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JemyM · 08-26-2009, 03:02 AM

Wolfenstein (2009)
The sequel to Return to Castle Wolfenstein offers a new opportunity to shoot nazis and paranormal freaks in a WW2 setting. As a 2009 homeage to the FPS that started it all, does it revamp the genré again, or will it be forgotten before it's predecessors?

Note: Due to a savegame-corrupting bug as well as a broken final boss, I ran the final maps with cheats. More about that in "bugs".

Story
Wolfenstein takes place in an alternate reality, WW2 setting. Inspired by 60'ies pop-culture the nazi are experimenting with the occult. They have found a new force known as the "Black Sun". With this power, the nazi can build superweapons that might lead to their victory in WW2. The American spy B.J.Blazkowicz is sent into the midst of third reich, to the fictional city of Isenstadt, to investigate and deal with the new threat.

The supernatural WW2 setting, with a hero like Blazkowicz, Wolfenstein feels a bit like Indiana Jones light. The story is told through well rendered cutscenes, but the world is also fleshed out by other means. You can find intel that is added to your journal. These include memos, photographs and illustrations and might unlock buyable upgrades for your equipment. You also have the ability to speak to allies who might have a lot of opinions on what you are doing. I encountered a few lines however that was out of touch with the timeline, such warning me about a dangerous boss that I already killed.

The game tries do do everything right when it comes to build up a story, but it feels like it fails to drag you in. It tries to be emotional, but it isn't. It tries to let NPC's comment on the situation, but it's difficult to care as the voiceactors feels like they are reading from a script, and you never get attached to NPC's anyway. There's little character development, and little buildup between the protagonists and the main villain, but it never really stuck with me.

Engine: Graphics & Sound
As tradition with Raven Software, Wolfenstein uses the latest ID Software engine. This time the one used in DOOM 3 and Quake 4. There are ofcourse plenty of enhancements, such as adding havoc physics, soft shadows, depth of field etc. The depth of field and shadoweffects are used to the fullest which sometimes give a movie-like feel to the game. The game looks alot better than the previous titles, but it's no Crysis. Graphically, it feels a bit out of date.

Character models in particular looks like previous generation. Unlike Crysis or other recent games, that at least tried to make foes look a bit different, all foes in Wolfenstein of the same type, have the exact same faces like they are all clones. You also have several "enhanced nazi" in the game that also look quite cool, but if you have played games like Fallout or S.T.A.L.K.E.R you might feel like you seen them before.

Animations are quite good, especially when shooting someone. The game is pretty gory. Shoot someone in the face, and the entire face will be teared off, and you might even shoot off limbs.

I will discuss the veil more in gameplay below, but the art direction for the veil was pretty cool. The monsters felt different, and the alternate world felt different and a bit eirie.

The voiceactors are ok. They speak american with accents, which is fine, but they often feel tired and unenthusiastic. Still, the sound is good enough to help you play the game. I sometimes tracked foes using my 7.1 speakers, and I made tactical decisions based on what I heard. Sometimes a foe shouts "he's reloading" to encourage others to attack me, and other times I heard a foe shout "I am reloading", which encouraged me to attack them.

I kinda liked that Blazkowicz have a voice, which he didn't Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

Gameplay
Wolfenstein is ofcourse a first person shooter, and as a such it does what it have to. The classic elements are all in, the weapons respond as intended, aiming work as intended, movement work as intended, with jump, run, crouch etc. But that alone wouldn't go far 2009, so there are of course several twists to regular shooters.

The first to mention, is ofcourse the "veil", which is Wolfensteins main gameplay element. With the help of an artifact, you can jump into an alternate reality, a green eirie place. Using the veil unlocks special powers, that can also be upgraded over time. These powers are nothing we havn't seen before though, you can empower your bullets to shoot through walls, you can summon a shield that stops bullets, you can slow down time and using the veil also help you spot enemies better since they shine in green while in the veil. All these powers work as intended, but I didn't feel they came into much use. Granted, I ran the game on "normal" setting, but most of the game I felt I had too much power. There's particulary one that obliterates every foe near you, a power that can be used over and over again, with the only problem that you won't get any weapons that way (the weapons are disintegrated as well). When all else fails, you can just run into rooms and spam that power over and over again and it will probably solve the situation.

The veil is sometimes used to get through puzzles, but not enough. Most of the puzzles you have to deal with is in the beginning of the game, but later on using powers to get past obstacles is rare (except for foes that is).

The mapdesign should be mentioned. Compared to the open world of S.T.A.L.K.E.R, or the railroad experience of Half-Life 2, Wolfenstein is semi-open. There's a central hub, where you can find the headquarters of your allies, and whenever you go on a mission, you can go there from the central hub, but you will not be able to return until you are done. There are optional missions to take, and they doesn't always need to be taken in order. The missions are quite linear, with a fixed path through the maps, where as the main hub can be explored. However, the main hub is so small that you get through it in a minute if you run from one side to another. The hub also feels very compact. There are very few open areas in the game.

Like most games of today, Wolfenstein enourages replay through chasing hidden collectables throughout each map. You find hidden gold (used for upgrades), tomes (empower your powers) and intel (for fun, or unlock upgrades). Some of these are obvious, where as others can be well hidden. I was a bit ticked off when I found the final tome though. Finding all tomes in the game gives you all veil upgrades at once. I didn't know that. Right before that mission I had already bought them all, money that I could have used to upgrade weapons instead.

Any first-person shooter is dependent on the weapons. Before telling you about my issues, I have to say that they all feels quite good to use, like their WW2 counterpart.

That said, I found the weapon selection a bit odd. You get no pistol and no shotgun, but you get two assaultrifles that are very similar to one another. Once both were fully upgraded, I felt no reason to use one of them, as the other became an universal do-all kind of weapon. There's also a rifle that can be updated into something of a sniper rifle. A really effective weapon once upgraded, with an instant-kill melee attack. Then you get a flamethrower which I didn't care about since most foes pop up at long range anyway, and you have some really strong melee attacks. You get a rocket launcher which can be upgraded heavily, which is odd considering there's almost no ammunition for it throughout the entire game. Finally you get several experimental energyweapons, like a teslacannon that bursts through everything on short range with electricity.

Overall I felt little balance in the weapons. Towards the end of the game I had used one of the assultrifles almost exclusively. It have a sniper scope, x4 more ammo than the other weapons, is accurate on long range, deadly on short range, and if you empower it with the veil it's even more deadly. If all else fails I could pump the power that kills everything nearby. Again, since i ran the game on normal, perhaps higher difficulties use this more.

Bugs
I ran into two gamestopping bugs. The first one corrupted my savegame, so I was forced to download a finished save from the game. Unfortunally they hadn't bothered about finding all gold/intel/tomes that I did, because of that I ended up cheating through the final maps just to see the end of the game. The other bug I ran into was in the absolute final map, with the end boss getting stuck in geometry no many times I re-ran from the checkpoint. I had to replay the entire map again, not dying once, to solve it. Both of these bugs are reported on the forums so I am not the only one who experienced them. The savegame corruption is a particulary nasty one.

Final Verdict
Wolfenstein looks good on paper, in reality it's very traditional shooter. There are some good ideas here, that I hope to see used more in future games, but here they aren't fully utilized within this game. The veil is the main gameplay element, but it's barely used in puzzles and the powers are sometimes too overpowered as a "use this power throughout the entire game" kind of way. The weapon selection feels unbalanced and doesn't encourage you to mix them around. The story is not memorable at all.

It might sound I ripping the game apart, but no. If you like the genré, or just want to shoot stuff, pick it up. There aren't too many shooters on the market right now anyway, and it's not a bad game, even if it isn't original.

08-26-2009, 03:02 AM	#1031
JemyM Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Sweden Posts: 713	Wolfenstein (2009) The sequel to Return to Castle Wolfenstein offers a new opportunity to shoot nazis and paranormal freaks in a WW2 setting. As a 2009 homeage to the FPS that started it all, does it revamp the genré again, or will it be forgotten before it's predecessors? Note: Due to a savegame-corrupting bug as well as a broken final boss, I ran the final maps with cheats. More about that in "bugs". Story Wolfenstein takes place in an alternate reality, WW2 setting. Inspired by 60'ies pop-culture the nazi are experimenting with the occult. They have found a new force known as the "Black Sun". With this power, the nazi can build superweapons that might lead to their victory in WW2. The American spy B.J.Blazkowicz is sent into the midst of third reich, to the fictional city of Isenstadt, to investigate and deal with the new threat. The supernatural WW2 setting, with a hero like Blazkowicz, Wolfenstein feels a bit like Indiana Jones light. The story is told through well rendered cutscenes, but the world is also fleshed out by other means. You can find intel that is added to your journal. These include memos, photographs and illustrations and might unlock buyable upgrades for your equipment. You also have the ability to speak to allies who might have a lot of opinions on what you are doing. I encountered a few lines however that was out of touch with the timeline, such warning me about a dangerous boss that I already killed. The game tries do do everything right when it comes to build up a story, but it feels like it fails to drag you in. It tries to be emotional, but it isn't. It tries to let NPC's comment on the situation, but it's difficult to care as the voiceactors feels like they are reading from a script, and you never get attached to NPC's anyway. There's little character development, and little buildup between the protagonists and the main villain, but it never really stuck with me. Engine: Graphics & Sound As tradition with Raven Software, Wolfenstein uses the latest ID Software engine. This time the one used in DOOM 3 and Quake 4. There are ofcourse plenty of enhancements, such as adding havoc physics, soft shadows, depth of field etc. The depth of field and shadoweffects are used to the fullest which sometimes give a movie-like feel to the game. The game looks alot better than the previous titles, but it's no Crysis. Graphically, it feels a bit out of date. Character models in particular looks like previous generation. Unlike Crysis or other recent games, that at least tried to make foes look a bit different, all foes in Wolfenstein of the same type, have the exact same faces like they are all clones. You also have several "enhanced nazi" in the game that also look quite cool, but if you have played games like Fallout or S.T.A.L.K.E.R you might feel like you seen them before. Animations are quite good, especially when shooting someone. The game is pretty gory. Shoot someone in the face, and the entire face will be teared off, and you might even shoot off limbs. I will discuss the veil more in gameplay below, but the art direction for the veil was pretty cool. The monsters felt different, and the alternate world felt different and a bit eirie. The voiceactors are ok. They speak american with accents, which is fine, but they often feel tired and unenthusiastic. Still, the sound is good enough to help you play the game. I sometimes tracked foes using my 7.1 speakers, and I made tactical decisions based on what I heard. Sometimes a foe shouts "he's reloading" to encourage others to attack me, and other times I heard a foe shout "I am reloading", which encouraged me to attack them. I kinda liked that Blazkowicz have a voice, which he didn't Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Gameplay Wolfenstein is ofcourse a first person shooter, and as a such it does what it have to. The classic elements are all in, the weapons respond as intended, aiming work as intended, movement work as intended, with jump, run, crouch etc. But that alone wouldn't go far 2009, so there are of course several twists to regular shooters. The first to mention, is ofcourse the "veil", which is Wolfensteins main gameplay element. With the help of an artifact, you can jump into an alternate reality, a green eirie place. Using the veil unlocks special powers, that can also be upgraded over time. These powers are nothing we havn't seen before though, you can empower your bullets to shoot through walls, you can summon a shield that stops bullets, you can slow down time and using the veil also help you spot enemies better since they shine in green while in the veil. All these powers work as intended, but I didn't feel they came into much use. Granted, I ran the game on "normal" setting, but most of the game I felt I had too much power. There's particulary one that obliterates every foe near you, a power that can be used over and over again, with the only problem that you won't get any weapons that way (the weapons are disintegrated as well). When all else fails, you can just run into rooms and spam that power over and over again and it will probably solve the situation. The veil is sometimes used to get through puzzles, but not enough. Most of the puzzles you have to deal with is in the beginning of the game, but later on using powers to get past obstacles is rare (except for foes that is). The mapdesign should be mentioned. Compared to the open world of S.T.A.L.K.E.R, or the railroad experience of Half-Life 2, Wolfenstein is semi-open. There's a central hub, where you can find the headquarters of your allies, and whenever you go on a mission, you can go there from the central hub, but you will not be able to return until you are done. There are optional missions to take, and they doesn't always need to be taken in order. The missions are quite linear, with a fixed path through the maps, where as the main hub can be explored. However, the main hub is so small that you get through it in a minute if you run from one side to another. The hub also feels very compact. There are very few open areas in the game. Like most games of today, Wolfenstein enourages replay through chasing hidden collectables throughout each map. You find hidden gold (used for upgrades), tomes (empower your powers) and intel (for fun, or unlock upgrades). Some of these are obvious, where as others can be well hidden. I was a bit ticked off when I found the final tome though. Finding all tomes in the game gives you all veil upgrades at once. I didn't know that. Right before that mission I had already bought them all, money that I could have used to upgrade weapons instead. Any first-person shooter is dependent on the weapons. Before telling you about my issues, I have to say that they all feels quite good to use, like their WW2 counterpart. That said, I found the weapon selection a bit odd. You get no pistol and no shotgun, but you get two assaultrifles that are very similar to one another. Once both were fully upgraded, I felt no reason to use one of them, as the other became an universal do-all kind of weapon. There's also a rifle that can be updated into something of a sniper rifle. A really effective weapon once upgraded, with an instant-kill melee attack. Then you get a flamethrower which I didn't care about since most foes pop up at long range anyway, and you have some really strong melee attacks. You get a rocket launcher which can be upgraded heavily, which is odd considering there's almost no ammunition for it throughout the entire game. Finally you get several experimental energyweapons, like a teslacannon that bursts through everything on short range with electricity. Overall I felt little balance in the weapons. Towards the end of the game I had used one of the assultrifles almost exclusively. It have a sniper scope, x4 more ammo than the other weapons, is accurate on long range, deadly on short range, and if you empower it with the veil it's even more deadly. If all else fails I could pump the power that kills everything nearby. Again, since i ran the game on normal, perhaps higher difficulties use this more. Bugs I ran into two gamestopping bugs. The first one corrupted my savegame, so I was forced to download a finished save from the game. Unfortunally they hadn't bothered about finding all gold/intel/tomes that I did, because of that I ended up cheating through the final maps just to see the end of the game. The other bug I ran into was in the absolute final map, with the end boss getting stuck in geometry no many times I re-ran from the checkpoint. I had to replay the entire map again, not dying once, to solve it. Both of these bugs are reported on the forums so I am not the only one who experienced them. The savegame corruption is a particulary nasty one. Final Verdict Wolfenstein looks good on paper, in reality it's very traditional shooter. There are some good ideas here, that I hope to see used more in future games, but here they aren't fully utilized within this game. The veil is the main gameplay element, but it's barely used in puzzles and the powers are sometimes too overpowered as a "use this power throughout the entire game" kind of way. The weapon selection feels unbalanced and doesn't encourage you to mix them around. The story is not memorable at all. It might sound I ripping the game apart, but no. If you like the genré, or just want to shoot stuff, pick it up. There aren't too many shooters on the market right now anyway, and it's not a bad game, even if it isn't original. __________________ The christian message of tolerance falls already in the first commandment. As long as mankind divide themselves by iron age philosophies in the quest for world dominion there are no hope for global peace. Learn the truth about the myth today and maybe our children can be allowed to live in a better world.