Wolfenstein (2009)

***Wolfenstein** is a first-person shooter video game developed by Raven Software and published by Activision, part of the Wolfenstein video game series. It was released in August 2009 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game and its storyline would be loosely succeeded by Wolfenstein: The New Order, released on May 20, 2014.*

## Overview

*Wolfenstein* is a game in the Wolfenstein series, co-developed by Raven Software, Id Software, Pi Studios, and Endrant Studios and published by Activision. It was released for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC in August 2009 and became available on the Steam distribution network in October 2009. It was released through the since discontinued Games for Windows brand. It is no longer purchasable on the Steam store. The game runs on a heavily modified Id Tech 4 (aka *Doom 3*) engine, with physics simulation using the Havok engine.

The game featured a "re-imagined" disguised dark-haired B.J. Blazkowicz, retaining the unshaven look seen in *Return to Castle Wolfenstein* and dressed in civilian clothes rather than his usual military uniform (the game does admit he normally looks 'tall and blond'). He is usually depicted carrying an MP 40, though in the introduction he is shown with the M1911 pistol he used in several missions in the previous game.

*Wolfenstein* is followed by the reboot series *Wolfenstein: The New Order,* which was released in May 2014 and a standalone *Wolfenstein: The Old Blood* that takes place between the two games.

## Setting

The story is set in the fictional town of Isenstadt, which the Nazis have taken complete control of in order to mine rare Nachtsonne crystals necessary to access the Black Sun Dimension. As the game progresses, happenings in Isenstadt become stranger (Military patrols are replaced by supernatural creatures, etc.) Locations include the town's sewers, a tavern, a hospital, a farm, an underground mining facility, a church, the SS headquarters, a dig site and caverns, a cannery, a radio station, a paranormal base, a general's home, a castle, an airfield and a large zeppelin.

Hitler is apparently dead in this universe, as stated by ID, and the developers and in the animated graphic novels made for the game. Although his image can still be seen in various places, no one refers to him directly, nor answers to him.

The game takes place in an alternate universe roughly continuing after RTCW (however it deviates from that game in a number of ways as well).

The exact date when the game takes place is not given during the story, or manuals. The most specific reference comes from a blue print for Atomic Corps weapons which refers to their formation back "in 44", so 1944 is in the past tense.

There are propaganda posters with the words Befolgen Sie! (Obey!) seen in the game mark an event in Hamburg occurred on Sept 3, 1944. Many are covered by layers of old newspapers suggesting that posters have been up for a fairly long time, since 1944. The opening cutscene also involves the destruction of the German battleship *Tirpitz*, which (though under different circumstances than in-game) took place in late 1944.

Based on these facts, its clear that the game takes place later than 1944, in at least 1945.

The reference to Manhattan Project breakthrough and successes may also offer a view into the placement of the game. Other background documents in the game also appear to be dated to 1945 or 1946.

## Plot

The Nazis discover a new source of power in the form of the Veil, a mysterious dimension which can be manipulated using crystals found in the contested city of Isenstadt. The Allies discover their plan after BJ Blazkowicz infiltrates the battleship *Tirpitz* to prevent a missile launch on London. He recovers a Thule Medallion from a Nazi General, returning it to the OSA in London who order him to go to Isenstadt and discover what the Nazis have planned.

In an introduction sequence, special agent B.J. Blazkowitz steals a medallion from a general on a German battleship. Discovered and captured, he unleashes the power of the medallion, which kills all his foes for him. Hijacking a plane, he escapes and returns to the OSA headquarters. During a meeting there, he learns that the medallion needs crystals called Nachtsonne, mined only in Isenstadt, to make use of its full power. The Nazis have begun digging for crystals, led by a general named Victor Zetta. Blazkowicz is sent to Isenstadt, but his cover is blown by an unknown informant. He then meets up with agents from the Kreisau Circle, a resistance group dedicated to freeing Isenstadt from the Nazis, and with them, makes it to Isenstadt.
In Isenstadt, he meets the brothers Stephan and Anton Kriege, who run the Black Market where Blazkowicz can upgrade all of his weapons and powers. (He pays for upgrades with gold earned from missions or found scattered throughout the game.) He also meets the leader of the Kreisau Circle, a former schoolteacher named Caroline Becker. Becker sends Blazkowicz on a mission into a dig site, where he frees a young Russian named Sergei Kovlov. He also finds an exact copy of the medallion that he found on the Nazi warship, which Kovlov calls the Thule Medallion. Kovlov introduces Blazkowicz to the Golden Dawn, a group of scholars who specialize in the occult, led by Dr. Leonid Alexandrov.

The youth also shows Blazkowicz how to use the Thule Medallion. With a crystal provided by Kovlov, Blazkowicz is able to enter the Veil, a barrier between the real world and a dimension known as the Black Sun. Using the Veil, he manages to escape. As Blazkowicz completes more missions, he gains new weapons and new defensive and offensive powers for the Thule Medallion. Eventually, he manages to kill General Zetta, who turns out to be a monster when viewed through the Veil. The Black Market, the Kreisau Circle, and the Golden Dawn then move to a new location in downtown Isenstadt to escape retaliation for Zetta's death.

Shortly after the move, Caroline Becker is captured and held in a nearby castle. Blazkowicz helps the Kreisau Circle stage a rescue mission. He confronts Zetta's replacement, Wilhelm “Deathshead” Strausse, who is eager for revenge after the events of Return to Castle Wolfenstein. During a struggle, Caroline is killed by Hans Grosse, Deathshead's henchman. Upon Blazkowicz's return to Isenstadt, Stephan Kriege informs him that he has killed his brother for being a mole and betraying both Blazkowicz and Caroline. Blazkowicz then finds out that a Nazi superweapon, powered by Black Sun energy, is about to be fired at the city from a zeppelin. He boards the airship, where he discovers that Dr. Alexandrov is also a traitor. Alexandrov's treachery is rewarded only by an execution at the hand of Hans Grosse.

In order to prepare the weapon, Deathshead and Grosse enter the Black Sun through a portal that Nazi scientists had excavated and reassembled. Blazkowicz jumps in after them. In the Black Sun, he encounters Hans Grosse guarding the machine that powers Deathshead's superweapon. Grosse greets him in a mechanical suit outfitted with two chainguns (recreating his earlier appearance in Wolfenstein 3D), and a Thule Medallion identical to Blazkowicz's. Blazkowicz kills Grosse by jamming the Nachtsonne crystals from his medallion into Grosse's. He then destroys the machine, but Deathshead flees through the portal before B.J. can capture him. The explosion takes out both the portal and the Zeppelin on the other side, effectively destroying all ways of accessing the Black Sun . In a post-credits cutscene, Deathshead is seen clambering out of the zeppelin wreckage, screaming in frustration. Ultimately, Blazkowicz and his allies successfully sabotaged the enemy's entire plan by never allowing them to use the device again for their pursuit of global domination. However, that does not stop them given the events of the next game.

## Game mechanics

*Wolfenstein* is the first game in the series designed primarily for a console market, and the console versions feature a hybrid of the two-weapon system popularised by *Halo* and the unlimited inventories of older games such as *Return to Castle Wolfenstein*. The eight usable weapons are selected using a radial wheel, while tapping the weapon select button switches between the last two weapons chosen from this wheel. The PC version does not use this system; the mousewheel cycles between all weapons and individual ones can be quick-selected using the number keys. The player is also able to carry a set number of grenades, thrown using a hotkey, and can pick up and throw objects with some being usable as Melee weapons. As with many modern shooters, BJ now has regenerating health rather than requiring health packs; this means that BJ can no longer eat food or look for liquor as in previous games.

A key gameplay point is the power of the Thule Medallion which BJ acquires in the second storyline mission. The device, powered by a reserve of "Veil Energy" indicated by a bar in the bottom-left of the HUD, can be triggered at any time to grant the player access to four Veil Powers; the ability to enter the Veil, the time-slowing Mire, a protective Shield and the damage-multiplying Empower.

The game features a pseudo-open world system based around the city of Isenstadt, which is divided into two main maps (Midtown and Downtown) each with two areas seperated by loading gates. These areas act as hubs with two mission givers, the Kreisau Circle and Golden Dawn, having bases in each main map, though the Golden Dawn has no actual missions in Downtown. Missions are triggered by approaching specific gates within the hub worlds, which then lead to more traditional linear mission maps. The game features nine main missions, one boss level, and five optional side missions.

As with *Return to Castle Wolfenstein*, BJ can find readable papers and clipboards, now referred to as Intel and stored in a "Journal" which acts as a database and map, as well as Gold. Tomes of Power can also be found. Gold now serves a purpose rather than simply being a useless reward for finding a secret; Gold along with the money given as a reward for finishing each mission is used as currency in the Black Market which allows the player to upgrade their weapons and abilities also purchase ammunition. Since there is only a limited amount of currency in the whole game, the latter function is of dubious usefulness. Collecting a certain number of Intels or Tomes will unlock some of the upgrades, while the rest are unlocked by completing the storyline missions. While the game openly states that there is not enough money in the game for the player to purchase all the upgrades, collecting all Intels gives the player all weapon upgrades for free, while collecting all Tomes does the same for Veil Powers.

There are also a few cheats available in-game. They are unlocked after completing one unaided playthrough on any difficulty. The cheats are as follows:

* Automatically give the player $1,000.
* Give the player all weapons. This also makes said weapons fully upgraded.
* Give the player all veil upgrades. This allows you to acquire a Thule medallion before The Dig.
* Turn the heads of all normal enemies (excluding the ones in cutscenes) into pumpkins. No matter what weapon you use, this will make 100% of all headshots 100% fatal 100% of the time. It also expands the head's hitbox drastically and gives a unique gib animation (the pumpkin bursts while spewing its "entrails"; regular blood colored orange). The rest of the body takes normal damage and the pumpkin head does not impact A.I.

## Marketing

A series of trailers dubbed "visual graphic novels" re-telling truncated versions of the plots of previous games were released prior to *Wolfenstein*, apparently in an attempt to tie the four main games into a single consistent timeline, with the order being *Spear of Destiny*, *Wolfenstein 3D*, *Return to Castle Wolfenstein* and *Wolfenstein*. These trailers do not apply to the most most recent reboot series started with: The New Order. The game does not make any reference to the events of its alleged predecessors (other than the Nightmare easter egg).

Wolfenstein (2009) does make reference to Spear of Destiny when the Black Market looks into B.J.'s mission records they mention that he has been on many actions including the Spear of Destiny (they wonder how much it would be worth), destroying Deathshead's Ubersoldaten, and defeating the undead Heinrich the First, and there is also a reference to B.J. reported to be tall and blonde in the Nazi's records, a reference to his appearance in the early games (and suggesting he has changed his hair color), Strasse mentions in the game that Hans not to fail him again (this maybe a nod to B.J.'s previous encounter with him, and his failure in Wolfenstein 3D, as seen in the Graphic Novel (though it could also refer to his failure to defeat B.J. earlier in the game at Isenstadt castle)). However, the trailers directly contradict elements of both games (largely in the compression of events, and the way bosses are defeated).

Technically the Spear of Destiny reference could be a reference to Spear of Destiny's appearance in Wolfenstein RPG which came out in 2008 the year before Wolfenstein's release, and also set in the OSA/RTCW universe and predominately featured the Spear of Destiny towards the end of the game. However, the trailer definitely ties it to the original Spear of Destiny game.

These trailers proclaim the existence of a group called the "Fourth Reich;" this is the only time in the series that this term appears, with the actual games always calling Nazi Germany the "Third Reich.", or "The Reich". Except the framing story the fourth episode Unveiled Power introduces how B.J. infiltrated the Tirpitz, and obtained the captain's uniform, and medallion and leaves off where the game's intro begins. So it is required for a full understanding of the intro.

* Visual Graphic Novel part 1: *Wolfenstein 3D*
* Visual Graphic Novel part 2: *Spear of Destiny*

Very little of Wolfenstein (2009) was utilized as part of plot of Wolfenstein: The New Order. "...we asked him if the last Activision Wolfenstein game had any baring on their version to which he replied, "No it does not. We try not to include that game as part of our story. Personally, I think that Activision did a crap job." [1] In fact the designers claimed to be more of a fan of the original game in the series instead (Wolfenstein 3D).

## Reception and sales

*Wolfenstein* met with average reviews with Metacritic rankings in the low to mid 70's for the three versions. The game did not meet sales predictions, selling a combined total of 106,000 copies in its first month, and this combined with the poor performance of *X-Men Origins: Wolverine* resulted in Activision laying off numerous staff at Raven Software.

## Trivia

* Despite often being labelled "*Wolfenstein (2009)*" on the wiki, the 2009 game is the only one in the series to be simply titled just "*Wolfenstein*".
* Despite some pistols being seen in cutscenes (with the exception of B.J.'s in the intro cutscene) , the pistols are never used and there are no pistols ever used by the player.
* Die Wölfe are the Nazis in the German version.
* When entering the Inner City for the first time, B.J. can overhear two Nazi soldiers (on post in a destroyed building up to his right) talking about him. When one asks about B.J.'s outer appearance, the other one describes him as having blonde hair, although this being the only installment of the game series showing B.J. with dark hair. This is a reference to his appearance at the end of Spear of Destiny, as he tends too have light brown, or light reddish brown hair in most games. He is disguised in Wolf2.
* At one point, B.J. had a weapons\_fists where B.J. could punch.
* There was an entire level called Sewers cut from the game.
* The Boss level was missing collision up until three months before release.
* The scene on the train seen at E3 was the intro level up until a couple months before release.
* The game was made gold too early and millions of copies of the game were made two months before release but had bugs. They destroyed all of the premature copies.

## References to older games

* *Wolfenstein* features a tip at the loading screen for each part of the game. However, very rarely instead of a tip, it will simply say "GET PSYCHED". This is a reference to the "Get Psyched!" loading screen in *Wolfenstein 3D* and derivative works. This message appears quite a lot before you fight Hans Grosse.
* After the Church mission (where you first encounter the Despoiled) Anton Kriege, one of the members of the Black Market that says random things when you talk will sometimes say "I wonder what the Spear of Destiny will fetch for a price these days," a reference to the capture of the Spear of Destiny in the game by the same name (and its mission packs). He actually is more specific earlier when he talks about what he's discovered looking into B.J.'s background (which he covers three of his adventures): "You just sort of attract myths: The Spear of Destiny, Nazi Uber-Soldiers, and resurrected Prince Heinrich the First."
* The Kreisau Circle, the German resistance fighters who appear briefly in *Return to Castle Wolfenstein,* play a much larger role in *Wolfenstein*.
* In the first cutscene for the Tavern Mission, the one where you first see Hans Grosse, before he gets into a fist fight with a man (a very brief one, since Hans knocks out the man in one punch) he says "Guten Tag." That is obviously a reference to how when you find Hans Grosse in *Wolfenstein 3D* his alert sound is "Guten Tag!"
* Some Schutzstaffel officers scream "Mein Leben!" (which means "My Life!") upon dying a direct reference to the SS Soldier from *Wolfenstein 3D*.
* The first intel in Dig Site is written by a "Dr. Bohren." This is presumably Dr. Carl Bohren, the writer of "A Spiritual History of the Third Reich" referenced in the readable Operation: Resurrection Project Book in *Return to Castle Wolfenstein*.
* One of the later Intels in the game level is General Zetta threatening a "Dr. Blavatsky," presumably some relative of Marianna Blavatsky.
* Wolfgang Statz appears to be the same officer who spoke to Himmler in *Return to Castle Wolfenstein's* ending.
* The Tomes are a reference to Raven's older games *Heretic* and *Hexen*.

## External links

* Wikipedia
* TVTropes
* Mobygames
* MODDB
* Downloaded from GameFront
* Video Walkthrough by jakaos412
* Video Walkthrough by shadowzack

## External links

* Title at Moby Games
* Title at Gamefaqs