Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - The U.S. Tour
Well, there's plenty of good, bad and even a little bit of ugly to look at, so let's just start off with...
-Graphics-
It does feel like the game got a bit of a technical upgrade from The New Order, but once again, it's not that the game necessarily impresses with hyper-extreme resolution textures, gazillions of polygons or almighty ray-tracing.
Instead, it's the art team that makes this game shine, with striking visuals and cool alt-history designs!
So it looks good! Just don't look too closely, because again, it's mostly the overall art direction that makes it look good, not raw graphical fidelity.
And for the other technical aspect of the game, let's talk about...
-Audio-
Well, we just compared notes with our look at The New Order, and what do you know, we wrote exactly the same thing about that game, too! Maybe it's a thing with the game's engine.
Or maybe it's just us? Could be something about our particular headphones not liking something about how the audio output of this game works some something.
But yeah, in our experience, both of these games have overcompressed audio. And i don't mean file size, i mean an actual audio compressor at work, meaning that sometimes, when things would get fairly loud, the volume gets "dampened" in order to compensate. At least it feels like that to us.
Anyway, i do have a few positive things to say about the sound, too. For one, just like with the last game, they got actual, native speakers to do the German voices. Generally gives more authenticity than "Achtung Schnell Sauerkraut!"-gibberish of course, and it also means that we, being German, can just listen to the dialogue quite naturally.
Actually, the voice acting is pretty stellar across the board. Really can't think of a single bad take we heard, both in English or German. Nice job, that!
Other than that, most of the effects are pretty decent, with some standouts like the Lasergewehr:
Now, Michael is very insistent that i mention this: While the music in the game is generally fine, giving decent background and occasionally even a bit of an audio-treat, there's one tune in this game that we really, reaaaally didn't enjoy.
The credits song. It's a sort of screamo shred-metal cover of Twisted Sister's "We're not gonna take it". And well...... the execution's good, to be fair. It's pretty well put together. Unfortunately, the entire concept of "adding edge" to that song is rubbish. The original has that fun, 80's glam-vibe. Taking that away and replacing it with screaming and growling makes it all just feel.... psychotic. And daft. It put a bit of a grimace on our face, especially because the visuals for the credits are pretty good. Oh well.
But now, let me hand it off to Michael, so he can get into the meat of things and tell you about....
-Gameplay-
Hullo there! So then, the gameplay.
Well, unfortunately on this front, the game starts out with a rather poor introduction. You see, after the ending of the last game, Blazko is in the infirmary on the sub, and when the ship gets attacked, he drags himself into a wheelchair and goes to do his thing.
And that's the opening level. Super-awkward movement, no jumping, just an overall totally hobbled version of the game you'll actually be playing. Feels like they were going for the MGSV hospital opening, except that sequence was very heavily scripted and was more like a playable cutscene to set the mood. Here, it just feels like you're made to endure through the first bit before you get to the actual game. Basically, this expression sums up our feelings on the opening section quite nicely:
But thankfully, it passes, and things get much better.
Because after fending off the attack, they immediately jump in with the cool worldbuilding and Blazko gets sent off to New York.
So, this is essentially where the game starts off properly. Just like last time, there's optional stealth gameplay, where you can often try to silently take out the enemy commanders in an area. The advantage of doing so is that if you run in guns blazing and alert everyone, those same commanders will trigger the alarm and enemy reinforcements will be spawning in until the commanders are eliminated.
I quite like the way the game handles this. It gives you a sensible incentive to go quiet, both by avoiding reinforcements and also by allowing you to hear the dialogue between enemy grunts, like just about any game that has stealth.
But, it -is- entirely optional. Messed up your stealth and got spotted? No need to reload a save, just roll with it and go loud. Don't feel like going quiet in the first place? Righto, glowing gun barrels it is!
During roughly the first half of the game, your maximum health without overcharge is 50, while your maximum armour is 200. That's because Blazko's body is kinda shattered, but he's wearing a special super-tech-suit to allow him to do.... well, his stuff.
Though that changes somewhat later on. After a major story event we won't spoil, Blazko is out of the suit, can have 100 health again (+overcharge up to 200), but only 100 armour.
More importantly than that though, you get to pick between three gadgets, those being a "Constrictor harness" which unlocks the ability to crawl through specific small spaces, a sort of power armour cuirass which allows you to break through doors or bowl over enemies by sprinting into them, and.... stilts. Those allow you to reach high ledges and...... walk on stilts, if you want. We picked the stilts, though you can unlock the other two (and use all 3 at the same time) through the use of another couple of big features that unlock during the second half of the game!
The Enigma machine, which is where you play a minigame to unlock certain side missions which allow you to revisit areas of the game via the War map:
These side missions take the form of "Ubercommander assassination"-missions, where you go and.... well, assassinate Ubercommanders. They're basically just normal officers, but slightly Uber?
Anyway, the real point of this, i would argue, is getting to revisit areas so you can pick up collectibles you might have missed, and i'm specifically thinking of weapon upgrade kits here, since missing those has an actual, direct impact on your gameplay.
Mind you, Amalia and i didn't really like this system much. The Ubercommander Assassination thing feels a bit like a half-baked version of Hitman's contract mode. Revisiting a level with a bit of a spin on it in order to take out a specific target.
If that's what they were going for, it would also explain why some of the levels (Especially Manhattan) feel needlessly expansive and labyrinthine.
But all in all, the whole reason we didn't fancy these systems is that they took a perfectly good, straightforward shooter and injected it with a sickly dose of "content for content's sake". It just tacks a few extra hours onto your playtime of you wanna engage with it, but there's nothing new there. Very little actual value that makes it worth spending your time on.
Well, we did do a couple of these, though mainly to go and grab some weapon upgrade kits we had missed. It felt like it was generally fairly easy to miss those, because again, some of the levels are needlessly big, visually very busy and about 90% of the things that have a visual shimmer to them are ammo packs you don't need, so picking out important pickups can be a bit hard.
But overall, we did rather enjoy the gameplay. The gunplay is satisfying and the abilities you get in the latter half of the game do open up some cool new options.
One specific thing we hated, though. Shotguns. Not the one you use, that one's okay. But there's an enemy super soldier type that uses the so-called "Hammergewehr", which is a 4-barreled shotgun. They dual-wield those. Now, who thought an enemy like that was a good idea? If they get close enough to you, they'll shred through your healthbar before you can react! No likey!
As for your own arsenal, well, you get a pistol, which can be supressed and upgraded to do pretty solid damage, turning it into the preferred tool for stealthy precision takedowns.
Another weapon you might use for stealth is the submachine gun, which can also be supressed and, curiously, -also- upgraded for more damage. Though it's less accurate, so "stealth" in this case boils down to "Hose 'em down with a silenced salvo".
There's the Hammer, the game's shotgun. It's fairly strong of course, being a shotgun, but actually.... comparatively speaking, it does lack a bit of impact feel, we found. Maybe it's the sound? Maybe there should be more screen shake when you fire it? It didn't feel -that- punchy, honestly.
There's your assault rifle, which has two upgrades that turn it into the game's main workhorse: The first one is armour piercing rounds, which is a total no-brainer, since most enemies do wear some degree of body armour. The second is a flip-to-side scope that also engages single shot when you flip it up, so this gun essentially doubles as the game's sniper rifle.
Oh, and then, there's the Kampfpistole, which is like..... hmm, think of it as a flare gun you can load with 40mm grenades. Or WH40K-style rocket propelled bolts, if you upgrade it. To be honest, i don't think we ever used this thing. Never felt necessary, and ammo for this thing is fairly scarce, so..... eh?
Aside from that, you get the occasional heavy weapon, with the Lasergewehr, Dieselgewehr, Hammergewehr and Ubergewehr, which you can't keep in your inventory, so you only get to use those if there's one on a static emplacement or an enemy Supersoldat comes by and "delivers" them. Still, all of those are fairly satisfying, though the mighty "Ubergewehr" isn't actually very practical because it takes ages to charge up it's shots.
Anyway, guns going pew-pew is exciting and all, but what about the reason it's all happening? What about the....
-Story and lore-
Well, the basic premise of the plot is that Adolf & Co. have annexed the U.S., and made Man in the High Castle a reality.
Blazko and the crew, however, don't like Philip K. Dick novels. They prefer Heinlein. So they're looking to start a revolution.
Much like the gameplay though, the plot feels divided into two halves.
And actually, they tried something..... "interesting" with the first half. They made Blazko..... -human-.
We won't spoil it, but he's got a tragic past, and with him relying on the suit to keep his broken body going during the first half of the game, he's actually quite vulnerable.
........ unfortunately though, this is Wolfenstein. You know, Doom, but with Nazis? Nazis that have moon bases and flying saucers like friggin' Iron Sky?
In this environment, Blazko's vulnerability just comes across as incredibly whiny and mopey. Sorry, neither of us enjoyed his characterization in the early game -at all-.
He's often wailing about "Oh no, i'm dying inside this suit, waaah, i shall never see our children, and Anya shall have to raise them by herself. Woe!" (Oh yeah, Anya's pregnant in this game. Like, from the start. It's not much of a spoiler, down't worry.)
But the thing is, Blazko seems to be forgetting the fact that there's a -super-expert megagenius doctor- just down the hallway! He doesn't even try to talk to him about it. It's just dumb.
But then, the big thing in the middle of the game happens, and the second half begins!
Well, the big changes in the gameplay go along with a big change in vibes! It feels like the game really starts getting into it's stride here, with Blazko no longer whining and acting all melodramatic.
Things start to feel more like "home", with Blazko and crew acting a lot more enthusiastic and optimistic. The whole game turns into proper Wolfenstein again, and you get to be big Rambo man shootin' up Adolf's goons, as nature intended.😜
And quite soon, you find yourself in New Orleans, where you get one of the greatest cutscenes in all of gaming:
.... the pacing. The vibe. The voice acting, the animation...... this is just amazing. Horton is also generally a much more likeable character than Grace, the resistance leader you recruit earlier on in New York.
Generally, the cast of characters in the game is a pretty wildly mixed bag. Kind of the idea i suppose, with the uniform black-and-red Nazi empire being opposed by the colourful, ragtag band of resistance fighters.
Max Hass is back, scrawling away and generally being odd, but likeable in his way. A few other notable ones include Grace, leader of New York's black resistance movement, who's unfortunately totally unlikeable, chainsmoking with her baby in her arms, constantly swearing and being a knob to everyone around her.
Little bit of a spoiler: Quite early in the game, your group picks up Sigrun, the daughter of General Engel, the antagonist. She's quite the interesting character. She does help the group out a lot, but is generally quite disliked because of her past, tagging along with her mother for all kinds of horrible atrocities because she didn't want to upset her. She also has a rather thick German accent, and it perhaps doesn't help that throughout the whole game, she retains this look:
Ehrm, ja. I mean uh, yeah.
So she's quite interesting. She's not necessarily -likeable- as such, but at the same time, you can see she's clearly on your side. Which in turn makes you dislike -other- characters for treating her badly. Especially Grace, who flat-out calls her a Nazi for most of the game. So there's some interesting complexity in the interplay between the characters.
And of course, just like the previous game, this one is chock-full of world-building bits and bobs. There's records you can find and listen to, newspaper articles and letters to read, posters and dialogue pulling you into this Man in the High Castle-style world.
So anyways, let's move on to our....
-Conclusion-
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is.... more Wolfenstein.
That's a good thing, of course! And yeah, the quality is very much there. It's really well put together and it's got plenty of cool alt-history stuff going on.
Though it does have to be said, in both halves of the game, something was always damping our enthusiasm a little bit.
In the first half, it's the vibe Blazko is giving off, being all melancholic and fatalistic.
Then in the second half, that clears up and things become more fun, but you suddenly unlock re-visitable locations and the Ubercommander-assassination stuff, which feels like it was tacked on just to satisfy that painful modern gaming trend of "stuff in more busywork to waste people's time". Thankfully though, it's not like you've got to grind levels or something. You can just use those systems to pick up a few upgrades you missed, or to hunt collectibles, if you wanna be a completionist about it.
And you know, all in all we had a good time with the game. A very good time, in fact. Because the really important core elements of the game are all nice and solid.
So, that was our look at Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.
We may or may not have a look at Youngblood at some point. Though it honestly doesn't seem likely, because it's very poorly rated, specifically because it wants you to grind repetitive levels and things like that. So exactly the stuff we didn't like in new Colossus, but amplified. Yeeeah, that doesn't sound great.
In any case, Michael and i hope you had a good read, and until next time, our fellow Wombatants, stay safe, and try not to be annexed by the third Reich!
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