein kind of story, it's got the occult, it's got over the top stuff there.
Hollenshead: It's not a sequel to Return To Castle Wolfenstein, but it's the same Wolfenstein universe.
Will there be compatibility with Mods?
Hollenshead: With Mods for Return To Castle Wolfenstein?
Well, yes, and will it be modable itself?
Hollenshead: Well, I guess the Mod teams could convert their stuff. Since it runs off a separate EXE, I think the Mod team would have to convert the assets to make it work.
Moses: But on it's own it will be absolutely modable.
Are you looking to a full price release?
Hollenshead: No, actually it will be... well, I'm not really educated on what the UK price structure is, but in the US, for example, dollar-wise, top line products come out at 55 or 60 bucks, so the target is to have it at a price point one level below that.
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