The gameplay in Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is still just as action packed as ever. It's
still frantic. It's still over the top. And it's still bone-crunchingly satisfying. But
what's surprising is that this isn't just a game about violently killing Nazis. More
than ever before, Wolfenstein's a game that's got heart. It balances serious issues with
lightheartedness and has characters and relationships that you end up actually caring about. It
shows that the single player first person shooter is still far from dead.
Picking up straight from where The New Order left off, the Nazis succeeded in taking over
the world. Our hero, B.J. Blazcowicz, is left crippled from his last battle and so begins
the game a broken man. Never the less, he's still strikes fear into Nazi heart's as he's
deemed a terrorist, with the nickname 'Terror Billy'. However, you feel his weakness, as
he fights wheelchair bound and soon, with no strength left in his body, relies upon
power armour to move.
Every encounter usually begins with you sneaking
in, trying to take out enemy commanders, before they can radio in any reinforcements. With
strong melee attacks and effective suppressors, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. But
there's always that one pesky Nazi that happens to look your way. And then all hell breaks loose.
Of course, stealth is optional. You could go
in guns a blazing, but health depletes extremely quickly, so there's little room for error
and you always have to be cautious of your flanks. There's not a huge array of weapons,
but the ones that you do have can be duel wielded in any combination that you like.
Plus, the upgrades can completely change the way that a weapon works, from adding a scope
to adding a silencer.
It does a good job of making you really hate
Nazis. Which shouldn't be too hard, but it goes out of its way to make these enemies
the nastiest, most evil people on Earth with a sick sense of humour and a complete over
confidence in their strength- making it all the more satisfying to finally take them down.
The A.I's a little dodgy sometimes, with the average soldier throwing themselves into your
line of fire, with no concern for safety. In fact, they often funnel themselves into
your sights, leaving you thinking that perhaps they're a little bit too dumb.
The drive to keep on playing isn't just because of the fun of the combat. It's also about
seeing where this crazy, crazy story is going to go next. It certainly has its fair share
of twists and turns, too juicy to spoil here. You may be exploring the remains of an atom
bombed New York one minute. Then you'll be sneaking into a secret base near Area 51 the
next. And of course it takes things intergalactic with Nazis in space. There's something new
to be doing on every level, some things more expected than others.
However, a lot of the environments do kind of blend into one another. There's a lot of
ruins and research facilities that all kind of look alike, none of them really standing
out, at least compared to the other Wolfenstein games.
A lot of the game deals with the troubles in B.J's past. You get to see how he became
the man that he is today. And it gets pretty dark.
Who would have thought that we'd ever be so interested in the backstory of a character
from a 1992 shooter?
B.J. doesn't work alone though. He's got an
ever expanding group of rebel fighters- each of them full of personality.
You really look forward to these cutscenes, just to see how all of these different characters
interact. They become the ultimate group of bad asses- a group that you want to be a part
of. The voice acting is outstanding and it's got the perfect balance of seriousness and humour.
In between the missions you get to explore
the base, which is a stolen Nazi U-Boat. Walking around it is always entertaining, as you eave
drop on the very natural sounding conversations. It feels like a real, lived in guerrilla camp.
But, there's only so much time for hanging around. There's still enigma codes to crack
and Ubercommandos to kill!
When it comes to shooters, there will always
be a market for a strong single player experience. It's not always about just beating others
online. It's about taking on a carefully designed assault course created by developers to test
our skills against their creations. It's about cranking up the difficulty and still coming
out on top, regardless of whatever Nazi scum may throw at us.
As always, thanks for watching.