When you hear someone is working on a new Wolfenstein game, there are a few essential questions that spring to mind, and I got to answer all of them when I saw Raven's upcoming addition to id Software's irreverent World War II franchise last week at GDC. Is B.J. Blazkowicz still around? Check. Will anyone shout "Mein leben!?" Yes. Are there Nazis in robot suits? Sort of. Do you fight Hitler at the end? Well, no--Hitler's already dead, dude. But that doesn't mean there aren't plenty more weird paranormal German soldiers to kill!
This game--called simply Wolfenstein--happens directly after Return to Castle Wolfenstein, with you as Blazkowicz joining a resistance movement in the fictional German city of Eisenstadt. You're tracking down the wily forces of the Third Reich, who through some lucky excavations have managed to harness the power of the Veil, a sort of extra-dimensional energy layer that sits on top of normal reality and hides some weird, supernatural secrets. Surprise: You'll quickly find an amulet that lets you get your Veil on, too. It's a good thing, too, since you'll probably need all the help you can get
Wolfenstein uses very familiar first-person shooter controls and gameplay concepts--until you drop into the Veil, that is. The environment immediately takes on an eerie green sheen, which lets you move faster and highlight enemies in brighter colors. You can also find some hidden doors that are only visible in Veil-space, and there are some floating creatures that you can shoot within the Veil to act as exploding barrels against normal enemies. You have a Veil meter, naturally, that ticks down over time, but there are also widespread pools where you can recharge. Lastly, you'll unlock a few specific Veil powers over the course of the game. The only one I saw was Mire, which slows down time. Those powers will be used both in combat and puzzle-solving scenarios, of course.
The biggest surprise about Wolfenstein to me is that it isn't just a linear action game; there are significant open world elements involved. You'll move between hub areas within Eisenstadt where you'll take on story and side missions from the resistance. There will be Nazi opposition in the streets as you move from one mission giver to another, but there will also be underground routes you can find to avoid unwanted combat. Overall, it sounds like you'll have some freedom to tackle missions in the order you want--and to customize your combat experience by earning gold and buying weapon upgrades, like scopes, bayonets, and stripper clips as you complete those missions. That kind of freedom makes me instantly more interested in playing this game than if it had merely ended up being a bunch of action levels strung together in sequence.
Check out this trailer to see some footage of just about every aspect of the playable demo Activision was peddling. It's almost like you were there! The game uses the Doom 3 engine, which admittedly didn't sound too exciting at first, but I think Raven is doing a decent job of making this game look modern on five-year-old technology.
I'll only add that the Ghostbusters-looking gun you see in there, the Veil-powered particle cannon, is a ridiculous amount of fun. Something about running into a room and disintegrating the soldiers in there in a matter of seconds is pretty empowering.
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Like all id Software-affiliated games, you can expect Wolfenstein to drop "when it's done."