World War II is an oft-visited setting in video games, most extensively the Call of Duty and Medal of Honor series. The Wolfenstein series has been around for a while, going all the way back to 1981 with the release of Castle Wolfenstein. The Wolfenstein franchise, however, offers a different WWII experience by incorporating the Nazi interest in the occult and paranormal. By combining the standard killing of Nazis with mutants and paranormal, futuristic weapons, Wolfenstein makes for a unique and satisfying first person shooter.
WHAT YOU’LL LIKE:
Interesting Story
The game centers around the exploits of William “BJ” Blazkowicz, an American spy who has been the protagonist going all the way back to Wolfenstein 3D, which was released in 1992. The plot revolves mostly around the mythos surrounding the Thule Society and the Golden Dawn Order, both of which actually existed. The year is 1943, and our hero BJ discovers a medallion with surprising and mysterious powers in the hands of the Nazis. After following the medallion’s trail, BJ is deployed to the city of Isenstadt, where he discovers that the Nazi SS is working hard at developing a weapon based on something called the Black Sun (which also has real-world roots) that could end the war. Now it’s up to BJ, working with a local resistance group and the Golden Dawn faction, to stop the Nazis. The story moves along rather well and holds your interest. Additionally, for those who can appreciate it, a decent effort is given to historical accuracy when not dealing with the paranormal.
BJ only needs a machine gun and a leather jacket to destroy Nazis.
Fun Shooter Gameplay
Wolfenstein combines the standard WWII-era weaponry with futuristic weaponry developed by the Nazis. Typically, when given the option between a rifle and a lightening gun, one chooses the lightening gun, but Wolfenstein presents the big guns in such a way as to not totally make the standard weapons obsolete. The added factor of the Thule Medallion and the Veil powers it grants further enhances the shooter experience. The medallion can be used to slow time, see in the dark, and other supernatural powers, and there are enough energy pools around that you can usually walk around in the Veil all the time. The game is also not just blasting away regular Nazi soldiers; mutants and experimental soldiers will do their best to explode/eat you. The game is also not a typical first-person shooter, combining a semi-open world element more common of RPGs. The story line is not completely linear, giving you more options as to how you choose to execute your missions. There is opportunity for exploration with several collectibles hidden throughout. This aspect of gameplay, however, was not fully explored seems a little lacking, but the concept shows great potential.
An armored soldier with a Particle Gun
Great Audio/Visual Effects
The graphics are very crisp and the worlds are very thoroughly designed, especially in the areas outside of the city. Particularly, the world as seen through the medallion Veil is great, and reminded me of the world in Lord of the Rings when Frodo put the ring on. The characters and weapons are well-designed and well-executed. The sound effects are all well done and the music always suits the environment and doesn’t clash. All the voice actors do a great job, though in places the German accents seem a little forced.
WHAT YOU WON’T LIKE:
Repetition
The missions are generally all very similar, involving blasting your way through a bunch of Nazis to go retrieve something or to kill someone. While obliterating Nazis is very entertaining, after a couple hours, it becomes a little uninteresting. The variety in enemies and the boss battle serve to break up the monotony some, but the different enemies do not show up until later in the gameplay, and the boss battles are not frequent enough to really break things up well. Rest assured though, if you love to obliterate Nazis, there is no shortage of them.
Veil-weilding scribes serve to break up the monotony some, but there's not enough of them.
Lacking Multiplayer
Wolfenstein, being a World War II game, is in direct competition with games like Call of Duty: World at War for players. That said, the multiplayer of Wolfenstein does not measure up to the competition. It feels hastily put together, and with only three game modes, there’s not enough to do. There’s the standard Team Deathmatch, Objective and Stopwatch. Objective requires one team to carry out a task with the other team attempting to stop them, while Stopwatch has both teams take turns at objectives while trying to beat the other team’s times. The games also only support a maximum of 12 players, so they lack the scale of the 8-on-8 matches that are typical of most other games.
RECOMMENDATION:
Wolfenstein, overall, is a satisfactory shooter. The single player campaign is interesting enough to make up for the multiplayer’s deficiencies, and will take most experienced shooter players six to eight hours to complete. The Veil powers and the future weapons factor offers a change from the usual World War II game, but it’s still only good for one or two playthroughs. It may not be memorable enough to some to merit buying it, but it’s definitely worth renting at the minimum. For anyone interested in vaporizing large hoards of Nazis, this game is perfect for you.
Wolfenstein
Systems: Xbox 360, PC, PS3
Developer: Raven Software
Publisher: Activision
Find: Amazon, Gamefly, Goozex
All reviews are based on final retail code unless otherwise noted.
Want to know more about the game? Just ask! We love to hear ourselves type, and might even say something vaguely resembling an answer to your question(s)…
August 27th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I LOVED the singleplayer. As soon as it was done I wanted to go back and play it again on UBER.
Unfortunately, the multiplayer (handled by an entirely different studio) was just garbage. Especially compared to Return to Castle Wolfenstein which I played more than most soccer moms play WoW.
August 28th, 2009 at 9:50 am
I keep hearing about this game but I’ve never seen anyone play it. It sounds so interesting.