Backlog Game 008: Wolfenstein II The New Colossus
Main image source: www.steam.com
How’s this for a change of pace?
After thoroughly enjoying my time with Ape Escape, I wanted to tackle a game that had been on my mind for quite a few months and that couldn’t be any more different from Sony’s playful romp.
In a way, as much as I enjoyed Ape Escape and the games I played prior to it, they were all a way to put off playing Wolfenstein II The New Colossus.
Why “put off”?
Well, I had a phenomenal time with Wolfenstein The New Order, Bethesda’s reboot of the historically significant Wolfenstein franchise. I enjoyed it so much that almost right after finishing it the first time, I played it again not only to play the second of the game’s two timelines, but also to experience the game on its hardest difficulty setting.
I loved it as well the second time through, and I couldn’t wait for the opportunity to fuck up Frau Engel’s shit in the sequel.
The advantage to waiting so long to get back into gaming is that there are usually several games in a series to sink your teeth into, and so it was with Wolfenstein; I could start The New Colossus whenever I wanted to.
But I didn’t want to.
Jumping right into the game would put an end to all the anticipation I was feeling, and I was worried that the sequel couldn’t possibly top the excellence of the The New Order.
Finally, after much delay, I decided it was time to finish bringing the fight to the Nazis, and let me tell you:
I was right to be worried.
I did in fact get to fuck up Frau Engel’s shit (more on that later, but not too much more…), but this game just wasn’t very fun.
Getting sweet revenge against Frau Engel is the game’s most fun moment, too bad you have to wait until the very end to experience that fun (Image source: www.grettogeek.com)…
Playing this game on PS4, I noticed one positive over The New Order right off the bat: the game looks fantastic. As soon as I started the first level, which is a direct continuation of the end of the first game, I got the impression this was running on a decent PC, so good were the lighting effects and so slick were the textures.
Overall, I’ll also call out the voice acting, which is again superb, and some of the turns the story takes. They are absurd, and that absurdity is fun and also so important to this series, as it takes the edge off the evil you’re dealing with on-screen.
Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there, and it will take a long bullet-point list for me to count the ways:
The way you start off that first level is interesting (I won’t tell you, it’s quite clever), but the execution is not. It just feels as if you’re plodding through and I remember several occasions where I just wanted to exit the level, not a good sign for the rest of the game!
As good as the effects are, the first environment itself is pretty drab, and so it goes for many of the game’s levels. One of the aspects I liked so much about The New Order was its variety of levels, and as much as I was enjoying one, I’d always wonder how I was going to be delighted by the next. In “The New Colossus”, I’d beat one level, and then think “Oh, great, some more concrete rooms in which to fight…”
The combat is nowhere near - not even close - to as satisfying as in The New World Order. In The New Colossus, the enemies seem to have enormous health bars, and you can empty whole clips into each one without downing them. This just makes all the weapons feel really weak, and since combat is one of the game’s two main mechanics, the game suffers terminally as a result.
The other key mechanic in the Wolfenstein reboots are stealth. On my second playthrough of The New Order, I relied heavily on the stealth techniques I tried to use the first time around, and mastering these techniques made that second playthrough almost a breeze, even on the highest difficulty! This did not mean it was easy, but rather I got a real sense of satisfaction knowing I was making it through because I had mastered certain techniques in the game. This was intentional, and no matter how stacked the odds looked, you could always count on the developers having left a sneaky path you could take to destroy large groups of Nazis without getting noticed. In “The New Colossus”, it doesn’t look like any such paths exist, and your success in carrying out sneak attacks (via mechanics like crouching) seems almost completely arbitrary.
I started out directly on the next-to hardest difficulty, since the hardest is only available on a second playthrough, which I will not be doing. Maybe this was why things were frustrating, but how could they be when The New Order had such a wonderfully done “hard” setting?
Despite my frustrations and lack of enjoyment, I stuck it out because I felt I owed it to the characters (and myself) to see their story through to the end, and I will say that the moment where I fucked up Frau Engel’s shit was extremely satisfying; the closing scenes and credits are also pretty badass.
What a slog it is to get to those though!
I recommend savoring Wolfenstein The New Order and breezing through The New Colossus on an easy setting to continue the story, all while hoping Bethesda regains the first game’s magic touch for a (hopefully…) third game in the series.