When in 2014 I received a review copy of Wolfenstein: The New Order, even could not imagine how much I get sucked into the vortex of the battles with the Nazis, exciting adventures and the inimitable black humor. The last time I played Wolfenstein 3D in the early 90s, and then nothing like this game to offer us was just not able to. And then you and incredible cinematography, and over-the-top brutality of the gameplay and well-designed scenario – how not to fall in love with such a piece? October 27, came the continuation of this great game called Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. I want to share with you my impressions about the sequel.
Game: Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows
Genre: First Person Shooter
Release date: 27 Oct 2017
Developer: MachineGames
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
About the history of the series, I told you in my last review, so this time to focus on the development of the franchise will not immediately go directly to the review of the new game. As you may remember, the events of Wolfenstein takes place in an alternate reality where the Nazis led by Hitler to get their hands on the greatest knowledge of ancient civilizations, first landed on the moon, create artificial intelligence, building robots, and actively develop high technology. As a result, they are winning the Second world war and captures most of the world countries, including the United States of America. Small groups of rebels continue to provide resistance to the invaders, while a large part of the US population transformed into obedient servants of the Third Reich. The players imagined what happened in the last game, at the very beginning they show you a video briefly retell the story of the adventures of the protagonist. Very nice detail.
Is 1961. Badly wounded in the final of the previous game main character William Joseph Blaskowitz colleagues deliver on a stolen Nazi submarine “Hammer of eve”, where they arranged themselves operational headquarters. There are extra operate of the protagonist and try to put on my feet. Blaskowitz himself feels that after these injuries he can’t live very long. Moving only with the help of the Nazi exoskeleton, he is trying to help his comrades to deal with the invaders and to organize in North America revolution, while he still has this power. His girlfriend Anna is pregnant with twins, and he really doesn’t want his children to grow up in a world where everything runs crazy with power and permissiveness Hitler and his Nazi henchmen.
The game starts very strange, when still weak after undergoing multiple surgeries, the main character shoots from the Nazis, slicing through the corridors of the submarine in a wheelchair. In that second you realize that the game is not going to change the direction chosen by the developers in the previous part, and you’re gonna have a brutal and unrestrained fun. The guys from Swedish Studio MachineGames know what fans of the series, and try not to spoil the success formula of the famous franchise. Take the evil of the Nazis, a very cool protagonist, plenty of colorful characters of the second plan, create cool locations in different parts of North America and not just flavored with all this black humour on the verge of what is permitted and give into the hands of the player terribly powerful weapon, splitting the enemies into atoms.
In the course of his travels Blaskowitz happen to be in amazing places. For example, the Nazis captured New Orleans, the channels of which are filled with crocodiles, and the German invaders finish off the survivors of the protesters on the streets. Or in new York, where the protagonist has to get in touch with the largest resistance cell led by racy dark-skinned girl grace Walker. Even have to penetrate the secret military base “Area 52” where, if you believe the rumors, the Nazis are studying the alien technology taken from a defeated American military. But the most interesting, in my opinion, in this game that we first show the childhood of the protagonist. In my mind, William will often travel to those years when the father beat and belittled their mother and little frail boy could not give a rebuff to the parent. These memories will allow players to understand exactly how Blaskowitz was ultimately the main threat of the Nazis. Also, of course, we learn family secrets of the protagonist. And all this I consider to be one of the best story arches of the new game.
The rest of the time the main character will try to put a spoke in the wheel of the Nazi war machine, led by General Engel from the previous game. After all, Hitler strongly grown old, went crazy and was hiding in one of their secret military bases. Looking ahead, Hitler you also happen to see. Moreover, under very unusual circumstances. Tellingly, in Germany, the game II Wolfenstein: The New Colossus was subjected to severe censorship. The symbolism of Nazism in this country is strictly prohibited, so Hitler had to shave his trademark mustache, the word “Fuhrer” was replaced by “the Chancellor” (Frau Merkel, Hello!), but instead of swastikas on the German flags painted strange triangular symbol. Strange to see all this in the Comedy game, but, of course, the Germans know better. The law is the law.
The combat system is simple and straightforward. It is possible to conduct aimed fire from the same weapon, or to take one in each hand, a gun and Nazis to pour a hail of bullets without thinking. The system of perks carried over into the sequel from the previous game. The more often you perform certain actions, the stronger will improve your skills, broken into three categories: “sneak” – a quiet kill enemies by stealth, “chaos” — killing with heavy weapons and grenades, and “tactics” — using the environment and supporting technologies in order to repair the Nazis obstacles. Like, for example, quietly cut enemies, then eventually the game will reward you with increasing speed in prisady. If you actively use heavy weapons like “Dieselkraftwerk” or “Lazerwager” – the volume charge will gradually increase. And so it can be unobtrusive to develop skills, not particularly focused on experience points or some additional steps.
In the game it is important first to deal with the enemy officers, who are constantly calling for assistance. If you do not do this, crowds of Nazis will run at you from all sides. For killing higher ranks of the Nazi military, you will receive codes “Enigma”. Returning to headquarters on the “Hammer eve” you will be able to decrypt them using the machine “Enigma” with the help of simple mini-games. Each code will allow you to unlock a bonus mission, for which performance you will receive a nice bonus. In General, the game has a lot of side-quests that you can take colleagues on a submarine. The big rats will ask you to deal, hold, to find toys for mentally retarded max (remember the hefty fellow from the first game?), then God knows where to go. In the missions you can help interactive map of jobs at the headquarters, as well as markers indicating the distance to the target, which is very convenient to navigate in space.
Weapons in the game not so much, but it is made with stunning attention to detail and will surely please fans of first-person shooters. Almost every gun can be improved through specific sets of parts. My heart forever belongs to the fire hatchet, with which Blaskowitz cuts off Nazi limbs with a crunch breaks through the skull and throws it at them when the situation requires it. Personally, I really like to pass the game in stealth mode, hiding in the shadows and attacking enemies from behind, so as not to attract attention and not to raise the alarm. But you can play dumb “attack head”, rushing forward at breakneck speed, passing shooting and blasting everything you see. At some point in the game the protagonist will have at its disposal a completely new skills that will allow them more sophisticated to deal with the Nazis. But to tell you more about them I can’t. Just because then you have to setpolarity story. The only thing I didn’t like the combat system, something that sometimes is extremely difficult to understand where and who shot you. In other games, it becomes clear due to the vibration of the controller, and the image of hits on the TV screen (monitor). But in this case sometimes you have to look around frantically in search of her abuser. And to find it sometimes not so easy.
Russian voice absolutely did not like me. She’s bland, boring, faded on the background of original voices of American actors. With subtitles was also observed serious problems. For example, sometimes they started to get ahead of or lag behind the sound, and at times strongly disagreed with what was said by the actors. The opportunity to activate the original audio track in the game settings I found that I was very upset. Sincerely pleased great music and very high quality surround sound in good headphones can radically transform your experience from the game. Music combines many genres, from the chilling electronics to hard heavy music freely or retro songs performed by “alternative” German musical groups (the last time I told you about the German version of The Beatles).
Humor deserves a separate discussion. Some scenes you will never forget. For example, as the main character ate like crazy moonshine to the sound of the clarinet, or as one of his companions, stoned on LSD, chasing around the battlefield for a cartoon character. Scene birthday, when Blaskowitz rides on a submarine riding on the pig, too, deserves respect. The game is replete with racist jokes, laced with a healthy cynicism, a pinch of vulgarity (sudden scene in a submersible extremely good!), anyway trying to make fun of everyone and everything, tsilas even to our time. Very pleased with a large number of plot panels to better get to know the secondary characters and laugh heartily at their jokes. It seems to me that the new Wolfenstein was more emotional, more sincere – and that’s just fine.
Fans collect various scattered game items will remain the II Wolfenstein: The New Colossus very pleased. Players will assemble a collection of gold bullion, sketches artists, toys, to find many cards of German movie stars, recording on gramophone records and much, much more. All of this nicely complements lore of the game and allows you to better feel the atmosphere. If you and this is not enough, I recommend to buy additional scenarios in the amount of three pieces that tell the history of absolutely new characters. In the first the role of a Joe you have to escape from an impregnable prison of Nazis. In the second you will find yourself in the role of a girl agent of British intelligence. And in the third you take a feat in the name of saving the homeland, being in the shoes of the brave captain Wilkins. Additional scenarios will be available very soon and they are United by the General title of “Chronicles of freedom”.
Pros:
- A worthy continuation of the previous games of the famous series.
- The story skillfully combines drama and hilarious Comedy.
- A variety of gaming locations, and excellent level design.
- Very charismatic and great open characters.
- Great combat mechanics with plenty of nuances.
- Incredible number of Easter eggs and secrets.
- Great music and sound.
- The game offers us completing optional side-quests.
- The opportunity to purchase additional game scenarios.
Cons:
- Sometimes just do not understand how you shoot.
- Occasionally there are not very nice bugs.
- Mediocre speaking voice.
- Noticeable problems with the subtitles.
II Wolfenstein: The New Colossus is a great continuation of the 2014 games, which the developers from MachineGames may be deservedly proud. A large part of the disadvantages that I listed above, was introduced into the game in Russian localization (by the way, among them the famous journalist Vladimir “Nomad” Goryachev), so the final grade of the product they should have no effect. Otherwise we have excellent first-person shooter, full of great plot inserts, excellent sense of humor, memorable characters and unspeakable brutality, which the franchise is famous for more than 30 years. Seriously, the game in its genre this year is simply no worthy competitors. Everything that came out in 2017 or eerily serious or lame in terms of combat mechanics. And everything is perfectly balanced. That’s why Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus gets from me 9 out of 10.
Review game Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Sergey Grey