10 Things You Didn't Know About Wolfenstein
Delve deeper into Wolfenstein's hidden facts.
With an enticing mixture of stealth-based missions, WWII conflict and full-blown slaughter of Nazis, Wolfenstein has successfully created a franchise themed around the wildest and darkest fantasies from our gaming imaginations. Since 1981's Castle Wolfenstein, gamers have battled the Germans in several iterations of the first-person shooter.
Whilst the game's publisher may have passed through Muse Software, Apogee Software, FormGen, Activision and EA Mobile before landing with Bethesda Softworks, its thematic and historic conflict has remained a constant. I won't even trouble you with the essay-length list of developers the title has ploughed through over the years.
With so many releases, covering an alternate history where the Axis powers were victorious, an SS Paranormal Division, memorable characters such as General Deathshead and numerous ambitious ventures from the resistance, there are some lesser-known facts about Wolfenstein you probably missed.
This trend-setting FPS popularised the first-person shooter genre, and there are many things from its history you likely overlooked.
10. The Family Of B.J Blazkowicz
William Joseph Blazkowicz is the kind of tough and rough protagonist we all love to control in first-person shooter releases. First appearing in 1992's Wolfenstein 3d, Blazkowicz has gone through numerous character changes, including alterations to his accent, hair, birth-location and personality. What has remained a consistent feature of the Jewish-Polish American is his everlasting perseverance to topple the Nazi empire.
One surprising fact about the games' leading character is his relation to two individuals from other titles. In fact without Blazkowicz, there would be no one tasked with preventing the demons from invading the Martian base in Doom. If Wolfenstein's RPG iOS game is to be believed, B.J is actually the great-great-great grandfather of Stan Blazkowicz, a marine and one of three protagonists in Doom II RPG.
Elsewhere, B.J's DNA spreads to the Commander Keen game, where eight-year-old child genius, Billy Blaze is said to be the grandson of Wolfenstein's famed Nazi-killer.
With Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Commander Keen all developed by iD Software, it's no surprise the creators left the trail of heroic family heritage throughout the titles as an intriguing Easter egg.