Wolfenstein Review Page 2

28 Aug 2009 at 14:02:10 by Andy Alderson
Systems used to review this title: (360)

BJ’s Veil powers come courtesy of an ancient medallion and mysterious crystals which provide him with four special abilities. The most basic Veil power transports BJ into the limbo dimension allowing him to move faster, spot enemies’ weaknesses and find pathways which would be otherwise invisible. The Mire power allows BJ to slow down time which comes in handy when under heavy gunfire and against fast moving enemies. The Shield ability, funnily enough, protects you from enemy attacks (unless they’re within the radius of the shield) and, finally, Empower powers up your weaponry to the point where you’ll do devastating damage to the enemy, even if they’re hiding behind a shield.

Unfortunately, none of the abilities actually add much to the core combat in Wolfenstein and, while they do come in useful when you’re facing multiple enemies and bosses, they’re not much fun and, crucially, don’t make you feel very powerful. They’re more of a sideline to the strong gunplay and all too often serve as a distraction. There’s nothing new here and, when compared to shooter/power hybrids like Bioshock, Wolfenstein’s powers come across as a little uninspired. Sadly, yet again, this is an accusation you could level at other aspects of the game.

The biggest problem with Wolfenstein is its structure.  Between missions, BJ finds himself in the town of Isenstadt in a kind of open-world hub. Here you can visit various safe houses and a black market weapons dealer (where you can buy upgrades) but it all seems a little pointless. It doesn’t feel like a real town so much as a series of interconnected safehouses  - there’s nothing much to explore and the town sections feel like an excuse for the developer to throw more enemies at you in the hope that you won’t tear through the single player campaign too quickly. Things don’t get much better when you take on the missions. These all take place outside of the town in such original FPS locations as the Warehouse, the Castle, The Hospital or the Cannery (which is just another word for factory). Save for a couple of levels towards the end of the game, the locations are all very pedestrian and lacking in imagination. If the combat wasn’t so much fun, there’d be absolutely nothing to encourage players to finish the game.

The core combat is Wolfenstein’s saving grace and, in this sense, it feels like a Wolfenstein game. It’s slick, responsive, gory and, most importantly, fun. Unfortunately there are so many elements conspiring to overshadow this that it’s easy to be distracted by the lack of imagination on offer throughout the game, whether it be in the form of story, level design or the multiplayer game. The latter is perhaps the biggest disappointment. Given how impressive the online game was in return to Castle Wolfenstein (even more so in the Enemy Territory expansion) it’s a little disheartening to see a visually inferior, lifeless multiplayer game tacked on. Its prehistoric lobby system doesn’t help either and we can’t see Wolfenstein’s multiplayer threatening the big boys. With this in mind, it’s clear that in ten years, this is not the Wolfenstein game that people will remember the series for.  The core combat is just about enough to recommend the game but don’t expect anything groundbreaking from this solid, but utterly predictable shooter.   

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