19-Year-Old WWII Shooter Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory Just Got A New Lease On Life

Id Software's 2003 World War II multiplayer FPS Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory now has official dedicated servers, the developer has announced. Four servers, one for the United States, Europe, Australia, and the United Kingdom, will run the "vanilla" version of the game's ruleset with no fan-made mods on the core game's six original maps.

"Though the community has hosted–and continues to host–servers with a variety of mods and custom maps that we highly recommend, we also understand that many players are looking for a more nostalgic experience," id Software writes.

We’re excited to announce that we’ve deployed official dedicated servers for Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, running the vanilla ruleset with all six original maps and no mods! More info: https://t.co/EwYvNEqhTQ pic.twitter.com/XQad57tZLi

Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is also being added to the Microsoft Store on PC, which will support the game's new dedicated servers as well. The game was added to Steam as a free download in April 2022. Some of the more recent negative reviews for Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory on Steam make mention of how it's seemingly impossible to play the original, unmodded version of the game, a complaint id Software has seemingly taken to heart.

Taken all together, it looks as though Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is having a bit of a resurgence, almost two decades after its release. Co-developed by Splash Damage, the shooter has held a cult-following for years, with fans keeping the game alive through open source projects like ET: Legacy. At its core, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is a frenetic WWII FPS that pits Axis and Allies against one another on asymmetrical maps that each sport unique objectives. There are a number of classes to choose from, each with class-specific weapons and gadgets to use, and like many early 2000s-era shooters, the gameplay is incredibly fast.

A spiritual successor to Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory that placed a similar emphasis on objective-based maps and class-focused gameplay, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, was released in 2007.