[2] Wolfenstein received positive reception by critics, yet suffered from poor commercial sales; selling a combined 100,000 copies within its first month.

The story is set in the fictional town of Isenstadt during World War II, which the Nazis have enforced martial law in order to excavate rare Nachtsonne crystals necessary to access the "Black Sun" dimension.

Locations include the town's sewers, a tavern, a hospital, a farm, an underground mining facility, a church, the SS headquarters, a dig site and caverns, a cannery, a radio station, a paranormal base, a general's home, a castle, an airfield and a large zeppelin.

He then meets up with agents from the Kreisau Circle, a German resistance group dedicated to fighting the Nazis, and with them, makes it to Isenstadt.

In Isenstadt, he meets the brothers Stefan and Anton Kriege, who run the Black Market where Blazkowicz can upgrade all of his weapons and powers.

Becker sends Blazkowicz on a mission into a dig site, where he frees a young Russian named Sergei Kovlov.

Kovlov introduces Blazkowicz to the Golden Dawn, a group of scholars who specialize in the occult, founded and led by Dr. Leonid Alexandrov.

In the Veil the player is able to run faster, spot enemies in the dark and walk through doors which have the Black Sun symbol.

The Black Market, the Kreisau Circle, and the Golden Dawn then move to a new location in downtown Isenstadt to escape retaliation for Zetta's death.

He confronts Zetta's replacement, Obergruppenführer Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse, who is eager for revenge after Blazkowicz destroyed his Übersoldat-program in Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

In order to prepare the weapon, Deathshead and Grosse enter the Black Sun through a portal that Nazi scientists had excavated and reassembled.

Grosse greets him in a mechanical suit outfitted with two chainguns (recreating his earlier appearance in Wolfenstein 3D), and a Thule Medallion identical to Blazkowicz's.

The explosion takes out the portal and destabilizes the zeppelin, effectively destroying all ways of accessing the Black Sun Dimension.

While in the Veil, the player has access to certain special abilities, such as the power to slow down time, to get around obstacles that exist on Earth, or even to be able to defeat enemies that have an otherwise impenetrable shield (similar to "Spirit Walk" from the previous id Tech 4 title Prey).

"[34] The Daily Telegraph gave the PlayStation 3 version 7/10 and called it "a game that swings wildly in quality on an almost minute-by-minute basis, and a rather vanilla multiplayer offering doesn't do much to quicken the pulse.

"[29] Edge gave the same console version 5/10 and said, "For all its foibles, Raven's brand of brazen, aimless carnage is a gruesome thrill with just enough dynamism in each battle to keep its anachronistic heart beating.

[37] As a result of low sales figures (only 100,000 copies were sold in its first month), Activision laid off employees from Raven Software.