cloudswift's Profile

You star as B.J. (I know what your thinking) who bears an uncanny resemblance to Drake from Uncharted, who is an American agent; the point should be made that he's an agent, and not a spy. A spy carries stealth connotations, and there is zero stealthiness to this game. B.J. finds a medallion that stops him becoming Swiss cheese, and he investigates it's origins to discover the NAZIs have a medallion of there own.

hmm

The story failed to grab my interest in the same way "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" did, however there hasn't been a good Wolfenstein back story since the "Spear of Destiny". This is one of my major issues with Wolfenstein. Back in WW2, several conspiracy stories surfaced that Hitler had only done so well was because he had the "Spear of Destiny" aka the "Holy Lance" aka the "Spear of Longinus". SoD was a spear that penetrated the body of Christ when he was on the cross to see if he was dead, and theory describes that the spear finished him off. The guy who did the poking was a soldier called Longinus. The spear was then judged to be a sort of Antichrist-weapon of death. Hitler had supposedly lost the spear (that has been grafted onto a dagger) and that's why he lost WW2. These conspiracy stories mixed with allegations that the high ranking NAZI officers delved into the occult bore Wolfenstein, in the same manner that the "Watchmen" was born out of the Cold War conspiracies.

This Wolfenstein game has none of that, and infact very few moments of paranormal occult mischief. The high point is where they borrow ideas from Stargate, it's not as if portals have never been done before.

My second major issue is the dialogue and accents. Americans voicing Germans? it was like something from a bad B-movie. It was disgraceful. Are the developers telling me there wasn't any Germans in America available for casting? go to Germany, there's loads of them there. Coupled with NPCs repeating the current objective every 10 seconds made me turn down the volume and stick on my ipod.

Infact the whole NAZI coating has been completely white-washed. Take away the occasional Swastika banners, the black uniforms (that you really see because the Veil is constantly on), and the dire accents, and your left with a diluted game that could probably get past the German censors (and they hate NAZI symbolism).

The Veil is a very impressive visor-type mechanic that transforms all the textures in the environment and greatly helps with the game interms of outlining the enemies, and having special functions such as see enemies through walls, slowing time, bullet damage, shield which if memory serves were all done a few years ago in Goldeneye.

I feel the best way to describe Wolfenstein is like getting a new pair of shoes, and getting kicked in the face by them.

They let you mod your weapons anyway you like, but you have to pay for it and the gold is hidden around the levels as collectibles. They let you kick open doors for quick attacks, but the doors automatically close on you after 10 seconds while your in the doorway trying to shoot people. They give you the veil so you can see your enemies easily, secret rooms and objects, then they make activating it volatile, special powers drain it within seconds, and the entire game is pitch black so you depend on it so much that the game becomes intolerable without it. There is no melee weapon as such (you can pick up a hammer) because all guns can be used for melee attack and upgrade the strength, but it can take up to 4 melee strikes to take down a trooper. There are destructible boxes, crates, and exploding petrol drums take out troopers, but remnants of these objects constantly block door ways and tunnels which is incredibly frustrating. They let you duck for cover, but most cover leaves your head sticking out.

I didn't try the multiplayer, so the jury is out on that one, and the achievements are mainly for multiplayer.

6/10 maybe a little harsh, but the only redeeming features are aesthetic. It's not fun to play, it's not gripping, it's frustrating, and it's a 20 year old franchise that is still fighting for recognition. Sorry Wolfenstein, not this time.