E3 2002: Return to Castle Wolfenstein add-on pack impressions

One of last year's most well-received first-person shooters was undoubtedly Return to Castle Wolfenstein, which was a collaborative effort between Activision, id Software, Gray Matter, and Nerve Software. The game's excellent use of the Quake III: Team Arena engine and its breadth of multiplayer gameplay modes made it an instant hit among shooter fans. It's no surprise that Activision would want to build on the success of Wolfenstein, and with that in mind, the company had a playable build of the upcoming add-on pack for the game on the E3 show floor.

This expansion pack has not been named yet, but judging from the state of the build on display, it seems to be coming along nicely. The game is being developed by Nerve Software and Splash Damage (a new studio made up of the Q3F mod team and based in London), and it will include 10 new single-player missions and 10 new multiplayer maps. In addition, the expansion will also add several new weapons, engineer abilities, and even a new player class: the covert ops specialist. Like the spy in Team Fortress, the covert ops class has the ability to pick uniforms off any dead soldiers and assume a new identity. However, other players will be able to discern a covert ops' identity by the player name above the character model's head. Likewise, an undercover covert ops player will lose his or her uniform permanently when opening fire. Additionally, the covert ops class gets the snooper rifle as the default weapon--this weapon was available in Return to Castle Wolfenstein's single-player campaign, but not in the multiplayer mode.

Other new weapons in the Wolfenstein add-on include a grenade launcher and a land mine for the engineer class. These mines can be placed anywhere on a map, and they need to be armed manually. They're deadly to enemy players, though any engineer can defuse them in a matter of seconds. The engineers will also be able to build certain structures. For example, on the level that was used to demonstrate the game, Nazi engineers were able to construct a watchtower and machine gun nest, and the Allies could build a bridge that facilitated swarming their enemy's base. All these structures are destructible, and they can be built only in certain locations.

The Wolfenstein add-on is scheduled for release later this year. We'll have more details as they become available.