Wolfenstein Review

Remember the good ol times of old school FPS games? The unrealistic feel with fast-paced fire fights that simply make you feel like nobody could beat you? Well if you love those type of games, Wolfenstein has that feeling with elements from modern WW2 games like Call of Duty and does a fine job of presentation. It has the rights to be up there with the legendary Wolfenstein 3D, and the excellent Return To Castle Wolfenstein.


RTCW Wallpaper Bj Blazkowicz by ~coverop on deviantART
Before Master Chief, Gordon Freeman, and Doomguy, there was B.J. Blazkowicz.

You play as Agent B.J Blazkowicz-the protagonist in all the Wolfenstein games. The story is very Indiana Jones-esque. You find this medallion which the game doesn't really give you any reason why you have it, but this medallion is the highlight of the game and will prevent Wolfenstein from being another WW2 shooter. You can use spells with this item, but you don't get them in the later stages, but you will get it real fast. In about your first 10-20 minutes playthrough, you'll get it. The whole story isn't too special. It's your typical "give me a storyline so I can shoot some stuff up." You're just chasing this guy name General Wilhelm “Deathshead” Strasse and while you're chasing him, you're pissing him off by terrorizing his Nazis-fested bases all by your self.

When you're going to the graphics and sound department, Wolfenstein shines very well in the sound section and Id Tech 4 is still solid. The Nazis don't speak in their own language most of the time throughout the whole game. In cutscenes, they will speak in English to you and I don't really remember why Raven chose this idea, but it was something to make the player feel involved with the game more or something. Weapons sounds absolutely great and most silenced weapons sound bad in most shooters, but in this game, it's a different story. Voice acting is solid and it feels like the voice actors are actually trying and caring about their work. The game's graphics has nice lighting, solid textures, and it doesn't feel to dated compared to Doom 3 and Quake 4's graphics.


Does this look like another Call of Duty to you?

Wolfestein offers a good 10 to 12 hours of campaign and the game SHINES on the campaign. There are very well designed scripted moments and the weapons they feel very arcadey which is great for a game like Wolfenstein. You usually fight hordes of Nazi soldiers with a couple of variations of them. There's one that's like a stealth assassin, a somewhat priest/mage Nazi that can really hurt you at close range and a couple of more. At times, you will be fighting side by side with a couple of allies, but 90% of the time, you're killing everyone by yourself. The game offers plenty of action and if you're a player that needs lots of gun shooting and killing to satisfy you, this game does the job. The game has some Call of Duty elements like the there's an aim button that's identical to the game and the famous Halo regenerating life system. However, the game differs from Call of Duty by making the weapons more accurate. For example, you don't have to aim to get that full accuracy of your weapon, you can simply shoot it, but aiming makes you see the enemies a lot more easier-smart move by Raven since most classic FPS players like to play aggressive.

I AM DEATH INCARNATE!

Bring it on Nazi scum!

Aggressive is the right word to describe this game. You're put to fight numerous of Nazis upclose and on higher difficulties, you don't have to constantly take cover like veteran mode on the Call of Duty games. This game is a test of insanity and madness. Hell, there were a couple of parts where the game force you to fight about 15-20 Nazi soldiers at the same time with very few cover. The spells are very standard, but you have to enter in "Veil" mode to access them. While you're in "Veil" mode, you run faster and can cast spells. The spells are slowing down time, increasing damage and accuracy, and a shield to protect you. When you use these spells, they only last for a few seconds. You can also see these creatures (I think they're called Geist) which you can kill them to help you and hurt you. Basically, if they're close to an enemy, they can be like an exploding barrel, but if you kill too many of them, they will attack you. You can carry more than 6 weapons, but you can only "quick swap" two weapons. Weapons range from the standard WW2 arsenal like the MP40 to the sci fi weapons like the Particle Cannon (sadly the chaingun is out in this game which is the Wolfenstein series signature weapon). There are treasures and intels which were the symbols of the previous games and when you find these intels and golds, you can upgrade your weapons or learn new technology to your weapons. There are boss fights and they are somewhat easy, but the last one is worth mentioning. If you play WOLF 3D, it has a lot of references to the boss fights in that game. At the end of the day, Wolfenstein is incredibly strong in the campaign department, but what about the multiplayer?

Multiplayer is somewhat like Call of Duty 4 (upgrade tree and RPG elements) meets Return To Castle Wolfenstein (Squad features). I haven't played it much since I like to play campaign more on this game than MP, but if you're going to buy this game for MP, the community is already dead. It was decent when I first played it, but it's pretty damn laggy at times.

So in the end, Wolfenstein is a great game for those that want a good campaign and have a lot of fun. Here's a side note to your campaign playing, the game seems to have an infamous glitch where you try to look for intels or treasures for achievements. If you reach up to 88%, the game is pretty much dead and you will never ever be able to play it again because everytime you load the game, it will crash or freeze. But if you don't care about achievements, then this shouldn't worry you much. Wolfenstein is a must play for those that want to relive the good days of classic FPS gameplay with reinvention and modern elements. SCORE: 8.5/10

The Wolfenstein legacy will never die.

Even though this is a great game, it ruins the Wolfenstein name IMO

NoelX2 wrote:

Even though this is a great game, it ruins the Wolfenstein name IMO

How does it ruin the Wolfenstein name? Just curious.

lol BJ that is a funny name .... i like wolfenstein though

lol...I wonder what B.J. really stands for. ID really gotta make a good name out of that term.

Xbox3ShittyRROD wrote:

Xbox 3-Shitty RROD, 54% failure rate HAHAHA, failure rate HAHAHA,

haha ps3 gets dlcs later almost all the time!!
and yeah it is like under 10 now so stop bullshittin
and soon we will smash you with the gravity ban hammer!!!

ZeInFormer wrote:

NoelX2 wrote:

Even though this is a great game, it ruins the Wolfenstein name IMO

How does it ruin the Wolfenstein name? Just curious.

It doesn't feel like the classic

ZeInFormer wrote:

lol...I wonder what B.J. really stands for. ID really gotta make a good name out of that term.

badass junkie or badass jesus

wolfenstein is cool