Late yesterday, id Software released the one-map test version of Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. While you're downloading the 104MB file linked below, read on to find out more about what's in store in the full version of Enemy Territory, which will not, as previously planned, be an free expansion for Return to Castle Wolfenstein that requires the original game, but will instead be freely available to anyone. We recently spoke with Paul "Locki" Wedgwood, lead game designer at Splash Damage, to get the full story on the Enemy Territory release plans, the new multiplayer gameplay it will introduce, and how the developers plan to combat cheating in the free product.

GameSpot: We've heard that Enemy Territory is getting close to release. When will it be available?

Paul Wedgewood: When it's finished. One of the benefits of working with id Software as our executive producer is that they've instilled their game development philosophy upon us--don't release a game until it's done. Of course, we have rough goals for feature completion, but the full version won't be released until it's fully balanced and polished.

GS: Tell us about your plans for the Enemy Territory test. Are you looking forward to getting feedback from the general public on the game?

PW: Yes, definitely. In fact, at this stage, the feedback from the Enemy Territory test release will probably be the biggest factor affecting the final release date of Enemy Territory. We want the test release to contain all of Enemy Territory's features so the feedback we get from players will help with the final balancing and polishing.

The test map we're including is called Fuel Dump. It's set in a snowy mountain pass in Northern Europe. The Allies are attacking an Axis fuel depot and must escort their Churchill AVRE demolition tank to blast through Axis defenses. The Axis can disable and delay the tank with Panzerfausts, grenades, mines, or explosives.

GS: Has Enemy Territory's multiplayer changed much since we last had a chance to see it in November?

PW: We have certainly remained true to our original design goal--that of producing a large-scale, fast-paced, multiplayer first-person World War II game with skills and rewards and a focus on team play--but there are many new features since it was last shown to the press in the US in late 2002.

Probably the biggest of these is the campaign game mode and the persistent attributes for players. In playing Enemy Territory online, two teams battle each other through a series of three missions that make up a single campaign. There will be two campaigns in Enemy Territory: North Africa and Northern Europe.

It's worth giving some background on this to provide a context for the skills system. Within a mission there are objectives that must be completed by each team. These are as varied as escorting tanks, building bridges, stealing gold, or blowing up fuel dumps. Each player picks a character class, such as engineer, soldier, field ops, or covert ops, and then makes use of that class's special abilities, class-specific weapons, and inventory items.

During combat, your use of seven different skills is recorded and you are awarded experience points. Whenever one of these skills reaches a new level, you are given a reward relevant to the skill. For example, for achieving level four in "battle sense," you are awarded "trap awareness" as a new ability--this allows you to locate nearby enemy land mines.

These skills are persistent across missions until the end of the campaign. During each mission, the player with the highest experience points in each skill is also awarded a medal. As well as the seven best-at-skill medals, constant increases in skill level will also gain you promotions in rank, from private right through to major. All the other players can see your rank, so these really determine your status on a server.

At the end of the campaign, one team is declared the victor, and then stats on the entire game are presented. This includes additional awards for the best players on the server and a full breakdown per mission of everyone's kills, accuracy, weapon statistics, ranks, skills, medals--everything.

You can even save the full campaign debriefing as HTML to share with friends and monitor your ongoing progress. Thanks to some new interface features, you now have far greater control over replay playback too, so recording matches while you play is even more useful.

GS: What do you think Return to Castle Wolfenstein fans will appreciate most about the new multiplayer gameplay?

PW: Excluding the campaign system, skills, stats, ranks, and rewards mentioned above, the biggest additions to Enemy Territory that fans of Return to Castle Wolfenstein will notice are probably the additional covert ops class, the augmentation of the engineer class, the command map, the new weapons, and the overhauled interface.

The covert ops class is completely new to Enemy Territory and is best suited to gathering intelligence and launching silent attacks on the enemy. He's able to steal uniforms from dead enemy players and use these to infiltrate the enemy base, passing through team doors normally reserved for the opposition. Once inside, he can make use of his satchel charge (which has a remote detonator) to carry out sabotage missions, such as the destruction of an enemy command post, which, while constructed, provides bonuses to the enemy. He also has a selection of silenced weapons to choose from and special inventory items, such as his binoculars, which allow him to report the location of enemy defenses to his teammates.

The engineer is similar to that of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, except that he's now more central to the completion of mission objectives, often being required to construct a bridge, deploy a command post, or repair a tank. He is also able to establish base defenses by placing land mines and can use rifle grenades to launch long-range attacks on the enemy.