B.J. Blaskowicz is back fighting Nazi’s using not only conventional weapons but magical powers to win the war in a traditional first person shooter.
Ratings:
Graphics & Audio: 20/25,
Gameplay: 18/25,
Creativity 15/25,
Fun 18/25
Total: 71/100
Id Software and Activision have released yet another Wolfenstein saga simply titled Wolfenstein on all the console systems for a fun romp through more magical World War II action. You play as B.J. Blaskowicz as you deal out war time justice and save the day for the Allies using WWII weapons and a few magical powers from some artifacts you acquire.
In Wolfenstein you play B.J. Blaskowicz trying to stop the Third Reich from creating a weapon using artifacts that are magical but you find some of them first. You face plenty of Germans both regular gun totting bad guys and ones carrying magical but still deadly weapons and a few boss fights are included in the campaign.
I received the PC and the PlayStation 3 version with both being almost alike in every respect but there are a few minor differences. The graphics are a bit different and the game does play a bit easier on the PC version due to mouse and keyboard but both play equally well.
The two main areas for Wolfenstein are the single player campaign and the online multiplayer gaming with both well made games. The single player campaign is an open gaming first person shooter but you do have a linear campaign to follow to stop the Germans.
You basically travel a large mapped area entering into objective based missions finding artifacts, fighting and trying to stop the Nazi’s from getting their hands on the various artifacts. The Germans are trying to create super weapons and some actually do turn themselves into tougher bosses that you end up fighting at the ends of some areas.
The open ended game of being able to search around and not go into any of the scripted linear missions allows you to search and discover the entire playing area. During gaming you can find weapons, take weapons dropped from enemies and find gold to buy new weapons and upgrades as well as fight the wandering German patrols.
Your weapons are common World War II types for both Allied and Axis guns and you get to upgrade many of them with things like better clips, scopes and other upgrades. The gold comes in the form of bags and items like candlesticks and coins scattered throughout the game.
You have a main area where you meet your resistance fighters helping you with your missions and some other places of interest like black market sellers to buy weapons and ammo from. Weapons upgrades are available from black market sellers but at a pretty good cost so finding the gold is an important part of the gaming.
Once in the scripted parts of the game you simply follow a star on the compass of your HUD and it will lead you to the action and objectives. Throughout the game you will be continually upgrading your powers from the artifacts which make fighting some of the bosses a lot easier.
Some of the powers you get are a way to move through secret portals, slowing down time and some shielding effects that are fun to play with while dolling out the hurt to those Nazi thugs. The combat is fun with a lot of flying debris especially when using grenades but the environment does not get destroyed in the process.
Weapons are equally fun to use and the use of Veil, the sight that shows portals or other ways to continue through the game and your other powers add plenty of variety to the game. Wolfenstein stays true to the previous games of the series and allows users to randomly wander the game while stepping into the main objectives that are pretty much the same with stopping the Germans from creating some super weapon.
The graphics in Wolfenstein are great but nothing truly unique or different from other current and recent first person shooters. In fact much of the game is pretty much regular FPS fare that has been done before but done well enough that it makes a good game.
The effects are good looking with plenty of magical looking things going on as well as the usual weapons and grenade effects that are satisfyingly realistic appearance. Guns have the usual punch and particularly the KAR 98 rifle but the Tesla and Particle Cannon are fun as well being able to clear numerous enemies from your path quickly.
Enemies are also more difficult as you continue through the game but you can beat them eventually and using the save system you can return to fight after dying. You can use previous saves but they are saved by specific points in the game and not by the player choosing to save so you have to start back a bit at times and get to where you died.
Audio in the game is also very good with great sounding effects and realistic sounding weapons with the surround sound working very well. I found the PlayStation 3 and the PC versions with the surround sound worked well and really could not tell any differences even with this.
The sound is probably the best area of the game and is really good but a downside to the game would have to be the multiplayer gaming. There are plenty of people playing Wolfenstein online but the gaming is a bit commonplace with the usual team deathmatch and a few other game types called objective and stopwatch.
The game types are what you would expect for the two with objective being a team based where all players have goals for their team and the other team’s goal is to stop them. Stopwatch is an objective based game type but you try to beat the other teams time which amounts to about the same thing.
The multiplayer works fine with the usual buying weapons and being able to upgrade during gaming as well as getting levels for players but there is nothing here you haven’t seen before. The online component is a bit of a disappointment as you can only play with up to 12 players and there really is not much here that has not already been done and done better.
Wolfenstein is a pretty good game with a good campaign that works well with a unique but well tried story that does follow along with the previous Wolfenstein games. The game does really nothing unique or new but it does do the first person shooter well and the only disappointing factor was the multiplayer gaming that was a bit too common.
Wolfenstein overall is a pretty good game and the version between PS3 and PC would be more of a personal choice as both games are good but about the same.
