The smell of gun powder engulfs my room, bed and all. The sound of a mortar firing emanates in the distance. I am bloody and wounded but have an increased awareness of my condition and begin my searching and screaming for a nearby medic. I am a soldier, but one of a different style that many do not know of. I am Sgt. Freebird of the allied power, but only for the next 20 minutes or so.

If you could not already tell that I am playing a video game, then I probably should be writing this article on why you should NOT vote to re-elect Bush. But anyhow, the game I am talking about is “Wolfenstein 3D: Enemy Territory” a first person shooter based in a WWII setting that I recently began playing and have become addicted to like a fly to those blue zapper lights.

Made by “ID Software” the same people who brought you the “Doom” series, the game looks and feels the same but from a war perspective. The company began creation of the game with plans to create a final version to be distributed and sold in stores around the world. Production was looking great and the game was soon to be released until another great idea came to ID…to create another Doom (the 3rd in the series). Having only enough time, money, and resources to work on one project, Doom 3 was chosen as the more profitable project for the company and enemy territory was dropped. But all that hard work put into ET couldn’t just be stagnant in the pizza box and coffee machine filled to the brim offices of ID Software. So rather than letting down the many fans who looked forward to the games release, they took what they had done (which was a lot…let me tell you) and they released the game as “Multiplayer Only” game without any big promotion or anything. Ever since that decision was made, the game has hit it big in the industry with tons of new players checking the servers daily. Oh yeah…and the sweetest part of all this….the game is 100% Free. You heard me…download it straight from the internet and you are in……so keep reading because I will show you how at the end of this article.

After a quick and painless installation and game setup (choosing your character name, etc.) the game loads up and slams you with tons of servers to choose from. Each of these servers is running different levels and campaigns that have been created by the games developers as well as your local computer geek neighbor. Double clicking on any server automatically begins to loading process and depending on your internet connection; you will soon be seeing more body parts flying than Heffner on his Playboy jet.

Danke or Thanks? – Character Selection

Upon entering the level your first and most important choice of the game is…who are you going to be, a member of the allied forces, America’s pride and joy, or one of Hitler’s axis Henchmen? Both groups come with their own sets of weapons and pre-programmed voice chat messages that you can use to communicate to others. (and yes, the Axis voices are spoken in German…) The choice between Allied or Axis power is crucial because it ultimately decides what role you are going to play in the game. The Axis power is always on the defense, defending their buildings, weaponry, and anything else. The Allied power is always on the offensive, with objectives such as driving a tank through barriers and stealing gold from a bank. Upon selecting which side you will fight for, you then must select your role within that group. There are 5 different roles in enemy territory each with their own distinct and crucial purpose:

1. Soldier - Simple enough, the guy that just goes out their and blows shit up! With 5 different primary weapons to choose from including a flamethrower, this is certainly a fun duty.
2. Medic – I feel this is most important. As a medic your sole purpose is to help keep your troops healthy. Throughout the game, you will hear your men cry out, “I NEED A MEDIC!” and depending on their situation (either they are wounded badly and cannot move or they just need some health paks) you must run through the fields and trenches and either revive your men with a needle or give them a health pack.
3. Engineer – Similarly important is the engineer. As an engineer you have the ability to plant landmines, construct barriers or bridges, and repair your teams broken equipment.
4. Field Ops – This is the guy who supports the men on the field. He is the supplier of ammo as well as the guy with the binoculars which are used for finding far off distances where the enemy might be hiding and call in an air bombing.
5. Covert Ops – These are like the spies of the game, they have the ability to steal the clothes of the opposing forces and become an “Enemy in disguise”.

Now tell me this game doesn’t sound juicy enough already….??

Fight! – In Game

Alright, that’s it…just like in the real armed forces as soon as you choose your calling you are instantly plunged into the midst of an all out war. A blood spurting and body part flying war!!!!! Besides your primary weapon, every character also comes complete with a shiny sidearm, a dull knife, and some sweet grenades.

Now to every mission there is an objective, obviously, and by pressing ‘L’ on the keyboard you will see your objectives in the bottom left corner of the screen that opens. Again your objectives if you’re an Allied force will be to destroy something and for an Axis force it will be to defend that something. Many of you would say, “ahhh the classic FPS…run and gun…just go around on a shooting spree killing as many people as you can and you'll be good.” WRONG…this game is almost like a first person RPG in the sense that you gain experience by doing what you are supposed to be doing.

For example, as a medic your main goal is to provide your medical skills to your teammates who need it the most. No one wants a medic who is going to just run in the middle of crossfire trying to take down an enemy, because if you happen to get killed, that’s one less medic who is alive and able to rejuvenate a wounded soldier. So…you would gain more XP (experience) by waiting in a corner, checking your radar and providing the wounded with what they need, rather than if you were to kill an enemy. And those same rules apply to other positions, Field ops gets more XP for giving ammo or killing by air raids, etc.

It is obvious that this game is therefore like no other FPS on the market. It’s a new kind of game that gets you more involved and zoned in like never before. I sometimes can’t quit after like 10 minutes of gameplay because when I do, I have a bad feeling that someone is calling for a medic and that I won’t be able to help them….some call it paranoia or schizophrenia, I just like to call it, a video game addiction.

Just like the plague this addiction can and will spread to you after you see these delicious screenshots:

Rating and Review:

I give this game overall a whopping B+…and I even feel the need to give a little bit more but I’ll hold off for those really legendary games.

This game shines with its graphics and game play. Both of them are stunning for a product that is completely free and it’s something you rarely if ever see. The game uses the “PunkBuster” software which is used to see if there is anyone cheating or hacking the game. This is a common problem with multiplayer games and totally destroys the community of players and the overall gameplay of the game that the developers had intended to create. Though rarely seen, there are some cheats that players use that really just make the game terrible that punkbuster cannot catch. I’m sure updates are being worked on daily to combat the new cheats that hackers create every day so there isn’t much you can do until then except for changing servers. Some of the downfalls I saw in this game, and possibly because of my previous statements, was that the game had an asshole community. Starting out as a newbie or a n00b is extremely tough because none of the veteran players will help, they would rather make fun. That is the difference between a good online multiplayer community like Final Fantasy XI and a bad one. I was able to run into one fellow named in game “Buster” who helped me out a lot one on one in a level and I owe him big…so I’ll mention his name in this article and give him some praise.

Well that’s all for now folks…my first Zubazpants article in the hole. I hope to write a little more off topic and abstract articles in the future, but having just started to play this game, I gotta get the word out there and what a better way than this!!

GAME DOWNLOAD INFORMATION – Thanks to the people at the Enemy Territory Resource Site at www.enemy-territory.com

1. Clicking HERE allows you to download the actual game client. Depending on your operating system “Windows or Linux” click on the appropriate download titled simply Enemy Territory - Linux or Enemy Territory – Windows.
2. After downloading the client you should then go and download the client patch titled, “Enemy Territory Client Patch 1.02 (Windows) “. This patch gives you all the servers and that means 1000’s!

*** It is highly recommended that you have a broadband internet connection when playing this game, though it is possible to play the game with a slower connection without a hitch, it is often necessary to download newly created levels before you can play them. A faster connection will have you playing sooner than a slower….duuuh.