The story of Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is complex and deeply compelling. It's rooted in the formation of developer Splash Damage, which grew from a group of modders to full-fledged game developers in the mid-2000s. As part of that growth, however, there were stumbles. The single-player campaign of the Wolfenstein Enemy Territory expansion was dropped and the multiplayer released standalone. The story has come full circle, however, as a proactive modder has now rebuilt Enemy Territory's singleplayer on his own.
The mod was created by one William Faure's Dark Matter Productions. Faure has taken what Splash Damage made available of its single-player efforts and the existing multiplayer maps from Enemy Territory's official release and created a genuine singleplayer campaign. A lone modder was able to deliver what Splash Damage was unable to complete, only 18 years later. It's an impressive and uniquely special accomplishment and a monument to Splash Damage's work.
Being a mode from a single person, the singleplayer levels of Enemy Territory are very rudimentary. For example, the Gold Rush map provides players with an open map and a list of objectives. These include either stealthily following an officer and then stealing their gold or, if discovered, stealing a tank and blowing up the bank to then steal the gold. Players familiar with the original Return to Castle Wolfenstein and other first-person shooters of the time will certainly feel nostalgic for the style of gameplay.
The Enemy Territory mod is, of course, entirely available for free to download and play. It does require that players own Return to Castle Wolfenstein, however. The game is currently available for $4.99 on Steam, but could be discounted even further during an upcoming Black Friday or Christmas sale. In addition to Return to Castle Wolfenstein, players will have to download the RealRTCW mod on Steam, a free overhaul mod that singleplayer Enemy Territory is built on.
This project just goes to show that the legacy of Wolfenstein games remains strong. Even Return to Castle Wolfenstein retains a niche fanbase nearly 20 years after its release, embracing not only the game's multiplayer but single-player possibilities thought lost to time.
Splash Damage has come a long way since the cancelation of Enemy Territory's single-player, too. It worked with Xbox Game Studios on Gears of War multiplayer and the PC version of Halo: The Master Chief Collection through the late 2010s. Gears Tactics was its last Xbox-published game before its parent company Leyou was acquired by Tencent. It's now working on an original sci-fi project, as well as other games, that all remain unannounced.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein is available now on PC.
Source: Steam