Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus

Let’s time travel back to 2014, Wolfenstein: The New Order releases with high reviews and lovely players feedback, a little bit surprisingly so. Developer Machine Games has brought Wolfenstein back into FPS-gamers hearts, now many have anticipated Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus, let’s take a look if shooting Nazis in this sequel is as fun as before. 

THE GOOD

• Main hero B.J. (Blazkowicz) or Terror Billy is one of the best characters in a video game. The emotional depth of his back story and his hate for the Nazi regime makes the game one of a kind when it comes to single player stories. Some of the things that happen in The New Colossus are so unexpected, and honestly a little shocking too, that you can’t feel indifferent about it.  It doesn’t happen much but at one specific moment I paused the game because my mind had a “what-the-fuck-did-he-just-do” moment.
• Not only is the story great, the diverse cast of characters is outstanding too. People from the resistance group are interesting and aren’t treated like time fillers, something that happens so often in other shooter games. You actually care about all of them and every single character has a meaningful impact for the overall story.  Resulting in some memorable scenes that simply can’t be found in other games. Unlike so many other games with a weak and bland Nazi story Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus is what the German Tiger-tank was for Hitler, outstanding and almost unbeatable. Biggest reason why is the fantastic performance from General Frau Engel, the villain from B.J., it doesn’t happen a lot that I utterly hate a fictional person so much. So yeah.. well done Machine Games you can really tell a story in a perfect way.
• Like Gears of War the gore in Wolfenstein is … well let us say that the 18+ rating is with a reason. Do you play games for violence? Well I’m not afraid to say that I don’t mind and really like blowing up someone’s head into a million pieces. Blood spatter everywhere, body parts flying around and some extreme gore cut-scenes. Yeah, Wolfenstein: The New Colossus isn’t for kids or faint-hearted people but for those that like brutal visuals you know that this game is for you.
• The average gamer will spend 15 hours to finish the story, Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus shines with replay value too. To begin, depending on the character you pick Fergus or Wyatt in the beginning you will get another weapon and the story slightly alters too. Giving you enough reason to start over a new campaign. The difficulty modes are other reasons why you can spend many hours on this game, not everyone will finish the hardest option but I’m glad that the developers made something for masochists. You also have 16 optional assassination missions, it is a shame that you play these on existing levels but it adds some value too.

MIXED FEELINGS

• You always have the option to try to take the stealth approach, while this is a smart option the game makes it a little redundant for multi reasons. First, it is harder than it should be to actually stay hidden from enemies because you don’t have the right gameplay tools and secondly playing in a rush-style with shotguns in dual-wielding way is just ridiculously fun.  Another reason is that the level design just isn’t really suitable for stealth play, you have a few fun stealth set-pieces but most of the time it just isn’t possible to take out all enemies in a stealthy fashion.
• On Xbox One (I haven’t played the Xbox One X-version) the graphics have this blurry effect, it reminds me a little about Final Fantasy XV. While you have lots of little detail the overall experience has a massive negative blow because it’s clear that the Xbox One doesn’t really handle the  ID Tech 6 engine well. Another proof of that is the frame rate, the previous Wolfenstein never had any dips but The New Colossus frequently drops below 20 FPS. It remains acceptable but you’ll notice the issues pretty soon.
• Level design is one big bag of mixed feelings. It is awesome to run around the hub (submarine) and the Roswell-level was outstanding but many things feel like re-used assets. Tunnels after tunnels after tunnels (or bunkers), it’s a shame because I didn’t have this feeling with the two previous Wolfenstein games on Xbox One.

THE BAD

• It is hard to explain but I seriously disliked the head bobbing effect while running and shooting. Making it a little confusing to aim, you don’t have an option to turn this off.
• Some of the worst hit detection feedback I ever seen in a shooter, the times I died because I didn’t know I was being hit isn’t countable on all the hands from the resistance group. You simply have 0 indication that you are being hit, it is super annoying especially on the higher difficulty settings.

Mein Gott! The story and characters from Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus is simply fantastic, an industry-leading accomplishment. It has some flaws, for example the hit detection feedback but for shooter fans this a game that you have to buy.

Dev: Machine Games Publisher: Bethesda Played on: Xbox One
LifeisXbox received a physical review copy, provided by DayOnempm.