The current canon of games moves the story forward from its World War 2 shooter roots and into a dystopian future where the Nazis are in power. But before that, there were many games made by many developers, which took full advantage Wolfenstein’s original WW2 setting.

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Now one such game is finally getting a release on Steam. First launched in 2003 and developed by Splash Damage, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is a class-based multiplayer shooter in the same vein as Overwatch or Team Fortress. What made the game stand out, though, was its relatively massive matches for 2003, which allowed for 32 players at once. The free-to-play game was originally meant to be a multiplayer DLC for the previous game, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, which was developed by Gray Matter Interactive. The game was instead released as a standalone and was very well received. It even got a pseudo-sequel game outside the Wolfenstein brand a few years later named Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.

The game has still been available to play on other platforms, and the original developer’s website has detailed instructions on how the game can be played on modern PCs. But now that the game has released on Steam, it’s likely that the existing Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory player base will migrate over there. The Steam release could also bring in a bump of new players to the game who missed it the first-time round or players who wish to revisit some nostalgic 2003 multiplayer shooting.

As for why the game is only now getting a Steam release after 19 years, this could be due to Bethesda closing its game launcher and transitioning its online communities over to Steam. Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory was not available through the Bethesda game launcher, but since Bethesda owns the license for the Wolfenstein games, it is possible that it decided to release Enemy Territory on Steam because now Bethesda will not be responsible for the game’s online maintenance.

Often older fan-favourite games can become delisted and unable to be played, especially free-to-play multiplayer games after they lose their player base. It is refreshing, then, to see one get brought back. And receiving a release on Steam may even rejuvenate the game’s player base in the process.

Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is now available on Steam.

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