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As in the previous games, you play as the All-American hero William “B.J.” Blaskowicz (Yes, I can hear you kids laughing in the back row), who is once again out to kick some more Nazi butt, if he hasn’t done enough of that already. The story begins with B.J. discovering some kind of ancient magical artifact on board a Nazi ship. From here on, you follow him to the fictional town of Isenstadt, which is under attack by the Nazis. Soon he joins forces with the local Resistance factions in order to find out what the Nazis are up to. Obviously, they are up to no good and once again dabbling with the occult, trying to access some sort of alternate dimension called the Black Sun and causing all sorts of supernatural anomalies in the process. The plot is your typical B-movie shlock and is suitably cheesy but never feels overdone or out of place. It’s clear that the game doesn’t want to take itself too seriously as far as the plot goes, which makes it rather enjoyable. There are a couple of twists and turns along the way but nothing that isn’t quite predictable.
While the game follows a very traditional first person shooter design, it’s structured more like Starbreeze’s Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay or The Darkness, which means it’s not an entirely linear game. The entire town of Isenstadt is open for you to explore and you can choose to do missions in the order you like. However you will rarely have more than two active missions at a time. A very handy and well-designed journal helps you to keep track of your missions, objectives and also provides a map of the town. It’s very difficult to get lost in the game thanks to the friendly compass, which always points to your next objective. The missions themselves are a set of mostly linear levels with usually a single path to your destination. However, no mission lasts for more than 15 to 30 minutes, which prevents them from feeling monotonous. Just when tedium starts to set in, the game throws in a spectacular set piece or a fun boss fight. Missions are set in a variety of different areas, from underground excavation sites and farms to creepy hospitals and museums. The pacing is just right and going back to the town and visiting the resistance hideouts and black markets feels like a welcome break from all the shooting, explosions and swastikas.
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Speaking of shooting, what would an FPS be without its core mechanic? Thankfully, the shooting here feels tight as ever. Pretty much all the guns you’ll get feel weighty and sound appropriately loud and punchy when fired. You’ll get your hands on the standard WW2-era guns such as the ubiquitous MP40 sub-machine gun, a Kar98 bolt-action rifle and the very effective MP43 assault rifle along with some experimental sci-fi weaponry such as a devastating Particle gun and a Lightning gun capable of shooting out electrical arcs at multiple enemies. And yes, you can carry all guns at all times. Every gun can be upgraded at a black market by spending gold found lying around the levels. These upgrades are really worth spending the gold as you’ll end up making them twice as effective as their default versions. Fully upgrading the Kar98 rifle, for example, lets you blow heads and limbs clean off enemies. Adding scopes to rifles is also pretty handy since quite a lot of firefights take place over long distances. However, most of these upgrades come at a high price so actively searching for gold soon becomes necessary.
These days it’s almost mandatory for all shooters to have some sort of fancy gimmick in addition to conventional weaponry. Wolfenstein is no different in that respect. The fancy artifact B.J. finds at the beginning of the game isn’t just for show. When activated, it allows you to enter an alternate dimension called “The Veil”. Activating the Veil lets you see doors that are otherwise inaccessible, locate secrets and highlight enemies. As you progress through the game, you’ll unlock additional upgradable Veil powers which allow you to slow down time, amplify damage or create a shield that can deflect bullets back at enemies. As expected, the Veil powers are also essential to solve puzzles and locate weak points in certain enemies.
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There is a nice variety in the enemies you get to fight. Most of the time, you’ll be fighting standard Nazi soldiers supported by magic-using operatives. But as you go on, you’ll meet new enemy types such as the heavily armoured Particle-gun wielding troopers, flying Nazis with jetpacks, stealthy invisible assassins (who look a lot like Kroenen from Hellboy) and also leather-clad femme fatales who can perform deadly melee attacks. The game also throws in a number of boss fights which are easily the best parts of the game. These fights are genuinely fun and are cleverly designed.
Next page: Graphics, multiplayer and final verdict
The game is also unabashedly violent. Blood spurts in large amounts every time you shoot an enemy and even more when you blow a soldier’s head off with your rifle. The enemy AI isn’t too bright, but it’s serviceable. Most of the time, they will actively seek out cover or man stationary turrets, but every once in a while they would rather prefer to stand out in the open and fire at you. Some enemies, such as the invisible assassins, are rather annoying as they are really quick and can kill you in a couple of hits. Still, running and gunning is the order of the day here. You can enter an area guns blazing and kill everything in sight before they have a chance to shoot back. Regardless, it feels quite satisfying to blast multiple enemies away with weapons such as the Lightning gun or pulling off bloody headshots with the Kar98 rifle.
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The single player campaign should take a seasoned FPS player about 10 to 12 hours to complete and more if you choose to explore each level for items and gold. At 12 hours, the game doesn’t overstay its welcome. There is a lot of fun packed in those 10 to 12 hours and very little filler. There are no repetitive side missions to grind through or levels which feel like a repeat of the last. Consequently, the replay value of the campaign is definitely on the lower side.
Much like the gameplay, the visuals also feel quite dated. The game runs on a modified version of id’s Tech 4 engine, which is beginning to show its age. While the game looks decent enough, it still cannot be compared with the likes of Crysis, Far Cry 2 or the recent Call of Duty games. It could have been quite a looker had it come two or three years ago, but for a 2009 game, it is somewhat underwhelming. While some of the levels are quite large and feature some impressive architecture and design, they are still marred by some low resolution texture work and an overall hazy look. Same goes for the character models and animations; they’re right out of a three year old game. On the plus side, the Veil effects are rather impressive. There is a very neat “peeling” effect every time you activate the Veil as the colours fade and the environment around you starts looking strange and otherworldly. If you’ve ever played Clive Barker’s Undying, the effect is very similar to the Skrye spell from that game.
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The levels feature a sizeable number of destructible objects and, coupled with the devastating weapons in your arsenal, there is usually a lot of stuff getting blown up on screen at a time. However, it’s not always perfect as many objects are not affected by your weapons. For example, I tried shooting at a poster on the wall and there were no decals where I hit.
The worst culprit, however, comes in the form of the poorly rendered cutscenes. With the exception of the opening cinematic, the rest of the cutscenes in the game are done in-engine. The cutscenes themselves are not badly executed, but it’s the poor compression in combination with the slightly dated graphics engine that makes them look low resolution and choppy. This is a shame considering the story is presented rather well. The voice acting is decent enough, although the dialog itself is quite cheesy, which is expected considering the nature of the plot and the setting. There are lots of fake German accents and it’s rather strange to hear Nazi soldiers speaking to each other in English. But authenticity isn’t exactly what this game is aiming for anyway, so I can look past that. The music is also passably good; nothing memorable, but feels appropriate whenever it kicks in during the action.
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The game also features a separate multiplayer component, which is developed by Endrant Studios and not id or Raven. Consequently, it isn’t as good as the single player campaign. Although there is some basic class selection such as Soldier, Medic and Engineer (with each class getting specific Veil abilities), the multiplayer still feels quite bland. For starters, Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch aside, there are only two other game types – Objective, which involves attacking or defending specific targets and Stopwatch, where players need to complete certain tasks in a fixed amount of time. None of these gameplay types feel particularly interesting or fun. It’s a shame the developers did not choose to model the multiplayer component on the Enemy Territory expansion for Return to Castle Wolfenstein. It’s a widely known fact that Endrant Studios laid off most of its staff after the game’s completion. Go figure.
Conclusion
Aside from the disappointing multiplayer and some technical issues with the single player campaign, I had a blast playing through Wolfenstein. While it doesn’t stray away from familiar territory and features a rather traditional design, it’s still a very well made game. It may not win any awards for originality or innovation, but what it offers is a surprisingly entertaining single player campaign and a somewhat flawed but playable multiplayer component.
(+) Well paced and refreshing single player campaign
(+) Nice selection of weapons and upgrades
(+) Boss fights are fun and engaging
(-) Bland, uninspiring multiplayer
(-) Visuals are slightly dated
(-) Not much replay value once you finish the game
Title: Wolfenstein
Genre: First-person shooter
Rating: 18+
Platforms: PlayStation3 (Rs 2,499), Xbox 360 (Rs 1,999), PC (Rs 999)
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