E3 2001 Hands-onReturn to Castle Wolfenstein

One of many games being shown at Activision's booth this year is the first-person shooter Return to Castle Wolfenstein. The first level in the E3 demonstration takes place at a Nazi air base with a primary objective of destroying as much as you possibly can. The mission starts out in a small hill area surrounding the main runway with a few towers lining the sides. From your position on the hill, you can use a number of different methods to scout out the area since you have access to so many different types of long-range scouting equipment. You can either use regular binoculars, the scope on your sniper rifle, or a night-vision scope that gives you a clearer look into the darker areas of the air base. In addition to rifles, there are a few other classes of weapons, including pistols, machine-gun pistols, and special weapons such as the flamethrower and the tesla coil.

After getting an idea of where the enemy soldiers are, you can proceed using a stealth approach to avoid the risk of drawing a huge group of enemy soldiers, or you can go into the base with a slightly more active strategy. Unfortunately, the level on display isn't quite as accommodating as later levels for stealth, so it's unlikely that you can avoid conflict for more than a few minutes. When the first enemy soldier detects you, others come to your area to give them backup. In fact, instead of using a simple respawning technique, a group of enemy soldiers come in on trucks and other vehicles. Also, depending on the strategy you want to use, you can open doors the old-fashioned way by gently pushing them, or you can get the jump on enemy soldiers by kicking the door in and immediately shooting.

The artificial intelligence used for the enemy soldiers in general is really impressive. In one room on the base, one of the Nazi soldiers flips a table over and then takes cover behind it, occasionally jumping up from behind the table to fire a few rounds at you. When you confront enemy soldiers in an open area, they scramble around looking for cover, whether it's behind a small wall or a group of crates. Likewise, if you run for cover, enemy soldiers pursue you.

Visually, Return to Castle Wolfenstein looks impressive. The Quake III: Team Arena engine has been used to its limit--the outside areas are absolutely enormous, and the character models are quite detailed. There are also plenty of objects that you can destroy, ranging from small bulletin boards to planes that haven't taken off from the hangar--though you have to use dynamite to destroy the larger objects. As an indication of Gray Matter's dedication to making the best levels possible, it's even put guardrails around the tops of ladders to prevent unnecessary deaths caused by falling from ladders. But perhaps Wolfenstein's most impressive feature is its special effects, like the flame effect on the flamethrower, which produces an incredibly realistic plume of flame. Even when you're not actually firing it, the flamethrower emits a smaller blue flame that bathes the surrounding areas in a subtle blue light.

Unfortunately, the developers are still choosing not to reveal anything about Wolfenstein's multiplayer modes other than that the multiplayer features will be Wolfenstein-specific. Return to Castle Wolfenstein is currently scheduled for a late 2001 release.