Achtung! Volfensteen eez here! How does this game stands by today's standards? Read on.
- Fun to use ''special'' weapons, wich a nearly constant ammo supply to allow you to make a good use of them often.
- Solid shooting mechanics and most guns are well rendered.
- Good level design ; nice variety to it.
- Some nice graphical touches.
What I disliked :
- Most definitly an award for the ugliest cutscenes of the year award.
- Obvious port from console version.
- Lamest storytelling - ever.
So Wolfenstein was a great deal of fun back in 01'. No, I didnt enjoyed the old version before Doom, I thought it was too ugly for my tastes. Today, it's just ''another'' FPS that'll be lost in the wild bunch of releases soon to come.
Still, i'd be lying if I said I didn't have some enjoyement with it. It was fun, while it lasted, and if you can overcome its flaws. Because they're right in your face from the get-go.
See, this game's storyline and cutscenes are the worst i've seen in years. The cutscenes themselves, except the first CGI one, are ugly, uninspired, and begging for you to skip them. Same for the dialog and storyline-related speeches, it's just ear-bleeding bad.
In Wolfenstein, you'll be thrown in an hubworld and asked to zoom around town to gain access to your missions. The hubworld itself feel alive, since there's always random fights everywhere, but it's totaly useless. I would have prefered to have only missions connecting to one another. You'll also have some side-missions, wich are usually done within five minutes, and set in houses and such. No big deal if you avoid them.
The gunplay, on the other hand, is quite solid. Guns are fun to use, especially the special ones, and as a nice surprise, you'll have a lot of room to toy with them. You'll be setting your foes ablaze, turn them to greenish dust, make them explode or electrify them. That's neat.
The violence is quite brutal, and it's almost a lightened version of Soldier of Fortune. You won't see any organs, but the rest is definitly there. At one point, I took an axe in a mansion and chopped about 20 heads in a row effortlessly. It was a bit ridiculous, and almost Postal-ish. See, the axe cutted heads off even when I aimed at torso or legs.
The sound is.... yeah. German all speak english with a stereotype accent and the musics are the same you'd hear in any Indiana Jones/ WW2 theme adventure.
The graphics arent great. Good, but thats it. Some environnements and character models are downright atrocious ( the gun models lying on the ground are devoid of textures and polygons, just like in 98' ) and the HUD has the same circled star that shows your way just like in any CoD or Medal of Honor games, wich isn't so great. Some levels are great looking though, even if the backgrounds arent so hot.
I havent tried the MP, so i'm not reviewing it. This review was based on the SP portion of the game.
So here it is. Should you buy Wolfenstein? No, definitly not. It's a rather bland shooter, but its certainly fun and worth a check - but not at full price.