This is not the best possible revival for the franchise, but that doesn't mean the game is bad.
This sequel to the well-known Wolfenstein franchise yells out "generic first-person shooter" the moment you see it. This is not completely the case though. The game starts off slow due to the lack of abilities and weapons at your disposal. Unless you actually watched videos of the game before you play it, you would probably be decided that the game does exactly what you would think, an FPS mixing the WWII setting of nazi propaganda with unique sci-fi elements (which the game does considerably well.) The game does more than this with an odd but innovative aspect of the game called "the black sun dimension". This is a world that can be activated using a special ability called "the veil" which gives the player many advantages. What are these advantages you may ask? Well, they can be used for both combating enemies and finding secret passages. The veil causes the world around you to look insanely hipnotic using a mix of blue and green colours, and certain appearances such as red to point out things such as weaknesses on an enemy boss or a passage that can be navigated. Along with that, the veil gives you abilities ranging from walking at a faster speed to slowing down time, all of which can change the tide of battle. As progress is made throughout the game, abilities like spawning a shield around you or an increase in damage are all given, allowing the player to understand each of these powers at a good pace.
Wolfenstein allows you to traverse to each "stage" by dropping BJ into a small open world town which is occupied by both resistance members and the nazis. This town is the place where you will be finding side quests, buying weapon upgrades, and essentially the main place where the story progresses. The story in Wolfenstein is exactly what you would think it would be, a dull excuse of giving these abilities such as the veil and why you have to mow down hundreds of nazi soldiers. It is told by cutscenes most of the time, all of which are unamusing except for the intro. BJ as a character is barely fleshed out and we still don't know much about where he came from and why he's doing what he's doing. The voice acting portrays the story as it is, and unless you like listening to every word start with "Z", then you won't like it. So back to what I was saying earlier, the town you familiarise with quite early in the game is practically a HUB for whatever you do outwolfy2side of killing hundreds of nazis and sci-fi oddies. The Black Market is where you buy gun upgrades, using the cash you earn in missions. These upgrades for your weapons are very useful and although you probably won't upgrade any weapons other than the sub-machine guns, it can still be fun trying out a fully upgraded weapon of any sort. The Black Market allows you to upgrade your veil powers too, and albeit pretty expensive, these upgrades could save you from some untimely deaths. Getting missions is pretty much what you would expect, walk up to some person, and talk to him/her. After that, an objective marker will be placed on your map and you can continue onto your journey.
As we all know, the first-person shooter genre is a competitive game genre. Wolfenstein is taking many risks by being released just a few months before the upcoming Call of Duty game, therefore it has to prove itself to be fun and just as entertaining. Wolfenstein doesn't completely do this, but it doesn't exactly fail at it either. Thankfully the gameplay isn't exactly "generic" like I mentioned earlier, and this is due mostly to the crazy sci-fi weapons and veil abilities you will find. This doesn't mean it completely changes the way the game is played though as a FPS. Like many other shooters, you will be constantly fighting through hordes of enemies of some sort (most of which are nazis) but sometimes you might have to strategise before going into a new area. Some of the more sci-fi-esqe enemies you encounter definitely cause the player to have to deal with them using a veil ability, nothing so crazy that you will have to look at the game in a unique way though. Essentially like most FPS games, Wolfenstein is a good game to satisfy someone looking to see blood splatter and limbs shred off. It does this well by giving the player some fun-to-shoot weapons and an advanced gore system. Even though dumb enemy AI is present and polish can be noticably lacking, nothing really gets in the way of Wolfenstein's wolfy4objective.
This game is running off of the technology used in Doom 3 (a game from 2005). That means you would think the game is severely lacking in graphical technology but actually the game looks great at the right moments. The german-controlled town you roam in doesn't look all that special, and it uses alot of the same colours like greys and browns. On the other hand though, enviroments like the historic castle and Zeplin (both of which are present in late parts of the game) can be stunning to look at due to the mix of lighting effects and detail. Character models look like they lack "something" but some creatures and bosses you will be encountering are the exact opposite of that. Wolfenstein seems to have a bumpy presentation overall, but atleast when theres a negative there is usually a positive to equal it out. The satisfaction of shooting a fully upgraded gun at hordes of enemies is priceless too, so I felt the game was comparable to most of the FPS games out there in terms of presentation.
This new installment in such a legendary series doesn't live up to the expectations fans would have that wanted to see the FPS genre take a massive jump like the franchise use to do in the 90's. This doesn't mean it's a bad experience though. Wolfenstein can be easily compared to Medal of Honor: Airborne that came out in 2007. Both games came out in a short period of time before a new Call of Duty game was released and both had one or two things about them that made them feel different from other FPS games. Now before I start to change subjects completely, I would like to end this review by saying Wolfenstein is an enjoyable FPS game but it isn't exactly a must-buy. Online multiplayer might improve the life of the game but in the end, the game isn't quite worth the 50 dollar price tag. Once the price drops to 30 dollars or so, this game will give you a good amount of playtime for the price, so until then, only think about buying Wolfenstein if your a fan of the series or in need of a game to play until the next call of duty comes out.
3 out of 5 Stars (around a 6.5/10.0)
-Anthony (SecretPenguin)