It seems like it's been ages since I last did a review, my time has mostly been taken up playing The Long Dark. It's basically a hardcore survival game, failing to pay attention at any point can quickly lead to your demise. I had put about twenty-five hours into the story when I found out there are still three episodes to be released. The Long Dark can be really grueling and I have to wait a while for the remaining episodes to be released, so I wanted to change gears and play something a bit more fun and quicker paced - enter Wolfenstein II The New Colossus.
Chicken Balls! They are chunks of chicken covered in batter, you can eat them as they are or with a dipping sauce, maybe sweet and sour or curry. They are not healthy, or good for you in any way, eat one too many and you will regret it. That being said, there are bad quality versions of chicken balls, sometimes they are almost wet there is so much oil on them, or the chicken can be really tough or stringy. Basically, you need to choose wisely as to where you purchase your balls from and ensure you do not devour too many of them. Playing Wolfenstein II The New Colossus I found myself asking was I eating good chicken balls and had I chosen the restaurant wisely?
Story
I'll be honest, I have never really played any of the Wolfenstein games but the New Colossus, in particular, seemed like a lot of fun, so I thought why not. The games start off with, 'previously on the New Order' (the last installment), as someone new to the series I really appreciated this.
You play as Terror-Billy, scourage of the Nazi's, killer of killers. As we all know every hero needs a back story and Billy's is pretty sad, who had an abusive, cruel father, who is not only mean to you and your mother but also the dog too. The start of the game sees you being rescued from your last battle, which although you won, it seems you were not left unscathed. Confined to a wheelchair, you have to find a way to continue battling the Nazi's, who have won the war and now control America, along with the world. There are plenty of enemies to kill, but your primary concern is taking down the Nazi Commander Frau Engel, who is just lovely.
The story has plenty of twists, and turns, and certainly is outlandish at times but this is not a bad thing. There are only two complaints I really had, firstly the early part of the game feels really slow paced, and secondly, you would think if you took over a Nazi-controlled submarine you would not wait five months to search it properly, you know in case there were Nazi's still onboard hidden somewhere. Overall though a pretty solid story.
Visuals
Many people have raved about the visual effects in the game, and I have to say I can understand why. The lighting effects used in the game look really good and help create a more realistic environment. Visually getting to see New York after the detonation of an atomic bomb was really powerful, decayed bodies, and buildings, no signs of life, all helped provide a very grim backdrop. Then there was Billy's home, which while in serious need of a paint job it has been left largely unscathed by the war, it's also at this point in the game you get to see some powerful flashbacks, which look great, if not very sad.
There was a few smaller stand out visuals that deserve a shoutout including, the weird lizard looking suit Billy wears during the game, takedowns on enemies, that are bloody and brutal, seeing a monkey, crossed with a cat sitting in an old TV was pretty funny and bizarre. I also liked the inclusion of the concept art, these were collectibles in the game that look really cool. Overall some great visuals that would be better appreciated on a 4K TV, which I/we will get this year.
Music
The music keeps its head down for the most part, and only really appears during battle sequences. There are subtle guitar pieces played on occasion, which contrasts greatly with the intense, adrenaline-fuelled battle music. This score was put together by:
Mick Gordon, an Australian composer who has worked on a number of diverse game titles including; Wolfenstein: The New Order, Doom (2016) Dead Space 3, Killer Instinct and Need for Speed: The Run.
The score runs just shy of ninety minutes, and while it's not necessarily bad, it does feel a little underwhelming and is a far cry from Gordon's work on Doom. Listening to the score again just made me want to replay Doom for the awesome score. There were a few pieces that stood out for me; 'Main Theme', 'Ausmer', 'Escape', and 'All Combat Themes'. Overall not bad, but certainly not great.
Gameplay
Onto the balls, of chicken! I have played more than a few games in my life and I can tell you that starting off in a wheel shooting Nazi's was a first for me. While there were wheelie good things (sorry I couldn't help it) in the game, one thing that struck me as out of place was the stealth option. Why in a largely balls out shooter would you include stealth, while it is optional, in some cases you kind of have no choice, for me, it just ruined the experience a little. The tiny subtitles used were annoying as the game naturally has a lot of German dialogue. Billy's monologuing throughout the game was jarring, a bit weird and a little unnecessary.
When it comes to shooting there is a lot of fun to be had, and that's before you throw in the fact that you can dual wield weapons. My favorite weapons were the hatchet and schockhammer, the hatchet can be used for stealth, bloody frontal takedowns, or can be thrown from a distance. The schockhammer is an automatic shotgun that is powerful as hell, and few enemies stand a chance if you dual wield them. With the exception of the hatchet, all weapons can be upgraded by finding kits in the game, they were all pretty good and worthwhile. There are perks in the game, all you need to do to get them is kill enemies in a certain way, or with a certain weapon, this pushes you to play differently if you really want a particular perk.
There are two areas that I really enjoyed playing, the first was in New Orleans which when you get to ride a Panzerhund, a large robotic, dog/tiger like thing that breathes fire. The courtroom level was awesome, there is so much carnage, and enemies to kill it's crazy, I had a lot of fun playing it even though I died a number of times.
Overall some solid gameplay, with a few minor issues and one major one.
Final Thoughts
After fifteen hours how did I feel? Pretty good, some good story, great visuals, and some really good gameplay, with a slightly underwhelming soundtrack. While I can't fault the game too much there was something that didn't blow me away. Perhaps it was because playing it I kept thinking of Doom 2016, it has great visuals, and gameplay, but didn't get bogged down in the story as it knew what it was, a balls-out action shooter. Maybe I felt there was too much story for this type of game, or maybe I just wanted to play Doom again. That all being said I give this one 4 out of 5
