Game Review: Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

The game which I am going to be reviewing today is part of a well known franchise that stems back decades now, it's called Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. This game is an action/FPS game, and is a sequel to Wolfenstein: The New Order which was released back in 2013, both games being part of a reboot effort based upon a 2D series under the same name that was released back in the early 80's. This game was developed by MachineGames and was published through Bethesda Softworks. It was released recently back in October of this year, and was made available to play on the PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. 

You may know about this game for other reasons, however. As it saw quite a bit of outrage due to ridiculous political reasons, with people claiming that Bethesda was promoting white genocide, as well as other absurd notions due to the culture we currently have going on. It honestly was absolutely laughable to me that people were losing their minds over a game where you're killing off super nazi's who have taken over the world. I'm not gonna talk too much about this point, as it's a sad affair that people could even be outraged by this sort of thing, and it just goes to show how messed up the political climate has become. What I will talk about is how fun it was to destroy a Nazi Regime in this game, however! 

The story of Wolfenstein II takes place right off the bat from where the first game stopped, with the members of the Kreisau Circle retrieving the heavily wounded B.J. Blazkowicz from Deathhead's compound before promptly blowing it up. However, even with the base of operations being destroyed the Nazi regime stays steadfast with it's iron grip on the USA. B.J. falls into a coma for around 5 months, and in this time some of his failing organs have to be removed to keep him alive. During his coma he fades in and out of consciousness, which allows him to find out his love interest is pregnant with twins, which of course are his. 

Shortly after finding all of this out, the ship you're on is attacked by Frau Engel, a sadistic, psychopathic Nazi commander who has an unhealthy obsession with wanting to kill and torture B.J. for disfiguring her in the past.  This leads to a handicapped B.J. and the others trying to escape, however, some of them get caught by Engel and her soldiers. B.J. devises a desperate plan of giving himself up to Engel to try and save his friends, however it fails and leads to one of his close friends being decapitated. He then frees himself due to external help and flees back with the rest of the survivors to his ship. 

They hold a funeral for their fallen comrade, and then decide what they're next step is going to be. That step being the goal of freeing the USA from the grip of the Nazi's and using it to develop a central base where in they can free the rest of the world from being oppressed. This leads them to search for a group of resistance fighters hiding within the ruins of New York City. From there, that's where the story really starts taking off, and I won't delve too much further where we get into spoiler territory. While what I've written is just an introduction to give you an idea of it, it really doesn't cover the insanity and ridiculousness that the story presents, nor does it give you an idea of just how awesomely brutal the game can be. 

Wolfenstein II is absolutely the definition of a run and gun first person shooter, I was absolutely blown away with the gameplay of this game and how fun it is. You'll be shooting and exploding your way through thousands upon thousands of enemies ranging from Nazi elite troopers, super Nazi soldiers and eerie cyborgs, using all kinds of different mechanic pieces of artillery. The weapons at your disposal throughout the game range from a huge variety of things, allowing you to simply hack up your enemies or shoot them full of holes, to allowing you to explode them into red mist or just straight up vaporize them out of existence. You truly feel like a beast of a man in this game dual wielding weapons of destruction, and the game just gives you such a satisfying feeling as you play through it. 

If you're not into the idea of feeling like an unstoppable machine, you can also try to use stealth elements throughout the game in a fair bit of areas, though I feel like that kind of playstyle really isn't fit to this game and the run and gun approach works best with the type of pacing the game sets for the player. Especially since there really isn't any lengthy showdowns in the game, as there are no boss battles. None of the levels ever feel too long or drawn out, and I never felt like the game really crawled to a snails pace when you were playing the action segments. One thing that was a bit of a bummer with the action parts of the game is that there really isn't much of a variety for the enemy types in the game. By the time you're a third of the way into the game, you can expect to have already seen all of the enemy types within the game. 

The games graphics are beautiful looking, and it uses some great phsyics mechanics for the explosions and weapon play. The cutscenes use in-game graphics, and everything has a cinematic style and look to it as you play in and out of those cutscenes. The amazing voice acting and motion capture work really help to aid that cinematic style, and the light and shadow mechanics in the game really help give everything a style of it's own. Combine all of that with the entertaining dialogue, quirky characters which you actually care about, tense dramatic moments and you end up with a masterfully told gaming experience. 

There isn't any multiplayer mode for you to check out with this title though, so anyone interested in that might feel a bit let down. It also takes away from some of the replayability value of the game in a way not having one, but I don't think this game would really work all that well with that type of gameplay at the same time. That isn't to say there is no replayability to the game if you've blasted through the campaign mode quickly. There are plenty of side missions you can go do if you've missed them during your first playthrough, lots of collectibles to be found, and other little easter eggs waiting for your to stumble across. They definitely help boost the entertainment value of the story, and stretch things out a bit past the 9-10 hour mark. 

Not everything is done so well in the game, however. And, it certainly does have a few issues though none are too glaring. The map design of the game never stood out as great, and a lot of it is subpar in my opinion and blends together after awhile. At times, I think the way they're designed along with the size can be a bit jarring for the pacing of the game, which is a tad annoying. Combine that with the lack of enemy types and boss battles, and I think there's something just missing with the game that should have been there. In my opinion the ending of the game was a bit boring, and even anticlimactic leaving me wanting a bit more than what we got. Most of these issues can be overlooked, and don't ruin the game for me although I was a bit disappointed. 

Wolfenstein II is a fun, entertaining game that I think most of anyone could enjoy. It has a few issues here and there, but is a consistent game that doesn't let up on its pacing too often, leaving it a thrilling fast experience. It has great visuals, voice acting, and some great moments scattered throughout the story that can be shocking, hilarious, or just straight up disturbing. I would personally definitely recommend this game to anyone who is even remotely interested. It's a carnage filled game, but one that is oh so satisfying and engaging. 

Thanks for checking out my review! Hope you've enjoyed it!