Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory

Once a mere add-on pack, now promoted to the lofty yet obscure realms of the standalone semi-sequel, Enemy Territory hopes to be to Return To Castle Wolfenstein what Vice City is to GTA3, or even what Unreal Tournament was to Unreal. And the premise of the game is novel enough to make us think it might just do it.

Instead of a strictly solo singleplayer campaign, Enemy Territory puts you in charge of an elite squad of Army Rangers, with five different classes of player, each with different skills: stealing uniforms, performing reconnaissance, erecting bridges, building towers and commanding bases. All of which means that Enemy Territory is a world away from the solo single-player campaign of its predecessor. And although we'd never dream of calling a game from id's stable an RPG, you do get the opportunity to level-up' by earning key skills and equipment to help you progress through the ranks as leader.

What makes all this sound even better is that you can also play through the campaigns in two-player co-operative mode or go online and play with up to 64 players in Objective and Last Man Standing modes, as well as through a series of linked campaigns between the Allied and Axis teams, each split into a number of six-man squads. When you join the server you can join an existing squad or set up a new one with you as leader.

Todd Hollenshead, enthusiastic CEO of id Software, reckons it's going to be the ultimate in World War II squad-based combat, and the more we see of the game the more we think he could be right.