When you mention
the First Person Shooter genre, most veterans of the gaming community will
fondly recall memories of Doom. What a lot of gamers may not know is that
Wolfenstein did it first, and in their own right, created a genre. The fact
that the company (id Software) made both games is irrelevant, the fact stands,
Wolfenstein came first.
But what a lot of
people don’t know is that a decade before id Software released their soon to be
world renowned genre defining game, a small company called Muse Software
actually laid the initial prep-work. In 1981, just 3 years after the Baltimore
based company opened its doors and just six years before it closed them
forever, Castle Wolfenstein was born.
Castle Wolfenstein
was no doubt its most popular title on the Apple II (One of the original
personal computers for all you youngin’s) with its followup “Beyond Castle
Wolfenstein” falling just short of its popularity. At the height of the companies
reign they were pulling in around two million dollars a year. For the time,
that was excellent money. Alas, a host of issues caused them to file for
bankruptcy in 1987.
But all was not
lost, even though their roster only consisted of six or seven titles as a game
development company, they had stirred an entire generation of computer nerds.
And these nerds were not content to let the Nazis just sit in the annals of
Apple II history collecting dust.
A guy named John
Romero and a fella named John Carmack were bent on helping players the whole
world over, crush the Nazi regime for the first time, in a way that had never
been done before. This was accomplished giving the player a personal
perspective by altering the vantage point to make the individual feel like they
were inside the game.
This, was the First
Person Shooter.
C:/Wolfenstein3D
One year before the
intrepid Space Marine “Doom Guy” heads to Hell, John Romero and id Software
took us on a rampage through a familiar castle to kill a very familiar
dictator. Little did anyone know going into this that they were getting
something they had never seen before, and no, it wasn’t a pixelated Hitler. It
was the First Person Shooter.
What made this
possible was that by 1990 computational power had more than tripled from what
was possible in 1981. These machines went from glorified typewriters to day
planners, word processors, office management software, and many, many new
features were coming out each day. This gave developers the chance to flex their
creative gaming muscles a little more freely.
In 1991 John
Carmack built a gaming engine, which is essentially the framework that every
piece of code is then layered on top of in order to create the finished
product. This engine had been tested prior to applying it to Wolfenstein in
their other franchise Catacomb, but this was its true maiden voyage into the
mainstream.
Game Engines
provide developers with the tools for scripting, lighting, shading, rendering,
physics, collision detection, and many other tools needed for game design.
Typically, in id Software’s case, game engines were named after their flagship
franchises (i.e. Doom Engine, Quake Engine, Unreal Engine etc.) but due to
their flexibility in design they can be easily reconfigured to suit many other developers’
needs for their own games.
Coupled with recent
acquisition of Muse Software’s Castle Wolfenstein, the brilliant mind of John
Romero, and the talents of a software design team far ahead of their time,
Wolfenstein 3D released to smashing success in 1992. Nothing like it had been
seen before, and because they were willing to sacrifice some of the graphics power
they were able to offer the game on a wide array of systems.
Castle Wolfenstein
was ready to be stormed once more.
Return To Wolfenstein
(Again)
Wolfenstein 3D much
like id Software’s megahit Doom caught a lot of attention for its gritty and
gory game design. It appealed to teens and adults alike who had never
experienced something so gruesome before, but many-a-mother was horrified by
what she saw. Thankfully, they were able to continue doing what they do and in
the late 90s turned development of a new Wolfenstein game over to development
teams at Gray Matter Interactive.
They weren’t noobs
to the FPS genre. They had worked with id in the past on titles like Quake II
but this was their first chance to make a huge blockbuster title. Everything
they had done (with the exception of Quake II which was still mainly considered
an id Software title) was relatively mediocre in comparison to this.
The game was a
tremendous success. Nerve Ent. developed the Multiplayer section of the game
which eventually became the most popular feature. In many respects this paved
for the way for online gaming as we know it in respect to FPS’. While it isn’t
the first, the objective based gameplay was fresh and innovative for the time.
While non-networked
multiplayer gaming had been around in the form of STAR since the 1970s,
networked connections of an LAN (Local Area Network) didn’t start catching on
until a mere ten years before Return to Castle Wolfenstein was released. The
honors go to the games Spectre and Doom. Spectre in 1991 allowed for eight
players to connect simultaneously, Doom allowed for four in 1993. Either option
was groundbreaking for the time.
Return to
Wolfenstein however received some notoriety much like its predecessor. It seems
no innovations come without retractors. People were outraged that the
multiplayer feature of the game had a Nazi protagonist. Eventually people moved
on from this, and so did Gray Matter who in 2005 was forced to merge with
Treyarch.
Once again, id
Software had full control of the rights to Wolfenstein, and they saw fit to
hand it over to another developer that could take it to another generation of
gamers.
Sinking in a Flooding
Market
Before we talk any
more about the sequel to Return to Wolfenstein, it’s important to talk about
what was going on in the gaming market around the time of its release. In 2000,
the world saw the release of a gaming system like no other. The Playstation 2
revolutionized the way we played video games. Graphics were more life-like than
before. The increased computational power of consoles allowed for more and more
realistic simulations to be released.
Gaming consoles
were nothing new. The Nintendo and the original Playstation were just two
examples out of the dozen or so that had already graced living rooms all across
the world. But in 2001when Microsoft stepped into the video game console world
and dropped the Xbox on the world everything changed.
A huge software
firm like Microsoft had just marched into Sony’s playground, and their console
had the “chutzpah” to push competitors like Sega out of existence and
overshadow the megalithic Nintendo Corporation.
As a result of all
these consoles and game developers hitting the market, you can imagine things
got a little flooded, and quickly. Gamers were overwhelmed with the amount of
lackluster titles being shoved onto the shelves in order for each company to
make a quick buck at the expense of gamers.
As a result, the
industry lost a lot of gamers’ trust. It has since gained it back with
wonderful publications like Game Informer, OXM, Playstation Magazine, and PC
Gamer giving gamers the insight they need to make informed purchases, and
better quality efforts within the industry to give us the titles we deserve for
the lofty prices we spend.
These are all
important to keep in mind as we head back to stomp some Nazis once more.
Isenstadt Not
Constantinople
In 2009, a company
called Raven Software, a subsidiary of the hugely successful
Activision/Blizzard merger, got a call from the dev teams at id Software and
Activision. It was a call to craft the next installment of Wolfenstein. In the
eight years since the release of its predecessor a lot had changed. Gone was
the Playstation 2 and the Xbox, replaced by their shiny new counterparts the
Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360. The Gamecube manufactured by Nintendo had
disappeared and was replaced with the motion controlled Wii. The landscape was
unrecognizable compared to what it had been eight years prior.
So with a new
engine called id Tech-4, a young and hip team that had worked on many id and
Activision shooters in the past since its 1990 inception, and a huge budget to
work with, they set to work crafting the next episode of the series.
Unfortunately after its release it didn’t do so hot.
As we mentioned in
the section above, the market was currently flooded with an overwhelming amount
of FPS titles, not to mention hundreds of other games in a number of different
genres. While the graphics were pretty, smoothed over edges instead of rough
polygonal ones, and the sound and scripting were great, movie quality even, the
title just didn’t strike a chord with critics.
It scored average
on the metacritic scales but it was nothing compared to the blockbuster success
of its predecessors. But id Software and newcomer to the gaming battlefield of
FPS titles Machine Games are looking to change all that around with the recent release
of Wolfenstein: The New Order.
Return To…Aw Jeez You
Know Where…
It’s a new world.
The Nazis won the war, and since that day they’ve made the world a very crappy
place to live. Your mission, stomp some Nazi arse, save the world, and crush
The New Order. Good luck.
Sounds like a lofty
goal, but to anyone who has played an FPS in the last twenty years knows the
sound of that plotline. We’ve all saved the world a million times from Nazis,
cyborgs, aliens, and even ourselves now, we need something new. Gamers demand
something fresh.
Well The New Order
aims to deliver.
I haven’t had any
hands on time with the game myself but I’ve watched a few hours of gameplay
footage and I have to say, it’s intense. The voice acting is crisp and fresh,
you almost don’t even need the subtitles at the bottom of screen, although
sometimes it does help when the game tries to maintain the realistic nature of
an airplane engine drowning out a conversation.
There’s a new
system that’s been integrated into Wolfenstein known as Perks. Anyone who has
played a Call of Duty title has heard that word before. Unlike in COD where you
select your perks before going into a mission, this is more like an RPG-Lite
mechanic allowing you to experiment with different styles of gameplay.
Just check out the
trailer for The New Order below:
Judging from the
trailers and gameplay I’ve seen the 8 out 10 that Game Informer gave The New
Order seems fair. I’ve certainly added it to my list of games I’ll be picking
up on my next stop to the store.
It’s been
criticized for not taking any risks and being innovative. The review also made
note that the music grew tiresome eventually and was shut off and that the A.I.
was completely stupid.
The fact is that
Machine Games, while its being backed by the tremendously successful studio
Bethesda, is still a fledgling studio. To take huge risks, especially with such
a beloved and well known franchise, could prove complete and utter suicide.
While it lacks a multiplayer feature which is kind of a bummer in this day and
age, it seems like the campaign will be a rousing bit of fun.
In my opinion, in
2009 when Zenimax, the owner of Machine Games, purchased id Software they did
the right thing by playing it safe with their new companies first title. I hope
Bethesda and Machine Games get to keep the rights and that this iteration is
successful enough to warrant a sequel from them. Perhaps the next installment
will take the risks the critics are clamoring for, but the fans are far less
concerned with.
For me, I’m just
happy to be able to blast away at some Nazis as the stocky B.J. Blazcowitz once
again. As of May 20th the game is available on all platforms
(Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Playstation 4, Xbox One, PC). So head on down and
pick up your copy today. And no, they’re not paying me to advertise. (Nobody
pays me at all honestly these days…) I just really enjoyed this franchise
growing up, and I want to take this opportunity to share my love of it with
everyone else, just like my love for Science.
So gather up your
resistance gentlemen. You’re taking back America.
Dismissed.
-Ryan Sanders
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