Operation Arctic Wolf

 

Operation Arctic Wolf | ARCTIC.WAD

Laz Rojas

Before Doom, there was Wolfenstein 3D. Though primitive compared to its successor, it was fast-paced arcade action with a thriving fanbase that persisted well into the age of Doom, then Quake, and beyond. But these games and their attendant fandoms weren’t siloed off from each other; there was much overlap between communities, a lot of rather shameless borrowing of resources, and even, on occasion, attempts at demakes or remakes. One of the biggest names in bridging the gap between Wolfenstein 3D and Doom was Laz Rojas, a Hollywood polymath and a major name in Wolf3D mapping with a sizable resume in Doom conversions. Aside from his remakes of the original game into Doom II, he also remade a few of his own campaigns, including Astrostein, before outright creating entirely new scenarios that took fuller advantage of what idTech 1 was capable of. Of these latter mods, perhaps the most beloved is Operation: Arctic Wolf.

The basic premise of Operation Arctic Wolf is simple. Like everything else Wolfenstein-related, it’s deeply embedded in the World War II theme; the Allies have suspected for a while that Hitler has a nuclear-powered submarine project somewhere in the frozen north of Europe. Your task, Allied agent, is to infiltrate a submarine base in wintry Norway, destroy Project Seeteufel (Sea Devil in German,) kill its leaders, and escape with the captured agents the Allies had previously sent. It’s pretty straightforward, and indeed that’s reflected in the level design — but we’ll talk about that later.

There are a couple of different versions of Operation Arctic Wolf floating around. The original release relied heavily on DEHACKED to achieve its many effects and new enemies, and due to engine limitations, came in two parts; you were expected to exit the game at a certain point, and reload it with a different file, a bit like having to change discs during a PlayStation game. I can’t actually verify when this initial release actually came out; my best guess, from reading the Doom Wiki, is sometime in summer of 2003, and that does seem to jibe with my own memories of it. A couple of years later, Rojas used his deeper understanding of DEHACKED to make an improved version subtitled Special Edition. This seems to be the only version of the game’s original incarnation available now.

Of course, even with Special Edition, Arctic Wolf is two decades old, and intended for the long-defunct Doom Legacy source port at that; so it shouldn’t surprise that there have been some attempts at updating it for a modern audience. In 2015, NightFright — a master at fixing up old mods for Doom and Duke Nukem 3D — released a ZDoom version alongside several of Rojas’ other WolfenDoom mods. There’s also a couple of enhanced versions as well: a Revisited version, intended for EDGE-Classic, which is a fairly straightforward enhancement, with little change to the level design but an overhaul of most everything else; and Redux, which is more of a remake for GZDoom that overhauls the level design and makes it feel a little more realistic. (In the interests of playing something at least relatively close to the original experience, I went with Revisited.) There is also, weirdly enough, a quasi-remake that recontextualizes the wad into the world of Impie’s Winter Agent Juno universe.

WolfenDoom is something of a well-loved mod “franchise” in some older sectors of Doom fandom. They’re considered classics of their era, but by today’s standards they really show their age, and a lot of that is thanks to Laz Rojas himself, whose mapping quirks are definitely a product of his being more of a Wolfenstein community member than a Doom one. (This much is obvious in the way that every door in Operation Arctic Wolf is an oversized Wolfenstein 3D door in what’s otherwise intended to be quasi-realistic military installations.) Operation Arctic Wolf is a great showcase of Rojas’ mapping style: stringy, symmetrical, and frustrating. While he is clearly inspired by Duke Nukem 3D, to the point that nearly the entire game’s art assets are lifted from either that game or Shadow Warrior (I see a few Rise of the Triad textures too) his actual layouts have much more in common with TNT: Evilution from Final Doom. There are many moments — at least once per level — where you will fight your way down a somewhat featureless corridor only to reach a dead end with nothing but a switch or a key, at which point you must travel all the way back to find which door the switch just opened, or to unlock the door you didn’t have a key for the first time you saw it. It’s maddening, and it’s made worse by how much his level design is made up of rooms connected by long hallways. There are staircases made up of multiple switchbacks that just don’t make sense; there are switches to open up new paths that are totally illogical for their location.

There’s a lot to praise Operation Arctic Wolf for, though. On an aesthetic level it rather thoroughly achieves its goals; with heavy use of Duke Nukem 3D textures, most of them desaturated for a wintry atmosphere, it at least somewhat succeeds at looking like a frozen Nazi base in the Arctic Circle. The new weaponry is generally pretty interesting, tending to adhere more to a Wolfenstein sensibility than a Doom one (unless you’re playing Revisited, in which case the sniper rifle will be your workhorse, downing most enemies in a single shot, which can be handy as most of your other weapons are frustratingly inaccurate at range.) The original release didn’t have new music; Revisited seems to use a lot of tracks from Return to Castle Wolfenstein, which, sure, why not.

If absolutely nothing else, I can give Operation Arctic Wolf praise for one thing: it’s one of the more original total conversions of the era at a time when Doom total conversions were starting to wane in popularity. But it really is a product of its time, a reflection of its creator’s sensibilities (and political inclinations, if the weird rants about liberals and the Clintons in very tiny text on certain posters in one level are any indication.) There’s a lot here that might interest you, but I think it’s best left as a curiosity, frozen in time.

 Operation Arctic Wolf (original)

Operation Arctic Wolf: Special Edition

Operation Arctic Wolf: Revisited

Operation Arctic Wolf: Redux

Operation Sea Wolf

LEVEL 1: Insertion Point

Off to a rough start. Any hope of a stealthy entrance immediately goes out the window as the dock is heavily defended. You'll be scrambling for ammo and health for a good while -- it's not until you get into the central building that things start to even out.

 

LEVEL 2: The Canyon

A stringy series of canyon paths winding through the mountains. They're crawling with Nazis, but other than a brief detour through some caves to unlock the path ahead it's a pretty straightforward fight. There's some pretty good views for sniper rifle usage. Most of the mines laying around are hidden, but if you've got a keen eye you can spot them, and all it takes is one bullet to detonate them.

 

LEVEL 3: The Canyon, part II

More of the same, though this one's a little shorter. The new wrinkle is the automated cannons, chaingun turrets that pump a ton of lead into you if you're not quick. Other than that this is mostly a lot of run-and-gun, though Nazis shooting at you from cavern entrances across the way makes one of the stretches more interesting.

 

LEVEL 4: Power Substation

A couple of small outposts divided by a short canyon. The big setpiece here is the river: you'll have to collect some diving gear and jump into the freezing waters, populated by sharks and defended by mines. By the time you throw the switch opening the nearby grating, your oxygen tank will likely be just about depleted...

 

LEVEL 5: Water Treatment Plant

After an urgent swim to the stairs, it's a big fight in the water tunnels. The level is classic Laz Rojas: stringy and linear and generally more focused on combat and switch hunts than anything else. Getting from one end of the plant to the other requires extremely long treks down narrow corridors. At least he sometimes throws an ambush at you from time to time.

 

LEVEL 6: The Tunnel

Water Treatment Plant, part II. This one is a very, very long tunnel with two walkways on either side; to get to stuff on the other side, you must first go to the sole room that connects the two then walk all the way back. You will be doing a lot of backtracking through this level, but there are a lot of Nazis to kill along the way, so don't feel too bad.

 

LEVEL 7: The Dam

Your target is nearly in sight. While you'll need to clear off both of the waterfront sections on either end of the dam, the main event is the underwater swim, with the cold water full of sharks and a submarine that fires homing torpedoes. And if that's not bad enough, you'll have to swim up into the dam itself and face down a large ambush of Nazis. You'll also face your first heavies here, big guys in blue who unload chainguns on you. The sniper rifle will put them down at a safe range.

 

LEVEL 8: The Dam, part II

The dam's power generating facility is another stringy collection of corridors and large rooms, with a little bit of vent crawling for spice. Eventually, though, you'll make it back outside, and while clearing the dam off again isn't as big a task as before, there's now a large collection of heavies guarding the dam top you'll have to deal with.

 

LEVEL 9: Barracks

This one is dominated by a large block building that houses your typical soldier's barracks. It's all here: beds, showers, a cafeteria, and an armory in the basement. You'll have some decent chances at long-range engagement and you'll want to make use of it to take down the rocket launcher guys who attack you from the ridges.

 

LEVEL 10: Command Center

A sprawling office complex, this one adds a lot of officers (in blue) to the mix of enemies you'll be dealing with. It's a fairly short level, with most of the action coming in phases as you clear out the command center then move on to the airfield with its hangars and control room.

 

LEVEL 11: Research Facility

A sprawling fortified research lab. Actually getting in is the hard part: there's tons of enemy emplacements, including several rocket launcher guys, all requiring you to take them out to access the building safely. Inside it's split into three wings, the north and south wings being labs, the middle one housing the facility's coolant pools. Lurking somewhere in here is Dr. Nein, the head scientist behind the Seeteufel project, and your job is to make sure he doesn't live to see the next sunrise. Taking him out is easy enough if you've got the flamethrower, but mind his goons. The final area had me a little lost for a minute until I noticed that there's a hidden elevator to get up onto the ridge to access the switch. Bad!

 

LEVEL 12: Shark Farm

The second chapter of Arctic Wolf starts here. It's basically a big aquatic lab with lots of shark tanks; it superficially reminds me of the sea life exhibit in the infamous Smithsonian map from Duke It Out in D.C. for Duke Nukem 3D. Otherwise it's the same old stringy bullshit, with the added bonus of some bizarre, barely-legible rants about the Clintons and liberals as placeholder text on shark posters. I don't think it was meant to be readable on hardware of the era but I can just about make it out now. Weird!

 

LEVEL 13: U-Boat Bunker

This one is defined by the lengthy series of ship hangars you'll need to fight through. As is typical of Laz, he makes you fight all the way to the end, just so you can grab a key and go hunting for the others. It's only when you find the bronze key that you're able to go back to the far end of the hangars and head for the exit. Lots of Nazis here, just absolutely swarming the docks and the ships in harbor.

 

LEVEL 20: Das Boot

If you press 'use' on the Das Boot logo where you find the bronze key, you'll be transported to this brief level. It's a lengthy, narrow path that ultimately leads to a place where you can take a swim, using that to thus board a ship. It's a brutal fight every step of the way, with heavily-armed rocket launcher dudes coming at you in groups, with the finale being a heavily-armed ship captain himself. More of a challenge map than anything else.

LEVEL 14: The Seeteufel

This is it: your primary objective is in sight. After a brief firefight through a couple of more ship hangars, the Seeteufel awaits. The interior is pretty simple, and relatively lightly staffed, but fighting the captain could be tricky in close quarters. The harder ask is getting onboard in the first place, with a few rocket launcher guys on top of the usual garrison. A couple of heavily-armed scuba soldiers await you on the way out, too. Survive all that and your reward is watching this tub go up in smoke.

 

LEVEL 15: Klettefass

Another fight through ship hangars, complete with a few instances of boarding the ships and murdering everyone inside before grabbing the keys you need to move on. Admiral Klettefass himself is a tough cookie, throwing rockets at you in a narrow series of stairwells.

LEVEL 16: Jailbreak

A lengthy trip through a valley pockmarked with installations and guarded heavily by a garrison of Nazis that includes standard troopers, snipers, heavies and Horst Grosse, the warden of the prison building. Killing him and rescuing the captured operative (who looks a lot like you) is your primary goal here, and your primary threat is going to be the stupid rocket launchers in the walls that guard the many long tunnels that stretch across the map. Jesus, Laz.

 

LEVEL 17: Jailbreak, part II

Like "Jailbreak," but now you've got an NPC to escort. He uses the typical Doom AI routines so he's vulnerable, slow and stupid; you're best off just having him wait for you while you clear the path ahead. There are a lot of Nazis lining the river canyon, and even more up in the fortification that will be your eventual goal. You'll also get introduced to machine gunner nests, teams of two guys with MG42s that you can grab -- though you can't move while you have it out.

 

LEVEL 18: Fuel Depot

One more stop on your way out. It's a big facility complete with another ship hangar, lots of fuel tanks, and lots of Nazis. The most tactical they ever get in the entire game is a brief ambush in the basement tunnels where you're locked in with an angry heavy weapons guy. Other than that, just leave the NPCs behind and enjoy the fireworks.

 

LEVEL 19: Extraction Point

A very quick little level where you have to clear out a few last Nazis from the landing point, then summon the American submarine and take a dive. You did it!

 
 

-june<3 

I should hate you but I guess I love you
You've got me in between the devil and the deep blue sea