Right time for a slight change as I will cover a video game this time for my revoow and this one could be deemed a rather unpopular choice or rather one that wasn't so commercially successful and that is Wolfenstein, which is a sequel to the acclaimed Return to Castle Wolfenstein, in which an American spy takes on the Nazi army. So let's stack up the weapons and ammo and give this one a look....
So a bit about the plot as the story is set during World war II in 1943 where special agent "BJ" Blazkowitz steals a medallion on a German battleship. When BJ is discovered he uses the medallion which its powers kills everyone and he escapes back to the OSA headquarters. During a meeting BJ learns that the medallion needs crystals called Nachstonne, which are mined in a small town named Isenstadt, to make full use of its power. BJ is then sent to Isenstadt where he meets with the Kriesau circle, a resistance group who are intent on saving their town from the Nazis. In the town BJ visits a black market where he can buy upgrades, weapons and ammo as well as powers for the medallion. BJ also meets the leader of the Kriesau circle, Caroline Becker, who is a former schoolteacher and she sends BJ on a mission to a secret dig site in order to steal another medallion. At the dig site he rescues a young Russian named Sergei Kolov and as BJ finds the medallion, Kolov instructs him on how to use it with a crystal he has. The crystal when used with the medallion allows BJ to enter the Veil, which is a barrier between the real world and a dimension called Black sun, and they both escape. Kolov then takes BJ back to a secret hideout owned by the Golden dawn, a group of scholars who specialise in the occult. After this BJ goes on more missions and he gains more powers for the medallion as well as new weapons and upgrades. And as the game moves on BJ must use his weapons and powers to try and take down the Nazis who are hellbent on using these powers for their own evil ends.
While it wasn't a commercial success and as result of poor sales, the game's company Activision were forced to pay off some of their employees, Wolfenstein still is a very enjoyable action game and its a good follow up to the Return to Castle Wolfenstein. And gameplay wise Wolfenstein is also very entertaining and it actually has alot of options and upgrades to it as well, which in a way makes it surprising that it wasn't more of a success than it was. And the single player is also quite lengthy and the missions themselves are also fairly varied and offer a decent challenge as well as the game bosses most of which are good fun to try and bump off and aren't too frustrating to dispatch.
Which brings me onto say a bit more about the gameplay itself which is the game's main strength as the control system is very easy to use and the combat system is also pretty simple. The game also has good customisation for upgrading your ammo, weapons and crystal powers and the weapons available are quite varied. And BJ pays for the weapons by picking up bars of gold which are scattered throughout the game. The crystal powers in the game are also part of what makes the game so fun as the crystals have different powers such as the ability to slow down time, while you can still move at a normal rate, you can also run faster, create a shield around yourself to deflect gunfire as well as protect yourself against elements such as fire or electricity and you can even see through walls. The weapons themselves are also pretty nifty as in addition to the standard weapons such as the MP40 and MP43 machine guns, you can also get a rifle, flamethrower, panzerschreck (rocket launcher). And you cna also get some cool Nazi experimentation weapons such as the particle canon, which can literally vapourise your enemies and the Tesla gun which you can zap them dead with bolts of electricity and lastly the Leichenfaust 44, which can be used to open steel doors as well as vapourise its enemies (they seem to like that!). BJ can also has a simple in game inventory system where he can look at his current objectives, weapons status and as the game progresses he can gain intel throughout on the Nazis which he picks up during misssions. BJ also has in-game compass which he can use to help him navigate areas which will lead him toward his objectives and he can also find pools of black sun energy which he steps into to re-charge his medallion's power. The enemies themselves in Wolfenstein are mostly straightforward to dispatch as you get hoards of Nazi soldiers fighting you, although later some of them use crystals to defend themselves and create shields against your gunfire. As for the game's supernatural Nazis they can be tricky to kill off in some instances (such as Veil assassins that can become invisible and slice at you with blades attached to their hands) but in others they aren't too bad to defeat.
Moving onto the game's graphics they are largely excellent as the environments are very impressive and varied as BJ will travel to different locations such as dig sites, farms, churches, taverns, onto Zeppelins, and of course through the streets of Isenstadt. The character models themselves aren't too bad although in comparison to what you can get now in games they do look a bit unsophisticated by contrast. The game also has some great visual effects such as the veil itself, when you turn it on your screen goes dark green and you then see some strange creatures float around your screen called Geist, which can blow up if you shoot at them, they can also take out nearby enemies with them. The game also has some rather graphic violence in which the Nazi's can have their limbs blown off or be burned to a cinder by the flamethrower, and you later can upgrade your sniper rifle and add a more powerful silenced nozzle which allows for the Nazis to be decapitated! It sounds a bit sick but the game's violence overall isn't too bad even though it is fairly strong (and the game did receive an 18 certificate on its release). The game's music score by Bill Brown is also quite good and features some good passages although it does sound a bit cheesey at times and it does undercut the game's effectiveness from time to time.
As for the game's flaws well its not quite perfect for sure and its main problem lies in the voice acting which is at times a bit comical sounding. And while the voice actors aren't awful they could have done a much better job than they were allowed to as the German accents just sound ridiculous and the game's cutscenes are also a bit tedious as a result of this. The game itself probably would even have a bit more credibility if they were to do it in German with subtitles, but I guess that would have just alienated it more form a mainstream audience. And while the gameplay itself is really good, one fault that does come to mind is that you do spend quite a bit of time meandering in between missions to try and get to your next objective as you wander the streets and try and avoid or engage in combat with the Nazis or other supernatural baddies. The game's single player campaign could also be accused of taking some time to get into as it does get off to a slow start but it does become more fun once it get's going. Another flaw boils down to the game's multiplayer which was to said to be riddled with bugs although a patch was released to resolve these issues, and part of the game's appeal presumably would have lied in its multiplayer being a success, especially after the great success of Return to Castle Wolfenstein. However for me its always been about the single player game experience and not multiplayer.
So that's it for my look at Wolfenstein, which remains an underrated and very entertaining first person shooter game, which despite its lack of commercial success is well worth giving a go as you might just enjoy it.
And on that note I shall say Auf Weidersehen!
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