FACE TO FACE: WOLFENSTEIN: ENEMY TERRITORY

We get chatting with id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead and Activision producer Jonathan Moses on forthcoming Wolfenstein shooter, Enemy Territory

20:16 - Clearly id Software realised it had bit off more than it could chew with what was to be an add-on for World War II first person shooter, Return To Castle Wolfenstein. With a list of updates as long as your arm, including new character classes, new weapons, a slew of new multiplayer levels, a single player campaign and Bot support, the announcement of Enemy Territory as a stand-alone package may have come as a surprise, but in all honesty raised no more than a handful of eyebrows. As it stands, this is one big game. We recently had the chance to catch up with the Texas developer at Activision's Activate event in Ireland to find out why we should be getting excited about BJ's return.

For Enemy Territory, id Software has taken the popular squad-based multiplayer gameplay of the original and used this as a base on which to build for both the single - and the multiplayer game. Half-Life aside, Return to Castle Wolfenstein has become one of the most-played multiplayer slugfests on the 'Net, with what many consider to be the finest team-based antics this side of Counter-Strike. And id knows this. Bringing this frantic gameplay to the singleplayer is simply the way forward.

The game sees you reprise the role of Nazi-basher BJ Blazkowicz, thrown behind enemy lines and up against the toughest of the Reich's troops. However this time you're not alone: Wolfenstein has gone squad-based.

"We're taking the team based/squad-based gameplay that you have in multiplayer and bringing it to single player game," says Activision's Jonathan Moses as he introduces us to Enemy Territory. "You have a squad of US Rangers and Special Forces guys to help you meet your objectives and [these bots] fill in the roles of the Engineer, the Lieutenant, the Medic and Soldiers, and play alongside you and follow your orders to help you meet your objectives and finish off the mission."

The singleplayer missions play much like more complex versions of the multiplayer from the previous game, with you barking orders at your troops such as "Follow me" or "Medic!", rather than at a player thousands of miles away at the other end of a modem. They'll play as a team, follow your orders and once obstacles in your way have been taken care of, such as gaining entry into enemy bunkers or breaching enemy lines of defence, they'll go on to carry out the mission's primary objective.

Enemy Territory introduces two new character classes to the mix. Well, strictly speaking it's actually one new class, the Covert Ops guy, and one altered class, the Engineer, but with the new weapons, skills and objectives this brings to the Engineer's gameplay, it may as well be two new classes.

"The Covert Ops guy is like the spy for the team," Moses tells us with a grin on his face. "He's able to steal uniforms, sneak behind enemy lines and reveal information [to your team]"

Our immediate impression is that this sounds like a character which should appeal to fans of the sniper, those who shy away from too much confrontation. Strap on the garb of the opposition and, in theory at least, you could saunter in to the enemy base and complete the mission while your team mates were still being peppered with bullets somewhere on the perimeter. The biggest change to the Engineer's repertoire is his ability to build items on the map. Escort him in to position and he can maintain his ground by building guard towers, gun placements and even forward Spawn Points, saving your team-mates' tired legs each time they're re-born into the world. There has been a conscious effort with the Engineer to make the class more useful throughout the entire game, rather than just a handy chap to have around for blowing up the odd wall or two. One of the levels we were shown had us trying to gain access to an enemy base by blowing open the doors to the base with a tank, however the route is interrupted by a collapsed bridge.

"Without this bridge built, I would be able to jump across as would any of my team mates on foot," Moses explains, "but what we really want is to get that tank across."

It's up to the Engineer to put his handy woodwork skills to good use, completing the route for you and your pal Sherman. Jump on board the tank and you can drive on to your secondary mission objective. Oh yes, did I mention there are driveable vehicles in the game?

One of the biggest changes to the game's dynamics, in both single - and multiplayer, is the addition of what id calls the "Command Map". Hitting the appropriate key brings up a highly-detailed map of the play area, complete with your team's placements, objectives and all sorts of other pieces of vital gameplay data which would have been like gold dust to players of the previous game.

"The Command Map is really cool when you play the game," Hollenshead chips in, "because before you were restricted to line of site, to whatever you could see going on around you, or voice communication. Now you can literally see all of your teammates, where they're positioned on the map, and if you've got a Covert Ops guy he can actually spot enemy troops." Hollenshead envisages a scene where one team is positioned behind a barrier, what's waiting around the corner is unknown. A troop of enemy soldiers armed to the teeth with flamethrowers, rifles and rocket launchers, or a clear through route to the mission objective? Simple: "if there's something you can't see across and your covert ops guy has snuck in through a secret tunnel or something, you can all look at your maps and say, "Hey, we can't go this way because they're all waiting for us here, so let's go the other way."

Enemy Territory manages to include a varied selection of both new and novel armaments while remaining faithful to what was around during World War II. There's a portable version of the belt-fed, Maschinengewehr MG-42 machine gun, the German FG42 Paratrooper's rifle and, specially for us over here in Blighty, the British equivalent of the FG42, the Browning Automatic. And in case you were wondering why there was a grenade stuck to the end of the US soldier's rifle in one of the four shots released recently, this is the new grenade launcher, a rifle attachment we're assured was available at the time. The most interesting of the new items, however, has to be the land mine. They may be the blight of modern warfare, but you'll be grinning like a Cheshire Cat as you get to play with them in Enemy Territory. Planted and armed by the Engineer, these booby traps lie under the soil, and while they may show up on your Command Map, they're completely invisible to your opponent, unless he chooses to send a Covert Ops guy ahead to scout the area.

"The Engineers can arm or disarm land mines," chuckles Hollenshead, "so if you're walking along and you step on one, if you don't move off of it you can call an engineer over to disarm it from underneath you so you don't blow everyone up." Nice.