Editorials
A Forgotten Gem? 2009’s ‘Wolfenstein’ Deserves to be Revisited
After the success of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, id Software with co-dev Raven Software decided to take things in a different direction with 2009’s Wolfenstein. The result was a game that polarized reviewers and fans alike. Some viewed the game as the “same old same”, with nothing that revolutionized the genre. Others were dismayed at the weak multiplayer aspect. Ultimately, the title sold poorly, and id Software has ultimately decided that gamers should forget about it. A decade later, it’s high time that Wolfenstein, with its focus more on mysticism and horror, gets a second look.
After the events of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Blazkowicz finds himself aboard the German battleship Tirpitz. After stealing a medallion from a general, B.J. is captured. However, B.J. unwittingly unleashes the power of the medallion, vaporizing the crew. Hijacking a plane from the Tirpitz, he escapes and returns to the OSA headquarters. There, he learns that the medallion (called a Thule Medallion) was used by a group of mystics that worshipped something called the Black Sun. The Thule Society, a group of high-ranking Nazis interested in the Occult, has now set their sights on the Black Sun. It also turns out that the Thule Medallion needs crystals called Nachtsonne, mined only in a city in Germany called Isenstadt. The city is currently under martial law, and under the command of a general named Viktor Zetta. Blazkowicz’s mission is to infiltrate Isenstadt and stop the Nazis’ plan.
As mentioned, Wolfenstein takes on a supernatural turn with its subject matter. The game makes use of an alternate dimension mechanic known as as the Black Sun, and between the two dimensions is the Veil. The Thule Medallion that B.J. holds gives him access to the Veil, which in turn grants him powers, such as the ability to enter the Veil (which reveals secret doors and ladders). The world of the Veil is bathed in greens, and is home to Geists – floating, non-aggressive alien beings that explode when you shoot them. Careful, as if you kill too many of these geists, you’ll end up with red-bellied “suicide” Geists appearing. And they’re all too happy to fly up and explode near you.
Later on, you’re granted the typical slow motion power, a shield, and the Nazi-destroying Empower ability. Of course, B.J. isn’t the only one who has access to the Veil. Along with the appropriate Nazi experiments resulting in monsters, you’ll come across Nazis are able to use the Veil, with disturbing results. In one instance, you find yourself in a hospital with Nazis that are able to turn invisible, with their creepy laughter both taunting and terrifying you. And it wouldn’t be appropriate (cliché as it is) if one of the antagonists didn’t turn out to be a monster when viewed through the Veil, now would it? Then of course at a certain point, you’ll have to do battle with the Queen Geist, which involves the use of a mounted gun as she sends waves of soldiers after you.
Speaking of guns, it just wouldn’t be a Wolfenstein game without ’em. Unlike the often underwhelming weapons in Return to Castle Wolfenstein (the flamethrower was a waste), Wolfenstein gives us an assortment of firearms that are an absolute delight to use. Despite not having a shotgun (which is inconceivable in an FPS), we do get the standard MP40, a bolt action rifle, rocket launcher, and grenades. From there, things get really good. The Particle Cannon vaporizes Nazis with a delightful sizzle, while the “fire and forget” Tesla gun will literally hit everything in a 90–degree arc in front of you. And the flamethrower finally gets some justice, as one spurt of flame will set an entire room ablaze.
Lastly, there’s the Leichenfaust 44, which might as well be the BFG for the game. Essentially an energy rocket launcher, with the added bonus of cancelling gravity in its blast radius. The beefier enemies that aren’t killed by the first shot will be left floating helplessly, giving you a nice target for a follow-up. As their body evaporates, individual bones are left floating away into nothingness. It almost makes the game feel a little cheap, as you can upgrade these weapons using the gold you find around the levels. Combined with upgrading the Thule Medallion, B.J. practically becomes godlike. You’ll end up slowing down time using the Mire power and gunning down soldiers before they even have a chance to react, or using the Shield power to bounce bullets right back at soldiers (or vaporizing them if they come too close). It almost makes you feel sorry for them. Almost.
As far as the graphics go, Wolfenstein uses a modified id Tech 4 engine, also known as the DOOM 3 engine. And while for the most part, the graphics still hold up today with some pretty good textures and depth of field effects, the engine does show its age. Not to the point where every human uses the same body type, mind you (as in DOOM 3). As for the sound, as previously mentioned, the screams of Nazis and appropriate effects for the carnage you unleash really complete the badass feeling you get while in combat.
So, with all these toys to play with, a new supernatural element added to the story, and glorious wanton destruction, why did Wolfenstein fail? One of the knocks against the game was its level design. Wolfenstein was the first in the series to be focused solely for the console market, and it shows. Using Isenstadt as a glorified open-world hub was a big miscalculation. The overall city is dull (even with the increased Nazi presence later on), cramped, and frustrating to navigate. There are moments where you’ll find yourself in a firefight and ducking behind cover, but when you compare that to what you were able to do in Return to Castle Wolfenstein, it feels like a step backwards. In the former, you could find yourself in a position to find a perch to take sniper shots at enemies a mile away. In Wolfenstein, you end up navigating a series of rooms that sometimes feel claustrophobic with the way you’re literally fenced-in.
Another big misstep was the multiplayer. Like many PC gamers, I adored Return to Castle Wolfenstein class-based multiplayer (and more so in the free-to-play Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory). In Wolfenstein, you had your typical deathmatch and objective-based play, but this time around, the classes were condensed to three: Engineer, Medic, and Soldier. No more Spy. No more Sniper. The fact that the upgrade progression was slowed down made things worse for those who lacked the skill to compete against veterans. It also didn’t help that id had to release a day-one patch to fix some of the issues for multiplayer.
But what probably hurt Wolfenstein the most was the timing of its release. Back in 2009, gamers were starting to tire of the standard first-person shooters. This was the time when you had games like F.E.A.R., BioShock, Resistance: Fall of Man, Far Cry 2 and Crysis all offering new takes on the genre. Comparatively, Wolfenstein, even with the addition of a new mechanic in the Thule Medallion and the dimension-hopping, still felt like it was the same old story once you scratched beneath the surface.
But, in a twist of irony, today’s scene has a hearkening back to FPS games that are more linear, with a great focus on action. 2014’s Wolfenstein: The New Order is a perfect example of that. In that sense, Wolfenstein would be a perfect candidate to revisit. The game is still loads of fun in its singleplayer campaign (flaws and all), and frying Nazis with either your guns or your powers never gets old.
The problem (for PC gamers, at least) is trying to find a copy. id Software stopped selling the game digitally on Steam, the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live back when The New Order was released. GOG.com doesn’t even sell the game. Tracking down a physical PC copy in the wild is tough, but for console gamers, you shouldn’t have any problems finding one for the PS3 or Xbox 360. If you loved The New Order, you definitely need to give Wolfenstein a second (or first) look. id Software might not think much of the game, but it’s definitely worth it if you love wanton carnage in your first-person shooter.
Books
Despite Treading Familiar Territory, ‘Ravenloft: The Horrors Within’ Provides a Wealth of Gameplay [Tabletop Terror]
I’ve been running tabletop RPGs for several years now, but I’ve never actually run the most iconic of them all, Dungeons & Dragons. Sure, I’ve played it more than any other game, but the setting and genre aren’t something that makes me want to pick up the GM guide and set up my own campaign to run players through. Any time I run games, I stick to horror or sci-fi games that align more with my interests, both mechanically and thematically.
The closest I ever got to wanting to run D&D was after my party played the Curse of Strahd campaign in fifth edition. The Ravenloft setting was perfect for me, forcing our intrepid band of heroes to face down all sorts of vampires, werewolves, and other things that go bump in the night. One of my all-time favorite moments as a player was entering someone’s home, slowly realizing she was a witch, and pushing her into an oven “Hansel and Gretel” style before she could spring her trap. Leaning into the horror got my mind racing with the possibilities for a campaign, but nothing ever came of it.
Recently, Wizards of the Coast released Ravenloft: The Horrors Within for the latest edition of D&D, revamping the legendary setting for the updated ruleset. While I still have plenty of games I would turn to first for spooky roleplaying games, after flipping through the book, I was impressed with the wide range of horror that the new setting manual allows for. To be clear, this isn’t a beat-by-beat campaign book with full prep for a long-running adventure, but rather a series of settings, creatures, villains, and character creation options that can be added to the world, allowing you to explore the darker side of D&D.
Character Options With a Horror Twist
The introduction of The Horrors Within outlines the main narrative concept of the book, the Domains of Dread. These are isolated areas that can be accessed by traversing through mysterious mists. Each domain has a Darklord, who is both a ruler and prisoner in the land. Their domain acts as a dark reflection of their past in a way that makes for a cohesive space that’s backed up by interesting character drama.
While much of the book is dedicated to GM-facing tools for creating a horror campaign within the Domains of Dread, the first chapter is all about new subclasses for players to use as their characters level up. There’s not a new one for every class, only seven of them, but they do add some supernatural flavor to the traditional character archetypes, along with smartly thought-out mechanical additions. None of them are terribly game-changing in my opinion, but they do help you create characters that feel like they are becoming monsters themselves. My favorite of these is the Reanimator subclass for the artificer, who assembles corpses into undead companions that can help you out.
The book also has a bard that summons ghosts, a cleric who worships the forces of death, a ranger who communes with dark creatures, a rogue who gets trinkets from the dead, a sorcerer who draws power from the shadows, and a warlock who made a pact with an undead patron.
To round out character creation, there’s a new set of horror-tinged backgrounds and species to layer on top of your character. Variants of werewolves, vampires, and zombies are now available to you, in addition to some fun concepts like paranormal investigator and spirit medium. While none of these excite me a ton on their own, I can see the possibilities forming in my mind as I come up with different ways to mix and match the classes, backgrounds, and species, making it enticing for players who are looking for creepier ways to build their new character. It doesn’t elevate the class creativity to something along the lines of Heart: The City Beneath or Mork Borg, but it’s definitely more flavorful than the standard D&D archetypes I’ve been using for years.
Darklords, Domains, and Dark Gifts
As you level up, you’re given access to a new set of feats called Dark Gifts. These can be bestowed on you from the GM at narratively interesting points, or can be selected any time you would gain a feat from the origin category. These are once again very thematic, combining mechanics and fiction in clever ways, but importantly, they come with a price to be paid when you roll a critical failure.
For example, the Gathered Whispers feat allows you to not only cast Message, but also to use a reaction to summon spirits to defend you when you would be hit by an attack. As a cost, if you roll a one, the haunting voices get so loud that you need to make a saving throw or take the condition deafened. I’m always in favor of a tabletop RPG making failure more interesting, so this is a step in the right direction for me personally, and I would love to see the concept pushed even further, especially with the focus on horror.
The bulk of the book, about half of the page count, is spent outlining the various domains of Ravenloft and their associated Darklords. This chapter is extremely thorough, highlighting the various horror subgenres and hallmarks that each domain explores so you can find one that aligns with the story you are trying to tell. Want to do something about gothic horror and political intrigue? Send your party to Borco and have them caught in the battle between the two Darklords, Ivana Boritsi and Ivan Dilisnya. Looking for a dark fantasy adventure about doomed quests and cursed items? Then you’ll want to use the Shadowlands, where the sentient sword Ebonbane torments would-be heroes.
Is your group begging for cosmic horror? Well, among the Domains of Dread in this book is Innsmouth itself, giving you the tools to put your players against the ultimate Lovecraftian evil, Cthulhu. There are sixteen fully-realized domains in here, as well as about two dozen others with brief, but still intriguing descriptions. I wouldn’t say any of them are mind-blowingly creative, but they certainly push the limits of what I’m used to seeing in D&D, with lots of options to explore your subgenre of choice.
While they don’t lay out full, beat-by-beat campaigns for each of the locations, there’s definitely enough information here to get the gears turning on hooks to draw the player in. There are several points of interest laid out for each domain, as well as a full history of the area and the associated Darklord. Each Darklord also has a full stat block, preparing you to craft that epic boss fight when the time comes. My favorite part of each entry is the suggested campaign overview, which outlines ideas for what characters should be doing during specific level ranges.
These are only about a page long, but they also come with plans for a full mini-adventure within that overview, complete with NPCs, plot twists, and often a map for you to use at the table. I’m a big proponent of the GMing philosophy of “draw maps, but leave blank spaces,” so while some may be disappointed that there’s not more detailed prep contained in this chapter, this is just the right amount of info for me to start creating my own campaign.
A Worthy Collection of Horrors
The following two chapters are focused on giving you the tools to start writing your own campaigns within the Ravenloft setting, providing solid advice for how to think about how you want the horror to manifest at your table. Given how goofy players can get at the table, it can be hard to maintain an atmosphere of menace between friends, but the tips and tricks in these chapters are a great start. Ravenloft: The Horrors Within also gives you the framework to build your own domains and darklords to tell the story that you want to tell, including tables to roll on to help you generate ideas.
To round out the book, the final chapter is a bestiary full of horrors to throw at adventurers. They all still end up getting broken down into D&D mechanics, so they aren’t anything extremely wild and out there, but there are some gnarly creatures rendered in compellingly moody artwork. My personal favorites were the Boneless, an animated skin of a flayed corpse, the cleverly named Carrionette, a doll animated by sinister magic, and the Relentless Killers, a series of supernatural murderers that take inspiration from slashers. Included among the monsters are some good NPCs that can be worked into your campaigns, either as friend or foe. It’s not as clever as the surreal monsters in Mothership or as truly horrific as the terrors outlined in Mork Borg, but these are definitely some of D&D’s darkest creations, allowing you to weave horror into your standard encounters.
There are definitely games better equipped to do horror in tabletop RPG form, but if you’ve got a group of players who love D&D and don’t want to try a new system, this setting book is the best way to inject the horror you’re looking for into the classic game. Not only does it lay out a wealth of options for you to pull from, between the domains, darklords, and monsters, it also provides you the tools to come up with your own ideas to prepare compellingly terrifying campaigns of your own.
Even if it sticks to well-worn genre tropes, any horror-loving GM will get a kick out of flipping through this book and seeing how their favorite subgenres have been translated into the world of Dungeons & Dragons.
Ravenloft: The Horrors Within is available now from D&D Beyond in Digital and Physical versions.
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